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This is a tangent, but has any noticed just how terrible Netflix subtitles can be? Occasionally, when watching with family members, I will enable Swedish subtit

This is a tangent, but has any noticed just how terrible Netflix subtitles can be? Occasionally, when watching with family members, I will enable Swedish subtitles for English movies and sometimes it's as if they have worked on a different material than what the actors on screen are saying. It's bizarre to see this low quality effort in movie after movie, show after show.

laurieg 5y ago
I've definitely noticed some pretty bad mistranslations in Netflix subtitles but not worse than general movie subtitles.
telesilla 5y ago
They traditionally had trained translators, a friend worked for them. He's since been let go, with no warning about quality being an issue, leaving me to believe they have replaced him with machines or cheaper workers. I also watch with subtitles and notice the decline.
richrichardsson 5y ago
I was under the impression that most of the English -> English subtitles are just machine generated. So often the subtitles will be homophonic to what was actually said, a mistake that a human would not have made. And then what's worse is you get [Speaking German] or whatever, so I have to pause, disable the subtitles and rewind, just to be able to see the original subtitle that was included for the vitally important to the plot translation of the foreign language.
FlyingSaucer 5y ago
Yes! The subtitles can be completely different than the dubbing in some cases which makes it difficult for me to watch with both. Also, they sometime use a bit odd translations. I saw a Belgian show and they translated smoking a cigarette into smoking a fag. Which I guess is technically correct (based on the cambridge dictionary), just an odd choice for general EU viewership
- dagw 5y ago
  Yes! The subtitles can be completely different than the dubbing in some cases which makes it difficult for me to watch with both. I suspect in many cases the subbing is done translating off the original script, while the dubbing is done using a completely different translation designed to flow better when spoken.
  - lou1306 5y ago
    Dub-oriented translations are also designed to "look natural" when coupled with the actor's lip movements. To make matters worse, sometimes shows are re-dubbed [0], but may retain the subtitles that were accurate to the previous dub. [0]: For instance, Neon Genesis Evangelion was released on the Italian Netflix with a brand-new dub, which caused quite a commotion: https://comicbook.com/anime/news/neon-genesis-evangelion-netflix-dub-sub-translation-italian-anime/ https://comicbook.com/anime/news/neon-genesis-evangelion-net...
  - digbybk 5y ago
    This seems to be the case. Watching the Spanish dubbed version of Community on Hulu, the dubs have the study group taking an English class, while the subs have them in a Spanish class as in the original. Side note: in the dubbed version, it's hilarious when they switch to speaking bad English where they would have switched to bad Spanish in the original.
- CogitoCogito 5y ago
  > Yes! The subtitles can be completely different than the dubbing in some cases which makes it difficult for me to watch with both. Yeah I've tried Czech dubbing with Czech subtitles, but have a lot of trouble following it for this reason. I'm sure once I get better at Czech it'll make more sense, but for the moment it seems like I need to stick with Czech audio and English subtitles or vice versa. Otherwise it's just too confusing.
  - smcl 5y ago
