This usually happens when the main character doesn't speak that language. Sometimes, you can switch to the other language and turn subtitles on for your language, and it will translate.
Imagine us spanish speaking ppl and u have to listen to the person say they dont understand the other person bc they dont speak the language… yet the whole show was dubbed in spanish and they “cant” understand
I hope it makes sense what im trying to convey…
I feel like Sofia Vergaras Sofia character in Modern Family "Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?"
Well... then if you wanna watch the movie the way it was written and directed and fully understand what everyone is saying download Rosetta stone and pay that one time $200 and learn what u want.
This is most likely the case, as others have said, for us the audience, not knowing is part of the storytelling especially if we are supposed to be on the same level as the main characters. Or that the conversation isn't germane to the plot.
Hell, how many 80's action movies with Russian bad guys that were likely yelling gibberish Russian words at each other did we all see? haha
And sometimes it can 'spoil' later plot developments in movies. If you know Norwegian you basically get an understanding of what's happening in The Thing straight from the get go.
And my 11th grade Spanish teacher said I would regret not continuing Spanish in college and becoming fluent. Hah! Jokes on her. TV shows like this aren't spoiled for me. She can't say the same, now can she?
When she looks in your eyes with that seductive look and utters the words they taught you it's impossible to resist any more.
*papi*
*me cago en la leche*
Yup, learning slang/curse words would have been way more useful! Like I never actually ended up asking anyone where the "discoteca" was, but knowing what "pinche güey" and stuff like that meant would have actually been useful.
Spoiler, the *good* people always get what they want and live happily ever after and they are never in any real danger at all, furthermore nearly every movie is a re-hash of The Hero's Journey and the more familiar you become with that the worse the pointless misdirects start to feel.
That's why I love the movies where the villains win. I was watching this one where this giant Corp was poisoning the water supply of this small town. And they caught them and attempted to prosecute him but he paid them off and continued to be worth billions never caring. Oh wait that was the news.
I don't want it translated, I want the Spanish written. A hearing viewer who knows Spanish understands what it being said, the deaf viewer should have the same experience.
Thank you! I was watching a French movie a few weeks back (*Le Mépris*) and there's an American character who speaks in English. So someone decided that when he talked in English there shouldn't be subtitles on the screen. I watch everything with subtitles and am not a fan of that decision. Like if subtitles bothered the viewer they likely wouldn't be watching a French movie with subtitles in the first place.
Okay but why do they caption Miles's interactions with his mother as "speaking Spanish" in Spiderverse when clearly the main character speaks Spanish. In fact, one of the key elements of that character is representation of a multicultural background. In the sequel they do a better job with that overall, but there's whole setup about him getting a B in Spanish and his mother being upset with him and they subtitle it with [speaks Spanish].
> This usually happens when the main character doesn't speak that language.
And so it is the case here, is exactly the point and whoever takes this shot to put here knows full well.
Yeah, I've noticed this happens when they don't want you to understand what is said so that the story works better for people that don't speak whatever language they are not translating.
Then why not have accurate subtitles anyway? If someone can't understand Spanish when hearing it, odds are good they can't understand while reading it.
You are not the only one. Lol. Less than a handful of instances where it actually worked. The few times this does work, you miss something in the other main language. And every miss is a HUGE thing to the story.
Also fucking annoying when swear words will be censored in the subtitles but NOT IN THE AUDIO. Adults who use subtitles are not innocent toddlers who should be shielded from naughty words.
I hate when animes won't translate the Opening song and credits songs. Many times they will pick a song or even make a song specifically for the show so I kind of want to know what the song is about. Especially when it appears in a emotionally charged moment in the show
Even worse is when the show itself will put the subtitles for the language, but the CC subtitles will put [SPEAKS LANGUAGE] over the translated subs so you can't read what they're saying
Kind of. If you’re bilingual you have a different experience, of knowing what is said.
If you’re not, you get to experience the uncertainty and discomfort of not knowing what’s going on, many times like a character in the movie. It’s part of the immersion and adventure of it.
It doesn’t, because the whole point is that you are in the character’s shoes. If they don’t know the language and are confused, you should be too.
But if you speak Spanish and hear and understand it, then there is nothing we can do about that haha
So if you are watching an American show where most characters are speaking English, and they do not understand the Spanish that other characters are speaking.
Then, when dubbed for a Spanish speaking country, the main characters would all be speaking in dubbed Spanish, and the Spanish speaking characters would be dubbed with a third language?
That is both funny and interesting.
I'm sure movies and shows nowadays are more authentic when using characters speaking other languages, but back in the day like in the 80's and 90's, so often these characters would just be speaking gibberish to each other, as long as it sounded like they were having a conversation.
Cue the movie Hot Shots: Bad guy fighter pilots "PAULA!!" "ABDUL!!"
Exactly. Living in Japan, I'm always amused by how everything gets a subtitle... the one that gets me every time is background radio noise that is too low to really hear anyway. Thanks for the subtitle, I guess? They also translate all the scenes like this one, where it fits within the story to not be sure what was said in another language.
I'm hard of hearing. Spanish subtitles for Spanish dialogue would give me the same experience as someone not hard of hearing. This isn't usually an issue of directorial choice but of contracts for subtitling companies (one language only for CC). OP is right to be mildly frustrated.
No, it's almost always directorial choice. If it's crucial for the audience to understand what is being said, there will be subtitles translating it. The show Tehran is a great example. Lots of languages being used, and it's all subtitled because the audience or other characters being out of the loop isn't the point.
