Subtitling Foreigners On TV

[Mulboyne]

Telegraph: Susan Boyle of Britain's Got Talent gets subtitles on Oprah Winfrey

The 48-year-old church volunteer was speaking in the first part of a two-stage interview on the show in the US on Monday. Ms Boyle was the star guest as Winfrey was joined by TV judge Simon Cowell for a show called The World's Got Talent. The first part was pre-recorded at her home in Blackburn, Scotland. The subtitles were added by bosses who thought American viewers would not understand her strong Scottish accent...more...

[wuchan]

The 48-year-old church volunteer was speaking in the first part of a two-stage interview on the show in the US on Monday. Ms Boyle was the star guest as Winfrey was joined by TV judge Simon Cowell for a show called The World's Got Talent. The first part was pre-recorded at her home in Blackburn, Scotland. The subtitles were added by bosses who thought American viewers would not understand her strong Scottish accent...

Shit, people from the middle have a hard time understanding me.

[Behan]

Someone told me Mad Max was dubbed from Australian English so us seppos could understand it.

Mulboyne, what do you think about North Americans doing British accents? For example, did Brad Pitt do a good pikey accent?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Someone told me Mad Max was dubbed from Australian English so us seppos could understand it.

Mulboyne, what do you think about North Americans doing British accents? For example, did Brad Pitt do a good pikey accent?

Yeah, the original release of Mad Max was redubbed with American accents and colloquialisms. I never heard the original till I rented it in Japan.

I've heard from a number of Brits and Irish people that Brad Pitt was good in 'Snatch'. Gwyneth Paltro and Renee Zellweger are aparently good too.

There are some actors who can't quite do an American accent right. Clive Owen and Russel Crowe are two examples. And it seems like no one American or otherwise can fake a good Southern accent. I'm originally from the South and can't stand it in most movies when non-Southern actors try to do the accent. For me it can ruin an otherwise good movie.

Anyway, back to the topic. A lot of people in the US can't deal with Scottish, Irish, or non-Hugh Grant-esque English accents. I remember seeing Liam Gallagher from Oasis subtitled in an MTV US interview years ago. When I was in college I knew an international student from Scotland and a lot of people couldn't understand what he was saying. I used to have to repeat exactly what he said without the accent so he could communicate with people.

[wuchan]

Yeah, the original release of Mad Max was redubbed with American accents and colloquialisms. I never heard the original till I rented it in Japan.

I've heard from a number of Brits and Irish people that Brad Pitt was good in 'Snatch'. Gwyneth Paltro and Renee Zellweger are aparently good too.

There are some actors who can't quite do an American accent right. Clive Owen and Russel Crowe are two examples. And it seems like no one American or otherwise can fake a good Southern accent. I'm originally from the South and can't stand it in most movies when non-Southern actors try to do the accent. For me it can ruin an otherwise good movie.

Anyway, back to the topic. A lot of people in the US can't deal with Scottish, Irish, or non-Hugh Grant-esque English accents. I remember seeing Liam Gallagher from Oasis subtitled in an MTV US interview years ago. When I was in college I knew an international student from Scotland and a lot of people couldn't understand what he was saying. I used to have to repeat exactly what he said without the accent so he could communicate with people.

I have met Irish that can't understand Irish. From what I have herd, regular Irish can't understand country Irish (ie: waterford).

[Mulboyne]

Mulboyne, what do you think about North Americans doing British accents? For example, did Brad Pitt do a good pikey accent?

As SJ says, Brad Pitt did a good job partly because he was supposed to sound unintelligible. He wasn't talking gibberish but he was speaking in a way it was hard to grasp. Susan Boyle, on the other hand, is pretty plain vanilla as Scottish accents go. I don't like subtitles because people should try to extend themselves and figure out what their fellow human beings are saying. It really isn't difficult if you are prepared to put in some effort. This new world of communication across the interweb gives people a wonderful chance to find out how other people sound so it is disappointing if our gatekeepers decide we need to involve interpreters at such a basic level.

[Neo-Rio]

The Jamican guy in the video game GTA IV was baerly intelligible. I needed the subtitles.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I don't like subtitles because people should try to extend themselves and figure out what their fellow human beings are saying.

I agree. Please PM me a transcript of the following video tomorrow. ]U8AnEHKZM1I[/yt]

[Midwinter]

I agree. Please PM me a transcript of the following video tomorrow. ]U8AnEHKZM1I[/yt]

WTF? Everyone on that train is black. Even the advertisements in the back ground had black people! Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, but damn, where's whitey? It's like some fucked up Spike Lee movie or something.

[Samurai_Jerk]

WTF? Everyone on that train is black. Even the advertisements in the back ground had black people! Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, but damn, where's whitey? It's like some fucked up Spike Lee movie or something.

I think it's the MARTA in Atlanta. Atlanta is something like 60% black and based on my experience riding to and from college on MARTA the riders are mostly black. BTW, MARTA stands for Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority although you might also hear Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.

By the way, I love the very end of that video:

"Where my do rag at?"

"It's on yo' head."

