I watched once the last movie of the Lord of Rings series in German (in a movie theater) and I thought it was so weird sind Ive watched the others in original, English. I couldn’t focus on the movie cause the spoken German somehow distracted me from watching it 
I think it can change the dynamic of a movie, just like the dubbing where as you can sometimes notice and it’s distracting, perhaps it’s just me?
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I’ve learned a lot of vocabulary by repeating famous lines that went viral.
I also learned a lot regarding the cultural context of a country or a city by the exact words the writer chose to put in the actor’s mouth and by the tone and nuances of the actor’s voice in context.
I don’t understand how the French, Italians, Germans etc are able to get the meanings between the lines, let alone the artistic value of the phoneme arrangements.
They probably see it the way I see book translations.
Is it really a norm to dub, alter and substitute everything?! I thought celebrities ego’s were more sensitive.
From the high number of new titles, I was suspecting they have crazy time schedules, but I thought they had some time to breathe between works. (Or at least until the surgery scars are not so fresh and visible)
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Imagine the korean lips saying ‘yes’ and the chinese words saying ‘no’…
A whole new world of meta-meanings and layers over layers of art… 
Maybe dubbing is introducing a new era of meta - data for cinema and I am just clueless?
Something like technicolor and waterproof mascara?
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The English language series (either American or British) are surely not, and they are probably the majority, right?. I think they mostly dub Brazilian?
I wouldn’t know, really, I’m not so sure, as I don’t own a TV and never watch this stuff (even the ones I do like, I prefer to download them and watch on my PC without ads), but I’ve seen some scenes while waiting ad doctor’s offices.
Turkish series are never dubbed in the Balkans, and I recently learned that it is a deliberate thing, a condition by the Turkish government, in exchange for selling them really cheap.
http://www.analyst.gr/2016/07/12/i-elliniki-tileorasi-kai-ta-tourkika-sirial/
http://www.topontiki.gr/article/63756/tileoptiki-diplomatia
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Yep, it more or less is. Although, sometimes the actors dub their own voice. I don’t know how sensitive their egos are, but if it’s a norm, then maybe you wouldn’t think much of it? And some actors or actresses get a lot of criticism for actually using their real voices, because well, the audiences think their voices are shit. I’m don’t know too much about their schedules, but you sometimes read about such things in their interviews or hear about them in talk shows, about how crazy their schedules can be. And depending on how they like to arrange it, some of them just work non-stop, without taking breaks between their different film projects. Or that they have multiple projects ongoing simultaneously.
Haha. That’d be weird, given how different their lips are saying [Deh] (the sound for yes in Korean?) and 不 [Bu]
I don’t know about meta-meanings/layers, but I know that it’s created a new craze. Recently there was this dubbing group called 胥渡吧 [Xu Du Ba] who’s been rather famous online for splicing scenes from various classic dramas/movies and dubbing them into hilarious dialogues about modern day issues.
@simi11 @irmar as well.
I don’t know. Is it easier to translate among languages of the same families, since they have similar grammar and vocab, so things don’t get lost in translation so easily? At least from what I’ve seen of Cantonese and Korean shows dubbed in Chinese, I feel like the meaning is more or less retained. So maybe that’s the same among Romance/Germanic languages?
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That’s different. They are making a parody, they are not lying.
What about 没？
I have done some translation for dubbing in the distant past. You had to look at the video and choose words which would match the lip movements. So sometimes you changed the sentence somehow to fit that purpose. Especially if the lip movement was very visible because of close ups.
I suppose that languages which are close will be easier. But English with Romance languages (or Greek, which I did back then) is terrible, nothing matches really.
The Disney cartoon films get dubbed by really wonderful professionals, very creative, and the singers are top singers etc. They did an admirable job. Still I wanted to watch the subtitled version, which was later in the evening, for adults. Nowadays there is no subtitled version, all the screenings are with the dubbed one, because adults who don’t go with their children but want to watch it on their own download the film and watch it on PC…
However, to return to the original purpose of this thread, having subtitled films and TV series instead of dubbed ones is critical for language learning, especially the pronounciation. I don’t know if it’s directly correlated, but I think it is, that countries with dubbed media are not as good in foreign languages as those who see media in the original language with subtitles. Subtitles are great even if they are same language subtitles (available on DVDs), because when you do know the spoken language but you have trouble understanding it 100% because they talk too quickly or have accents or there are background noises, or simply because the viewer is not that advanced, then the subtitles help both to understand and to learn more.
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I agree 100%. When you hear and read something at the same time, you are more likely to retain it, especially if your language level is good enough for same language subtitles.
I’m not sure if it is because they use the wrong method or because they just don’t promote language learning.
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It probably it’s a bunch of reasons. Arrogance too, in the case of France and England (everybody should speak our language, we do we have to learn theirs?)
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@irmar that’s a beautiful insight. I felt the same when I first started learning English by watching dramas.
For everyone, this will be great to know if you wish to learn Chinese (Mandarin), what would you prefer
- Chinese shows (like Nirvana in Fire) with dual subtitles (Pinyin and Eng)
- Chinese shows (like Nirvana in Fire) with dual subtitles (Simplified Chinese and Eng)
- Taiwanese shows (like Refresh Man) with dual subtitles (Pinyin and Eng)
- Taiwanese shows (like Refresh Man) with dual subtitles (Simplified Chinese and Eng)
- Others (Please mention in reply what shows would you prefer to learn Chinese)
0 voters
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I’d like to be able to see both pinyin-eng and simpl.chin-eng, acccording to what my studying goal is.
Also, both chinse and taiwanese, for accents.
Will there be a list of available dramas or we get to pick whatever we like to watch?
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Not sure if I’d consider it lying since they’re not exactly hiding it. You can find out on the Baidu site exactly who their voice actors are.
That seems to work 
@irmar Yeah, I’m totally in awe of Disney of how they manage to translate not just the movies and the songs. But yes, subtitles are the best help in learning foreign languages, although I sometimes find that I’m too subtitle reliant :
Haha, and for the lip movements, I actually read that during a fan meeting, one of the Chinese voice actors was complaining that because some actors just quote random poems or mouth off jibberish or even the multiplication table! It’s damn hard to match the lip movements.
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Hey @dudie, interesting approach. I do the same for Chinese show. How do you check later if you were correct? Do you write the phrase/words down in Korean or do you just have the translation in mind (nothing written or noted) while watching dramas and you replay it to see if that’s what you thought?
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Hey I’m just joining in. I’m interested in learning Chinese (mostly simplified) through dramas on Viki and like everyone else can use all the help I can get. I look forward to hearing of any new ideas and ways to keep learning. Thanks.
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By experience, I can tell you that watching just for fun can improve your listening skills very much.
So, even if you just watch your favourite shows, you will be learning something new.
What is your level? What is your first language?
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Celebrities who can recite multiplication tables?
Certainly noteworthy 
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I’ve been taking Mandarin for 4 years, but I’m currently starting my 3rd year college level with English as a first language.
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Then you probably understand most of the dialogues in dramas. I’m jealous!
How are you learning chinese? Lessons or on your own?
I wish haha. Sadly I only get about 60-70% of dialogue in dramas. I took two years at a community college and transferred into a year 2 class level at university. I’ll be entering my year 3 level this fall, and I’ve been studying a lot over the summer. But I am missing lots of descriptive words but have most of the grammar down.
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