Language and Profession

Imagine the telephone rings and Brad Pitt is on the phone. Would you recognize his voice? The answer is probably “no” if you live in Germany because it is not Brad Pitt's voice that you typically hear. It is voice actor Tobias Meister.

Nearly all international film and television productions in Germany are shown in their dubbed versions. Anyone who would rather see the original version with German subtitles has to either go to small art house theaters in big cities or look specifically for the right DVD. But let’s be realistic: Brad Pitt isn’t going to call, and what is the point of all the work anyway?

“Subtitles are actually less invasive to the content of a film than dubbing. And enthusiasts tend to want an authentic film experience,” explains freelance subtitle writer Silke Nagel about why some filmgoers would much rather watch the original with subtitles. Even if a film has been well dubbed, many people just find it nicer to hear the “real” voices and sounds of the original language. As Disraeli once said, “There is no index of character so sure as the voice.”

Learning languages through subtitles

Not just film enthusiasts swear by subtitles. Associations for the hearing impaired have been promoting laws for years that would give people with hearing problems equal access to information on the television through the use of closed caption subtitles. Many students of foreign languages also look specifically for films and TV shows with subtitles in order to improve their abilities while relaxing at home. Anyone who has watched films in a foreign language knows that it improves vocabulary, helps ingrain useful phrases and trains listening comprehension.

Holger Mitterer of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and James McQueen from Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands) have studied the use of film subtitles as a way of learning a foreign language. They recommend turning the subtitles on in the original language. If a German-speaking student, for example, reads the translated lines (from English to German) of Brad Pitt's southern accent in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards, it distracts him from the conversation and that has a negative effect on his learning. If the English subtitles are turned on, however, that student can familiarize himself with the pronunciation and thereby train his listening skills.

Subtitles around Europe

It’s no coincidence then that Germans speak worse English than people in the Netherlands or Scandinavian countries where international productions are generally broadcast with subtitles. A study by the European Commission, Europeans and their Languages, shows that people “in countries where subtitles are common” are “better versed in more languages”. Furthermore, foreign films and programs in their original language in these countries are more highly regarded and are liked by 94 percent of the Swedes and Danes and 93 percent of the Finns who were asked. But that is high compared to the average European, 56 percent of whom would rather watch a dubbed version of a foreign film than the original version with subtitles.

Subtitle writers

Silke Nagel sees two reasons for the fact that so many Europeans see subtitles as tedious. “First, watching films with subtitles takes some getting used to. Second, it is actually more difficult to follow a film if the subtitles are poorly done,” says Nagel. “Unfortunately that is far too often the case. The reason is subtitle services are frequently offered at dumping prices. But to deliver quality you need time, and time is money. Sadly, it is often very difficult to make customers understand that.”

So what makes good subtitles? “The most important thing is that subtitles have to be quickly readable and well-timed with the dialog. Viewers have to able to recognize which subtitle belongs to which character; otherwise it’s of no help at all.” Beyond that, the subtitles have to retain stylistic nuances despite being slightly condensed. If someone is speaking in slang, that has to come across clearly in the subtitles. Anyone still interested in the tough job of subtitle writer in Germany, however, doesn’t just need a certain level of technical prowess for working with film files. In addition to being a film buff, Nagel thrives on hunting for the right idiomatic expressions. You also have to have a very good feel for language and rhythm in order to be successful as a subtitle writer.