| I am myself an immigrant to this country, one that has had itequally easy, if not more. Lately, or perhaps for the last couple of years, I've struggled with negative feelings about the country. I do not like the direction things are moving politically and economically, nor how germans talk about politics, and the biggest reason to want to be in Germany is the very high living conditions one can have here. Culturally, it is hard not feel dettached when Germans themselves seem uninterested in cultural aspects that are normally a reason to want to learn a language (literature, films, etc). I can speak German, but maintaining it or improving it feels more like a chore than something exciting. Anyway, this was a nice, positive read, and it made me happy to read it. It is often easier to focus on the negative aspects of things, while taking for granted the positive ones. Germany has a lot of good things going for it, and the power to be a better version of itself. A position lots of countries would wish they could be in. Sadly, this does not seem clear to the German political class. |
| |
| ▲ | juvvel 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | German films are mostly not great, but if one wants to get immersed into the language, music and literature are much better places. And also comedy. The language allows for some great puns. | | |
| ▲ | rob74 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | All foreign films are also dubbed, something I'm not a huge fan of, but at least you don't have to watch an actual German film to hear German... Also, BTW, there are some very good German films, but to enjoy most of them, you have to be able to relate to the cultural background. | |
| ▲ | i_am_a_peasant 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | A lot of good video games have decent German dubs, it was how I reached B2 German. | | |
| ▲ | aleph_minus_one 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > A lot of good video games have decent German dubs This in my experience only holds for AAA titles. For many smaller games, the German translation/localization is so bad that if one's English level is not insanely bad, it's even more comfortable to play the English version, and use a dictionary for lots of words (i.e. invest more time using the dictionary than playing the game) than tolerating the pain of how bad the German translation/localization is. | | |
| ▲ | i_am_a_peasant a day ago | parent [-] | | Idk, do you play those point and click adventure games from early 2000s? Syberia? Broken Sword? they’re decent. Deponia also good, Truberbrook. What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing? Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”. | | |
| ▲ | aleph_minus_one a day ago | parent [-] | | > do you play those point and click adventure games from early 2000s? Yes (but this is off-topic). > Deponia also good, Truberbrook. For both of these games, the original native version is in German, so of course their German (not-)translation is good. :-) > What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing? Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”. Yes, this is called called "Pluralis Majestatis": > https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Majestatis The Pluralis Majestatis is a formal addressing that is more formal than (singular) "Sie" for a single person (typical for addressing aristocrats of higher a noble rank). The "Pluralis Majestatis" is not to be confused with the Pluralis Auctoris > https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Auctoris and the Pluralis Modestiae > https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Modestiae -- Concerning your point "What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing?" Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”. As I already hinted: this is the correct for medivial setting if you have to address people of a higher a noble rank (if you don't use it, it would feel deeply wrong to native German speakers). Concerning "Star Wars": I know little about this topic, but your point shows that for a proper German localization, you really have to think deeply about which kind of group needs which kind of addressing to which group (informal pronouns, formal pronouns, Pluralis Majestatis, ...). For such settings which have no historical reference such as Star Wars I consider it to be very plausible that if the original setting was written in English, the authors never actually thought about such questions, so it is very likely that such questions were hushed over when a localization was done under time pressure (or English native speakers who commissioned the translation/localization underestimated the importance of such considerations). |
|
| |
| ▲ | juvvel a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | The Witcher 3 is great in German. It actually suits the game a lot better than English imo. | | |
| ▲ | i_am_a_peasant a day ago | parent [-] | | Yeah I’ve only played witcher 3 in german. I don’t even know the english names of many characters. |
|
| |
| ▲ | FinnKuhn 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | On the other hand, the dubbing for foreign movies is usually very well done though. | | |
| ▲ | Mashimo 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It's one of the things I can't stand. Just by hearing, not even seeing the actors or knowing the movie title, you can hear it's a dubbed movie. I always find it uncanny to listen to. A lot of Germans have Satellite TV, where it would be possible to send multiple audio tracks. But they use it to send dubbed German and dubbed French (in case of ARTE). AHHHH. German movies can be great though. Land of Mine (2015) comes to mind. | | |
