17 ms·

Coming from a non english country I can assure you that dubbing is the worst. When we were kids we would actively avoid watching anything that was dubbed as soo

by Swizec 5y ago

Coming from a non english country I can assure you that dubbing is the worst. When we were kids we would actively avoid watching anything that was dubbed as soon as we could read. It’s actually funny seeing how frustrated with subtitles my American girlfriend gets when we watch anything foreign. “You mean this basic skill every 7 year old has is hard for you, an educated super smart 30 year old? Bwahahaha” I still prefer watching everything with subtitles. Actors mumble a lot.

samtheDamned 5y ago
> I still prefer watching everything with subtitles. Actors mumble a lot. Yep I have no problems hearing but newer movies and shows have uneven mixing where it can get really hard to hear over the background noise and subtitles come in clutch constantly for that
Kuinox 5y ago
It depends of the country. French have great dubs and most of the movie released are watched dubbed.
stormbrew 5y ago
I have complicated feelings about this. I also watch most things with subtitles these days, because either (or probably both) my hearing is going a bit or sound design/editing in films and tv shows has gotten worse, but there is a non-trivial difference in how I perceive things with or without. With subtitles my eyes are drawn more often to a part of the screen where nothing visual is happening. They aren't glued there, but it does create some bias. I have occasionally rewatched a scene without subtitles and noticed a lot of subtlety in the performance I had missed the first time though. That said, a bad dub is at least as distracting. Probably much more so, if anything. I would rather watch a bad sub than a bad dub, though I have occasionally enjoyed dubbed things as well. I don't think it's an all or nothing thing, but "never watch dubs" is the hard line heuristic that makes sense to me if you're gonna go that way.
- ubercow13 5y ago
  At least with subs the performance is there for you to see (and hear), even if you sometimes miss it. With dubs, half the performance is removed completely.
openknot 5y ago
I share the same experience of preferring subtitles over dubs, coming from an English country. This is most popular with Japanese media like anime (like movies like 'Your Name'/'Kimi no wa na' or Attack on Titan). It also fits for foreign language films (e.g. preferring the original German for The Lives of Others/Wings of Desire). Crucially, outside of preference, subtitles are occasionally necessary for translating text on the screen (e.g. on building signs, newspaper front pages, posters, chalkboard writing), as information is conveyed solely through writing without spoken dialogue. For example, consider the chalkboard scene in "Komi san can't communicate": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoH8I-NC5tM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoH8I-NC5tM . It's key to the story that a character has trouble communicating verbally, so subtitles are essential to understand the written communication on the chalkboard. (You can then compare to a more extensively subtitled version that translates all the text on the board; good subtitles make a difference to storytelling: https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/qdjgba/the_blackboard_scene_komi_cant_communicate/ https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/qdjgba/the_blackboar...).
pessimizer 5y ago
As an english first language speaker, I even find english subtitles on english language media very distracting. I consume a huge amount of subtitled films/tv because most good things aren't in english, but subtitles keep my eyes focused on the bottom of the screen. I don't like dubbing because it's generally much lower quality than the original performance, but I get why people who don't have a problem reading could prefer it.
- hank_z 5y ago
  Me too. I find subtitles are the main distraction for me to enjoy what’s going on in the screen. I understand that a lot people actually need them. That’s why I am very thankful that subtitles can be turn on/off if needed. I actually hate any videos that have subtitles embedded inside the video (part of each frame)
- bigjimmyjohnson 5y ago
  Idea: subtitles that are placed by characters' mouths like a comic book

by Swizec 5y ago

samtheDamned 5y ago

> I still prefer watching everything with subtitles. Actors mumble a lot. Yep I have no problems hearing but newer movies and shows have uneven mixing where it can get really hard to hear over the background noise and subtitles come in clutch constantly for that

Kuinox 5y ago

It depends of the country. French have great dubs and most of the movie released are watched dubbed.

stormbrew 5y ago

I have complicated feelings about this. I also watch most things with subtitles these days, because either (or probably both) my hearing is going a bit or sound design/editing in films and tv shows has gotten worse, but there is a non-trivial difference in how I perceive things with or without. With subtitles my eyes are drawn more often to a part of the screen where nothing visual is happening. They aren't glued there, but it does create some bias. I have occasionally rewatched a scene without subtitles and noticed a lot of subtlety in the performance I had missed the first time though. That said, a bad dub is at least as distracting. Probably much more so, if anything. I would rather watch a bad sub than a bad dub, though I have occasionally enjoyed dubbed things as well. I don't think it's an all or nothing thing, but "never watch dubs" is the hard line heuristic that makes sense to me if you're gonna go that way.

ubercow13 5y ago
At least with subs the performance is there for you to see (and hear), even if you sometimes miss it. With dubs, half the performance is removed completely.

openknot 5y ago

I share the same experience of preferring subtitles over dubs, coming from an English country. This is most popular with Japanese media like anime (like movies like 'Your Name'/'Kimi no wa na' or Attack on Titan). It also fits for foreign language films (e.g. preferring the original German for The Lives of Others/Wings of Desire). Crucially, outside of preference, subtitles are occasionally necessary for translating text on the screen (e.g. on building signs, newspaper front pages, posters, chalkboard writing), as information is conveyed solely through writing without spoken dialogue. For example, consider the chalkboard scene in "Komi san can't communicate": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoH8I-NC5tM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoH8I-NC5tM . It's key to the story that a character has trouble communicating verbally, so subtitles are essential to understand the written communication on the chalkboard. (You can then compare to a more extensively subtitled version that translates all the text on the board; good subtitles make a difference to storytelling: https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/qdjgba/the_blackboard_scene_komi_cant_communicate/ https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/qdjgba/the_blackboar...).

pessimizer 5y ago

As an english first language speaker, I even find english subtitles on english language media very distracting. I consume a huge amount of subtitled films/tv because most good things aren't in english, but subtitles keep my eyes focused on the bottom of the screen. I don't like dubbing because it's generally much lower quality than the original performance, but I get why people who don't have a problem reading could prefer it.

hank_z 5y ago
Me too. I find subtitles are the main distraction for me to enjoy what’s going on in the screen. I understand that a lot people actually need them. That’s why I am very thankful that subtitles can be turn on/off if needed. I actually hate any videos that have subtitles embedded inside the video (part of each frame)
bigjimmyjohnson 5y ago
Idea: subtitles that are placed by characters' mouths like a comic book