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Your Opinions On Subtitles And Dubbing


Baburra

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I'm not a big anime fan, but I have watched some anime series in full. I usually prefer watching shows in English, but when it comes to anime, I prefer hearing the original voices and intonations, even if I kind of hate reading subtitles when watching. I also prefer hearing the original language if it really contributes to the whole theme and feel of the movie or show, and on some occasions I even like them being dubbed into my own native language just because it feels more personal that way.

What are your opinions on subtitles and dubbing, do you prefer one over the other, and if you prefer dubbing, do you prefer shows dubbed in English or your native language?

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I hate dubbing. When you know a particular speaker's voice and hear someone else's dubbed over it, that is very jarring, and often comical. I much prefer subtitles. I do not find them distracting. Often a movie, with the rhythm and flow of the language, very subtly sets a mood or a tone. Dubbing destroys it while subtitles are only a minimal distraction that does not detract from the flavor or mood of the moment. Besides, with some of the poor sound quality in even top films (particularly when the director feels he wants to create an 'artsy' moment), I like to have subtitles for even my native English.

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I totally and absolutely hate dubbing!  I went to the movies the other day to watch ''Insidious 2'',  sadly it was dubbed and there wasn't a version with subtitles.  The dubbing totally killed the horror element... I know this movie would have really scared me if I hadn't watched the dubbed version... the spanish version was a horrible joke!  Dubbed versions can really ruin your experience :(  Sadly more and more movies are being dubbed, before they did it only with children's movies... but not they even do it with adult's movies.

Subtitles hurt no one! I guess the dub artists in my country are really happy tho, now they have more work than ever...

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I've always preferred subtitles to dubbing.  I find that dubbing is very distracting, as the dubbed in voice is, of course, not in synch with the image which is jarring in and of itself.  Plus I feel that I am losing the richness of the experience in not being able to hear the original language even if it's one that I don't understand. I greatly prefer hearing the actors' performances, their speech patterns and how the emotions are conveyed in the nuances of speech.  All of that is lost with dubbing. 

It's well worth it to me to have the very slight inconvenience of reading subtitles; I feel I am getting much more out of the overall movie experience so to me, it's not much of a tradeoff. 

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I HATE dubbing. A lot can get lost in dubbing. The joke, the sarcasm, the smirk, not to mention the words translation. Every time I watch Chinese movies and it got dubbed to English, I am like 'no..' because even the swearing is not the same at all yet in English they would just translate it as if the actors speak English. It's also weird to see the mouth moves with different words that supposed to come out from their mouth. A lot of the times, it got translated completely different. I always laughs when that happens. Like it's so far off.

My husband prefers dubbed over sub because he said the words disappear quicker than he can possibly finish reading it and he said he wants to be able to watch the movie,not constantly reading the words under the screen. I told him I grew up with sub so I've never had a problem to watch what's going on at the same time reading it. I finished reading it quicker too. I noticed if you are used to reading sub, it makes a faster reader. You kinda have to especially those animes where they speak so fast and the words just disappear in couple seconds.

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Guest isabbbela

I absolutely hate watching dubbed movies or tv shows. I don't tolerate it. It's simple: if it's dubbed, I won't watch!  Unless it's an animation, i can watch like, Disney movies dubbed, that is fine.

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Subtitles and dubbing does add some negative effects to films. The thing is there's a lot of good films out there and if your not familiar with the language of the film, your have no choice but to just bear with it. Also, I always though subtitles can help with learning foreign words and phrases to a certain extent.

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I hate dubbing. I prefer watching a show in the original language, if it is dubbed I prefer not to watch it. With subtitles it's great because you can actually learn the language while you are watching the movie.  :party:

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I used to be a big fan of anime, but then as life got busier I had to say goodbye to certain things, or minimize it. I prefer the dubbed versions of anime because I can multitask. If I have nothing else to do then I would watch the subbed. I heard that the subbed is better because the dubbed misses some key notes. Dubbed in English would be ideal for me.

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Subtitles help you learn the language. You get to listen to origal voice and compare the writing with talk.

Dubbing ruins pretty much everything... It usually sounds very fake and annoying. I never watch dubbed films.

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Subtitles can be hilarious. I have watched many French films with English subtitles where there is little resemblance between what is being spoken and what is being offered in the subtitles - totally different stories so you get two films for the price of one!

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I dislike dubbing especially when it seems the choice of voice and intonation detracts from the story line (plus the lips not matching is eerie).  I like subtitles as I can hear the original spoken word and read in my native language (English) and see it as a great learning tool.  Especially for learning pronunciation and tone.

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Subtitles can be hilarious. I have watched many French films with English subtitles where there is little resemblance between what is being spoken and what is being offered in the subtitles - totally different stories so you get two films for the price of one!

That can happen too, I've seen pretty poor subtitles, but normally it's not the case. Most movies here in Portugal are in English and have subtitles, it's something I've grown with.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm also not a fan of dubbing because like what the others said, we don't get to hear the intonations of the real language. Also, there's something unnatural about the dubbing as if the dubbed language doesn't quite capture the character.

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I'm not a big anime fan, but I have watched some anime series in full. I usually prefer watching shows in English, but when it comes to anime, I prefer hearing the original voices and intonations, even if I kind of hate reading subtitles when watching. I also prefer hearing the original language if it really contributes to the whole theme and feel of the movie or show, and on some occasions I even like them being dubbed into my own native language just because it feels more personal that way.

What are your opinions on subtitles and dubbing, do you prefer one over the other, and if you prefer dubbing, do you prefer shows dubbed in English or your native language?

When it comes to anime, I prefer dubbing in English as long as the voice actors are directed well so as to keep the essence of the show intact compared with the original Japanese voice actors. I don't mind reading the English subtitles if there is no dubbed version available. It's just that I'm a slow reader and oftentimes I have to pause of replay a scene when subtitles are flashed for only a second or two. Then I end up being lost when I miss the dialogue completely.

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I like subbing of movies, especially movies that have foreign language. Foreign language movies are also great but I love them even more when they are dubbed. Seeing as how I watch Anime, the dubbing and subbing of things are nothing new to me.

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It's nice to see there are a lot people out there who hate dubbing  :laugh:  It makes me feel better about the fact I totally hate it, but after checking all the replies to this threads... I can't help to wonder?  How come there are a lot people out there who just hate dubbing, but they are still dubbing the movies we watch, why could that be?  I mean, if the public in general feels the same way about dubbing (chances are) then why this is becoming more and more popular?

My boyfriend says that dutch kids nowadays aren't good at all at english because all the children movies are dubbed!  He said he learn english mostly because all the movies he watched as a kid were subbed and not dubbed!  So you can see this is acually causing a really negative impact!

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I personally prefer the original language than the dubbing. In watching foreign movies or anime, I don't mind reading the subtitles for me to understand it. It's better than dubbing. I don't know, but for me it seems less attractive if they dubbed it.

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