Language/dialects/Accents.

[lil weasel]

A few days ago I was viewing a trial.

As I listened to a witness I became extremely annoyed. This Doctor was giving testimony for an hour or so on his professional opinion. Every sentence was punctuated by UM.. AH…

Another professional witness gave a five minute dissertation on her duties without pause. Then broke the dream by Hemming and Hawing on every one of the questions put to her. Apparently she knew what she was supposed to do, but wasn’t sure of what she did…

An attorney was Axing questions, It seemed every other question was, “Let me AXE you dis.” I guess elocution isn’t part of a lawyers training.

Do such language idioms affect the prestige of the person you are listening to?

And, to another point:

I got to wondering; In American movies the actors many times assume an accent to designate the ‘foreign’ language being spoken. my question on this is in movies of Non-English countries do the Actors speak with an ‘accent’ when representing a ‘foreign’ language speaking person?

I have heard that in France the language must be spoken in the proper language of the foreign country.

Is that true, and how about other countries?

 

 

[860]

I have heard that in France the language must be spoken in the proper language of the foreign country.

Is that true, and how about other countries?

I don't think I've ever watched a movie where the characters speak with an accent instead of the actual language. Sounds pretty idiotic to me. Can't Americans read subtitles?

[Chorup]

I have heard that in France the language must be spoken in the proper language of the foreign country.

Is that true, and how about other countries?

I don't think I've ever watched a movie where the characters speak with an accent instead of the actual language. Sounds pretty idiotic to me. Can't Americans read subtitles?

You kidding me?

What about all those American movies about Hitler and the Third Reich? The majority use English with a 'German like' accent. It makes it sound pretty stupid and out of context, but it caters for the Western market, and at the end of the day that's all that matters to them.

People generally don't want to have to read subtitles. Whether this is due to laziness or perceiving foreign films as cheap, I cannot say.

[El Zilcho]

You kidding me?

What about all those American movies about Hitler and the Third Reich? The majority use English with a 'German like' accent.

Oh God I f*cking hate that, it was especially bad on Enemy at the Gates. I feel films which take the extra effort to keep to the proper language are better works overall, I wish it was a more common practice.

[Robinski]

 

You kidding me?

What about all those American movies about Hitler and the Third Reich? The majority use English with a 'German like' accent. It makes it sound pretty stupid and out of context, but it caters for the Western market, and at the end of the day that's all that matters to them.

People generally don't want to have to read subtitles. Whether this is due to laziness or perceiving foreign films as cheap, I cannot say.

It's easy to say that. What could be getting overlooked is the fact that actors give much better performances in their native language, closely followed by languages they are fluent in. It's much easier for a director/casting team to go with an actor they know is good and have them do a film in English rather than go with a native German speaker who they aren't too aware of.

 

Of course, the majority of foreign actors working in Hollywood and the big film industry at large are bi- or multi-lingual.

Edited June 18, 2011 by Robinski

[Chorup]

 

You kidding me?

What about all those American movies about Hitler and the Third Reich? The majority use English with a 'German like' accent. It makes it sound pretty stupid and out of context, but it caters for the Western market, and at the end of the day that's all that matters to them.

People generally don't want to have to read subtitles. Whether this is due to laziness or perceiving foreign films as cheap, I cannot say.

It's easy to say that. What could be getting overlooked is the fact that actors give much better performances in their native language, closely followed by languages they are fluent in. It's much easier for a director/casting team to go with an actor they know is good and have them do a film in English rather than go with a native German speaker who they aren't too aware of.

 

Of course, the majority of foreign actors working in Hollywood and the big film industry at large are bi- or multi-lingual.

That's true, but it's the big names out there that bring in the crowds. Even if it doesn't sound aesthetically pleasing, the typical Western person will not pay to see a movie starring an unknown actor, even though they may perform the part just as well.

The bottom line is the film industry will be directed wherever the money is. Very few Hollywood film producers/companies will tread on unmarked territory, thus explaining why the same type of movies are recycled over and over again.

[Kirst]

At least with Inglorious Tarantino decided to choose native cast etc, it helped rating's I think.

[Mister Pink]

Generally in European or world cinema, if there's a part in the film where there's a foreign person, they will speak in their native tongue provide there's someone that speaks their language there too, lol.

 

For me it's that sort of realism and believability found in world cinema that's not found in most of Hollywood with the exceptions of the already mentioned Inglorious Basterds.

 

I refuse now to watch a film like Valkyrie there's Germans played by huge Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise. One, he's so famous outside of films I already (without watching the film) believe I will not be convinced that this Hollywood scientologist will convince me of the German character he's supposed to be portraying.

 

Of course there can be some exceptions to this mainly for me would be old films like Cleopatra but I still annoys me for some reason I can deal with English people playing Romans when it was done 40, 50 years ago.

 

As for people that don't pronounce stuff correctly. Well, I might think about that too much myself. Living with my ex (an Italian girl) first got me thinking about these things and now I do it 'too much'

 

People sort of loose some credibility when they're not pronouncing stuff correctly - I mean, in a lawyers case, where you'd expect him to be very eloquent when they speak especially when they cost so much. A person in their position has to instil confidence in people and if they started talking schoolboy or toddler, i'd be freaked.

[Claude4Catalina]

We Were Soldiers was pretty good with the French and Vietnamiese subtitling, if I remember correctly, the entire opening scene, the massacre, was in all subtitles until we returned to America.

[Sam998]

I think it's probably like spelling on the internet (and other places) some people care about it and get aggravated when people mess up, but others don't care. Personally, I think both can get annoying over time, but a few slip ups isn't a huge deal.