Remember when Trainspotting (the movie) came out in the nineties, and they poked fun at their own thick Scottish dialects by having English subtitles for a scene in… English? Well Danny Boyle was on to something those 30 odd years ago. More people are using subtitles while watching shows in their primary language, so say the results of a 2023 YouGov poll in the US. 40% of people polled said they use subtitles this way, and of that group the majority were young people. And the benefits are clear: it’s helpful for the deaf and hard of hearing, for understanding accents, and for overall comprehension of what’s going on onscreen.
Your own language in another accent can be hard to understand: Yet even shows produced in English in other countries, like the UK and Australia, can become a little thick for an American ear trying to sort out the idiomatic quirks and other differences. If you paused a few times to catch lines in Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” “Peaky Blinders” or “Bodkin,” or Paramount+’s “Sexy Beast,” rest assured, you are not alone.
The stats on subtitles: Perhaps that’s one reason why data indicate more people — especially young adults, who are more prone to second-screen viewing and multitasking — are watching shows in their primary language with the subtitles on. According to a 2023 survey by YouGov, nearly 40% of US respondents preferred having the subtitles on when watching TV in a language they speak, with those under 30 employing that practice by a better than two-to-one margin compared to those age 45 to 64. The survey found that those using subtitles cite two primary factors in equal measure: Subtitles enhance their comprehension, and they help them understand accents.
Netflix is meeting the moment: The service has increased the number of films and series that support audio descriptions (AD) and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH). Kathy Rokni, Netflix’s senior director of globalization, said the service employs an in-house team of “subtitling experts and language managers,” designed to enhance the viewing experience while remaining faithful to the filmmakers’ intentions. “We believe great stories transcend borders, cultures, abilities, and languages,” Rokni said via email, noting that 40% of viewing hours on Netflix now happen with subtitles, including SDH, over half of which involves members employing subtitles in their primary language.
Sampling international selections: Certainly, it’s a long way back to 1979, when the Australian movie “Mad Max” was dubbed into American English because the distributor feared Americans wouldn’t be able to understand the Aussie accents. … By contrast, it’s notable today that a wider variety of imports, either in English or other languages, are organically finding success with little advance fanfare and promotion, as “Baby Reindeer” and before that “Squid Game” did. The trend suggests viewers are actively sampling internationally produced material as they seek (and often stumble upon) options via streaming platforms.
I was really pleasantly surprised by the numbers tipping in favor so much towards young people. My sincerest apologies, Gen Z, for presuming all of you would be on your phones while watching Baby Reindeer. As for subtitles enhancing comprehension, that rang a bell for me. Many moons ago I watched the arty documentary film Six By Sondheim on Max, the artist formerly known as HBO. There was one comment made by the prolific composer-lyricist that really struck me. I’m not finding a transcript, so I’ll have to paraphrase but it essentially was this: “The human ear can only hear so much,” meaning, there’s a limit to what a person can absorb aurally, alone. (And that’s from a man who often packed a lot of words into his songs!) I feel like that’s the same point as what’s being illustrated in this reporting. Yes, you can follow a movie by watching and listening; but the additional act of reading the dialogue and action has a deepening effect. It makes you a less passive, more active viewer. Plus it can eliminate a potentially awkward situation from mis-hearing key lines. Reading — it works!
Photos credit: Mollie Sivaram on Unsplash, Cottonbro, Kampus and Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels
I started doing this when my kids were babies so I could keep the volume down but still watch what I wanted. Now I do it for accents, but also when watching a show when the explosions or background sound is SO LOUD but the dialogue is quiet/normal so I’m not constantly adjusting the volume. Unfortunately that is so many shows now. Why does Hollywood think this is what viewers want?
Yes! The volume varies so much that you have to keep the remote in your hands at all times just to adjust it. That’s why I like having subtitles. At 75, my hearing is good but won’t be for long with the loud volume and big noises in TV and movies. 🤫 And sometimes the musical soundtrack totally drowns out the spoken dialogue. Not surprised that having subtitles on is a thing.
Did the survey any sound engineers? They would have told them that the sound on streaming is not as crisp and clear as it is on broadcast. It’s a technology issue.
I’m good friends with a sound mixer for movies, and he agrees. I’ve complained to him that the music blares and then the speaking is muted and muffled, why why why?! He keeps explaining it to me and I keep complaining.
I remember reading an article in the Game of Thrones days about how companies cut sound and lighting departments first thus giving us the up and down sound problems (along with the so damn dark you can’t see a thing if you have even a single light on). I find it hasn’t gotten any better, it just seems to be getting worse.
Yes the variable sound is what keeps me with subtitles. Can’t hear the speakers over all the background noise going on. And the mumbling from the actors are annoying. I guess its cool not to have strong diction and clear speaking!
