Poll: Do you avoid watching a dubbed version of a film when possible? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you avoid watching a dubbed version of a film when possible?".
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In Portugal, foreign movies are not dubbed, they are subtitled, dubbing is only used for children's movies, namely animation films and some live-action movies for younger audiences.
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Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 16:57
Inggris menyang Jerman
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Almost everything is dubbed in Germany (it took me some in-depth search in the weirdest corners of Prime Video to find a Z-grade zombie flick that WASN'T dubbed).
However, I watch any English originals in English with subtitles because I prefer the sound of the English language and because AV translation and dubbing have been taking a turn for the worse over the past 10-ish years. On the other hand, I watch anything non-English with German dubs. I tried watching Squid Game in Korean with G... See more Almost everything is dubbed in Germany (it took me some in-depth search in the weirdest corners of Prime Video to find a Z-grade zombie flick that WASN'T dubbed).
However, I watch any English originals in English with subtitles because I prefer the sound of the English language and because AV translation and dubbing have been taking a turn for the worse over the past 10-ish years. On the other hand, I watch anything non-English with German dubs. I tried watching Squid Game in Korean with German subtitles but just found the result highly confusing. ▲ Collapse
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Mario Chávez
United States
Local time: 10:57
Inggris menyang Spanyol
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| Subtitling rather than dubbing | May 27, 2025 |
I grew up watching all kinds of programming (from movies to documentaries to cartoons) dubbed in Spanish. After moving to New York City, I switched to English subtitles to focus on understanding the local English better. I soon stopped watching anything dubbed because of synchronization problems, hearing the wrong pitch for the pictured situation and some jarring accents and unfamiliar expressions. Recall that some languages, like Spanish, have many different regional variants.
... See more I grew up watching all kinds of programming (from movies to documentaries to cartoons) dubbed in Spanish. After moving to New York City, I switched to English subtitles to focus on understanding the local English better. I soon stopped watching anything dubbed because of synchronization problems, hearing the wrong pitch for the pictured situation and some jarring accents and unfamiliar expressions. Recall that some languages, like Spanish, have many different regional variants.
MC ▲ Collapse
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| Spanish with Spanish subtitles | May 27, 2025 |
Mario Chávez wrote:
I grew up watching all kinds of programming (from movies to documentaries to cartoons) dubbed in Spanish. After moving to New York City, I switched to English subtitles to focus on understanding the local English better. I soon stopped watching anything dubbed because of synchronization problems, hearing the wrong pitch for the pictured situation and some jarring accents and unfamiliar expressions. Recall that some languages, like Spanish, have many different regional variants.
MC
Indeed, Spanish variants are different not only in vocabulary but also in grammar.
One interesting experiment I sometimes do is watching Argentinian series/movies (the current viral-trend is El Eternauta) in Spanish with Spanish subtitles to Spain. Sometimes a whole sentence is completely different!
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…but with a few exceptions — for example, docudramas with voice-over narration and/or characters who aren't actors. In those cases, there's no real acting involved, so dubbing doesn’t take much away. Also, this kind of film is often packed with forced narratives, and with subtitles you end up spending more time reading than actually watching the images.
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Daryo
Local time: 15:57
Serbia menyang Inggris
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| As much as possible | May 28, 2025 |
and use subtitles if I don't understand the language.
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Novian Cahyadi (X) 
Local time: 21:57
Alex Lichanow wrote:
Almost everything is dubbed in Germany
I'm sorry to hear that.
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Helena Chavarria
Spain
Local time: 16:57
Member (2011)
Spanyol menyang Inggris
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| TV and broadband deals | May 29, 2025 |
Alex Lichanow wrote:
Almost everything is dubbed in Germany
The same in Spain but thanks to smart TVs, and broadband and TV deals, I can now watch television in the original language.
My husband goes to bed at around 10.00pm and leaves me in the living room to watch whatever I want; not that I ever sit and watch TV, I usually listen to a film or documentary while I'm doing something else.