| ▲ | Anamon a day ago | parent [-] | | German dubs used to be great in the 80s and 90s. Check some TV shows from that time to see what I mean. They used to take care that the voice fit the actual situation, mood, and character. There were many good dubbing voice actors who sometimes became famous in their own right. I'm not sure why, but something changed in the late 90s, early 00s. Suddenly, all the voice actors started shouting all their lines, and seemed obsessed with extra weird or supposedly funny enunciation. No relation to what's happening on screen. Dubbing seems to be a lost art. |
| |
| ▲ | spankibalt 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I wanted to leave this Faden for all the immigrant voices but this misinformation simply cannot stand, lol. Dubbing for foreign movies is an art long lost in Germany; the East Germans (DEFA) were especially good at it, my favorite being Karel Steklý's eternal Dobrý voják Švejk (The Good Soldier Schweik), for which DEFA tapped the Austro Rudolf Wessely. And today? Whenever I get exposed to a German dub I get reaquainted why I call that stuff the Fremdschämspur (the cringe track). | | |
| ▲ | soco 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I have no idea what you mean, because I also feel dubbing in Germany comes out pretty much right. Mouth is moving (mostly) in sync, even. I can compare with other countries where I watched dubbed stuff, but let's not compare and stick to Germany: well done. | | |
| ▲ | Mashimo 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It might be good compared to other countries, but it still "feels" strange. Unsettling. I rather have the undubbed version. Big budget animated movies often have great dubbing. | |
| ▲ | spankibalt 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > [...] because I also feel dubbing in Germany comes out pretty much right. You've got to be kidding me, lol. Anyway, voice (character) mismatch is the first thing I often notice. How often have I heard a commanding adult in English dubbed into what sounds like a tortured, overemoting teen/twen in the German version (I feel it's especially pronounced in women's characters but that might be just sample bias). Even deadpan delivery sounds tryhard. And it's not just for English, either. Modern German dubs, to me anyway, are their own comedic genre. And make no mistake: I'm fuckin' serious about it. Just study some classics. You'll see. |
|
|
|
| |
| ▲ | vineyardmike 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Injecting more money into the film industry would just lead it to the same people at the top of it where they'll produce the same mediocre output as they have for ages Not necessarily, if you apply discipline and intentionality. Canada famously created “CanCon” (Canadian Content) by law. They forced media in the country to be X% local, and that built out the industry by sheer necessity. The reputation was poor in the early years, but now a talent pipeline, local services, and industrial knowledge has built up and they have a thriving entertainment industry. Germany has the disadvantage against Canada which could benefit from speaking English and cross selling to the US and UK. But it can become a source of local pride and distinction. The French are very proud of their language, even though it’s also not heavily spoken internationally. The building blocks exist to successfully build cultural capital if it’s a priority. | | |
| ▲ | zelphirkalt 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Well, we sold our most prestigious film making location to the US fairly recently, a few years ago (Filmstudio Babelsberg). Not much good has happened to it since then. Admittedly, it was already not going too well before, but we can expect further decay at the hands of US investors. | |
| ▲ | holowoodman 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | German culture is imho stuck in a permanent subsidy slop problem. Basically every German film is written to appeal to the subsidy committee, not any greater audience. And it shows. | | |
| ▲ | soco 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Some of my favourite movies are German - Das Boot, or Lola rennt. Also series, like Dark. | | |
| ▲ | Mashimo 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Do you also have anything from the last 25 years? :D Those are some old movies. I can suggest "Land of Mine" but it's now also over 10 years old. | | |
| ▲ | nmk 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Also, it's Danish, not German. :-) | | |
| ▲ | Mashimo 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Well yeah kinda. ZDF did help I guess? German / Danish production with Danish director, with mostly German being spoken. |
| |
| ▲ | soco 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I didn't watch any movies in the last years so no. The misconception being, they would all equally suck. |
|
|
|
| |
| ▲ | soco 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Arguably the average Hollywood productions aren't culturally stellar either, but I digress. To me what did it was having a kid in the kindergarten/school and everything related to that. You get to participate to all kinds of social setups (you could avoid them but what's the point), you get to watch German movies with them, German TV to chat about, you get into the daily lives of your co-citizens. Don't worry, they don't do much Goethe either, if that scares you. Just normal people doing normal stuff, maybe joining some (team) sports club and and and. It just works naturally. |
|
