Diane and I watch a LOT of foreign films and series. Right now we’re watching “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” which is in Korean, but we hardly notice. Because after years of having subtitles on all the time, we catch the emotional weight of the voice acting, and some part of our brains just sort of plug in the actual words for us from the subtitles without us being aware of it.
But we don’t only use them on foreign content. My hearing has been weak since I had meningitis at age four, and Diane often finds they are helpful too. The ability strengthened by our foreign-film addiction has spilled over into English-language viewing.
But as this video explains, dialog has been getting worse in modern programming anyway. So Here’s my list of Why You Should Just Use Subtitles All The Time*
- A whole world of foreign content opens up, without losing the quality of the original voice acting. (Dub voice acting is an amazing feat, but you lose a lot)
- Even in English programming, you can figure out WTF that character just said
- If you have kids in the house, leave the subs on and watch their reading ability get stronger.
- And of course, if you are a bit hard-of-hearing like me, the subs were literally made for you.
*(I don’t care if you use them or not, so don’t @ me. I’m just sharing something that I find helpful. Give it a try!)
georgewiman 