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Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 16:57
Inggris menyang Jerman
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Novian Cahyadi wrote:
Alex Lichanow wrote:
Almost everything is dubbed in Germany
I'm sorry to hear that.
Thank you for your compassion 😆
It's not all bad, though.
1) Old movies and shows up to the late 90s mostly have brilliant dubbing, with a special shout-out to the Naked Gun series.
2) DVDs/Blurays and streams will usually have the original language as an available option.
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 17:57
Member
Inggris menyang Turki
| I can attest to that | May 29, 2025 |
Alex Lichanow wrote:
Old movies and shows up to the late 90s mostly have brilliant dubbing
I fondly remember Tutti Frutti on RTL plus and how anxiously I'd wait for my parents to go to bed before the show.. but wait, Tutti Frutti wasn't dubbed, was it? It was a bona fide German show (not that I knew/know any German).
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 17:57
Member (2003)
Finnish menyang Jerman
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| No going back | May 31, 2025 |
I grew up in Germany and was used to all foreign languages being synchronized (dubbed as you call it). Even on the tv-news if e.g. Trump starts to say something within two second a German voice speaks in German and Trump is dimmed. Fortunately this happens anymore only on a hotel tv in some foreign country. All movies and tv-programs come with subtitles here in the Northern countries. Except children stuff.
Subtitles are a mighty boost for children to learn to read early in order to be abl... See more I grew up in Germany and was used to all foreign languages being synchronized (dubbed as you call it). Even on the tv-news if e.g. Trump starts to say something within two second a German voice speaks in German and Trump is dimmed. Fortunately this happens anymore only on a hotel tv in some foreign country. All movies and tv-programs come with subtitles here in the Northern countries. Except children stuff.
Subtitles are a mighty boost for children to learn to read early in order to be able to understand normal movies. And of course it helps to learn the foreign languages. How to pronounce them and all the dialects too.
We can choose between Finnish and Swedish subtitles and in which color and what size. For most Finnish language material there is also a switch for Finnish subtitles with explanations for hearing disabled viewers. So when there is important noise or music, the text will tell. ▲ Collapse
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Angie Garbarino
Local time: 16:57
Member (2003)
Inggris menyang Italia
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| Also in Italy and Spain | May 31, 2025 |
Alex Lichanow wrote:
Almost everything is dubbed in Germany
Everything, and again not bad at all, there are wonderful dubbers in both countries, if I want to watching something original there is Netflix or prime.
[Edited at 2025-05-31 08:50 GMT]
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Denis Fesik
Local time: 17:57
Inggris menyang Rusia
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| I'd still watch some dubbed movies | Jun 2, 2025 |
But only those dubbed in Soviet times. There was a list of foreign movies allowed for distribution, and they were dubbed masterfully. I still believe so even now that my critical thinking is on another level compared to me as a kid. I don't often watch feature films at all, but I guess I'd prefer the original voice track (if it's in English) or the original + subtitles (I remember watching Du levande with subtitles and thinking to myself that that great movie would be ruined if dubbed). Y... See more But only those dubbed in Soviet times. There was a list of foreign movies allowed for distribution, and they were dubbed masterfully. I still believe so even now that my critical thinking is on another level compared to me as a kid. I don't often watch feature films at all, but I guess I'd prefer the original voice track (if it's in English) or the original + subtitles (I remember watching Du levande with subtitles and thinking to myself that that great movie would be ruined if dubbed). YouTube has some videos that are auto-dubbed, and my first reaction on reading a note saying the video is auto-dubbed is to stop it and change the voice track to original. Another similar reaction happens in very rare occasions when the title or thumbnail of a TikTok-style short video cons me into watching it. I stop the video as early as I can and turn the volume down as much as possible because IT'S GOING TO SCREAM (sorry for using caps). Sometimes, even the lowest possible volume setting doesn't help the matter (especially if the video is from China), and then I switch it off altogether. Auto-dubbing is about as bad if you ask me ▲ Collapse
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