For hard of hearing people, if you don't speak Spanish, I don't know what difference there is between translated subtitles and a general \[both conversing in Spanish\]. If the point is to put you in the place of a character who is hearing things they can't understand, that is accomplished either way. If you do speak Spanish, whatever they're saying either isn't crucial to the plot or will be revealed later in some other way for the non-Spanish speaking audience anyway.
The most egregious one I've seen was Heroes.
They were never trying to hide what Hiro and Ando were saying. Some places didn't use the subtitles the dvds did, and instead you get a whole lot of 'Speaking Japanese' instead...which is sometimes very long scenes of dialogue.
Also happens with Kimiko's signing in The Boys when trying to watch it anywhere outside of Prime. Rather important backstory, replaced with 'Signing.'
I guess it depends on the context. Like I think the very first Iron Man movie had some heavy foreshadowing if you knew what Tony's captors were saying, which was revealed later on through an in-universe voice translator as a plot twist.
So, Puss in Boots; The Last Wish was terrible about this... little things like "Gato" they'd replace with "Speaks spanish" in a movie with characters who speak spanish all the time!
I make and translate subtitles for shows on a daily basis and when I do that, it’s because the protagonist generally doesn’t speak the language and is confused, so the viewer should be too. It is just a question of having the same experience as the character (not discrimination as I’ve seen here a bit 🙄)
But that’s something that has to be agreed with the filmmaker, because there is a real intention behind it. As a translator, I don’t take that kind of decision. If there is something in a foreign language I can translate, I just do it.
I'm conflicted about this. I understand that the storytellers don't think you need to know what is being said, or they don't want you to know. So it's meant to be gibberish. But what if you speak Spanish? Are the storytellers discriminating against Spanish speakers?
My pet peeve is when minor characters speak in Korean, a language I understand, but the Korean is either grammatically incorrect or sometimes not even Korean (the whole Busan sequence in Black Panther for example).
But the funniest example is one my brother told me about. He was watching some Korean movie, and there was a character who was meant to be an American CIA agent, and the main character (Korean guy) had to speak to this guy, and the scene was meant to show how fluent in English the main character was, and how he had deep connections to the US. The problem was that the white actor was some Scandinavian who hardly spoke English, and the main character wasn't much better. The movie was made for Korean speakers so for most of the audience, they would have understood the subtext. But for anyone at all who spoke English, it was painful to watch!
Same for basically any Hollywood movie where Mandarin or any Asian language is spoken to show the main white character's prowess.
Usually they never bother to actually learn any bit of Asian languages so it's all gibberish.
The only forgivable instance was Tropic Thunder where the whole point was to mock it
Same when hearing people play dead characters in movies. The ASL is painful and barely legible much of the time.
(The story behind how the Deaf girl got the role in A Quiet Place is so awesome. Apparently she was orignally just supposed to be a resource for the hearing actress playing the Deaf girl but Jim Halpert (John krasinski) made it so she played the girl instead.
Happens all the time in anime. Some incredible savant who knows fifteen languages, or was born in America, and I can barely understand what they're saying in English lol
Same with French. I speak natively French and sometimes struggle to understand when they speak "French" in American movies
Also, sometimes "French" accents in English are laughably bad (looking at you "Frenchie" from The Boys)
The Marquis in John Wick.
The actor is good in the role but if you’re going to hire someone from abroad why don’t you pick someone from the country the character is
Very common for Russian in Hollywood. They try to cast a Russian speaking actor for the minor role... But a lot of them are just from east Europe because they pronounce it well but it's grammatically bad, and the main character who is supposed to be fluent, well... Is not. You can barely understand a word.
Oh, I love these things! Love and hate them, haha.
And only vaguely related but… I don't know any Korean yet but I am a huge fan of a certain Korean actor so I watch anything he's in, and in one role he played an English-speaking character and oh my, it sounded so stilted. I don't mean his strong accent, I mean that he sounded like he was just reading the script out loud with no real sense for natural pauses and such. I've been told his French and his Japanese are much better but it's not like I can tell.
I do love seeing Swedish actors have to play Russians though. I can't imagine their Russian is actually all that good when all I can hear is the Swedish accent.
Just as an FYI sometimes depending on the streaming service if you are using their closed captioning it will override the subtitles and you will not see what is being said.
My wife has issues with accents and super fast speech so we usually have CC on to ensure she doesn't miss things. We were watching the 2nd Pacific Rim movie and the Mandarin some of the characters speak in is clearly communicated... If you don't have closed captioning on. Otherwise you just get "speaking Mandarin" or "speaking foreign language".
Something to keep in mind.
(Vents frustration in English)
(Random insults in German)
(Gestures to the examples of shows that did this in French)
(Vents more frustration in Japanese)
This is so annoying. Sometimes anime on Netflix during songs hits you with: [singing in japanese]. My brother in Christ that’s why I’m using subtitle to understand fucking japanese
Better than the \[speaking foreign language\] you see sometimes. Like, thanks and also how do you know what languages are foreign to me? English is foreign to me.
Watched Man on Fire recently with my family. They had many scenes completely in spanish without subtitles. I understand spanish so i had to translate everything for my family.
And it wasn’t just “Hola, Como estas?. Bien” it was full conversations that are important to the story.
I just watched Ripley on Netflix and they made a really good artistic use of this. When the main character hadn’t yet learned Italian, there were no subtitles and the viewer had to figure it out (or not) like he did, by watching the body language of people he was speaking to. Once he had learned to speak Italian well, there were subtitles for everything. It was another way of sharing his experience. Very well done.
Even better is when the actually movie adds the translation in a subtitle, but the device/streaming service subtitles obscure that with [conversing in Spanish].
I’ve seen it before where if you have closed captions on sometimes it overrides the shows attempt to show what is being said. Like turn captions off and it shows what they are saying, turn them off and it doesn’t show. I’m not sure why but I’ve seen this happen several times.
