Dear all,
I live in Germany for one year now. I work in RWTH as a research assistant. I have started learning German one year before (this is to explain you why this post is in English).
I have recently bought Simpsons and Family Guy Series 1 from Germany. Both DVDs have German translation (Synchronisierung) and German subtitles. I bought these movies so every day to listen and read in German.
The problem I have is that the subtitles are meant for hearing impaired people and thus what I hear and what I read differs a lot! Do you know if it is possible to find somewhere subtitles that correspons to what I hear?
I would like to thank you in advance for your help
REgards
Alex
P.S I know that this a little bit out of forum context but this is the only place I know with Germans around.
alaios wrote, On 05/12/2011 07:06 PM:
> The problem I have is that the subtitles are meant for hearing impaired
> people and thus what I hear and what I read differs a lot!
It’s also due to the often horrible translation <G>
I recommend you watch “native” German TV or even better, listen to German radio. RWTH Aachen? WDR5 and DRadio Kultur have a lot of “spoken words”.
And if you want to practice German reading and writing, this forum is a good place
Yep RWTH Aachen.
Do you know any tv series (Better cartoon) where the subtitles correspond exactly to the spoken words? IF you have some such dvds and have time please check it out for me.
Moreover do you know how I can check if the subtitles inside a dvd are not external?
I am viewing currently the “heute-journal” on the ZDF and have turned the subtitles on. And and the subtitles seems to be nearly the same as to the spoken words - sometimes there may be a word not written or as the correspondent from Brussels was speaking too fast the text was a bit late…
I would like to thank you for your ideas and suggestions.
ZDF news is a good idea.
I would like also to have a tv or comic - series to watch on a daily basis. Actually I work a lot (like 10-12 hours per day) I have 4*1.30 hours German courses per week. That is why when I am at home I would like to see something more entertaining!
So if you have a tv or comic series with German translation and German subtitles that are like 90% the same with the same spoken words. Please do let me know.
My favourite source of subtitles is Addic7ed.com - The source of latest TV subtitles, it offers many languages for many shows and the translations are quite good (though delivered quickly, usually within 24h after the show was aired).
I personally think that German synchronisation of for example The Simpsons are quite okay - I personally prefer to watch the original version (if in English) and I realize some translations are not perfect (by nature¹), but compared to what many other countries have to cope with, Germany is synchro heaven, really.
I also think that cartoons are quite a good way to learn a language. The Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes have taught me a lot about the English language, and so did the Simpsons. Fun is an important parameter when learning something as complex as a language.
¹For example, in a pretty recent show of The Simpsons Lisa said to Bart: “I’ts amazing how I can pity you and hate you at the same time. I bet there’s a German word for it.” While this is really a funny statement, how does one translate that into German without giving away the punchline?
Glad you learn german. One of the important languages on earth
I live now for over 10 years in the US and even though i had previous school english it took me quite a while before i got more fluently in understanding the talk.
My experience is, that you learn best if you get confronted with the language on a daily base. Very useful is reading, speaking and writing anything that comes new to you.
Subtitle are never 1:1 translations and capture the meaning of whatever is spoken, but don’t give a 100% translation. I think transcripts of a show or any media is a better way since it is 100% the content.
But i wasn’t able to find any german transcripts.
