Polish dubbing in movies; why is it so that on polish television all the films are dubbed?

or English 0.5 ;)
I cant understand how people who can understand British English cannot understand American English,after all its just another regional accent ;)
Saying that though, I can follow a Spanish movie without subs but am totally lost when it comes to mexican spanish....

English 0.5 ! I love it! LOL

I agree, I run into pilots from the UK, Australia and New Zealand, no problems understanding them, it's like when I listen to a Norwegian, they simply speak a different, funny sounding version of Swedish... LOL (keeeeedin'!!!!)

Indian and Malaysian English can be challenging but even those dialects aren't too bad.

Yes, subtitles is the way to go, makes you appreciate other cultures more. I don't speak Korean, Japanese or Mandarin (just basic sentences) but I love watching movies from those countries, I need subtitles but I want the original sound just the way locals hear it. Some Stasi dude translating for me totally destroys this experience. Those who prefer a lector's voice, good for you, do what you prefer. However, I wish there was an option to opt out and switch to subtitles for those of us who can't stand a lector's voice. Unfortunately it's usually all or nothing. A movie with a lector's voice equals nothing for me, I just can't watch it, way too distracting.

first of all - it is not the only reason - the most important reason is we are used to lektor - I hate dubbing and I have to sit with the eyes pointed to the screen to watch a movie with subtitles - gee, forget movies - take TV shows from channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, National Geographic - do you think one can follow such programmes with subtitles - it's just too tiresome

yes it's nice to see a movie with subtitles from time to time but I can't imagine watching everything with subtitles

so yes, the lektor is cheap - it is waaay cheaper than the whole dubbing thing - but for me lektor is actually the best

so, all you foreigners - you can rant as much as you can, but you won't change this - it is simply a well-established thing that Poles don't like either dubbing or subtitles

My mom does just that almost every day in Sweden and I'm yet to hear her complain. However, she frequently impresses me with her English vocabulary. She regularly picks up new English words thanks to the subtitles AND the original sound.

If it's too tiresome for you then maybe you should have your eyes checked, maybe you need glasses? I'm not being disparaging toward you, really, that's not my intention. I just can't see how reading a few sentences at a time can be tiresome to anyone??

Not a scientific study but from the traveling I've done so far I think the vast majority of countries use subtitles to show movies/programs made in non-native languages. Like 80% of places I've been to. Then a much smaller portion, maybe 15%, use the dubbing technique. A lector's voice is extremely unusual and so far I've only heard it in Russia, Kazakhstan and on a Polish satellite network. So somehow people manage without this reading dude? I guess it really boils down to what you're used to.

I am just not able to focus at what is going on on the screen and read subtitles at the same time - and I think most of people are not able to do it - so no - please no subtitles for the regular TV shows - it is especially a hindrance when watching nature scenes

lektor has another big advantage over subtitles - you can listen to the movie programme even if you don't look at the TV - you go to make yourself a cup of tea for example and you can hear what is going on - and come back sooner if it sounds interesting

That's fair enough and we'll just have to agree to disagree.

I'll never watch a lector coached movie, find it too distracting and frankly I think it's somewhat insulting to our intelligence. However, as I said, people who're used to it apparently like it.

Also, I forgot to add China to the list of countries where I have experienced the "secret voice" programming. It's not very common, they usually provide subtitles but I remember trying to watch an Australian nature program while in Beijing and there was a Chinese "lector" who totally ruined the experience so I ended up switching channels. Fortunately (for those of us who don't like it) this technique is very rare, almost unheard of in most countries.

A culture's preferred localization technique (dubbing, subtitles, voice over, voice over dubbing*) is almost entirely due to historical accident. All forms have advantages and disadvantages and it largely comes down to culturally determined individual preference (most people don't have very original tastes and like whatever their culture has conditioned them to like ).

Poland uses voice over because:

a) people prefer audio to visual translations of audio material (nothing wrong with that)

b) voice overs are cheaper than dubbing (again nothing wrong with that)

It totally sucks for anglophone residents of Poland (since it makes films in English unwatchable** even (especially!) if they know Polish) but it's what Polish people are conditioned to prefer and that won't change.

Rationalizations about how this is a superior method are just that, rationalizations. Similarly rationalizations about the superiority of subtitles are also rationalizations.

*often found in Russia and Bulgaria (and other places?) a cross between dubbing and voice over, something like a full cast but the original soundtrack is still (Barely) audible in the background = far less disturbing to me than the single voice over because the original is far less audible)

** it makes movies useless for entertainment and, unlike dubbing, doesn't help in learning the foreign language either

final note: I only hate lectors for dramatic programs - documentaries I could care less and don't mind the lector - go figure....

Makes perfect sense,just replaces one dull blokes voice with another dull blokes voice :)


OMG,can you imagine 7 Samurii dubbed!!! A Gi Jin trying to do the " EEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH" grunting noises...........