    If you can access the videos on česká televize (presumably you're based here if you are learning Czech) I've found them to be quite useful as they generally provide an option to turn on subtitles that match the audio. Like this kids show I used to watch with my teacher in our lessons: https://decko.ceskatelevize.cz/chaloupka-na-vrsku https://decko.ceskatelevize.cz/chaloupka-na-vrsku :D
samsari 5y ago
I don't think this is specific to Netflix, Swedish subtitles are routinely awful and badly translated across a variety of media.
ant6n 5y ago
Basically, only English has a tradition where in closed captions, the spoken word matches the text. In many other languages, even for original content, even for subtitles that are a hearing aid, the text often won’t match. For example in French. I guess the desire is to shorten the text to make it easier to read in time, but it’s kind of ironic that it’s called „subtitles for the ones with bad hearing“. Non-matching subtitles are not a hearing aid, but a hearing replacement.
- kaesar14 5y ago
  I can’t believe that - subtitles don’t match the spoken word outside of English? Isn’t that extremely jarring if it’s the same language?
  - ant6n 5y ago
    Yes
  - charrondev 5y ago
    Super common in French, and was a big hurdle in learning the language through movies/ TV. I don’t want to put English subtitles, but sometimes I have trouble with accents. My best guess why would be that they are translated independently and at different times by different people. Some shows almost every single line is different.
  - mongol 5y ago
    I think it is because the speed which subtitles need to be shown at if it would be word for word. It would be too fast for many viewers. Usually (I am talking from a Swedish context), they are a 60-75% summary of what is being said.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  I've only ever seen this when something was dubbed, not when the original content language matches the subtitle language. Do you have any examples?
  - 5y ago
frodetb 5y ago
I've tried watching dubbed+subbed shows, with both set to my target language, and the two rarely ever match for any given line of dialogue. Netflix has thankfully expanded their language capabilities recently to make it easier to watch shows in an arbitrary language (used to have to change the entire interface into the target language), but I wish there were a CC option for all choices of audio.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  This is because the subtiters and dubbers usually work independently and face different constraints. The key is to find content that was originally produced in the language you want to learn so that the subtitles will match.
borroka 5y ago
For non-major-languages subtitles, they use (mostly) machine translation. For major languages, they use people.
- interestica 5y ago
  Which is weird because it seems like the perfect use of crowd sourced knowledge. You could probably get translations just by offering free subscriptions. I think you'd see a bit of national pride help fuel it too: I'd love to see regional variations/dialects. (For instance, Quebec French). You could even have crowd verification like what Google Translate and Duolingo do.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Wouldn't it be a mess? 'Reddit translates Netflix'? I see what your saying about 'crowd verification', but how do you filter out 'upvoted for lolz'? There are things you could do of course, I just don't think it's trivial.
  - borroka 5y ago
    Businesses to operate at scale generally require more reliable pipelines. And who is going to check the crowd-sourced translations then? What about a TikTok-like trolling exercise like the one who was done for Trump's rally?
fomine3 5y ago
I feel Netflix's subtitle quality is slightly better than average for Japanese.