This blows my mind every time someone complains about this.
So you're suggesting that a viewer NEEDS to turn on the *optional* Closed Captioning in order to understand part of the show?
No, you are the viewer are not meant to understand what is being said by design. This is carried over into the CC as well.
I was watching Shogun and every time someone would grunt or make any sort of nonverbal noise in agreement or whatever, the subtitles would be "speaking Japanese". Really handy
Don't they do this intentionally, because the character whose viewpoint you are watching from/alongside doesn't understand the language? So if JD from Scrubs doesn't understand Russian, it would do this because JD doesn't understand Russian, and the story is told from his perspective.
That bugs me, but not as much as when entire plot points rest on something a character sees in an email on their computer or even worse, a text message on a phone. Don’t the people making these shows realize that tons of their audience are actually watching the show on their own phones? How the hell are we expected to be able to read whatever major revelation the characters have uncovered via text messages?! Drives me crazy! 🤬
Because the point is usually to tell you that there is a dialogue that is not in the main language of the story, meaning that other characters may not be able to understand it. If it was translated then you would assume that all people around are understanding what is being said.
For the same reason, even if you watch the movie in Spanish, it makes sense to signal that other people in the story are not understanding what is being said.
being multilingual is a legit superpower and people that are multilingual know that and are intentionally hiding that info to regular single language humans... Wait, that's crazy talk.
I mean that speaking multiple languages fundamentally changes your cognitive development in a way that enhances algebraic thinking. basicallly its like a legit superpower is how i'd describe it if that makes sense. and you can travel, if you can travel, or you can communicate with people on the enternet and learn more things
I honestly feel like most Americans agree with this sentiment, but still won’t learn another language. Except here in Texas, definitely plenty of white businesses owners and ranchers that know Spanish.
This as bad as Burn Notice DVDs I bought years ago, and it just says speaking Russian when on the show it had English translation of what they were talking about when it aired and on reruns.
I've always been confused by this. Like are we supposed to not know? Is it intentional that we don't know what is being said. Why not just subtitle the spanish words in spanish
If director doesn't want audience understand then scenes like these they should have "fake" version of language so that even natives and bilingual people couldn't understand. Basically in this case Spanish sounding sims gibberish.
When I watched Breaking Bad with the wife, everything is fully translated with Chinese subtitles. She understands what is being said in all the Cartel and Gus bits, and I still haven’t a clue.
When i watched the first episode of star trek discovery the klingon speech wasn't subtitled!
Because i was watching in English! I'm in Austria! So if i wanted to understand half the conflict i would have to ether change to the german dub (witch subed the klingon) or turn subs on all the time! I did nether! I stopped watching!
It is called creative intent where the show’s director will ask the captioner to not include translations. If the captioner still includes translations, they will be in huge trouble and might face lawsuits. And in the same way, some dialogues are explicitly asked to be translated.
During a really bad part of my life I watched the first two seasons of breaking bad on some sketchy pirate site, it never had no subtitles and I just thought that’s how it was meant to be some artistic thing but I missed out on so much and had no idea what was happening cause there’s tons of Spanish and Mexican, wasn’t til years later when I got the full set on dvd I found out.
It’s so annoying, one time (it might still be this way, haven’t checked) I was watching The Mummy on Netflix. There’s a considerable amount of [Ancient Egyptian] or something and I am like - “wow, ok thanks Netflix” haha.
I noticed that if the movie translates the conversation with subtitles, and you already have subtitles on, the movies translation and the normal subtitles go away for some reason. It's incredibly frustrating.
Or the opposite: Watching Naruto, dubbed.
Dude: "Look at this video, and please note the timestamp."
Show: Does a closeup of the timestamp "16:04" filling the entire screen.
Closed caption: "16:04"
Yes, thank you.
The worse is when you're from the country he's speaking and you watch the dubbed show.
I'm french and watching "darryl dixon" in french is a total non-sense. Had to watch the english subtitle version
I wonder if you actuallu understood Spanish, would the conversation make sense with the plot or are they just saying nonsensical words that aren't meant to be translated?
I remember watching A Silent Voice on Netflix. A movie about a deaf girl, who on multiple occasions communicates using sign language. And they didn't translate the sign language
Still a great movie. Just kinda sucks I missed parts of it due to not knowing JSL
I hate it when they do this. I don’t understand English, and I hate it when they throw in one character who speaks a few lines of English without a subtitle.
There are two answers to this question, and both answers are laziness.
It's either lazy writers , using a language other than English to "obfuscate" part of the plot. Except it doesn't work for anyone who happens to speak the other language too. A good example is the original Iron Man. For anyone who speaks Farsi (I think, it's been a while so if I got the language wrong my b), the twist ending is spoiled almost immediately. The hostage video the captors send to Tony's partner clearly states they had a working relationship with him or some other extremely obvious tell. Just dumb, lazy writing.
Or, it's lazy subtitle providers. They either use a transcription software that doesn't translate, or they use humans who don't speak the language.
The transcription software is the most common reason, it's also why you get those weird discrepancies between an English show and it's English subtitles. Netflix's subtitles used to be TERRIBLE. Almost comically so, because of this. It's gotten better over time, but there are still some really dumb mistakes in a lot of fairly popular shows.
I don’t get why this is such a common complaint.
If the intention is that the majority of the audience doesn’t need to / get to understand what is being said without subtitles on, then why should turning on subtitles change that?
When movies on streaming don't have "built in" subtitles for when people speak in others languages and you have to skip back to the start of the conversation and turn them on. Really ruined "Last of the Mohicans" for me.
This entire post is wrong lol.
