# When watching a foreign-language film, do you prefer subtitles or dubbing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226 "2010-07-19T14:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/41 "2010-07-20T21:49:09Z")
Subtitles all the way. This is turning out to be a very lopsided poll. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/42 "2010-07-20T22:01:54Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Our preference for subtitles could be because we’re a bunch of readers here - I wonder if people who don’t read often prefer dubbing. I think I pointed that upthread. I don’t think we can really find out in this poll; the non-readers are self-selected out. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/43 "2010-07-20T22:12:26Z")
I chose that I prefer dubbing, because although english is my only fluent language, I’ve caught subtitles that I know are just WRONG. True, the dubbing can be wrong too, but I’m less likely to notice that for some reason. Also, though I read tons, I think I’ve read too much; when I read subtitles, I hear it in a voice different than whatever is on the screen, and then the cadence is more disrupting to me than just not noticing that their lips are moving wrong. 😛 Edited to add: Also, with movies in, say, Italian, which isn’t 100 percent foreign to me, with a movie whose script I’m familiar with, such as Cyrano de Bergerac \, I really enjoy the subtitles, as if I own it and can therefore watch it lots, I can parse along, eyes with ears, and pick up bits and pieces of Italian while I’m at it. So, I’m torn. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/44 "2010-07-20T22:13:40Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Our preference for subtitles could be because we’re a bunch of readers here - I wonder if people who don’t read often prefer dubbing. I don’t know, but it’s curious. I’m honestly shocked at how one-sided this poll is. To the best of my understanding ( maybe flawed ) it does not comport with the larger U.S. public’s preferences. ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/45 "2010-07-20T22:31:46Z")
I try to watch and read all works in the original if they are in German or English, the languages I’m fluent in. Normally I avoid subtitles completely, since I find them a bit distracting, and only use them if a very heavy accent is spoken. But in Germany, dubbing is normally not so bad. Actors are always dubbed by the same voice actor, and the quality is normally decent. If the film is not too artsy, not normally a problem with Hollywood movies, the German version works just as well. The dubs normally are faithful, but the seventies series “The Persuaders!” was apparently much improved by changing the dialog, introducing dry humor etc. Some dub voices still work even better for me than the original (seems to be quite the sacrilegious position to take here). For example, here’s [Bruce Willis’ German voice](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xR1k3yI3o8&feature=related). Here’s an English Spiegel article about [awards in the German Dubbing industry](http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,685316,00.html). ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/46 "2010-07-21T01:49:24Z")
Wow, I think this is the most lopsided poll ever. Imho, it seems like this is a case of SDMB users just being bigger readers than the average crowd. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/47 "2010-07-21T02:15:44Z")
I was slightly shocked when I rented Spirited Away and the default was the English dubbing. That changed. Quickly. So yeah, sub-titles, even in animation. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/48 "2010-07-21T02:28:46Z")
Subtitles because dubbing just looks and sounds wrong. Most bizarre dubbing I’ve seen: there’s a Roberto Benigni movie called _Il Piccolo Diavolo_, which, for some reason, starred Walter Mathau as a priest. Mathau didn’t speak a word of Italian, so he did his lines in English, and it was then dubbed into Italian. I have no idea why they didn’t just hire an Italian actor. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/49 "2010-07-21T02:37:49Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I think I pointed that upthread. I don’t think we can really find out in this poll; the non-readers are self-selected out. Sorry - looks like I missed reading it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/50 "2010-07-21T02:44:41Z")
It’s subtitles by a landslide! I feel better about SDMB now. If a good film has its subtitles done well (which I suppose must be a function of how much appears at a time and how long it stays, though I haven’t analyzed), they almost disappear for me after a while. I am not constantly conscious of _reading_ anything, and I don’t think I’m missing anything else that’s going on visually. It starts to feel like I actually understand the language being spoken. I still hear the character of the language, though. It’s _not_ like listening to English. On the other hand, it drives me batty when English dialogue is presented with English subtitles, because somebody thought somebody’s accent was too difficult. I don’t _want_ “help” understanding my own native language! ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/51 "2010-07-21T02:46:36Z")
I voted for subtitles. I also like opera in the original language, for similar reasons. I prefer the sound and rhythm of the original language, which is typically enhanced by a libretto or script using the idiomatic aspects of the language to communicate more than just the words. You lose that in translation. I love singing original languages too, because the English translations invariably feel clunkier and ill suited. However, there is a great debate on the subject in operatic circles… ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/52 "2010-07-21T09:22:02Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I saw _Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon_ in the theatre with subtitles and the movie was very beautiful from the imagery and music to the costumes and choreography. The spoken voice added a ton to it as Mandarin is so distinctive. > Later I saw a dubbed version on DVD and hated it. It felt dumbed down. _Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon_ has one of the worst dubbing I’ve heard. Instead of things just being lost in translation, it was like a completely different movie when you listened to it in English rather than Mandarin. Languages are like people in that they have their own cadences, quirks, and rhythms. When you change that in a movie, it almost transforms the whole landscape and the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/53 "2010-07-21T09:26:47Z")
