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> while French TV has a lot of subtitling - in Germany foreign language movies and TV shows are generally voiced over Can anyone explain why this is? I hate wa

> while French TV has a lot of subtitling - in Germany foreign language movies and TV shows are generally voiced over Can anyone explain why this is? I hate watching dubbed video, especially when it's live action.

TillE 12y ago
Tradition and market demand, I guess. I'm not completely philosophically opposed to dubs, but the truth is that the vast majority of German dubs are awful. And I'm talking about major Hollywood films and popular TV series. It really sounds like a bunch of actors sitting in a studio, reading lines melodramatically with zero nuance. I swear, German radio dramas (which are quite popular) have better voice acting.
- galaktor 12y ago
  Strange. I lived there for nearly 20 years and must say they have pretty much perfected the craft of dubbing movies. I personally still prefer some "alternative voices" over the originals, i.e. for Homer Simpson (sounds more like the fool that he is) or Arnold Schwarzenegger (who's English destroys any fourth wall the moment he opens his mouth).
  - dasil003 12y ago
    For Arnold sure, but you are not allowed to prefer any Homer voice over Dan Castellaneta's. Also, don't forget that Homer is only 99% fool, the other 1% is sublime genius.
- _ak 12y ago
  German dubs are so awful and widespread, that even porn in Germany is dubbed and often enough, even German porn is re-dubbed.
Ralfp 12y ago
Majority of population preffers it that way for one reason or another (like old people having eye issues and people used to "listening" to TV and others just peeking at it at random while doing other activities), and minority watches movies in cinemas/dvds/bluerays/internet where stuff if subbed instead.
AlexanderDhoore 12y ago
Dutch people prefer subtitles. German, Italian, Spanish and French people prefer dubbing. It's weird and I don't know why it is. Things just evolved to be like that.
- t__r 12y ago
  The majority of English TV on French national tv is most definitely dubbed. As far as I know it's only the Dutch. Don't know about Scandinavia and Eastern Europe though.
  - Nullabillity 12y ago
    In Scandinavia it's all subtitles.
    - mercurial 12y ago
      Yes. Anglo-Saxon culture has permeated Scandinavian culture to a degree you don't find in Western Europe (which also means that most of the population is fluent in spoken English, which is definitely not the case in France, Germany or Spain). You don't find dubbed movies here, unless they are targeted at children.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        Here in Portugal we mostly subtitle as well, even though our population is definitively not fluent in English. On the other hand, the older population watches disproportionately fewer shows in English, preferring national daytime talkshows and soap operas (national and imported from Brazil), so dubbing would probably be too expensive per watcher.
    - chestnut-tree 12y ago
      In the UK, foreign-language dramas and films are always subtitled. Foreign language dramas are not common on British TV, but then a few years ago, the BBC broadcast the original Danish version of The Killing which gained a cult following. Since then we've had a whole raft of foreign-language dramas (mostly crime dramas, a lot of them Scandinavian). I personally much prefer subtitles to dubbing. With dubbing, you get the distracting mismatch between the actors mouth movements and the dubbed dialogue. Plus, the dubbed language will have a different tone and inflection from the original language. At least if you watch with subtitles, the fluency of the dialogue (even when you don't understand it) will feel much more natural.
punee 12y ago
A lot of subtitling in France? Nope. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find any (by default that is, you can always turn them on). The overwhelming majority of shows are dubbed in France too. The explanation is some form of ingrained linguistic pride and more pragmatic concerns: viewership would drop about 30% if they stopped dubbing. http://www.slate.fr/story/18195/pourquoi-la-france-double-t-elle-tout-le-monde http://www.slate.fr/story/18195/pourquoi-la-france-double-t-...
- Ecio78 12y ago
  Agree, I moved to Luxembourg and started recently watching some French TV: almost everything is dubbed (while on Sat you can sometimes found the second audio track). I would also add that while UK televisions are very good at subtitling (almost all the programs are accurately subbed with a 1:1 correspondence with what it is said), French TV are less scarse (not all the channels have subs available and some of those subs use different words)
- stdbrouw 12y ago
  And interestingly, even for non-dubbed films they'll still translate the title. So the original Star Wars with subtitles will still be announced as "La Guerre des étoiles"
  - punee 12y ago
    Also interestingly, they will "translate" movie titles that are in English into a different title, also in English. So "The Hangover" becomes "Very Bad Trip".
midhir 12y ago
In fairness, Scrubs is way funnier in German. [1] Interestingly, when Elliot actually speaks German in the episode they dub that into Italian. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_AMLQ2QTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_AMLQ2QTA
- darklajid 12y ago
  Grimm is the most hilarious series - if you know German and watch the original seties. Dubbing a series that is full of 'weird' references in a language to just that language is.. a stupid move.
- dasil003 12y ago
  That reminds me of how when they show Fawlty Towers in Spain they dub Manuel into Italian.
k__ 12y ago
I got the feeling, that most Germans think subtitles are a sign of bad quality. Many people I know also say, English (and reading) is hard for them and since they watch movies and TV-shows to relax, they prefer german dubbed stuff. I understand English rather well, so I don't need subs. And if I watch stuff in English, I get it sooner than people who wait for the german dubs...
morsch 12y ago
A huge majority isn't comfortable and completely unused to watching movies in English. I continue to be surprised to find people who dislike it even among my highly educated young^Hmiddle-aged peers. On the other hand there's a sizeable minority who is violently opposed to dubs -- I faintly hope Netflix will monetise on them.

