Acquiring Dubbed TV Series

[Jimmy Two Times]

Thanks for the reply Cavesa.

"Italian is one one of the languages with major presence of local dialects in the series and movies." I'm just starting to figure this part out. I've purchased DVD movies that were labeled as Italian language but seem to actually be Sicilian and I couldn't understand any of it. Also, the show I'm currently watching is in Italian but I just read on this site someone saying that there is much Sicilian in it as well. This may be part of my difficulty with this series. And this is only the Italian vs Sicilian issue not even mentioning other regional dialects.

How does one start to understand regional dialects? You can't really look anything up (google translate/dictionary), because you would just get back standard, right? Do you just understand from context after consuming a lot of original language media once higher levels are reached?

[Cavesa]

That's an excellent question.

I find that having a very strong base in the "dubbing standard" makes the learning curve much less steep and I've struggled with the few real natives or movies using "more regional" Italian much less, than had I spent much less time with the dubbed series. I have noticed the same thing in Spanish. There is a huge difference between moving to a less standard variant from a very strong standard base, and from barely being ok with the standard. (And it is different to understand a new dialect after getting to know only the standard or also the standard+other less standard versions) So, I wouldn't underestimate the effect even the dubbed series can have on your comprehension of real Italian, despite all those prejudices taking the dubbing for too artificial or unnatural.

But after a certain point, there is no other way than to just take the leap of faith. And the more you'll be exposed to the dialect, the better you'll be at understanding it. At this point, I'd say the initial problem (=the original Italian series being almost always in a regional dialect) magically turns into a huge advantage. In French, finding enough series in Quebecois is a huge problem. In Spanish, finding enough stuff in Andalusian or in some of the LA variants is far from easy. In Italian, at least some of the less standard variants are actually extremely common on tv! Yay!

[StringerBell]

How does one start to understand regional dialects? You can't really look anything up (google translate/dictionary), because you would just get back standard, right? Do you just understand from context after consuming a lot of original language media once higher levels are reached?

In choosing what you watch, I think it can be helpful to define what your goals are. For example, in my case, my husband is a native Italian speaker, and his family and friends back in Italy only speak Italian. They are from the north (Lombardia) and if they use any dialetto, it's Bresciano, which is a completely different language from Sicilian or Napoletano, therefore I do not want to watch TV where characters are using a mixture of Italian and one of these southern languages because that's not what I want to understand or imitate.

If my husband, a native Italian speaker, were to watch shows with a lot of Siciliano or Napoletano, he wouldn't know what they were saying any more than I would. It's not realistic to understand all the dialetti from all the regions; each one is a distinct language. I have a friend from Sardegna who told me that even on that tiny little island there are 4 variations of the Sardo language that are not mutually intelligible, so she can't even understand what people are saying on the other side of her own island. If you have a particular interest in one area, then it could make sense to just focus on understanding some dialetto from that region, but even that's not really necessary.

Unfortunately, the few original-Italian language series on Netflix right now are Mafia based (which I happen to hate) and are heavily influenced by a southern way of speaking or southern dialetti. Since watching these kinds of shows is counterproductive for me, I'm focusing on dubs, which all seem to use standard Italian. In addition, I sometimes supplement dubs with some shows and videos on Youtube by northern Italians (original language).

The main differences that I see between dubs and original language programs are:

1) the voice-overs in the dubs feel a bit slower and tend to be easier to hear (maybe also because of the way they were recorded). It seems like the voice-over actors pronounce words a little more carefully while the original language actors tend to speak in a quicker "sloppier" way (for lack of a better description - words run together more, endings getting swallowed, etc...

2) Since the dubs I watch are originally American shows/movies, I'm familiar with all the cultural references. With the Italian originals there are sometimes cultural references that I'm not familiar with, which can make comprehension more challenging.

3) I'm not 100% about this one, but it's my feeling that dubs feel like they're translated with more "proper" Italian while original-language shows seem to have more "colloquial" Italian - more slang, more idioms.

In your case, what is your motivation for learning Italian? Do you have family or friends from a specific region? Do you hope to travel in certain areas of Italy or all over? Do you want to be able to watch a certain genre of TV shows or read certain books?