Yes! this is why my parents use subtitles a lot. They can’t hear the dialogue when they turn the volume down because the other noise is so loud.
We got used to subtitles in the 80’s, watching anime. We use them all the time because of accents, or weirdness with volume, and we have dogs. We never know when someone will see a leaf blowing across the yard and set up a howl! lol! I also prefer subtitles to dubbed for my Kdramas. I want to hear the actors’ voices, even if I don’t understand the language. Altho, I do seem to be picking up a little Korean along the way. 🙂
I’ve always used subtitles when I first started to watch films in English to learn the language and now that I’m basically bilingual I still do because variations in sound makes it difficult to understand what actors say sometimes.
I definitely welcome streaming providers providing them (Disney+ and Netflix regularly do but Prime doesn’t for old movies).
There is so much good non-English language content out there. I love it when I find something compelling and get transported to a whole other place, culture. PBS is great for free content like that: they’ve had a run of good detective stories, dramas from France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden. I first started turning subtitles on for their British shows:
My mom was living at me, was a bit hard of hearing and she liked watching Midsomer Murders after dinner. I think she had a bit of a crush on Barnaby :). subtitles were SO helpful for her to catch all the dialogue. And then we added Jack Taylor into the mix with Iain Glen and the Glasgow accents, and then Outlander. All with subtitles on.
Then later I used them for Annika, and many non-English language shows I came across. Love hearing the actual actors’ voices and having the subtitles there to clarify.
And there’s the whole issue of poor sound design in some film, tv shows so even if it’s in bog standard US English some dialogue is just hard to follow, so subtitles for the win
Agreed.
To me it’s very weird when people think watching something foreign with subtitles is stuck up.
I watched American cartoons with subtitles as a little kid, as I didn’t know English then.
Not everything “foreign” is high brow and it’s very limiting to just stick to one or two languages.
Probably half of what I watch is non english. I have PBS Masterpiece add on and watch lots of series that are French, Spanish, Italian, German. Also netflix has a lot of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and European series also. I sometimes have Britbox and Acorn so use subtitles for the un US english accents. I thought the new FX series Shogun was one of the best series I have seen in years and I can’t tell you how many people I told to watch it won’t because of the Japanese subtitles for some of the dialog. When people complain about them I say I like it because I am forced to pay attention and not get distracted with my phone and I’m going to be 70 so it’s not just a younger person issue. If I want to scroll on my phone I will watch House Hunters or Top Chef or something like that.
Also when watching the movie Hamilton, the musical the first time the singing was so fast I missed a lot of what was going on. I rewatched with subtitles and it made such a huge difference.
I said above that my parents use subtitles, and this is actually why they started – they started watching more non-US made TV shows and the subtitles helped them with the accents. So I think the prevalence of subtitles is a good thing because it makes non-US media more accessible for people.
You watched Outlander with your mom?
Bold.
I did too…..at least part of it. She didn’t have Starz and we did so whenever she was up (she lives about 90 minutes away) we would watch a few episodes. It was…..awkward. She didn’t like how there was never any foreplay. and yes, growing up she had a huge collection of Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood and Jude Deveraux in the basement, LOL.
I’m binge watching martial arts movies in Mandarin and Japanese now, with no knowledge of the languages at all, unfortunately many aren’t subtitled and it’s a hassle watching something without knowing a word 😅
The first time I put subtitles on for a show was watching Tenet (Per a friend’s suggestion) because the audio was such that sound effects were so loud and talking was so quiet. It was a good suggestion. The next show I watched was Bridgerton, and we kept them on because it helped with the accents (Even though I don’t have an issue understanding accents). Now my husband and I have found subtitles helpful so we can watch a show on a lower volume to not wake up our kids but still understand the dialogue. I really like being able to take in everything they’re saying without being blown out by sound effects or soundtracks.
I have read more than once that the way sound is mixed on smaller screens (like Netflix) has made it really hard to hear dialogue. That’s really why so many people find they need captions. I don’t know if that is true–I don’t know anything about sound mixing, but it gets really annoying turning the volume up and down–again, to avoid waking my kids in the other room. Watching a movie on a big screen, I never ever feel like I need subtitles.
there was a story not too long ago that noted that the audio mixing on so many TV shows and movies made it difficult for many people to hear the dialogue clearly and that lead to an increase of people who are not hearing impaired using closed captioning. Reading that made me feel seen as I’d actually requested my hearing to be checked because I was having problems making out dialogue on TV so often (my hearing was fine but I still use closed captioning)
I was very glad with Netflix started offering subtitles for foreign films because I find dubbed audio to be incredibly distracting
I was just going to say how useful I found it for Tenet, firstly because the background mix is so loud but also for general comprehension! To be fair, years of loud rock concerts have made me quite deaf….
I think the first show I watched with sub titles was Line of Duty and I’ve never taken them off since. I enjoy watching foreign shows in their original language with subtitles.
