Why subtitles?

[spyderspyder]

"Did I missed out on any other ones? Please feel free to add!"

Here's one:

Way back (way, way back!) while watching TV late at night, I used to have the TV speaker "OFF" and have earphones plugged in - with one earphone on one ear...

And subtitles...

While watching, I would practise scales, riffs and chops on a sold-body electric guitar - unplugged, so that it was very quiet, and the household wasn't disturbed.

I would be following the TV in one ear - but mainly by the subs - while hearing my noodling on the quiet guitar in the other.

Fun!

s.

[Alice liu]

My native language is not English, either.
But I know a little about English,
so I can write myself and don't let
other people translate.
That's awful, I mean translation results.

[egk]

This is an old thread but I'll join in. I lost my hearing completely at age 15. I guess I'm lucky that my reading ability was already good before it happened. I need closed captions or subtitles for everything I watch.

One thing I'm mystified about. Why do people post bad subtitles? I'm currently looking for an English subtitle for Battle: Los Angeles. I've found lots on another site but frankly, they're pretty bad or the same one just uploaded over and over again. I can understand if someone's translation abilities aren't that great. I can at least admire someone for trying if that is the case but I found one and when I looked at it, I knew right away it was actually Inception. Then there are the obvious machine translated subs. Why would people even bother? Addic7ed does a great job of not only subtitling but weeding out bad ones that get uploaded so it's always the first place I'll look.

[UnicefaloKid]

Because I don't have enough patience to wait for portuguese subtitles.

Also to improve my english.

[crvenooki]

One thing I'm mystified about. Why do people post bad subtitles? I'm currently looking for an English subtitle for Battle: Los Angeles. I've found lots on another site but frankly, they're pretty bad or the same one just uploaded over and over again. I can understand if someone's translation abilities aren't that great. I can at least admire someone for trying if that is the case but I found one and when I looked at it, I knew right away it was actually Inception. Then there are the obvious machine translated subs. Why would people even bother?

mislabeled subtitle is usually human error, or good old trolling.
machine translated is useful if you want to translate without transcript, and available subs are timed well, but on unknown language.
so, tough luck if you're english only speaker, usually you have to wait dvd rip, cam, ts or r5 is rarely subbed on english.

[ilse]

machine translated is useful if you want to translate without transcript

I don't know in other languages but machine translation into Spanish is terrible, sentences don't have any sense and most of the times you need a translator for the machine translator.

BTW I translate my favourite shows into Spanish here in addic7ed, but usually watch them with English subs to improve my English.

[crvenooki]

I don't know in other languages but machine translation into Spanish is terrible, sentences don't have any sense and most of the times you need a translator for the machine translator.

i didn't mean that machine translation is useful for translating, i meant that machine translated sub already has good timing that can be used for syncing your translation.

[ilse]

i didn't mean that machine translation is useful for translating, i meant that machine translated sub already has good timing that can be used for syncing your translation.

I guess we understand different things for "machine translation". Machine translation for me is i.e. Google translator, some of the English subs from English spoken shows are not machine translations for me, are, in any case, "machine transcriptions".

[DrJackson]

i didn't mean that machine translation is useful for translating, i meant that machine translated sub already has good timing that can be used for syncing your translation.

I guess we understand different things for "machine translation". Machine translation for me is i.e. Google translator, some of the English subs from English spoken shows are not machine translations for me, are, in any case, "machine transcriptions".

Hey good people, don't you think in that way, you are starting to get away from topic?

doc.

[duchess]

For me it's simple i need subs because i'm getting deaf.
So i hope this site will stay 4ever.

[boy_free]

Well, the English isn't my native language either, but I watch movies with English subtitle for several reasons.
1. That helps me to improve my English. (Seeing and hearing the words at the same time)
2. I'm a translator. I translate to my native language, so I really need them, because making the timing is a big and s?rious b***h. And for that reason I want to say my THANKS to all people who make the English subtitles. THANK YOU!!! :)

[zenibuka]

I just landed on this topic, wandering aimlessly as usual
My native language isn't english either, but since i've been an adolescent i've tried to improve my english by reading aloud song lyrics out of booklet whenever i'd buy a cd, by reading children's books like roahl dahl or lewis caroll even though some would say i was already too old for it (that remains to be seen).
Then came the movies at the theater, in the original languages (english, german, japanese, korean...)
Around 2002, i began downloading movies and tv shows exponantially, and i realised several facts :

A - french actors don't know how to dub english actors at the point of ridicule. When you see someone say a sentence of 3-4 syllables in english, the french dude usually needs twice as much, consequently he either speaks very fast or finishes the sentence well after the character's lips are closed... ridiculous !

B - As time passed, i switched to french subs. While i have a huge respect for anyone who would take on his personal time to work, for free, for his community, it became clear that a french sub can't restitue the whole meaning of the original language. Further more as Alex said, the time you spend reading another language makes you miss the action and a lot of details. As i continued watching shows this way, i realised my english was improving on its own and it made me realise that there were a lot of mistakes in the subs i was using (grammar, syntax, spelling and even meaning) so i switched to english subs.

C - When done properly as it is pratically always the case with Addic7ed subs, using english subs on english shows and movies, you see what you hear, so you're learning really fast, acquiring new vocabulary, predicting coming dialogs, recognising accents - I recently impressed an american friend by telling him he was from baltimore just from his accent (Thanks "The Wire")

D - English is not that complicated compared to certain languages (french, polish, chinese...) so out of respect for the people who write amazing dialogs, for the people who take the time to transcrpt and synchronize it, it is MY DUTY AND PLEASURE to use english subs.

If you've read until this point, i'm glad, but a little worried for you my friend.

As always ADDIC7ED RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULES !!!

[mkdpvprokgopkrg]

English subtitles are good for the deaf of hearing.

English subtitles are also good when someone else is talking to you and you can read the subtitles whilst talking to them!

English subtitles are good for some "technical" terms that you don't understand or names that are difficult to spell or pronounce!

Finally, English subtitles are good when some studios like CBS/Paramount/Sony use CC on their Region 1 DVDs instead of SDH (Subtitles for the deaf of hearing). It annoys me 'coz I live in Australia and not in USA/Canada and we Australians (including UK) cannot access CC on our TV. We can only watch CC on our computer.

Did I missed out on any other ones? Please feel free to add!

I used to live in Australia, I just recently moved to Canada..
I there is TV's that you can turn subtitles on, Just not all of it...