Mind, Im a bit odd, I quite enjoy watching TV with the deaf sign language person stood in the bottom corner.........

It is entirely that.


Some people just can't walk and chew gum at the same time.


That's just laziness.


Exactly!

I agree.

Does anyone have a link to Rewers with English subtitles?

Subtitling is even cheaper.


Get German TV. I'm serious.

Sometimes they also do the voice over dubbing where all the men's parts are read by a man and all the women's parts by a woman. Usually both the speakers have a very distinctive, shrill tone of voice and they're speaking with exaggerated intonation. Oh the beauty of it. I've seen this also on Russian TV.

I'm loving our lectors more and more :)

That would involve the great unwashed actually having to read something.

LMAO yeah!! I can't stand that! -__-'

I like when they fully dub many recent movies into Polish.. especially Disney films and such..

I saw an episode of Friends in germany one.........Ross sounded so butch it was hilarious :)

edit, I think the above post wins this weeks "Gayest sounding post by a straight guy" award hands down. ;)

Well.... :D


Why of course. AmE sounds like shite, and it's easy to prove. Just... listen to it! No decent manner of speaking mostly and the way it's deteriorating is gonig beyond the scale. I like a language to sound like something that I would like to speak too.

Of course AmE can be easier to comprehend sometimes, but this doesn't change facts.


I cannot agree more with this bit. But improve, not degrade.
And thanks for the photos of TV sets, really. Helped us a lot to understand your message;))

You get paid more writing a script for a lektor than you do for writing the same dialogue as subtitles?


But there was a movie theater or two. But then the American movies I've seen in Polish theaters have all been subtitled, not dubbed. Is that the general rule, or have I just not seen enough movies here for a fair representation?

Isnt it akward when you hear the joke before the rest of the audience has read it ? :)

No worse than when the joke doesn't come across at all. I saw a magazine with a picture of a dog sniffing at Kaczinsky's feet and a balloon in Polish that I could actually figure out said "This guy has a cat!" I had to ask my wife later why that was funny.

Lols, Ive learnt that when a Pole says,"this joke probably wont be very funny to you" that they are not just being polite,9 times out of 10 they just dont translate at all :)

(Thats not a judgment on national humors etc btw :) )
I just treat it like Shakespeare, you sit in an audiance,all of a sudden a few people start laughing for no apparent reason,take time to figure out just why the dude in tights doing something with his thumb is the funniest thing these people have seen and I'll just lose the plot entirely :)

I think Shakespeare requires subtitles even for most native speakers these days. Or maybe we could do modern English lektor on top of the original.

Romeo: What light through yon window breaks?
Lektor: Who threw the lamp through the window?

btw, is it lektor or lector?

It's lektor in Polish and some people anglicize it as lector in English (though no one who doesn't already know what a lektor is would understand it the way intended). English lacks a word to describe the a lektor does, the process is voice-over, one voice speaking over the soundtrack which is reduced to background noise but I'm not sure what to call the person who does it...

There was no other choice but subtitling for several generations of Poles after WWII : Russian war movies, European classics, American Westerns... Some European movies would be dubbed but never Westerns. That would not be right; imagine a Native American waving his tomahawk and swearing in Polish from the silver screen..

no - it's being able to follow what is going on in a TV programme without watching the screen all the time - very convenient


it is funny for millions of Poles because Kaczyński has a cat - imagine - and consider how mind-programmed are these people to laugh about Kaczyński owning a cat (hilarious ain't it)

And very lazy.


The American media had Socks, the British had Humphrey. Strange we hear nothing about Ziobro's pet weasel.

you are able to follow all your English language TV constantly without being glued to the screen all the time - why can't Poles? - most of the material you see on the likes of Discovery or National Geographic are originally English language - with subtitles instead of lektor I would have to sit all the time in front of the TV to follow what is going on and I personally like to just cast eavesdrop on what is on while doing something else like commenting on the PF

No wonder, Discovery isn't really worth any wider focus...

So what's wrong with at least giving me the option of turning the demned thing off? On cyfra+ Discovery Science gives you the option, but the Discovery channel doesn't. Go figger.

Oh, and according to my wife "having a cat" is an idiom for being stupid or crazy. (Not sure which) Maybe like in American English "having a cow"?

do you know how to achieve that technically on a regular TV - cause I don't - unless you've got a coded TV receiver (like Canal+ or Cyfrowy Polsat) where you can manipulate the output a lot - but I still don't know if they allow it in Poland


oh, yeah - I forgot about it - yes, it really makes it funny then - haven't thought about that

In a year and a half here I don't think I've watched any broadcast TV. All cable or satellite. The smarts for choosing sound and subtitles are all in the decoder as far as I know.

if there were a significant number of people like yourself the most TV channel operators would enable such service - welcome to the supply demamd environment