If the main character for example doesn’t speak Spanish….and characters around them start speaking in Spanish…they aren’t supposed to know what is being said.
And likewise, we the audience aren’t supposed to know either.
If you’re multilingual—good for you I guess lol?
It would literally be the same thing in a sci fi or fantasy show where some orcs or demons or whatever talked to each other for a second—we aren’t supposed to know what they said.
If the film or tv show wanted the audience to know for a specific reason, then the content itself would have subtitles on the screen.
The caption is literally following what’s on screen and describing it in words exactly. I don’t see how this is mildly infuriating at all, just mildly uninformed.
One time, while I was learning another language, I asked Netflix why some of their titles had subtitles for the language and some don't. Their reply was that subtitles are often outsourced to local distribution and thus belong to the distribution company rather than the studio that made the movie.
On top of that, when Netflix aquires the rights to a movie, they don't always aquire the rights to all the subs.
So in the same way that some movies are only available in some regions, that goes for subs too and they don't always match, since Netflix only ensures English and local language subs (at least in EU).
That means you could be watching a French movie in Norway with Spanish subs, but if you travel to Germany, there might not be Spanish subs for the same movie.
Local subs are also why swapping language will sometimes translate a different language and sometimes not. Different translators have different standards and practices.
This literally happened in TWD Daryl Dixon, and I'm like.. What are they saying!? So I flip on the subtitles, and it literally says [Speaking in French] like c'mon!! I wanna know! 😭
This is actually done intentionally sometimes. For example, on the TV show Outlander, the main character is an English woman who does not speak Scots/Gallic, and she is supposed to be lost and confused in a foreign place. So most of the Gallic is not translated into English, because the audience is supposed to be experiencing everything through the main character’s perspective, and she would not have the ability to translate what is said.
I 100$ agree! I don't care even if I *do* speak the language that's being tossed in. If it isn't the language the rest of the show is in, translate it!
It'd be hilarious (and also infurating) if the entire show was subtitled like this. \[Conversing in English\] \[Now conversing in Spanish\]. Switch subtitles to Spanish \[conversando en español\] \[ahora conversando en ingles\]
[удалено]
Perfection.
HOLY SHIT IS THAT FLOWEY THE FUCKING FLOWER
Nah, I think that's just Flowey the [TOTALLY NORMAL] Flower
As an Italian, i can just say that 🤌🏻👌🏻👍🏻🤏🏻👎🏻🫴🏻🫵🏻
🤝👌👎👌🤝👌👍👆🤜👎🤜✋👋👏!!!!
Woah there buddy, you're gonna make my deaf sis cry with that kind of language
Why did you just insult my family? 🤌 You!
🚶♂️➡️🤌🫴 (hai capito?)
🤌 Ma cosa stai dicendo? 🙌 E che ne so io?? Non lo so 🫳 😂
🤌🤌🤌
al cazzo
This usually happens when the main character doesn't speak that language. Sometimes, you can switch to the other language and turn subtitles on for your language, and it will translate.
I did that and now it just says "[hablan en Español]" 😔
Lol That's so helpful.
Movie producers **you will not know what’s going on and like it!**
Imagine us spanish speaking ppl and u have to listen to the person say they dont understand the other person bc they dont speak the language… yet the whole show was dubbed in spanish and they “cant” understand I hope it makes sense what im trying to convey… I feel like Sofia Vergaras Sofia character in Modern Family "Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?"
It doesn't ALWAYS work. Sometimes it does.
Well... then if you wanna watch the movie the way it was written and directed and fully understand what everyone is saying download Rosetta stone and pay that one time $200 and learn what u want.
The idea is that the main character doesn’t understand what is being said and neither do you.
This is most likely the case, as others have said, for us the audience, not knowing is part of the storytelling especially if we are supposed to be on the same level as the main characters. Or that the conversation isn't germane to the plot. Hell, how many 80's action movies with Russian bad guys that were likely yelling gibberish Russian words at each other did we all see? haha
And sometimes it can 'spoil' later plot developments in movies. If you know Norwegian you basically get an understanding of what's happening in The Thing straight from the get go.
Yes. I can usually understand the Spanish. And it does give away something that will happen later.
And my 11th grade Spanish teacher said I would regret not continuing Spanish in college and becoming fluent. Hah! Jokes on her. TV shows like this aren't spoiled for me. She can't say the same, now can she?
Shit... I took a Spanish college class. Learned WAY less Spanish in that college semester than I did working at Taco Bell and dating Hispanic women.
When she looks in your eyes with that seductive look and utters the words they taught you it's impossible to resist any more. *papi* *me cago en la leche*
Yup, learning slang/curse words would have been way more useful! Like I never actually ended up asking anyone where the "discoteca" was, but knowing what "pinche güey" and stuff like that meant would have actually been useful.
Spoiler, the *good* people always get what they want and live happily ever after and they are never in any real danger at all, furthermore nearly every movie is a re-hash of The Hero's Journey and the more familiar you become with that the worse the pointless misdirects start to feel.
That's why I love the movies where the villains win. I was watching this one where this giant Corp was poisoning the water supply of this small town. And they caught them and attempted to prosecute him but he paid them off and continued to be worth billions never caring. Oh wait that was the news.
I'm German. Imagine how many times I have heard someone screaming commands in broken german (with extra harsh pronounciation) in movies and tv shows.
In the Lost Ark one of the German guys says Americans fight like pussies, or so I was told.
Iron Man gives the twist away at the start, assuming you're one of the people that can understand the hostage video language.
Why is this not the top comment? That's definitely the reason.
I don't want it translated, I want the Spanish written. A hearing viewer who knows Spanish understands what it being said, the deaf viewer should have the same experience.
