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Subtitles

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I have recently come back from a holiday in Amsterdam. I was quite amazed to walk around the first day I was there and noticed a lot of people spoke good English. Normally I am either waving my hands about like a mad woman or pointing furiously to get somewhere which is probably in the other direction anyway.

I got to my hotel and later on switched on the television. I then noticed that every single channel had subtitles. Whatever language Dutch TV bought the program in that's how it was broadcast with Dutch subtitles. The lady who owned the hotel then informed me that Holland were the only country in the world who did not dub over any TV that was brought in. I was impressed. She spoke about 5 languages, her English was perfect.

So I knew then that I would have no problem being understood. Everyone learnt English by watching TV. As I do not speak any Dutch this was going to be a lot of fun.

I am in the fortunate position where I do understand another language. My grammar is not as good as it was and I have forgotten words too. The reason is that I cannot converse with anyone here as it is German it is not a popular language where I am from. Well not as popular as say French or Spanish. I could keep it up through buying German DVDs but there is nothing like actually speaking it.

I was once in Austria and I came across Monty Pythons Holy Grail which was of course dubbed into German. I could not watch it. You know the real voices and suddenly John Cleese has a deep thick Bavarian accent? Oooo No! I find it very difficult to watch anything that is dubbed. Even if it is from say Italian to English. I would much rather hear the original and read the subtitles. This way I get a much better feel for the movie. Not only does one hear the original voices but one also gets all the original background noises.

You know how you sometimes watch a movie and the audio is out of synch with the mouths? Well this is how it feels to me. I find it irritating that what they are saying and how their mouths move are totally different!

Don't dub. Keep it real. Let us watch and listen to the real voices.

Learn more about this author, Cosmicwhodini.
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