Greetings People!馃檶
I'm the type that can't dare to watch a movie without a subtitle because my ears are so 'thick'; in fact, my eye "hears" better than my ears do in movies. The only type of movies I watch without battling to catch up with the sounds are our African movies (I mean English-speaking movies and not those Yoruba-ic movies), but when it comes to American, Korean, Chinese, Indian movies, subtitle is a must. How do you guys watch these movies without subtitles?
American and British movies
Gosh! Although these movies speak English, but the speed at which they combine their words is something else, coupled with the fact that they talk through the nose and also without hitting their teeth completely when pronouncing some words. You'll come across sentence like "get out of here " pronounced as "ge-a-here". How am I supposed to get that without subtitles? I can't be stressing my soft brain over such things.
The few times I tried following up on an American movie without a subtitle, my brain almost fell out of the skull. I realized that I was very far from transforming from my local self to an 'ajebo' (people trained in heaven) because those 'Ajebos' flow easily with things like that, maybe they were thought American intonation in school.
But also, reading the subtitles while watching makes me learn more, especially when it comes to phonetics, because I know phonetics very well even though I don't like speaking, and I always banter at people who pronounce a particular word wrongly.
I remember a time I met the word "colonel" in the subtitle of a movie I was watching. I had to rewind the movie to the scene and listen carefully to check if they actually pronounced it correctly or if it was pronounced as "Ko- lo-nel", as we used to pronounce it in Nigeria. You know the actual pronunciation, right?
Another part I find so taunting in America movies without subtitle is the bad boys scenes with their many "ain't ain't ain't". Gosh! Hearing them say all that without checking the subtitles makes my head swell up.
Chinese, Korean, and Indian
It'll Interest you to know that I once met someone (a Nigerian) watching a Korean movie without a subtitle, and the sound wasn't modified to English.
"Guy! How are you doing it? How are you understanding this?" I asked with the assumption that he understood Korea, but he shocked me with, *"I'm not a fan of subtitles in movies. I can't be stressing my eyes and my brain to read when I'm not in class(not in school)". I bursted into laughter.
So there are people who find subtitles in movies as hell? I pondered.
That being said, how can I watch a Korean movie without a subtitle? Do I want to get psycho? It's totally impossible! It'll be like I'm watching just photos.
Although I'm familiar with words like "Aboeji", "omo" and "komasu" in Korea, but when these are missed with their faint speaking pattern, forget it.
Chinese are the worst with their "chin chin chin" and many "yin yum"
What of India? No way! As we all know, Bollywood is one movie world with the craziest film trick in movies. Watching a scene whereby an actor is dragging down a flying aeroplane with his left hand, without a subtitle will make you go nut
I made some moves on the net (Nairaland), and I saw a lot of people vibing for movies without subtitles. According to them, it makes them understand and improves spoken English (regarding the American movies), which is understandable and a good thing but as for me, it'll be like a class with an hardened Lecturer.
Thank you for reading.