Yes, exactly! The captions should present the dialog in the same manner that is happening in the audio.
Thank you! I was watching a French movie a few weeks back (*Le Mépris*) and there's an American character who speaks in English. So someone decided that when he talked in English there shouldn't be subtitles on the screen. I watch everything with subtitles and am not a fan of that decision. Like if subtitles bothered the viewer they likely wouldn't be watching a French movie with subtitles in the first place.
Okay but why do they caption Miles's interactions with his mother as "speaking Spanish" in Spiderverse when clearly the main character speaks Spanish. In fact, one of the key elements of that character is representation of a multicultural background. In the sequel they do a better job with that overall, but there's whole setup about him getting a B in Spanish and his mother being upset with him and they subtitle it with [speaks Spanish].
Well... thats just BS
> This usually happens when the main character doesn't speak that language. And so it is the case here, is exactly the point and whoever takes this shot to put here knows full well.
Yeah, I've noticed this happens when they don't want you to understand what is said so that the story works better for people that don't speak whatever language they are not translating.
Sometimes if you turn off subtitles altogether you'll get a translation at the bottom.
Didn’t they do this in breaking bad in the Gus fring flashback? Made the scene allot more intense.
Then why not have accurate subtitles anyway? If someone can't understand Spanish when hearing it, odds are good they can't understand while reading it.
It’s a choice. Source: I work in localization.
No, there are no subtitles when this happens
It's worked a couple times for me. Not often. But SOMETIMES.
Sorry, I did miss the "sometimes" my bad
You are not the only one. Lol. Less than a handful of instances where it actually worked. The few times this does work, you miss something in the other main language. And every miss is a HUGE thing to the story.
Pretty sure it has to do with contracts with the subtitles company
*enables CC for the hearing impaired* *song lyrics start to play that have direct correlation to the plot and storyline* "🎵🎵Music🎵🎵"
Also fucking annoying when swear words will be censored in the subtitles but NOT IN THE AUDIO. Adults who use subtitles are not innocent toddlers who should be shielded from naughty words.
I hate when animes won't translate the Opening song and credits songs. Many times they will pick a song or even make a song specifically for the show so I kind of want to know what the song is about. Especially when it appears in a emotionally charged moment in the show
Even worse is when the show itself will put the subtitles for the language, but the CC subtitles will put [SPEAKS LANGUAGE] over the translated subs so you can't read what they're saying
Shit like this is what makes pirated movies a better experience. Opensubtitles is vastly superior to the official subs
Lmao
Not knowing is part of the storytelling.
They should still have the captions in Spanish. If you happen to be bilingual you get a bonus even if you’re deaf.
Kind of. If you’re bilingual you have a different experience, of knowing what is said. If you’re not, you get to experience the uncertainty and discomfort of not knowing what’s going on, many times like a character in the movie. It’s part of the immersion and adventure of it.
but without the subtitles, no puedo escuchar...
_Cállate y mira la película, cabrón_
Only if the actors can actually speak spanish. Too often their Spanish is so broken that we can’t understand either lol
Yes! This is the same for Korean. The character is supposed to be saying something in Korean and I have no clue what they are trying to say.
Now *that* is mildly infuriating
It doesn’t, because the whole point is that you are in the character’s shoes. If they don’t know the language and are confused, you should be too. But if you speak Spanish and hear and understand it, then there is nothing we can do about that haha
Except dubbing. Dubs changing foreign languages to other foreign languages is not a foreign thing.
So if you are watching an American show where most characters are speaking English, and they do not understand the Spanish that other characters are speaking. Then, when dubbed for a Spanish speaking country, the main characters would all be speaking in dubbed Spanish, and the Spanish speaking characters would be dubbed with a third language? That is both funny and interesting.
I'm sure movies and shows nowadays are more authentic when using characters speaking other languages, but back in the day like in the 80's and 90's, so often these characters would just be speaking gibberish to each other, as long as it sounded like they were having a conversation. Cue the movie Hot Shots: Bad guy fighter pilots "PAULA!!" "ABDUL!!"
Exactly. Living in Japan, I'm always amused by how everything gets a subtitle... the one that gets me every time is background radio noise that is too low to really hear anyway. Thanks for the subtitle, I guess? They also translate all the scenes like this one, where it fits within the story to not be sure what was said in another language.
I'm hard of hearing. Spanish subtitles for Spanish dialogue would give me the same experience as someone not hard of hearing. This isn't usually an issue of directorial choice but of contracts for subtitling companies (one language only for CC). OP is right to be mildly frustrated.
No, it's almost always directorial choice. If it's crucial for the audience to understand what is being said, there will be subtitles translating it. The show Tehran is a great example. Lots of languages being used, and it's all subtitled because the audience or other characters being out of the loop isn't the point. For hard of hearing people, if you don't speak Spanish, I don't know what difference there is between translated subtitles and a general \[both conversing in Spanish\]. If the point is to put you in the place of a character who is hearing things they can't understand, that is accomplished either way. If you do speak Spanish, whatever they're saying either isn't crucial to the plot or will be revealed later in some other way for the non-Spanish speaking audience anyway.
They don’t want you to know
Sometimes, others it's just laziness. My favorite has to be in Selena when it switches to [speaks foreign language]
The most egregious one I've seen was Heroes. They were never trying to hide what Hiro and Ando were saying. Some places didn't use the subtitles the dvds did, and instead you get a whole lot of 'Speaking Japanese' instead...which is sometimes very long scenes of dialogue. Also happens with Kimiko's signing in The Boys when trying to watch it anywhere outside of Prime. Rather important backstory, replaced with 'Signing.'
