A Little Bigotry

Now if she had been more like this ...

A Little Bigotry

It's about six years back & I'm working at a cut-rate would be Wal-Mart chain as a check out clerk. A lady, late middle age, starts putting her stuff on the belt & we have a conversation. I notice a heavy German accent.

My usual "icebreaker" jokingly is: "I can tell by your accent, you're not from around here. Are you from New Jersey?"

She gets friendly & we get to talking about Germany. She was from Wiesbaden. I mention I have folks in Graz (Austria) & Wurzburg. She then asks if I'm German.

I reply "Irish, English, German, French, Hungarian & Portuguese."

A look comes on her face like she just swallowed something REALLY disagreeable.

"YOU ... Are a mutt!"

I suppressed the urge to tell her she wasn't exactly the "uberfrau" she wanted me to think she was. Not exactly valkyrie material. In fact, there's no cure for the kind of ugly she had. Gas maybe?

Even Hitler loosened up a bit & became inclusive after a while. Became a "pan-Aryanist". Even going so far as to say: "The Russians are as Aryan as we are." Hmm ... A bit late on that one.

My actual reply was not at all to her liking. It even surprised her.

"I don't think of myself as a mutt as much as I think of myself as a 'Super European'."

I must say, her Reinhard Heydrich impression was spot on.

We complete the transaction in silence & she leaves.

People ...

Asuka's NOT evil ... just terminally PMS.

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Dubs n' Subs

                                                                 Dubs n' Subs
                                                                            
                                                                           by
                                                                              
                                                                             Jay Agan

    I grew up on dubs. When I started being cognizant of movies in the late 50s, I noticed lip movement in some wasn't consistant with the heard dialogue. It was explained some flicks weren't made in the U.S. & came from where English wasn't spoken much if at all. The actors' voice was substituted with that of someone who could speak English. As a kid, I was somewhat fascinated by that. If a foriegn flick I might like was on tv, I would ignore the lip/voice inconsistancy & enjoy the show. Getting older, I likened it to the "universal translation device" on Star Trek (tos).

    Then as now, there were good dubs & bad ones. I'm not as stringent as some. If the length of dialogue matches that of mouth movement, I'm ok with it. I've seen really bad ones (long spaces of heard dialogue/no lip movement or lots of lip movement/no sound.) Some were even funny.

     I accept the fact sound is in English & lip movement is in Japanese, Italian, etc. The main thing for me is to enjoy the show. If the dialogue stays within original intent & meaning, things are fine by me (A Film like, Woody Allens' What's Up Tiger Lilly, being a hilarious exception!).

     At times I've found subtitles necessary. A foriegn film with no English track, obviously. There have been times a film has a mush mouthed actor who shouldn't be in movies. Subs have helped there as well.

     As can be seen, I pretty much prefer dubs over subs in general. Other reasons:

     1. I've spoken English all my life thus most comfortable with it. (I've studied Spanish & Japanese in the past. Those are stories for another day.)

     2. Continuity concerns. I find shifting eyes from viewing to reading & back to be somewhat discombobulating. I prefer to do one thing at a time. At times I miss something & have to back up the film to re-view/reread.

     3. Some say if you want to get full meaning & nuance, subs are the way to go. Doesn't seem that way to me. At times they come across as rather "flat". There's a difference between "transliterated to English" & spoken English.

    4. Some anime "should" be in English from the get-go. Black Lagoon, Lady Georgie, & Steamboy come to mind.

    5. There are animes "crude" enough the mouth movement doesn't match Japanese. Why complain if it doesn't match English?

    6. Most anime characters look so "European", they might as well be speaking English. Or Icelandic for that matter.

                                                        Article copyright © Jay Agan


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