Dubbing movies should only be done for kids. I still remember the first time I heard Harrison Ford and George Clooney’s real voices after 30 years of hearing the Italian version in dubbed films, and have never wanted to watch another dubbed one after that.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who does this! I will say, though, that I sometimes find it distracting, especially when the words are shown before they come out the actor’s mouth. I also feel like there is a loss of emotional depth because I am reading and not as focused on the actor’s performance. Maybe that’s just me, though?
it’s not just you. I find subtitles to be a double edged sword, and sometimes I will rewind so I can really focus on the acting. that said, I like having that option, and I don’t rewind as much as when I just can’t hear wtf they are saying.
I’ve utilized subtitles for years. Sometimes the music or effects are too loud and I have a hard time hearing the dialogue, sometimes there’s an accent I have trouble with, sometimes the show’s in a foreign language. I really appreciate there’s an option for subtitles just about everywhere.
English isn’t my native language, so I watched shows with english subtitles while I was learning. I hate using subtitles, because I focus so much on the text and feel like I don’t pay enough attention on the visual content. I try not to use subtitles now, but the sound tech is so bad in some movies/shows, unfortunately I sometimes have to use them. I read somewhere that they are creating the sound to be compatible with some device settings, that’s why you need to play with some settings if you want to watch it on your tv or device at home.
My mom does this but I find when I’m watching TV with her, I get distracted by the focusing on the subtitles and actually miss what’s happening on the screen.
My problem with a lot of current TV and movies is they’re too dark. Everything is always happening in a dark room or at night and the screen is almost pitch black. I hate it! Even scenes that make no sense – like meeting in someone’s office – are so low lit that I can barely see. Stupid movie, but a prime example is London Falling (is that the name? With Gerard Butler?). It’s like the entire thing is set in the dark.
Yes, I totally agree! Everything is so dark now, that it’s difficult to see what’s even happening!
That makes me think of Pattinson’s Batman, which was so incredibly dark most of the time I couldn’t tell what was happening. LOL
This was happening to me and I was getting really frustrated, as I could see them much better on my phone than on our TV. Turns out the bulbs die off in some brands of TV, that was why mine was so dark.
We replaced the TV and it’s a lot better, although they do still shoot too much in low light – but at least now I can see what’s happening.
My hubby and I started doing this and we’ve gotten so used to it that we don’t want to watch anything without subtitles now. He has hearing loss (from years of playing electric guitar) so it really helps.
I’m torn. Using the captions definately helps me understand the dialoge better, especially when I’m watching something where the actors are speaking quietly or there’s a lot of background noise. But at the same time, I have ADHD and the captions distract me from watching what the actors are doing while they’re talking.
I get so locked in on reading the dialogue that I forget to look up at the character’s and I stop listening to them as tbey talk. So I miss the emotional tone to their voice and seeing where they are or how they’re emoting altogether. Also, I read really quickly and I get impatient with having to wait for the next batch of captions.
Basically I just rewatch everything. Round one I get to see how the actors play a scene and actually know the location. Round two is when I add the captions. Yay neurodivergence.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like most actors mumble these days. It’s easier to use subtitles than to try to figure out what they are saying. I always use them on the Crown because of the Britishisms,
It’s not just you. The streaming services are compressing their digital files. They want them to require less bandwidth, so they load quickly and with minimal buffering at almost anyone’s house, regardless of connection speed. The problem with that compression is that there is a loss of audio quality, and dialogue does become harder to hear.
Thanks. Even with subtitles, it took me several goes to figure out that “scourse” was, “Yes, of course”.
I sometimes struggle to understand what people are saying. Like, my brain hears the sounds, but it’s a struggle to string the sounds together into words and speech in my brain. It’s not severe at all, but if there’s a lot of background noise, I pretty much zone out. I don’t always use subtitles, but they can be really helpful for me.
Or, like the first time I watched Trainspotting, they were absolutely essential.
I grew up in England and I can’t understand half the English accents. I watch a lot of foreign shows, so I’m used to subtitles. But I think the first English show I used them on was Game of Thrones, because otherwise I would not have known anybody’s name, or the fact that George Martin spelled “Sir” as “Ser”.
Now I use subtitles on everything. I never knew how much dialog I missed until I turned on subtitles.
I first started using subtitles when I watched some older shows on the BBC America channel (Hex remains one of my faves). For the past decade, I’ve used them constantly except for watching some sports and when I have company that’s not used to watching programs with them on. I get annoyed with the spelling errors though (esp now in 2024)) and laugh at attempts to spell certain Black slang words (AAVE). Which makes me wonder how badly they messed up interpreting languages from other countries. I also love when the subtitles notate the song title and name of the artist of the song playing in a scene.
My parents do this (English speakers watching English language shows) and it kinda drives me nuts. Wayyyyy too distracting.