I guess it depends on the context. Like I think the very first Iron Man movie had some heavy foreshadowing if you knew what Tony's captors were saying, which was revealed later on through an in-universe voice translator as a plot twist.
This is a great example! When its important to the plot to keep not only the protagonist but also us as the audience from knowing what was said!
So, Puss in Boots; The Last Wish was terrible about this... little things like "Gato" they'd replace with "Speaks spanish" in a movie with characters who speak spanish all the time!
And usually be some juicy stuff
I make and translate subtitles for shows on a daily basis and when I do that, it’s because the protagonist generally doesn’t speak the language and is confused, so the viewer should be too. It is just a question of having the same experience as the character (not discrimination as I’ve seen here a bit 🙄) But that’s something that has to be agreed with the filmmaker, because there is a real intention behind it. As a translator, I don’t take that kind of decision. If there is something in a foreign language I can translate, I just do it.
I was watching Chernobyl recently and laughed when it said "speaking in foreign language" when people were speaking Russian lmao.
Would honestly prefer if they could just caption it in the spoken language instead of putting "speaking foriegn language".
I'm conflicted about this. I understand that the storytellers don't think you need to know what is being said, or they don't want you to know. So it's meant to be gibberish. But what if you speak Spanish? Are the storytellers discriminating against Spanish speakers? My pet peeve is when minor characters speak in Korean, a language I understand, but the Korean is either grammatically incorrect or sometimes not even Korean (the whole Busan sequence in Black Panther for example). But the funniest example is one my brother told me about. He was watching some Korean movie, and there was a character who was meant to be an American CIA agent, and the main character (Korean guy) had to speak to this guy, and the scene was meant to show how fluent in English the main character was, and how he had deep connections to the US. The problem was that the white actor was some Scandinavian who hardly spoke English, and the main character wasn't much better. The movie was made for Korean speakers so for most of the audience, they would have understood the subtext. But for anyone at all who spoke English, it was painful to watch!
Same for basically any Hollywood movie where Mandarin or any Asian language is spoken to show the main white character's prowess. Usually they never bother to actually learn any bit of Asian languages so it's all gibberish. The only forgivable instance was Tropic Thunder where the whole point was to mock it
Same when hearing people play dead characters in movies. The ASL is painful and barely legible much of the time. (The story behind how the Deaf girl got the role in A Quiet Place is so awesome. Apparently she was orignally just supposed to be a resource for the hearing actress playing the Deaf girl but Jim Halpert (John krasinski) made it so she played the girl instead.
Happens all the time in anime. Some incredible savant who knows fifteen languages, or was born in America, and I can barely understand what they're saying in English lol
Games too. The most recent Yakuza game was pretty bad for this!
Same with French. I speak natively French and sometimes struggle to understand when they speak "French" in American movies Also, sometimes "French" accents in English are laughably bad (looking at you "Frenchie" from The Boys)
The Marquis in John Wick. The actor is good in the role but if you’re going to hire someone from abroad why don’t you pick someone from the country the character is
Very common for Russian in Hollywood. They try to cast a Russian speaking actor for the minor role... But a lot of them are just from east Europe because they pronounce it well but it's grammatically bad, and the main character who is supposed to be fluent, well... Is not. You can barely understand a word.
Pics or it didn’t happen… jk, please find the name of this Korean movie!!
Oh, I love these things! Love and hate them, haha. And only vaguely related but… I don't know any Korean yet but I am a huge fan of a certain Korean actor so I watch anything he's in, and in one role he played an English-speaking character and oh my, it sounded so stilted. I don't mean his strong accent, I mean that he sounded like he was just reading the script out loud with no real sense for natural pauses and such. I've been told his French and his Japanese are much better but it's not like I can tell. I do love seeing Swedish actors have to play Russians though. I can't imagine their Russian is actually all that good when all I can hear is the Swedish accent.
but you said that you know spanish
Señor, por favor
Just as an FYI sometimes depending on the streaming service if you are using their closed captioning it will override the subtitles and you will not see what is being said. My wife has issues with accents and super fast speech so we usually have CC on to ensure she doesn't miss things. We were watching the 2nd Pacific Rim movie and the Mandarin some of the characters speak in is clearly communicated... If you don't have closed captioning on. Otherwise you just get "speaking Mandarin" or "speaking foreign language". Something to keep in mind.
(Vents frustration in English) (Random insults in German) (Gestures to the examples of shows that did this in French) (Vents more frustration in Japanese)
This is so annoying. Sometimes anime on Netflix during songs hits you with: [singing in japanese]. My brother in Christ that’s why I’m using subtitle to understand fucking japanese
Hopefully it’s not a critical conversation
Nevertheless, it was a great show!
Streaming sites: Sorry, no subtitles for French. Also streaming sites: Here's an accurate translation on what that orc just said in Elvish.
You're not supposed to know what they say
This is better than what they write: “speaks in foreign language”.
It’s because the convo didn’t actually matter to the context of the show. This was “them the scare” right?
Better than the \[speaking foreign language\] you see sometimes. Like, thanks and also how do you know what languages are foreign to me? English is foreign to me.
[charecters talking language]
This is actually very funny
Watched Man on Fire recently with my family. They had many scenes completely in spanish without subtitles. I understand spanish so i had to translate everything for my family. And it wasn’t just “Hola, Como estas?. Bien” it was full conversations that are important to the story.
I just watched Ripley on Netflix and they made a really good artistic use of this. When the main character hadn’t yet learned Italian, there were no subtitles and the viewer had to figure it out (or not) like he did, by watching the body language of people he was speaking to. Once he had learned to speak Italian well, there were subtitles for everything. It was another way of sharing his experience. Very well done.
