Subtitle vs Dubbing

For many of us international fans who do not know Korean, the language barrier is one of our major obstacles. 

 

Not all K-dramas will be translated, but if they are, they usually take a long time to be released. Therefore, if you would like to continue on this journey as a K-drama lover, you should have the patience and the understanding that this process takes time. 

 

Nevertheless, the question is whether you should be opting for the subtitled version or the dubbed one. 

 

While the subtitled version is easy to find, dubbings are rare and mostly for older series due to the extra production. Therefore, I would always readily recommend you to choose the subtitled version over the dubbed one. 

 

Dubbings replace the original actors’ voices with the voice actors, and by doing so, this process removes the soul of the film. Conversely, the subtitled version allows you to hear the wealth of emotions that the actors had mindfully strived to express. The sentiment and tone, the phrasing, the inflection, and the pause; these are things that are impossible to translate. Together, they play a crucial role in authentically conveying the messages and intentions of the writers and directors. It just plucks the strings of our hearts this way. 

 

One of the downsides of watching subtitled versions is the fact that you have to read them. Yes, reading the subtitle will be a challenge. If you are new, you are more likely to focus on the subtitles rather than the scene. In that sense, it is worse than watching a dubbed film because you would be missing the little visual details that the director captured. They might not be vital, but they do bring your experience to a whole new level. Nonetheless, this should not be a reason why you choose to watch the dubbed version instead. I promise you that reading subtitles will become second nature with time. 

 

In fact, I recommend watching K-dramas, or any foreign films in general, as raw as you can. If would like to do something new during quarantine, maybe it is time for you to learn Korean. It’s like how some learned Russian to read Dostoevsky. Having learned Korean through my years of watching K-dramas, I’ve realised how meanings were lost during translation. We missed a lot of cultural nuances and messages from the directors and writers through subtitles and dubbings. A string of words in English cannot fully express the meanings of the script. 

 

Similarly, translations don’t just translate the phrases as they are; most translations also translate the culture for viewers to quickly understand the sentiment. Nevertheless, this is simply an interpretation. It is different from watching it raw, where you get to learn the culture and make sense of things from their ways and view of life. The uniqueness and quirks are what makes it so intriguing to learn about a culture. It is this element that K-dramas are beloved by fans across the world in the first place. 

 

Overall, choose subtitled versions over the dubbed ones. However, if you can, watch it raw!