Why do most people hate movie subtitles or are bothered by them?

Whenever I turn them on, people always say "Can't you understand English?"

But they are missing the point. Subtitles are necessary for following dialogues because:

- In many films, especially those on DVD or downloaded off torrents, much of the dialogue consists of MUTTERING (God knows why) which is very hard to hear without turning up the volume full blast. Yet if you turn up the volume full blast, then all the action scenes and sound effects will be OVERLY loud! So either way, you lose. This is especially the case in horror movies, where every action sound and jump scene is overly loud to try to scare you more.

- If you miss a lot of the dialogue, you will not get a lot of the scenes and plots, obviously.

The only solution is to use subtitles so that you don't miss the dialogues and words. There are too many scenes where characters mutter words that are barely audible. Ever notice that?

So it makes sense to turn on subtitles if they are available. So why is everyone against them? Strange.


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"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Subtitles are distracting to those who are not used to them.

(I used to do subtitle work)

Americans do not like them but in most other countries people are used to them.


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momopi wrote:

Subtitles are distracting to those who are not used to them.

(I used to do subtitle work)

So people would rather not hear the dialogue and miss out on the plot and important conversations in the movie? Why? What if the story is deep and complex? Anyone who watches that would not want to miss out on any dialogue. It just wouldn't make sense. Movie buffs hate missing dialogue. Too many films on DVD or file format have characters muttering. It's impossible to hear without turning up the volume full blast.


_________________
Happier Abroad Grand Ebook
Meet Foreign Women

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Yes, subtitles are necessary when you are watching movies or videos of other language. Then the subtitles of your language make it understandable and lucid to you and you can enjoy the movie. But I think, it is headache when you are watching English movie and English subtitles are displayed.


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aliviasmith wrote:

Yes, subtitles are necessary when you are watching movies or videos of other language. Then the subtitles of your language make it understandable and lucid to you and you can enjoy the movie. But I think, it is headache when you are watching English movie and English subtitles are displayed.

Gee that sounds like such a generic post. Are you a spammer who is here just to place that link in your signature? Sheesh.

I already explained above why subtitles are necessary even if you are a native English speaker.


_________________
Happier Abroad Grand Ebook
Meet Foreign Women

"It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards." - Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

It's a preference to hear the words rather than see them.

Since I am a film buff, and I prefer to hear the intonation and inflection in the original actors' voices when I watch non-L1 films, I prefer subtitles to dubbing.

This is, however a minority, art-fan type of opinion.

Winston you could just shorten this entire site to this:

"What I like is in the extreme minority. Why is everyone else doing what I don't like?"

ph_visitor wrote:

It's a preference to hear the words rather than see them.
Since I am a film buff, and I prefer to hear the intonation and inflection in the original actors' voices when I watch non-L1 films, I prefer subtitles to dubbing.
This is, however a minority, art-fan type of opinion.
Winston you could just shorten this entire site to this:
"What I like is in the extreme minority. Why is everyone else doing what I don't like?"

Naw, I think he likes to associate himself with the majority or "average Joe" when it suits him. ;p

Personally, I prefer to watch foreign films in its original language with subtitles. However, certain English dubs, such as the old Godzilla movies, are entertaining with the bad dubbing job itself.

Those USA, 50's Gojira edits are works of art in and of themselves.

Raymond Burr acting to the back wall of the sound stage, 'looking at Gojira' - what a hoot.

ladislav wrote:

Americans do not like them but in most other countries people are used to them.

Glad to hear it!

I'm totally with Winston on this.

In fact, when watching a movie in Spanish, for example, I would like to have my choice of English or Spanish subtitles, as on a DVD, so that I can either relax and follow easily in English, or else follow along and learn Spanish - which is too rapid to understand without reading simultaneously.

Plus British movies are very hard to understand without subtitles. Muttering plus unfamiliar slang and different cadence.

momopi wrote:

(I used to do subtitle work)

Were you the one making the awful subtitles that went on VCDs from Hong Kong? The ones that are the same color as the background and get cut off by the bottom of the screen and don't make any sense..

odbo wrote:

momopi wrote:

(I used to do subtitle work)

Were you the one making the awful subtitles that went on VCDs from Hong Kong? The ones that are the same color as the background and get cut off by the bottom of the screen and don't make any sense..

Oh, it can be much worse.

A Sichuanese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Korean or Japanese film.
Dubbed into Cantonese.
Then subtitled in Hanzi.
Then dubbed, again, into Putongua.

So the lips don't match anything you see, and the captions are a disaster.

if it's being dubbed as many times you're saying it's a popular movie and you'll probably be able to find a good version

Many people don't like having to watch movies with foreign audio/native subtitles, because it distracts them from the action. How would you feel about having to read a book, while at the same time a movie's going on, but in order to enjoy them, you have to look at both of them at the same time?