Sunday 17 February 2013

Subtitles

The mind is strange thing; well mine is anyway.

During my recent trip to South America I would have the hotel television on in the background before bedtime and in the mornings. Mostly I sought out the BBC World Service for the latest news. That service is very fine but it can get a bit repetitive at times. Often in the evening I would seek out an English language movie as an alternative all of which carried subtitles in the local language (Spanish or Portuguese, as applicable).

Despite the fact that I cannot read or understand either language my eyes would constantly be drawn towards the subtitles notwithstanding that all I needed to do was listen to soundtrack in my own language.

Strange.

2 comments:

  1. It is called Foreign Film Syndrome, a result of often seeing foreign films with subtitles. I find the BBC focuses a lot on Africa which is not of huge interest to Australians.

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  2. It's hard to keep one's eyes off the subtitles. With French films, I can turn the English subtitles off (our satellite tv service provides the option). But with English-language films and shows, the French subtitles are not optional and I struggle not to read along. Since I understand both languages, I often have dual dialogues battling it out in my head.

    It's worse when a television show is dubbed into French and I can hear both languages simultaneously. Arrrgh!

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