Re: subtitles / closed captions:
For people who have language or auditory processing disorders and this is one of the things that really helps.
It’s also helpful for young kids to learn reading.
Anon, Yes! Kids! So important for reading—this absolutely helped my dual-language kids not only broaden their English and Dutch (in our case), but also helped them with reading and spelling. So recommended for anyone interested in “passively” helping their kids learn. They complain at first, but we made them do this.
As a Dutch-American couple, we almost always have the subtitles on for ourselves now, too. There are certain accents/ dialects that I still don’t catch everything from and my husband has the same issue sometimes with certain English speakers. We started because of our kids though.
Yes! I firmly believe the reason my ten year old is reading (more importantly comprehending) at a college level is due to us having subtitles on for everything. Now when they ask if they can watch tv and I feel they’ve had too much electronics, we change the audio and subtitles to Spanish or French.
I almost always use subtitles. Has nothing to do with accents. I rely on watching people’s faces to fully understand them, but now that I almost exclusively watch shows on my phone, I can not see faces as well. Plus, some shows just have dark lighting. If I watch something on a larger screen though, I remove the subtitles bc it would distract from viewing the actual show since the subtitles are visually separate from the scene on larger screens. The text and action are more unified in my line of vision on a small screen (phone). Fascinating comment, I know!
Count me in, always using subtitles! I have tinnitus so this way I’m not missing anything. I also, admittedly, have a 5 channel surround system! I love the whole experience…
I have used subtitles for everything since surround sound came out, background noise makes for a lot of lost dialogue. (At least for me) I do love watching movies from other countries dubbed in English with the English subtitles.. they never match and it makes it more interesting 🤷🏻♀️.
The first English show I ever did this for was when I rewatched The Wire on DVD after illegally downloading it during college. It enhanced the viewing experience immensely.
We grew up watching a lot of TV and movies in my dad’s native language so reading subtitles felt very natural to me since childhood. I have a bunch of friends who have taken it up in adulthood and it has been more of an adjustment but for most of them they’ve never looked back!
I cannot get through more than 2 minutes of anything dubbed, it is a processing nightmare for me. So glad subtitles exist!
My father had bad hearing, so the majority of my teens/college years were spent with subtitles on (when I was at home). I married a guy with poor hearing so…subtitles are always on! I’m so used to processing sound by hearing shows and reading subtitles now that they’re on even when I’m not with my husband (my mom also does this).
I started using subtitles during Game of Thrones and haven’t looked back. I do turn cc off when watching sports bc the commentary definitely can’t keep up with live action.
Oh agreed on sports! The only time I want CC on sports is if the volume is off, like at a bar.
Subtitles/captions are a universal design feature that is research-proven to support comprehension in learning. It is good for the classroom and home, regardless of impairment or need. 🙂
IMO the sound mixing is often awful for shows and TV, and the words sound slurred or are too quiet to understand while the scenes with music are outrageously loud in comparison. that is typically why I use subtitles.
I started using subtitles about 25 years ago, mainly because sometimes a character mumbles or I simply mishear something. I use them 100% of the time, and I am positive using them helped my son when he was learning to read.
Derry Girls was the first English speaking show where I used subtitles. I could not understand a single thing they were saying and I was about to give up on the show when subtitles were suggested to me. I loved it! The subtitles and the show. Subtitles are never turned off now.
I don’t know why but I need to watch shows on Apple TV e we out the subtitles on as the sound quality can be very iffy. I don’t have this problem on other steaming platforms.
I’ve been watching with subtitles for years just because TV mixing sounds muddy and I hate missing bits of dialogue.
But as someone who (abruptly and unexpectedly) recently became single-sided deaf, I’m really grateful for how ubiquitous captions are. Short of YouTube there’s very little that isn’t available with subtitles.
English is not my mother tongue. In my country we’ve always used subtitles for any foreign language movie / tv series, nothing was ever dubbed (thank goodness).
That actually made me grow up listening to all the different languages and accents. Nowadays, I teach three foreign languages and understand most of the different accents in the English language.
When watching a new TV series (that takes place in the Shetlands, for instance), it takes a couple of episodes to figure out the nuances of the language and then I can actually understand most of it without the subtitles. It’s a really good practice. It’s great to use subtitles to get acquainted with the different accents and slowly stop needing them…
I have hearing loss and like to snack while i watch shows. I always use captions. Truly adds context that woukd go unnoticed
I always have subtitles on, except when watching the news because it is usually inaccurate. I like when it tells me what song is playing so I don’t have to Shazam it.
In my country foreign movies/Shows get dubbed. The soundmix is much better that way, so i watch without subtitles.
When i try to watch in original language, i only so that with UK actors/movies, not US obes, american actors really have the tendency to mumble.
+4 on this 😀