Advantages of Subtitling over Dubbing
Subtitling and dubbing are two of the main modalities of Audiovisual Translation.
In certain cases, dubbing is more beneficial than subtitles: it’s suitable for small children who haven’t learned how to read; it doesn’t invade the image, so it doesn’t cause deviation of attention, and has no issue with dialog overlaps.
However, in many aspects, subtitles are more beneficial. Here are 7 advantages of subtitling over dubbing.
1. Lower economic investment
Subtitling involves fewer people as it requires only one translator. In contrast, in dubbing, you need multiple voice actors for the different characters and more investment in the technical team. Subtitling also takes less equipment and provides quick results.
2. Accessible
The deaf and the hard of hearing can read the subtitles, as well as the immigrants who might not be fluent in the country’s official language.
3. Original voices
While in dubbing the original voices are removed completely, in subtitling it remains the same. As a result, you appreciate more of the actor’s interpretation.
4. Educational value
Subtitles stimulate language learning. Hearing the original voices improves the command of foreign languages. You can see the meaning of the word in the subtitle and improve your pronunciation. It also leads to more tolerance towards multilingualism and multiculturalism. Not only with foreign languages, in countries with high levels of illiteracy, subtitling can encourage reading. Plus the text is normally flawless, which helps the learner.
5. Lesser manipulation of the content
Considering that the original voices are kept and that the public normally has some knowledge (big or small) of English, in subtitling it is more acceptable to condensate by omitting rather than by drastically reformulating sentences.
6. Suitable for sound-sensitive environments
Whether you’re in a library, public transport, or public places in general, you can watch videos without sound with subtitles. That is very common nowadays, for example, in social media, videos are normally mute by default and, with subtitles, people can watch them even if they don’t want to activate the sound.
7. Greater variety of contents
Subtitles are great for technical videos, corporate training, or courses, as subtitles naturally use clear and simpler language. Learn more Benefits of professional translating/subtitling your educational videos.
These are just seven benefits; you can find out many more.