• Taalen@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Coming from a not English speaking country where subtitles instead of dubbing is the rule, it’s kinda the opposite for me. Subtitles allow me to see at a glance what to expect, so I’ll have an easier time focusing on the dialogue. I have some kind of hearing impairment, so that while my hearing is very good, it only takes a little bit of noise to muddy speech so that I really struggle to make out words. That said, subtitle translation quality has been going downhill fast for the past 15+, and that has made them a lot less useful. Especially with companies like Disney and Netflix not caring one bit about translation quality, only how much they cost to make. When you’re watching Star Wars and they start talking about attack helicopters, it’s time to switch off the subtitles.

    Anyway, I’m sure it’s largely down to habit. If you’ve grown up reading subtitles and it’s perfectly normal to you, they’re not distracting and you don’t spend a lot of time on them. I can easily see how it could be a completely different experience when it’s an exception and not the rule.