laurieg 5y ago

I've definitely noticed some pretty bad mistranslations in Netflix subtitles but not worse than general movie subtitles.

telesilla 5y ago

They traditionally had trained translators, a friend worked for them. He's since been let go, with no warning about quality being an issue, leaving me to believe they have replaced him with machines or cheaper workers. I also watch with subtitles and notice the decline.

richrichardsson 5y ago

I was under the impression that most of the English -> English subtitles are just machine generated. So often the subtitles will be homophonic to what was actually said, a mistake that a human would not have made. And then what's worse is you get [Speaking German] or whatever, so I have to pause, disable the subtitles and rewind, just to be able to see the original subtitle that was included for the vitally important to the plot translation of the foreign language.

FlyingSaucer 5y ago

Yes! The subtitles can be completely different than the dubbing in some cases which makes it difficult for me to watch with both. Also, they sometime use a bit odd translations. I saw a Belgian show and they translated smoking a cigarette into smoking a fag. Which I guess is technically correct (based on the cambridge dictionary), just an odd choice for general EU viewership

dagw 5y ago
Yes! The subtitles can be completely different than the dubbing in some cases which makes it difficult for me to watch with both. I suspect in many cases the subbing is done translating off the original script, while the dubbing is done using a completely different translation designed to flow better when spoken.
- lou1306 5y ago
  Dub-oriented translations are also designed to "look natural" when coupled with the actor's lip movements. To make matters worse, sometimes shows are re-dubbed [0], but may retain the subtitles that were accurate to the previous dub. [0]: For instance, Neon Genesis Evangelion was released on the Italian Netflix with a brand-new dub, which caused quite a commotion: https://comicbook.com/anime/news/neon-genesis-evangelion-netflix-dub-sub-translation-italian-anime/ https://comicbook.com/anime/news/neon-genesis-evangelion-net...
- digbybk 5y ago
  This seems to be the case. Watching the Spanish dubbed version of Community on Hulu, the dubs have the study group taking an English class, while the subs have them in a Spanish class as in the original. Side note: in the dubbed version, it's hilarious when they switch to speaking bad English where they would have switched to bad Spanish in the original.
CogitoCogito 5y ago
> Yes! The subtitles can be completely different than the dubbing in some cases which makes it difficult for me to watch with both. Yeah I've tried Czech dubbing with Czech subtitles, but have a lot of trouble following it for this reason. I'm sure once I get better at Czech it'll make more sense, but for the moment it seems like I need to stick with Czech audio and English subtitles or vice versa. Otherwise it's just too confusing.
- smcl 5y ago
  If you can access the videos on česká televize (presumably you're based here if you are learning Czech) I've found them to be quite useful as they generally provide an option to turn on subtitles that match the audio. Like this kids show I used to watch with my teacher in our lessons: https://decko.ceskatelevize.cz/chaloupka-na-vrsku https://decko.ceskatelevize.cz/chaloupka-na-vrsku :D

samsari 5y ago

I don't think this is specific to Netflix, Swedish subtitles are routinely awful and badly translated across a variety of media.

ant6n 5y ago

Basically, only English has a tradition where in closed captions, the spoken word matches the text. In many other languages, even for original content, even for subtitles that are a hearing aid, the text often won’t match. For example in French. I guess the desire is to shorten the text to make it easier to read in time, but it’s kind of ironic that it’s called „subtitles for the ones with bad hearing“. Non-matching subtitles are not a hearing aid, but a hearing replacement.

kaesar14 5y ago
I can’t believe that - subtitles don’t match the spoken word outside of English? Isn’t that extremely jarring if it’s the same language?
- ant6n 5y ago
  Yes
- charrondev 5y ago
  Super common in French, and was a big hurdle in learning the language through movies/ TV. I don’t want to put English subtitles, but sometimes I have trouble with accents. My best guess why would be that they are translated independently and at different times by different people. Some shows almost every single line is different.
- mongol 5y ago
  I think it is because the speed which subtitles need to be shown at if it would be word for word. It would be too fast for many viewers. Usually (I am talking from a Swedish context), they are a 60-75% summary of what is being said.
shkkmo 5y ago
I've only ever seen this when something was dubbed, not when the original content language matches the subtitle language. Do you have any examples?
- 5y ago

frodetb 5y ago

I've tried watching dubbed+subbed shows, with both set to my target language, and the two rarely ever match for any given line of dialogue. Netflix has thankfully expanded their language capabilities recently to make it easier to watch shows in an arbitrary language (used to have to change the entire interface into the target language), but I wish there were a CC option for all choices of audio.

shkkmo 5y ago
This is because the subtiters and dubbers usually work independently and face different constraints. The key is to find content that was originally produced in the language you want to learn so that the subtitles will match.

borroka 5y ago

For non-major-languages subtitles, they use (mostly) machine translation. For major languages, they use people.

interestica 5y ago
Which is weird because it seems like the perfect use of crowd sourced knowledge. You could probably get translations just by offering free subscriptions. I think you'd see a bit of national pride help fuel it too: I'd love to see regional variations/dialects. (For instance, Quebec French). You could even have crowd verification like what Google Translate and Duolingo do.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Wouldn't it be a mess? 'Reddit translates Netflix'? I see what your saying about 'crowd verification', but how do you filter out 'upvoted for lolz'? There are things you could do of course, I just don't think it's trivial.
- borroka 5y ago
  Businesses to operate at scale generally require more reliable pipelines. And who is going to check the crowd-sourced translations then? What about a TikTok-like trolling exercise like the one who was done for Trump's rally?

fomine3 5y ago

I feel Netflix's subtitle quality is slightly better than average for Japanese.