Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

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javier_getafe
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby javier_getafe » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:41 pm

NoManches wrote:
javier_getafe wrote:Could I suggest to both of you "La Casa de Papel"?
Amazing spanish serie.


I'm watching and it is a great show! For anybody reading this, on iVoox I discovered the audio version of this show. In other words, you can listen to it without actually having to watch it. I've been meaning to watch a show and then "listen" to it when I'm normally able to listen to a podcast.

javier_getafe do you have any comments about the accents used in the show? Would you consider any of them really strong? I listen to a lot of Castilian Spanish podcasts and some of the characters on this show are really hard for me to understand.


Well, Supposing you were watching with Spanish voice (spanish from Spain), I would tell you the next:

Despite they talk very quickly, obviously, the accent depends on each actor/actress. For instead, Tokio (pedazo de tía :) ), as well as El Profesor talks very very clear spanish. However Nairobi and others have different accents and are complicated to follow. (for instead Nairobi is actually a Spanish gypsy, so it tells you something).
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Feb 02, 2019 1:12 am

rdearman wrote:EDIT: Dooh, wrong thread the OP is learning Spanish not English. I'm sure someone asked this question about English... I'm off to find that thread.

All is not lost. Some shows in English are so popular that dubbed and/or subtitled versions of them are produced for other languages.
I took Downton Abbey for an example and went looking for a Spanish version.
First I looked up the title of the show on Wikipedia.
Then I clicked on the Español link on the left side of the entry to get to a Spanish description because I wanted to get the Spanish name for the show. It is also Downton Abbey in Spanish.
Next I went to Amazon and typed Downton Abbey español, which brought up
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=downton+abbey+espanol
For a tidy sum there are indeed DVD sets in Spanish, which you can buy from Amazon or look for from other vendors. Beware of the Region number, although with VLC you can watch a DVD made for any Region for free.
I hope this method would work for the other series in English, but there is no guarantee it will work for languages other than Spanish.
Bottom line, though, probably most of these series are available in some other languages. Doesn't hurt to look.
Note: I have not yet peeked at all the links NoManches gave above, so my apologies if this suggestion has already been covered.
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby Chupito » Sat Feb 02, 2019 3:19 am

You bring up interesting points with the headphones and watching a show on TV versus the same show on a laptop. I have noticed that there were big differences in how well I understood my show from one episode to the next. Sometimes I'll think I'm doing well, then I'm really struggling with the next episode, then I'll get almost everything the next one. Depending on if I'm home alone or my husband is trying to sleep in the next room, I watch it on TV, on my laptop, or with headphones. I never noticed a pattern or realized that the two could be linked, but I'll pay close attention now and see if there's a correlation.
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby golyplot » Sat Feb 02, 2019 5:13 pm

I've never owned a TV, so when I saw "TV", I always refer to watching on my laptop with headphones. It never occurred to me that people would be doing it any other way.

Anyway, headphones definitely make things easier to understand, because the sound quality is a lot higher.
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby javier_getafe » Sat Feb 02, 2019 6:26 pm

golyplot wrote:I've never owned a TV, so when I saw "TV", I always refer to watching on my laptop with headphones. It never occurred to me that people would be doing it any other way.

Anyway, headphones definitely make things easier to understand, because the sound quality is a lot higher.



The parent's TV also count as yours.

:D :D :D
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby golyplot » Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:52 pm

What is this, the 20th century? Watching TV on a TV feels so old fashioned. Of course it also depends a lot on if you are watching things by yourself or as a social activity. Since the later is obviously hard to do on a laptop with headphones.
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby javier_getafe » Sat Feb 02, 2019 11:00 pm

golyplot wrote:What is this, the 20th century? Watching TV on a TV feels so old fashioned. Of course it also depends a lot on if you are watching things by yourself or as a social activity. Since the later is obviously hard to do on a laptop with headphones.


I now that to think like this is really fashion!!
But I'm afraid that TV is still the main tool to watch series, films, news, documentarys alone or in family.
SmartTv win the game so far.
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby lichtrausch » Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:34 pm

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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby luke » Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:54 pm

He mentions this at about 9:30. The "Voice" Sound mode is a very helpful setting:
voice.png
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Re: Why are movies and TV shows so difficult to understand?

Postby Le Baron » Fri Jan 20, 2023 10:15 pm

^ I like the above video (except the ending). I'd prefer for everyone to boycott arseclowns like Nolan until his sound editor pushes him into an active volcano.

I haven't read this entire thread, so forgive me if I repeat something and look like I'm claiming an original argument. I would dispute any view saying that TV/film dialogue is comparable to real life speech. It often superficially seems to be and especially nowadays when performances are supposed to be more naturalistic. Except they're not naturalistic, they're performances of learned dialogue delivered in a deliberate way by an actor! Ask yourself really how many times you've been out about and when you interacted with people you had absolutely no idea what they were saying? It's pretty rare. I'm talking about your native language. Yet on modern TV drama it's all the time.

I remember when it reached peak annoyance for me. It was when the BBC broadcast their adaptation of SSGB (from Len Deighton's book). I had no idea what they were saying most of the time and became thoroughly so thoroughly disgusted by it that I stopped watching it. At the time the exact thought I had was how this would impact people listening to this sort of thing to 'learn English'; and by extension that this situation would likely be similar with media in other languages.

However I think the video missed out on something. That it isn't just technology or sound mixes, but a shift of dialogue delivery. My evidence for this? Well if you go to you tube and look up interviews with famous people, in English, in German, in French or whatever, you can go as far as up to, say, the late 80s or further. At this point microphones are very good. In fact microphones were very good even before this, even as far back as the late 40s, so I reject that argument. On those interviews you can very often hear exactly what people are saying. Now look at modern ones and you'll hit many more where you miss bits. So why isn't this super-duper technology picking up these slurred whispers?

The central claim seems to be that with super microphones actors (or 'people') can talk as they would do in a naturalistic setting. However if this sort of mumbly gibberish were 'naturalistic' we'd all be going about in our daily lives saying 'what, eh, what?!' So again I say: no.

Now when the media is in your native language, or one you know well, your chances are better. It will be because: 1) You have a stronger capacity to make guesses or recognise things, and 2) you'll likely have watched many more things like this in that language. Yet as I said the general public now complains about not being able to hear TV in their own language, so this must always be factored in when watching modern foreign TV drama.
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