soc_puppet: Words "Language Barrier" in yellow (Language Barrier)
Socchan ([personal profile] soc_puppet) wrote2024-04-30 09:27 pm

Appropriate icon is appropriate

Person on Tumblr: Why would people need subtitles for a show that's in English, WTF?

Lots of other people in reblogs: Audio processing disorder, sound mixing in shows has gone to shit, I like to eat crunchy things while watching, etc.

Me, deliberately not reblogging: Interesting that you specify "English" there, and also use the word "subtitles" instead of "captions", because that means that my first thought is that the watcher doesn't necessarily know English. Like, I get that we're assuming that the subtitles are also in English, but OP really didn't specify that, and it's kind of a glaring oversight on everyone's part here.


Yeah, pretty sure adding that in a reblog wouldn't actually help anything, so I'm just keeping it here so I don't go bananas trying not to say it.
pangolin20: A picture of a shoebill. (Kerlois)

[personal profile] pangolin20 2024-05-01 07:55 am (UTC)(link)

Exactly! I live in a country that's generally quite good at English, and there's still often subtitles with English speakers, because that's just good form.

And even having English subtitles for English shows available is just common sense. So yeah, I feel you!

goodbyebird: Firefly: Zoe stands in the desert. (FF Zoe)

[personal profile] goodbyebird 2024-05-01 08:45 am (UTC)(link)
Look at you, wisely preserving your energy!
pikkugen: Daniel with text "Research" (sg-1research)

[personal profile] pikkugen 2024-05-01 10:14 am (UTC)(link)
Same. Also learning English is easier if you can both hear the words AND see them written, so.
pangolin20: A picture of a green parakeet in a tree. (NRSG)

[personal profile] pangolin20 2024-05-01 10:25 am (UTC)(link)

I think looking at an English program with Dutch subtitles was even one of the ways I began to learn it, so I can certainly attest to that.

pikkugen: baby grogu with flower crown (flower grogu)

[personal profile] pikkugen 2024-05-01 10:56 am (UTC)(link)
The Finns are supposedly Good At Languages because we subtitle everything, rather than dub, so we would hear a lot of different languages if the media field wasn't so overwhelmingly American-dominated. (Even our national channels don't have the funding to import and translate other European productions except rarely, and that's a pity. In my youth we would have heard quite a selection of languages on TV, which of course helped me to learn the five I speak now, not fluently any more, but.)
pangolin20: A picture of a carrion crow. (Corneille Noire)

[personal profile] pangolin20 2024-05-01 11:43 am (UTC)(link)

That is certainly a pity...

Which languages do you speak, if I may ask?

pangolin20: A picture of a common moorhen by water. (HISC)

[personal profile] pangolin20 2024-05-01 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)

And fully agreed with you! Feel free to rant at me!

jesse_the_k: Ultra modern white fabric interlaced to create strong weave (interdependence)

Smart energy management and ...

[personal profile] jesse_the_k 2024-05-01 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)

Here's a linguistic nitpick: UK uses subtitles where US uses captions. They both can be both closed subtitles or closed captions (turn them on with the menu or turn on the character generator on an analog TV) and open subtitles/captions (always present).

BBC Subtitle Guidance

pikkugen: River Song reading (riversongreading)

[personal profile] pikkugen 2024-05-03 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Uhhh. Finnish is my native one, English is my first foreign, then Swedish, French, Spanish, and Latin which I don't exactly speak but, er, used to read when I was still studying? I also have a smattering of related (and unrelated) languages that I love to pretend I understand but never studied properly.