dubbing

Hey everyone!

The last post was all about the translation of movies and series. Now I want to focus on dubbing. Also in this category there are sometimes moments while watching a movie or series, when I think that something sounds weird. Here you have a list of examples:

• “native” languages, accent: What often sounds very funny to me is, when I am watching a series in English and then they are suddenly speaking German. In their opinion it is supposed to sound like native German but for me as a native German speaker the accent is clearly to hear. 
• Last time for example I watched Breaking Bad in  German and in one episode there were some people talking German with an accent... So I thought: oh, okay that is definitely because they are synchronising the accent as well. After a while the police showed up with the writing "Polizei" on their uniform and it was clear to me that they let the "native" German as it was in the English version. To be completely sure I also watched the English version of the episode. (season 5/ episode 2)

• The next series I would like to concentrate on is Modern family. At the beginning I watched a few episodes in German but soon I realized that the English are better  because of Gloria's accent when she is talking (and by the way it is an opportunity for me to learn English). It simply sounds so nice and likeable and the fact that she does not blame herself to talk a lot in spite of knowing of her accent can be a good role model for all language learners. Comparatively, watching the German version of Modern Family is not as funny as watching the English because the accent of Gloria speaking German has not the same entertainment value.
• Gloria - English
• Gloria - German

• switching language: To turn to an other subject, for certain you have already experienced how it feels when you are switching the languages. The characters are suddenly getting a different character and seem to be softer, more confident, more insecure, and so on. The voice is simply telling us something about the qualities of a person and suddenly seem to appeal to us less or more. Personally, I was surprised by the voice of Brick when I switched from the German to the English version of the series the Middle because he had a voice which was a lot lower (at least in the later episodes) than in the German version.
• Brick German (0:30)
• Brick English

What do you think about this topic?

Have a nice evening! -J