Firstly, almost 90% of the time, I'm a subtitle user. I always activate closed-caption (CC) when watching YouTube.
Native English speakers would never fully understand the struggles of an Indonesian watching K-reality shows or anime with English subtitles (before Netflix et al, Indonesian subs used to be very few). I hear dialogues spoken in Japanese/Korean, understand context in English, internalized the whole story with Bahasa Indonesia in my brain, all while being captivated by the scenes.
It's been like that for almost half of my life, so I failed to understand people who protested watching Parasite in subs, as reported by Vox—some even went as far to leave insensitive, racist, ableist comments about it. Mohon maaf nih ya, dunia ini enggak berputar dengan Anda sekalian penutur bahasa Inggris sebagai porosnya.
Born and raised in Indonesia, sometimes I even watch Indonesian movies with CC. Do they mess with the aesthetic cinematography, thus ruining my watching experience? Meh, even in my phone screen it's barely one centimeter. It's never a problem.
I prefer not missing any dialogues, especially when actors are whispering, talking simultaneously (layered conversations), or speaking really fast. Or when actors—due to scripts or characters they played—has to speak in accent that sometimes completely unrecognizable from my point of view. Or when the movies/shows are using technical terms, jargons, or other words that I don't know how to pronounce.
I have nothing against dubbing. When I was in elementary school, I highly enjoyed watching old Shaolin kungfu movies (Boboho, anyone?) dubbed in Bahasa Indonesia. Listening to SpongeBob and Doraemon speaking in their original language tickles my ears, since I grew up accustomed watching them with Indonesian dub on TV.
Nowadays, I make use of dubbing while re-watching favorite shows/movies to help me learn new language(s). I prefer to learn Mandarin Chinese while watching Kungfu Panda in Chinese dub, because the sheer amount of time commitment to watch C-drama (40-50 episodes) scares me.
My point is: both are awesome and need to be developed more.
1. Inclusivity
This is a huge, huuuuugee point that I want to highlight. People can argue that dubbing may struggle to capture emotional nuances, lost in translation, missing a beat or mistimed, etc—yeah sure, for those with perfectly functioning five senses.
For people with visual impairments or those who cannot read, dubbing is the only way they can enjoy media of non-native languages.
Subtitles and CC helps those with hearing and cognitive impairments. I'd love to see us advancing to give font type option for people with dyslexia, and built-in font size option. We already have speed options, why stop there?
Someone on the internet wrote this (I forgot and couldn't find the article/discussion link, if you find it please let me know so I can put proper credit where it's due), and I quote:
We need to look outside of our perfect-senses box, and promote discussions to get the best of both methods as a way for making more options, more inclusions, making art and films accessible for broader society.
2. Create more jobs
While CC-ing could be done with the help of advancing AI, accurate subtitling and dubbing are not. I frequently use translation machine like DeepL and Google Translate, but they rarely captures nuance and double meaning. We need more dubbers and subtitlers, and for it to be recognized as in-demand jobs, as audiovisual media and entertainment keeps increasing.
3. Language learning
Language, just like any other skills, could deteriorate if not used frequently. We may speak five languages, but unless we work in translation/interpretation industry, chances are we might only using one or two languages daily.
Immersiveness is one of the key to master a new language. We can use subtitle and dubbing interchangeably with the target language. (Speed) reading and listening skills gained, what more to doubt?
I also think subtitles might help children in early age—preschool, toddlers—to enhance reading ability. And grammar.
4. Promotes better engagement and outreach
More options, more audience. This shouldn't be that hard to understand. As this article said, it's a thoughtful approach for content creators to provide both options as a mean to maximize reach and appeal to wider audience. Same thing goes for anime, movies, and TV shows.
Even better, culture engagement and understanding. A friend of mine fell in love with Korean language because it sounds unique in her ears, watched K-drama with English subtitles, then in no time she can watch shows with Korean CC. Another friend absolutely love watching One Piece in Indonesian dub because they localized the jokes—it might not be 100% accurate, but it serves what it meant: to be funny.
While "kisama" could be translated as "you bastard" in English, it gets funnier when translated as "bangsat" in Indonesian. All of them are impolite and offensive ways to refer on second person, but one language translation might be a bit amusing than the others.
Like Ederlyn Peralta wrote for CBR: whether it is subbed or dubbed, fans should acknowledge that they are getting an interpretation of the dialogues; there will be discrepancies here and there in the translation.
Please no more sub vs dub thing, it's no longer a mere personal preference. Let's expand it to sub and dub, more inclusive media for society. Rather than debating which is better while throwing baffling, petty statements like "no one likes subtitle" or "dubbing sucks", let's engage on conversations to improve both options.
Dubbing is more costly than subtitles, so more investment will help. Increase professional dubbing/voice-acting academy, involve linguists and culture experts while creating dub scripts, more language choices for both, better payments for dubbers/VAs.
Even if we want to suggest one over another, it could be civil, rather than letting it grow into toxic arguments.
Maybe one day we can watch Lord of the Rings in Sindarin dub, I dunno (~‾▿‾)~
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