TillE 12y ago

Tradition and market demand, I guess. I'm not completely philosophically opposed to dubs, but the truth is that the vast majority of German dubs are awful. And I'm talking about major Hollywood films and popular TV series. It really sounds like a bunch of actors sitting in a studio, reading lines melodramatically with zero nuance. I swear, German radio dramas (which are quite popular) have better voice acting.

galaktor 12y ago
Strange. I lived there for nearly 20 years and must say they have pretty much perfected the craft of dubbing movies. I personally still prefer some "alternative voices" over the originals, i.e. for Homer Simpson (sounds more like the fool that he is) or Arnold Schwarzenegger (who's English destroys any fourth wall the moment he opens his mouth).
- dasil003 12y ago
  For Arnold sure, but you are not allowed to prefer any Homer voice over Dan Castellaneta's. Also, don't forget that Homer is only 99% fool, the other 1% is sublime genius.
_ak 12y ago
German dubs are so awful and widespread, that even porn in Germany is dubbed and often enough, even German porn is re-dubbed.

Ralfp 12y ago

Majority of population preffers it that way for one reason or another (like old people having eye issues and people used to "listening" to TV and others just peeking at it at random while doing other activities), and minority watches movies in cinemas/dvds/bluerays/internet where stuff if subbed instead.

AlexanderDhoore 12y ago

Dutch people prefer subtitles. German, Italian, Spanish and French people prefer dubbing. It's weird and I don't know why it is. Things just evolved to be like that.

t__r 12y ago
The majority of English TV on French national tv is most definitely dubbed. As far as I know it's only the Dutch. Don't know about Scandinavia and Eastern Europe though.
- Nullabillity 12y ago
  In Scandinavia it's all subtitles.
  - mercurial 12y ago
    Yes. Anglo-Saxon culture has permeated Scandinavian culture to a degree you don't find in Western Europe (which also means that most of the population is fluent in spoken English, which is definitely not the case in France, Germany or Spain). You don't find dubbed movies here, unless they are targeted at children.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      Here in Portugal we mostly subtitle as well, even though our population is definitively not fluent in English. On the other hand, the older population watches disproportionately fewer shows in English, preferring national daytime talkshows and soap operas (national and imported from Brazil), so dubbing would probably be too expensive per watcher.
  - chestnut-tree 12y ago
    In the UK, foreign-language dramas and films are always subtitled. Foreign language dramas are not common on British TV, but then a few years ago, the BBC broadcast the original Danish version of The Killing which gained a cult following. Since then we've had a whole raft of foreign-language dramas (mostly crime dramas, a lot of them Scandinavian). I personally much prefer subtitles to dubbing. With dubbing, you get the distracting mismatch between the actors mouth movements and the dubbed dialogue. Plus, the dubbed language will have a different tone and inflection from the original language. At least if you watch with subtitles, the fluency of the dialogue (even when you don't understand it) will feel much more natural.

punee 12y ago

A lot of subtitling in France? Nope. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find any (by default that is, you can always turn them on). The overwhelming majority of shows are dubbed in France too. The explanation is some form of ingrained linguistic pride and more pragmatic concerns: viewership would drop about 30% if they stopped dubbing. http://www.slate.fr/story/18195/pourquoi-la-france-double-t-elle-tout-le-monde http://www.slate.fr/story/18195/pourquoi-la-france-double-t-...

Ecio78 12y ago
Agree, I moved to Luxembourg and started recently watching some French TV: almost everything is dubbed (while on Sat you can sometimes found the second audio track). I would also add that while UK televisions are very good at subtitling (almost all the programs are accurately subbed with a 1:1 correspondence with what it is said), French TV are less scarse (not all the channels have subs available and some of those subs use different words)
stdbrouw 12y ago
And interestingly, even for non-dubbed films they'll still translate the title. So the original Star Wars with subtitles will still be announced as "La Guerre des étoiles"
- punee 12y ago
  Also interestingly, they will "translate" movie titles that are in English into a different title, also in English. So "The Hangover" becomes "Very Bad Trip".

midhir 12y ago

In fairness, Scrubs is way funnier in German. [1] Interestingly, when Elliot actually speaks German in the episode they dub that into Italian. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_AMLQ2QTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_AMLQ2QTA

darklajid 12y ago
Grimm is the most hilarious series - if you know German and watch the original seties. Dubbing a series that is full of 'weird' references in a language to just that language is.. a stupid move.
dasil003 12y ago
That reminds me of how when they show Fawlty Towers in Spain they dub Manuel into Italian.

k__ 12y ago

I got the feeling, that most Germans think subtitles are a sign of bad quality. Many people I know also say, English (and reading) is hard for them and since they watch movies and TV-shows to relax, they prefer german dubbed stuff. I understand English rather well, so I don't need subs. And if I watch stuff in English, I get it sooner than people who wait for the german dubs...

morsch 12y ago

A huge majority isn't comfortable and completely unused to watching movies in English. I continue to be surprised to find people who dislike it even among my highly educated young^Hmiddle-aged peers. On the other hand there's a sizeable minority who is violently opposed to dubs -- I faintly hope Netflix will monetise on them.