[skummetmaelk]

Localization and dubbing is a sad endeavour. By trying to accomodate everyone's individual preference for information transmission we accomplish nothing more than reducing our ability to understand each other in the long run.

Having a Babelfish is all well and good. Until it stops working, and you realise no one can understand each other any more.

Ironically localization is often pushed by well meaning Americans who only speak one language. "Oh, you're in a French speaking region. You MUST want French language. Let me force it down your throat while I prance around virtue signalling about how inclusive we are"

[pjc50]

This is a terrible take, and you should have at least included the "forced" dub disclaimer from your comment below. Without at least one of sub/dub, foreign (relative to your current location!) language content basically doesn't get consumed at all except by a very small minority of people who are very keen on the content anyway - or are speakers of the language anyway.

Now, as veterans of anime forum wars will know, subtitling is nearly always better than dubbing, and I hope this tech is capable of that as well. Most media systems let you put a whole load of subtitle tracks on and then pick one.

There's far, far too much content out there for more than a fraction of it to be ever professionally translated. While we should expect human translation review and a spot of localization for officially released works, most of the internet is just free content being given away for very little return. And that's where automatic translation is going to shine: release the non-English meme champions! Let us have a look in Bilibili!

[skummetmaelk]

A big reason for the Dutch and Nordic populations being better at English than the Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, is that they were simply forced to consume media in English. They had no other option. Turns out to be an advantage.

[giorgiobalduino]

As an Italian I honestly prefer dubbed versions and most Italians feel the same way. We have great dubbers whose voice we associate an actor with, so much that hearing Sylvester Stallone or Eddie Murphy speaking in his native English feels weird, almost a fraud, the breaking of a bond that's not there anymore. Perhaps I would change my view on this if I lived in USA, UK or Australia, but I don't and thus that might be the reason I can't relate with originals. Just my 2 cents.

[carlosjobim]

Subtitled media in English, that is.

[kevingadd]

Are you saying it's a bad thing if the creator of a work decides they want it localized or dubbed into other languages? I don't understand why you want to take that choice out of their hands.

Which languages someone speaks isn't simply a matter of "individual preference". Learning a new language takes a lot of time and energy, and people only have the time to learn a handful of languages in most cases unless they can make a career out of linguistics.

i.e. I know a sprinkling of words in various languages, and I've started learning Japanese, but I simply don't have the time to also learn Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, etc. So I appreciate it when authors of works in those languages offer localizations into a language I can speak, or when third parties spend their time translating stuff for free to make it available to a wider audience.

What's the advantage of closing knowledge and communication off from a wider audience?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding and you're just angry about Google Translate/DeepL etc (which I have a strong distaste for since they're Fake)

[skeledrew]

Nah the localization itself is fine. Where it becomes problematic is when there's no opt-out at the app level. Or perhaps it should even be opt-in.

[CaptainFever]

Opt out? Do you mean you want content creators to be able to ban certain texts from being translated? That sounds like a terrible idea.

[Am4TIfIsER0ppos]

No. The parent means that software and media should not only be available in French in France, for example. French produced things can be in French in France but GGP is talking about American services like google which used to always default to French for me and be resistant to changing.

But also yes a creator should be able to ban translations.

[pjc50]

> software and media should not only be available in French in France

Seems reasonable. However, given French media quotas e.g. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/... , companies may be providing stuff only in French to ensure that it meets a legal requirement.

> But also yes a creator should be able to ban translations.

We've been round and round this for at least twenty years; creators like being able to ban accessibility measures like "read aloud this document" or "display it in a more readable format" or "fix the audio mix so the dialogue is audible" or "buy the DVD from a different country", but that's not exactly welfare-maximising. Are translations an accessibility measure? What about a translation into ASL?

(on the other hand, the reputational risk of a poor translation is real, and in the extreme can result in someone being cancelled for something they never even wrote)

[Am4TIfIsER0ppos]

I don't mean you should be technically prevented from performing a translation, edit, or filter on something you own. I mean creators should be able to prevent the publication of a translation whether that is a different language, subtitles, or signing through the usual copyright mechanisms.

[written-beyond]

Interesting take, never really looked at it that way.