Gotta love the ATL.

[Coligny]

The Jamican guy in the video game GTA IV was baerly intelligible. I needed the subtitles.

Speaking of slaughter...

Sean Connery in the Hunt for Red October. I'm still followed by a shrink for the trauma it triggered... When he speak Russian, it can be somewhat OK, when he switch to broken english... panick sets in...

Also... in "Das Boot" VST the german chief mecanic have an alcohol/tobacco damaged voice. English version, i'd say it was a guy of the upper class from Birmingham.

[GuyJean]

.. I don't like subtitles because people should try to extend themselves and figure out what their fellow human beings are saying. It really isn't difficult if you are prepared to put in some effort....

I notice a lot of subtitles on J-TV. Must be for the thick differences in Japanese accents.. Or lack of effort?

GJ

[BigInJapan]

[quote="GuyJean"]I notice a lot of subtitles on J-TV. Must be for the thick differences in Japanese accents.. Or lack of effort? ]

Subtitles on J TV used to be reserved mostly for Okinawans and foreigners (often even if they spoke fluently), but from the mid 90's onward subtitle use seemed to snowball, mostly on the "variety" and "warai-bangumi" type shows.
My take is that it's part and parcel of the dumbing-down of Japanese society, and if you don't flash subtitles, people won't know when to laugh.

[Coligny]

Subtitles on J TV used to be reserved mostly for Okinawans and foreigners (often even if they spoke fluently), but from the mid 90's onward subtitle use seemed to snowball, mostly on the "variety" and "warai-bangumi" type shows.
My take is that it's part and parcel of the dumbing-down of Japanese society, and if you don't flash subtitles, people won't know when to laugh.

Nah... they got the pre recorded 'laugh' soundtrack to help with that and I don't think they expect viewership of these TV shows to be able to read anything.

Might be for old people with bad hearings.

[wuchan]

every show on J-tv is 1,000,000% scripted these days. Long ago the subtitles were for the kanto cunts who had never herd an accent from another area. These days it has become total bullshit, like biginjapan said. In the ten+ years I have been visiting and living in this country I have noticed a serious shift in the T.V. programs here. It has gone from selling tokyo to the rest of japan to psychological warfare on the masses. The 55+ people are stuck on the old idea, "If it is on T.V. it must be true" circa 1950 USA. ....... Fuck.... Unless the checks stop coming... no one, and I mean NO ONE, will give a shit. Maybe the colapse of the national pension would be a good thing for Japan. IDK.




Enter the troll OK with some useless comment about how we don't care or understand.

[xenomorph42]

Yeah, the original release of Mad Max was redubbed with American accents and colloquialisms. I never heard the original till I rented it in Japan.

I've heard from a number of Brits and Irish people that Brad Pitt was good in 'Snatch'. Gwyneth Paltro and Renee Zellweger are aparently good too.

There are some actors who can't quite do an American accent right. Clive Owen and Russel Crowe are two examples. And it seems like no one American or otherwise can fake a good Southern accent. I'm originally from the South and can't stand it in most movies when non-Southern actors try to do the accent. For me it can ruin an otherwise good movie.

Anyway, back to the topic. A lot of people in the US can't deal with Scottish, Irish, or non-Hugh Grant-esque English accents. I remember seeing Liam Gallagher from Oasis subtitled in an MTV US interview years ago. When I was in college I knew an international student from Scotland and a lot of people couldn't understand what he was saying. I used to have to repeat exactly what he said without the accent so he could communicate with people.

This is an argument that you can make that applies to other languages as well, French, Spanish or German to name a few. The Southern part of Germany(Bavaria)have a very strong accent. Sometimes on TV when they show programs from that region, they often have to put subtitles so that people can understand what they're saying. The same applies to Swiss-German and Austrian German.
Don't even get me started on Spanish! You have many, many accents and of that language whether Cuban, Mexican, Peruvian and European Castilian Spanish. This is nothing new, sometimes people think that just because you speak a certain language(in this case English)that everyone can communicate regardless of geographical location, region or demographics.
If people think Susan Boyle is somewhat difficult to understand, try having a conversation "on the phone" with someone from India or Jamaica, talk about subtitles...

[Mock Cockpit]

I agree. Please PM me a transcript of the following video tomorrow. ]U8AnEHKZM1I[/yt]

That was pretty funny SJ. I didn't find it particularly difficult to understand what she was saying, mainly because she repeated everything about 10 times.
If you're native English speaker and can mostly avoid dribbling on yourself, you should be able to understand what another native speaker is saying even if it might take you a few minutes to acclimatize. Same as reading an Irvine Welsh book, the first few pages are a struggle then you're off.

[sublight]

Nah... they got the pre recorded 'laugh' soundtrack to help with that and I don't think they expect viewership of these TV shows to be able to read anything.

Might be for old people with bad hearings.

I'm actually kind of glad the subtitles are there. I can usually read what's going on, but half the time I can't make out what the hell they're saying.

I guess that's the natural result of being a friendless otaku shut-in who does all his socializing one-handed with a keyboard.