Usually, when the movie is dubbed using the Polish method, you can hear the general tone of the original lines in the background, but you can't make out the original sentence. At least I find it hard -- perhaps others are better than me at this.
The problem with subtitles is that actors often talk faster than you can read. As a result, subtitles are normally shortened and "unimportant" things are left out. For example:
Original: What happened? Did you bury the body?
Subtitle: Did you bury the body?
This is true even for English subtitles for English-language movies.
Many people here say that dubbing is a kind of "unacceptable evil" so to say.
Are you serious? Yes, It's great to watch subtitled films with the original sound tracks when learning a language but do you really think it's a good idea to watch a film or a TV programme in a completely unfamiliar language you don't care about?
Moreover, people usually watch movies to be entertained so why do they have to READ?
Certainly the best is to have a choice.
A good dubbing might be a piece of art itself, by the way.
Just like a book translation.
<<A good dubbing might be a piece of art itself, by the way.
Just like a book translation. >>
Agree. I only have experience with movies in Hungary, but here usually both the translators and the dubbing actors do a great job. The character and even the voice of the dubbing actor is made to match that of the original actor as closely as possible, and the spoken text is also very expressive. Earlier it was usual for me to watch dubbed movies, and I enjoyed them most of the time.
I think dubbing is not an evil in itself, but I object to dubbing *only*. Especially in a monolingual country, it prevents the viewers from being exposed to foreign language speech. I would find a 1:2 quota perfectly acceptable (1 dubbed movie to every 2 subtitled ones). In Hungary this proportion is at present about 1:4 (1 subtitled movie to every 4 dubbed ones), or even worse. You can mainly see dubbed films in some cinemas, and very rarely on TV.
Tom,
I think what you have in Poland is not called dubbing, but rather a voice-over. Or am I wrong?
That's how they translate some documentaries here (about animals etc.), you can hear the original voice in the background and the translation is much louder. But in that case I can't really hear the original sentences and it is pretty confusing. Of course, in documentaries I don't care about it as much as I do in the movies, because movies are all about acting and I want to hear people's voices. So all the movies are subtitled. And it's true that sometimes actors speak faster than the text and sometimes they leave out some sentences in subtitles to make it shorter, but since I undrstand English quite well, that is OK. I don't like to watch movies in the languages I don't know, because it's harder to follow the subtitles and compare them with the original voices.
Oops, I mean "understand".
Easterner,
You're right, "voice-over" is probably the best word, though I guess it's normally used to refer to narration in commercials, etc.
>>You can mainly see dubbed films in some cinemas, and very rarely on TV. <<
Ooops, of course I meant subtitled movies. Sorry.
In my country, Indonesia, English movies are not dubbed. But they're subtitled in our language. All non-English movies, usually broadcasted on television only, are dubbed. I think we only watch English movies in a movie theatre.
Movies from non-English speaking countries can only be watched in a special event that is usually supported by their embassies.
If we want to see the original English conversation, we must watch it in a DVD.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004, 01:20 GMT