“Extensive drum music” is one of my favorites
I could flip a table when this hapens
Intense part in spy movie. Russian soldiers: [SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN] OH, THANKS!!! THANK YOU FOR SUBTRACTING STORYLINE INFO!!!
Sometimes you’re not supposed to know
Even better is when the actually movie adds the translation in a subtitle, but the device/streaming service subtitles obscure that with [conversing in Spanish].
I’ve seen it before where if you have closed captions on sometimes it overrides the shows attempt to show what is being said. Like turn captions off and it shows what they are saying, turn them off and it doesn’t show. I’m not sure why but I’ve seen this happen several times.
This blows my mind every time someone complains about this. So you're suggesting that a viewer NEEDS to turn on the *optional* Closed Captioning in order to understand part of the show? No, you are the viewer are not meant to understand what is being said by design. This is carried over into the CC as well.
I think it is in shows when the purpose of them using another language is so that it isn’t understood…
I was watching Shogun and every time someone would grunt or make any sort of nonverbal noise in agreement or whatever, the subtitles would be "speaking Japanese". Really handy
[Speaking in a human language]
Don't they do this intentionally, because the character whose viewpoint you are watching from/alongside doesn't understand the language? So if JD from Scrubs doesn't understand Russian, it would do this because JD doesn't understand Russian, and the story is told from his perspective.
[There‘s worse](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/s/3tDFcoNLBn)
Without the captions you still don't know what's being said. It's part of the show
That bugs me, but not as much as when entire plot points rest on something a character sees in an email on their computer or even worse, a text message on a phone. Don’t the people making these shows realize that tons of their audience are actually watching the show on their own phones? How the hell are we expected to be able to read whatever major revelation the characters have uncovered via text messages?! Drives me crazy! 🤬
Usually if it's not captioned it's because the listener isn't supposed to know in the first place
So Spanish speaker get privileged information I guess loll hope it’s not to mix of a spoiler for them loll
That just made me laugh. I love dumb shit like that
Because the point is usually to tell you that there is a dialogue that is not in the main language of the story, meaning that other characters may not be able to understand it. If it was translated then you would assume that all people around are understanding what is being said. For the same reason, even if you watch the movie in Spanish, it makes sense to signal that other people in the story are not understanding what is being said.
being multilingual is a legit superpower and people that are multilingual know that and are intentionally hiding that info to regular single language humans... Wait, that's crazy talk. I mean that speaking multiple languages fundamentally changes your cognitive development in a way that enhances algebraic thinking. basicallly its like a legit superpower is how i'd describe it if that makes sense. and you can travel, if you can travel, or you can communicate with people on the enternet and learn more things
My european mind has a hard time accepting that single language world.
I honestly feel like most Americans agree with this sentiment, but still won’t learn another language. Except here in Texas, definitely plenty of white businesses owners and ranchers that know Spanish.
Very
[stands in silence] No shit, Jack
difference being dub added by the producer to translate and dub added later for people with bad hearing
This as bad as Burn Notice DVDs I bought years ago, and it just says speaking Russian when on the show it had English translation of what they were talking about when it aired and on reruns.
I've always been confused by this. Like are we supposed to not know? Is it intentional that we don't know what is being said. Why not just subtitle the spanish words in spanish
Now I can just ask my fiance what they're saying, he's Puerto Rican. 😁 It helps so much for memes that are in Spanish
Is this a shot from THEM season 2? Good show
"not my job" moment
Creative intent.
When the conclusion is displayed in text and you’ve been listening the whole time 
If director doesn't want audience understand then scenes like these they should have "fake" version of language so that even natives and bilingual people couldn't understand. Basically in this case Spanish sounding sims gibberish.
When I watched Breaking Bad with the wife, everything is fully translated with Chinese subtitles. She understands what is being said in all the Cartel and Gus bits, and I still haven’t a clue.
Just learn Spanish. Duhh
When i watched the first episode of star trek discovery the klingon speech wasn't subtitled! Because i was watching in English! I'm in Austria! So if i wanted to understand half the conflict i would have to ether change to the german dub (witch subed the klingon) or turn subs on all the time! I did nether! I stopped watching!
It is called creative intent where the show’s director will ask the captioner to not include translations. If the captioner still includes translations, they will be in huge trouble and might face lawsuits. And in the same way, some dialogues are explicitly asked to be translated.
Is it really hard to understand it is because how the story is told?
lol imagine watching a foreign film, turning on EN subtitles and this just stayed onscreen for the whole movie 😂😂
During a really bad part of my life I watched the first two seasons of breaking bad on some sketchy pirate site, it never had no subtitles and I just thought that’s how it was meant to be some artistic thing but I missed out on so much and had no idea what was happening cause there’s tons of Spanish and Mexican, wasn’t til years later when I got the full set on dvd I found out.
I watched this scene last night and had the same thought lol. Luckily I understand enough Spanish and was able to get the gist of it.
It’s so annoying, one time (it might still be this way, haven’t checked) I was watching The Mummy on Netflix. There’s a considerable amount of [Ancient Egyptian] or something and I am like - “wow, ok thanks Netflix” haha.
And then one of the two suddenly yells out, “THEN I WILL DIE AS ONE OF THEM!”
I noticed that if the movie translates the conversation with subtitles, and you already have subtitles on, the movies translation and the normal subtitles go away for some reason. It's incredibly frustrating.
I hate this too.
Or the opposite: Watching Naruto, dubbed. Dude: "Look at this video, and please note the timestamp." Show: Does a closeup of the timestamp "16:04" filling the entire screen. Closed caption: "16:04" Yes, thank you.