Animation can sometimes get away with dubbing. Otherwise it’s got be subbed. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/54 "2010-07-21T10:31:06Z")
If it’s to Spanish or Catalan, dubbed, but those are dubbing cultures; we’re used to things being dubbed, there’s very good voice actors and very good actors who do both “body” and “voice” work. I’ve recently learned to subtitle; my project for that class compared the original soundtrack with several sets of subtitles and with the original script. Turns out that the subtitles were based off the script and mostly left “uncorrected” when the actual spoken text diverged: about 10% of the subtitles did not match what was being said _in the same language_; the translated subtitles appeared to have been translated from the original language subtitles, they’d inherited the same mismatches and often they were too-literal translations (there were many lines which didn’t make sense as subtitled, but whose translation in the dubbed version did make sense). There was a lot of information loss, specially when a character spoke fast, which would not happen in dubbing but is forced by the technical limitations of subtitling. This meant that something which can be a great language-learning tool didn’t work so well. I’ve noticed mismatches between subtitles and spoken text many other times, it’s something I’d already noticed before taking this course. I think both options are valid: nobody would have spent the money to dub Rashomon in Spanish, subtitles in English made it possible for me to enjoy it (while translating it for my parents!). A strange situation for me is when the dubbed voices don’t match the original at all, and I hear one after getting used to the other. I’ve heard many people complain that Melanie Griffith’s dubber into Peninsular Spanish sounds like she ate a ref’s whistle, but I have news for them: in the original, her pitch is even higher! Viggo Mortensen usually gets dubbed by someone with a pleasant “generic guy” voice, so hearing him speak like he’d had broken glass for breakfast in Capitán Alatriste felt strange - until I remembered that I’d seen the first LotR in English and Aragorn’s diet had glass in it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/55 "2010-07-21T11:34:35Z")
Dubbing always sounds to me like one person doing several voices. Also their vocal acting (as in expressing emotions for example or accents) is always complete and utter crap. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/56 "2010-07-21T12:51:08Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > On the other hand, it drives me batty when English dialogue is presented with English subtitles, because somebody thought somebody’s accent was too difficult. I don’t _want_ “help” understanding my own native language! Other people, too -[The Angry Iraqi](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPWD1OmZnZk) sketch… ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/57 "2010-07-21T12:57:20Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > If it’s to Spanish or Catalan, dubbed, but those are dubbing cultures; we’re used to things being dubbed, there’s very good voice actors and very good actors who do both “body” and “voice” work… > > A strange situation for me is when the dubbed voices don’t match the original at all, and I hear one after getting used to the other. I’ve heard many people complain that Melanie Griffith’s dubber into Peninsular Spanish sounds like she ate a ref’s whistle, but I have news for them: in the original, her pitch is even higher! Viggo Mortensen usually gets dubbed by someone with a pleasant “generic guy” voice, so hearing him speak like he’d had broken glass for breakfast in Capitán Alatriste felt strange - until I remembered that I’d seen the first LotR in English and Aragorn’s diet had glass in it as well. I know about Spanish voice actors–I’ve seen [Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_on_the_Verge_of_a_Nervous_Breakdown). And I’ve read that Viggo Mortensen speaks “perfect Spanish”–because he spent much of his childhood in Argentina! (So they dub him for the Spanish market.) (Generally, I prefer subtitles.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/58 "2010-07-21T13:02:23Z")
He spent several months living in a village in León to get the accent down pat for Alatriste, too; I’d seen him speaking Spanish before, in an interview where he did make use of the translator only once or twice when he couldn’t remember a word. Helluva actor, but I’m sure he’s not an easy guy to live with. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/59 "2010-07-21T16:27:28Z")
I put down option one, but I should have put down the last. I prefer anime dubbed, but all other movies, including live action Japanese movies, subtitled. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226/60 "2010-07-21T16:45:09Z")
Subtitling preferred by default, though an exception for dubbing if done for comic effect (i.e. MXC, _What’s Up Tiger Lily_ etc.) Of course, _bad_ poorly-executed subtitling becomes actively irritating, i.e. the text is in a color that matches the background (classic example - white text in a movie about a guy who always wears a white sweater who goes to the Alps). Also of note are film-makers who put explanatory text on the screen in small ornate fonts, which may work fine in the theatre but betray an altogether baffling indifference to those who will eventually watch it on TV. Poorly-translated subtitling (“Do not want!”) can be entertaining in itself. As a personal note, sometimes I find myself watching a film in English with French subtitles and getting distracted by reading and mentally translating instead of just listening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-watching-a-foreign-language-film-do-you-prefer-subtitles-or-dubbing/547226.md?page=4)