[Jimmy Two Times]

In your case, what is your motivation for learning Italian? Do you have family or friends from a specific region? Do you hope to travel in certain areas of Italy or all over? Do you want to be able to watch a certain genre of TV shows or read certain books?

Motivations = general cultural interest (no friends/family in country). I don't really have a specific regional interest, but it would probably lean to be more Central/Northern. Rome would be the most immediate goal for travel.

[StringerBell]

In that case, my recommendation is to stick with dubs. Dubbed stuff will be challenging enough, but due to the "clearer" pronunciation it will likely be easier for you to identify and spell unknown words (it is for me, at least).

If you want to move on to shows/movies that are originally in Italian, I'd suggest avoiding ones with a lot of dialetti (unless you really want to familiarize yourself with that or there's some show that you're dying to see and you don't mind closing an eye to all the non-Italian words). If your goal is to understand natives better, I think Youtube channels or talking with native speakers online are more practical for this.

BTW, not sure if you know this, but the words dialetto and dialect are false friends. Italian dialetti are completely unique languages that have little to do with Italian, they are not actually dialects of Italian (except for a few specific ones, like the one from Tuscany). My husband's dialetto (Bresciano) has a lot of German and French influence and contains sounds that don't even exist in Italian. When he used to go abroad with friends, they'd speak in Bresciano so that any other Italians in the vicinity wouldn't understand what they were saying.

[Doitsujin]

Where can I find a TV series dubbed in Italian?

Several Hollywood movies have been dubbed into Italian. However, Italian tracks might only be available on Region 2 DVDs or Region B Blu-Ray discs.

Here's a small selection:
Guardians of the Galaxy 1 (subtitles match the audio)
Groundhog Day (subtitles mostly match the audio.)
Deadpool 1 (subtitles don't match the audio)
Kingsman: The Secret Service (subtitles don't match the audio)

[MorkTheFiddle]

Can you expand on your post a bit? What do you mean by "real"? Original language?

By "real," yes, I meant original language. In your case, a TV drama or movie made in Italian with Italian actors. I put the word in quotations because nothing on television IMHO is really real.

What do you mean by top-notch?

By top-notch, I meant superior programming, whether TV or movie or recorded stage production. It is a judgment thing, so it's hard to give an example. Double-checking, you do seem to be an American like me. So for TV, the original Law and Order and The Sopranos, I thought were top-notch. Even though I did not watch them to the end. Law and Order became a bit too formulaic for me, and nearly every character in The Sopranos was simply too disgusting to bear more than about 2 and a half seasons. I have not seen a made-for-tv movie in English in a long time, so I would go with Pulp Fiction, not a made-for-tv movie and not even a great movie but worth watching. As disclaimer, I should say that most people who know me would say I have a snobbish attitude toward TV and the movies, so there's that.
The last episodes of a Netflix TV series that I watched were episodes 1 and 2 of Peaky Blinders. I called it The Sopranos with horses. It has a certain punch, but in contrast to the dozen or more interesting characters in The Sopranos, Peaky Blinders has only one, and he's a bit of an ass tbh. If Father Brown is the only TV left after the Apocalypse, I suppose it would be okay enough. As for Netflix TV in other languages, a couple I watched for French were okay, but not otherwise memorable and I can't even remember the names of them. I did see a couple of episodes of Cable Girls in Spanish. It was okay, but not so compelling that I have gone back to it. However, if and when I am ready to up my Spanish listening comprehension, I will go back to it.

Would you be able to link to Cavesa's post? I would be interested in reading it.

Unfortunately, I just could not get a handle on what term to search for. She has written a lot of posts, so it's kind of a needle in a haystack situation.
For myself, I know that I listened to 150 hours of dubbed programming, and it prepared me well for other dubbed programming. It also helped with native programming, but it did not free me from subtitles (native, if they are reasonably literal), not by a long shot. So I guess I'm saying you should manage your expectations.
Finally, I would suggest meeting some Italians, or Italian-Americans, if there are any such in your city. A great place to meet them, especially if you like beer or play bocchi, would be an Italian-American Club, if your city has one. As teenagers, a friend and I would sometimes wander into out local Italian-American club--neither of us of Italian heritage--not to drink beer of course but to watch bocchi games. Just a suggestion, of course.