Pro and cons on dubbing

Pro and cons on dubbing

From Kompas

The dubbing of foreign television films into Indonesian has
become a hotly debated topic recently. Some people are of the
opinion that in the absence of dubbing into Indonesian, "we can
learn a foreign language", (meaning English). However, if the
film is in Spanish, for example, will many of the viewers be able
to understand the dialog?

Others hold the view that the voices in a dubbed film often do
not suit the character of the actor/actress whose words are
dubbed. In my opinion, however, in most cases the dubbing fits
the character of the actor/actress.

As a housewife who happens to be in favor of dubbing, I wish
to take this opportunity to appeal to the authorities to allow
dubbing to continue. Why? It is undeniable there are many old
housewives, domestic helpers and others who are still illiterate.

If dubbing into Indonesian is prohibited, these people will
greatly miss their practical and cheap entertainment. (They
sometimes simply listen to the dialog of a TV film while doing
other jobs).

If dubbing into Indonesian is scrapped, people with poor sight
will also be disadvantaged. These people find the subtitles
difficult to read because they are usually printed in small
letters in a color which is often the same as the background.

Some people say that the stories in foreign films of poor
quality. To me this is not the right assessment. I usually watch
Latin American TV films and think that the stories, the scenes
and the acting are excellent and that the plots always contain
surprises.

One thing not to be forgotten is that the prohibition of
dubbing means thousands of dubbers having to find new jobs, which
is not easy to do nowadays.

So, please let dubbing continue.

MRS. M. SURONO

Yogyakarta