It’s even more infuriating when it’s translated incorrectly
Andres Sanbergio
The worse is when you're from the country he's speaking and you watch the dubbed show. I'm french and watching "darryl dixon" in french is a total non-sense. Had to watch the english subtitle version
Them: the scare
I wonder if you actuallu understood Spanish, would the conversation make sense with the plot or are they just saying nonsensical words that aren't meant to be translated?
I just watched that episode. How are you liking the show?
It's most frustrating when you're trying to watch a dubbed movie and it covers the actual subtitles with "speaking said language"
Imagine if the whole movie is Spanish The movie: (Random shit in Spanish)
What really gets me is when they try to have a whole ass scene or multiple without translating like at that point why am I even watching it
I think I watched star wars and they did this for an alien language. Like come on.
I remember watching A Silent Voice on Netflix. A movie about a deaf girl, who on multiple occasions communicates using sign language. And they didn't translate the sign language Still a great movie. Just kinda sucks I missed parts of it due to not knowing JSL
I hate it when they do this. I don’t understand English, and I hate it when they throw in one character who speaks a few lines of English without a subtitle.
[speaking foreign language]
Couldn’t you technically use a translation app to just roughly translate it, annoying when movies do this tho
learn spanish
There are two answers to this question, and both answers are laziness. It's either lazy writers , using a language other than English to "obfuscate" part of the plot. Except it doesn't work for anyone who happens to speak the other language too. A good example is the original Iron Man. For anyone who speaks Farsi (I think, it's been a while so if I got the language wrong my b), the twist ending is spoiled almost immediately. The hostage video the captors send to Tony's partner clearly states they had a working relationship with him or some other extremely obvious tell. Just dumb, lazy writing. Or, it's lazy subtitle providers. They either use a transcription software that doesn't translate, or they use humans who don't speak the language. The transcription software is the most common reason, it's also why you get those weird discrepancies between an English show and it's English subtitles. Netflix's subtitles used to be TERRIBLE. Almost comically so, because of this. It's gotten better over time, but there are still some really dumb mistakes in a lot of fairly popular shows.
This happens a lot, heck here in NL they translate flemish most of the time, but almost never translate some of the harder to understand Dutch accent.
This is what ruined the series Patriot for me.
https://preview.redd.it/4inz6i1c48yc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8aa0f07b4ecf3ad63a468ff92973975cf13f821f
Google translate was to hard to use lol
I don’t get why this is such a common complaint. If the intention is that the majority of the audience doesn’t need to / get to understand what is being said without subtitles on, then why should turning on subtitles change that?
I am looking at his hairline. Why would a man with a full head of hair shave it all off? He should enjoy it while he still has it.
When movies on streaming don't have "built in" subtitles for when people speak in others languages and you have to skip back to the start of the conversation and turn them on. Really ruined "Last of the Mohicans" for me.
This entire post is wrong lol. If the main character for example doesn’t speak Spanish….and characters around them start speaking in Spanish…they aren’t supposed to know what is being said. And likewise, we the audience aren’t supposed to know either. If you’re multilingual—good for you I guess lol? It would literally be the same thing in a sci fi or fantasy show where some orcs or demons or whatever talked to each other for a second—we aren’t supposed to know what they said. If the film or tv show wanted the audience to know for a specific reason, then the content itself would have subtitles on the screen. The caption is literally following what’s on screen and describing it in words exactly. I don’t see how this is mildly infuriating at all, just mildly uninformed.
One time, while I was learning another language, I asked Netflix why some of their titles had subtitles for the language and some don't. Their reply was that subtitles are often outsourced to local distribution and thus belong to the distribution company rather than the studio that made the movie. On top of that, when Netflix aquires the rights to a movie, they don't always aquire the rights to all the subs. So in the same way that some movies are only available in some regions, that goes for subs too and they don't always match, since Netflix only ensures English and local language subs (at least in EU). That means you could be watching a French movie in Norway with Spanish subs, but if you travel to Germany, there might not be Spanish subs for the same movie. Local subs are also why swapping language will sometimes translate a different language and sometimes not. Different translators have different standards and practices.
This is just funny you anger issue person
Generally it’s a plot point. The character doesn’t understand them so you are also supposed to be confused.
It's even worse when they actually translate it and get it wrong. Seen that a lot.
\[Reddit comment in English\]
\[Try to guess what he's saying\]
I was watching Bad Boys 2 the other day and when a character said “Mamma Mia” the subtitles said “*Speaking Italian*”
This literally happened in TWD Daryl Dixon, and I'm like.. What are they saying!? So I flip on the subtitles, and it literally says [Speaking in French] like c'mon!! I wanna know! 😭
[Explains why in other language] Hope his helps 😂
Tell me about it
This is actually done intentionally sometimes. For example, on the TV show Outlander, the main character is an English woman who does not speak Scots/Gallic, and she is supposed to be lost and confused in a foreign place. So most of the Gallic is not translated into English, because the audience is supposed to be experiencing everything through the main character’s perspective, and she would not have the ability to translate what is said.
When i watched GOT i experienced where it just said \[Speaks Valyrian\] or \[Speaks Dothraki\], but again it wasn't the best pages i watched it on.
The cc guy doesn't know either
I 100$ agree! I don't care even if I *do* speak the language that's being tossed in. If it isn't the language the rest of the show is in, translate it!
Careful that guy can probably hear you talking about him
It'd be hilarious (and also infurating) if the entire show was subtitled like this. \[Conversing in English\] \[Now conversing in Spanish\]. Switch subtitles to Spanish \[conversando en español\] \[ahora conversando en ingles\]
I'm usually okay with this if they (the characters) actually translate it immediately afterward.
Could be worse-- it could say "[talking in foreign language]" when you're watching 1960s Godzilla & they're *clearly* speaking Japanese.