Also, another instance: in Dark (German TV Series), the English dub is horrible.
I listen to the original voice for the emotion and acting and also trying to decipher another language to compare it to languages I already know I sometimes notice interesting similarities between Japanese and Cantonese, for example. I read the Subtitles to know the meaning. Hearing a voice in your ownlanguage sounding like a boring monologue is just weird and ruins the experience.
The only exception would be news, then I’d just want to hear the meaning of the worfs, instead of reading it.
Assuming a dub is equally as well acted as a sub, would you still say the sub is better? I would argue no, neither is objectively better, but an English speaker watching a sub will lose a lot of the acting nuance unless they’re on some level familiar with how Japanese speakers emphasize and intone their speech.
Hearing it in your native tongue will, in general and in my opinion, help viewers connect with the story and characters more easily and potentially much better because you don’t need to study to intuitively understand characters just through tone.
I am sceptical of how one would be able to decipher Japanese as a European language speaker, it is very foreign. Also, just because in some specific cases the dub is of a low quality does not mean that it is always inferior. In fact, all things being equal I would prefer the language I can understand even if it is not tge original language.
Howewer, I just watched “Mars Express” in french to see if I enjoy it, and it was kind of nice. The subtitles did not always translate what was said exactly from what I could gather, but I rather enjoy how the language sounds. I guess it makes sense to watch it in a specific language for the atmosphere.
But now I feel stupid for not knowing french. Will have to start learning it I guess.
am sceptical of how one would be able to decipher Japanese as a European language speaker, it is very foreign.
?
Chinese language and Japanese language supposedly came from a common ancestor. You can see how Chinese and Kapanese overlaping Chinese characters. In some cases, they are the same characters
I was born in PRC and went to school until second grade, then immigrated to the US. I speak Mandarin (well… like 2nd grade level 😅), Cantonese (if you don’t already know, Cantonese is a “Dialect” of Guangzhou, PRC, where I’m from), and obviously English. I don’t speak Japanese, but Japanese written Language has characters that are just in Chinese:
Examples:
Second World War = 第二次世界大戦 (Japanese) = 第二次世界大戰 (Traditional Chinese)
See its the same characters with slight variations on the last character.
United States of America = アメリカ合衆国 (Japanese) = 美利堅合眾國 (Traditional Chinese).
The last 3 characters is the same. 合眾國/合衆国 means “United States”. Only the USA uses the term “United States” (Well… technically, Mexico is also a “United States” of Mexico, but like nobody uses that) so I can just deduce its 99% about the USA.
For spoken language, similar to the writing, there are just some sounds that you hear and you’re like, wait, that sounds familiar its so similar to words in Cantonese, then you read the subtitles and confirms it.
Maybe this will convince you: https://youtu.be/8d8ZNsSaxPk&t=47 (Possible Squid Game Spoilers)
Also, another instance: in Dark (German TV Series), the English dub is horrible.
I listen to the original voice for the emotion and acting and also trying to decipher another language to compare it to languages I already know I sometimes notice interesting similarities between Japanese and Cantonese, for example. I read the Subtitles to know the meaning. Hearing a voice in your ownlanguage sounding like a boring monologue is just weird and ruins the experience.
The only exception would be news, then I’d just want to hear the meaning of the worfs, instead of reading it.
Assuming a dub is equally as well acted as a sub, would you still say the sub is better? I would argue no, neither is objectively better, but an English speaker watching a sub will lose a lot of the acting nuance unless they’re on some level familiar with how Japanese speakers emphasize and intone their speech.
Hearing it in your native tongue will, in general and in my opinion, help viewers connect with the story and characters more easily and potentially much better because you don’t need to study to intuitively understand characters just through tone.
I am sceptical of how one would be able to decipher Japanese as a European language speaker, it is very foreign. Also, just because in some specific cases the dub is of a low quality does not mean that it is always inferior. In fact, all things being equal I would prefer the language I can understand even if it is not tge original language.
Howewer, I just watched “Mars Express” in french to see if I enjoy it, and it was kind of nice. The subtitles did not always translate what was said exactly from what I could gather, but I rather enjoy how the language sounds. I guess it makes sense to watch it in a specific language for the atmosphere.
But now I feel stupid for not knowing french. Will have to start learning it I guess.
?
Chinese language and Japanese language supposedly came from a common ancestor. You can see how Chinese and Kapanese overlaping Chinese characters. In some cases, they are the same characters
I was born in PRC and went to school until second grade, then immigrated to the US. I speak Mandarin (well… like 2nd grade level 😅), Cantonese (if you don’t already know, Cantonese is a “Dialect” of Guangzhou, PRC, where I’m from), and obviously English. I don’t speak Japanese, but Japanese written Language has characters that are just in Chinese:
Examples:
Second World War = 第二次世界大戦 (Japanese) = 第二次世界大戰 (Traditional Chinese)
See its the same characters with slight variations on the last character.
United States of America = アメリカ合衆国 (Japanese) = 美利堅合眾國 (Traditional Chinese).
The last 3 characters is the same. 合眾國/合衆国 means “United States”. Only the USA uses the term “United States” (Well… technically, Mexico is also a “United States” of Mexico, but like nobody uses that) so I can just deduce its 99% about the USA.
For spoken language, similar to the writing, there are just some sounds that you hear and you’re like, wait, that sounds familiar its so similar to words in Cantonese, then you read the subtitles and confirms it.