58 Movies: nothing on!
The thing we have come to miss the most while on the road, has been English language movies. Germany, along with Spain, Italy and France are the only European countries left (to my knowledge) where dubbing still applies. All TV shows, and most Feature films are dubbed. Here is a quote from an article from the Goethe Institute’s website:
“In no other country in the world are so many films dubbed for the cinema and TV screens as in Germany. The preference for dubbed German versions of international productions has given birth to an industry with its own professions, which have to deal with the issue of remaining faithful to the original – and at times with sceptics “
More info on the dubbing history in Germany can be found at: http://www.goethe.de/kug/kue/flm/dos/en218244.htm
Now off course, this is excellent news for the large contingent of German actors working within this industry, but for tourists, it’s a constant irritation if you do not know the language. Only in major towns like Berlin, Hamburg are you able to find cinemas that show feature films in their original versions, and even then the selection is usually limited to a few films and odd screening times. When we are in smaller cities, the suggestion of going to the movies usually gets a laugh from everyone and then we resign ourselves to watching James Bond in German on the TV.
However, from my own experience of picking up languages I can only say that when you hear a language it is usually easier to retain: “Upstairs Downstairs” “When The Boat Comes In” “The Professionals”, “The A-Team” ,were all series that helped me achieve better English when I was a kid, because they were shown on TV and at the movies in original languages and subtitles allowed me to understand words that I didn’t know. Subtitles are just a question of habbit, but then off course if the Germans started reading subtitles, what would all the German actors do ?
“In no other country in the world are so many films dubbed for the cinema and TV screens as in Germany. The preference for dubbed German versions of international productions has given birth to an industry with its own professions, which have to deal with the issue of remaining faithful to the original – and at times with sceptics “
More info on the dubbing history in Germany can be found at: http://www.goethe.de/kug/kue/flm/dos/en218244.htm
Now off course, this is excellent news for the large contingent of German actors working within this industry, but for tourists, it’s a constant irritation if you do not know the language. Only in major towns like Berlin, Hamburg are you able to find cinemas that show feature films in their original versions, and even then the selection is usually limited to a few films and odd screening times. When we are in smaller cities, the suggestion of going to the movies usually gets a laugh from everyone and then we resign ourselves to watching James Bond in German on the TV.
However, from my own experience of picking up languages I can only say that when you hear a language it is usually easier to retain: “Upstairs Downstairs” “When The Boat Comes In” “The Professionals”, “The A-Team” ,were all series that helped me achieve better English when I was a kid, because they were shown on TV and at the movies in original languages and subtitles allowed me to understand words that I didn’t know. Subtitles are just a question of habbit, but then off course if the Germans started reading subtitles, what would all the German actors do ?
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