Shadowing Practice: Why we all need subtitles now - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I watch a lot of movies in TV.
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On the train, at home, at the movies, while doing dishes.
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But no matter where I'm watching, I find myself constantly doing this one thing.
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I'd like to always be more.
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What?
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I'd like to always be more.
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What?
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I'd like to always be more.
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Ugh.
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I'd like to always be more.
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Oh no. It turns out this isn't unusual.
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We polled our YouTube audience and about 57% of people said
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that they feel like they can't understand the dialogue and the things that they watch unless they're using subtitles.
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But it feels like this hasn't always been the case.
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So to figure out what was going on, I made a call.
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Hi, my name is Austin Olivia Kendrick.
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I'm a professional dialogue editor for film and TV.
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I basically perform audio surgery on actors' words.
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Do you watch it subtitles?
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I do actually.
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I do a lot of the time.
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So why do you think that we all feel like we need subtitles now?
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I get asked this question all the time.
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All the time.
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It's something that is, it doesn't have a simple straightforward answer.
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It's very layered and very complex.
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And after talking to Austin for almost two hours, it's true.
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It's a very layered and complex topic.
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But everything kept pointing back to one main thing.
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Technology that got us from this… I'll get you!
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You should be kissed enough!
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No origin, no what has happened to your last… To this… I just forgot a little slim-wasted.
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Well we better put our hat down!
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Let's start with microphones.
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I'm gonna use this clip from Singin' in the Rain to show how mics used to work.
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Here's the mic, you talk towards it.
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The sound goes through the cable to the box.
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A man records it on a big record in wax."
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This scene illustrates some of the difficulties and intricacies of early sound recording.
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Mics were big, bulky, temperamental, and required creative solutions to be hidden.
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They were wired and recorded onto hard memory, like wax and eventually tape.
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No matter how many actors were in a scene, all sound got recorded to one track,
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so performers had to be diligently focused and facing a certain angle so that their words could be picked up.
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Otherwise, you couldn't hear a thing.
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But technology's improved to the point where microphones don't impede performance as much anymore.
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They've become better, smaller, wireless, and we use more of them to ensure that performances get captured.
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What we typically are working with from production dialogue is two boom microphones
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and then every actor has at least one lavalier microphone hidden somewhere on them.
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These shrinking mics have given actors the flexibility to be more naturalistic in their performances.
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They no longer need to project so that their words reach the mic.
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They can speak softly knowing that the tiny mic hidden on their body will pick up what they're saying.
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And my personal favorite example of this performance shift is Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock.
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In a 2011 speech slash roast, Tina Fey says that he speaks so quietly that she can't hear him when she's standing next to him.
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And then you play the film back and it's there somehow.
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Just listen to this whisper off between him and Will Arnett.
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I'm not afraid of you.
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Yeah.
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Well, you should be.
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Let's just see how it all shakes out in the meeting.
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Naturalism isn't always the best for intelligibility though.
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Take Tom Hardy, an actor that I personally love but who famously is a mumbler.
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Your ass is still be fomking around in the story right now if it wasn't for me.
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I mean, the mic picked that line up fine.
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Like we can definitely hear that he's talking, he's saying something.
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But once that mumble gets recorded, it's onto a dialogue editor's shoulder to make it as intelligible as possible.
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that was a lot harder when everything was analog.
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While you could pick the best takes and physically spice them together, if some piece of dialogue was truly impossible to understand,
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then actors will come in and re-record those specific lines in a process called ADR,
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or Automated Dialogue Replacement, which you can see Meryl Streep do in this scene from Postcards from the Edge.
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There's enough money in the world for a cause like yours.
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That still gets done today, but...
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ADR also costs money because you're not only paying for the actor's time, you're paying for the engineer's time and then the editor's time.
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So we try to do ADR, frankly, as little as possible.
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And so a lot of her job is making words sound better.
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The show I'm currently working on, I remember in the middle of this one word, there was just this loud metal clang that I couldn't remove.
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So I had to go in and I had to find an alternate take of it that fit, and then I had to fit it to the movement of her mouth in that moment, and then push it in.
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And once she's done with it, it's sent off to a mixer, who works to make sure the frequencies of the sound effects and music don't overlap with the frequencies of the human voice,
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something that's only possible now that the world has moved away from tape and into digital recordings.
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That is a big challenge, carving out those frequencies, that space,
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amongst every other element of the mix for the dialogue to be able to punch through
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and not be all muddied up by any other sounds that exist in that band of frequencies.
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But even with all that work, lines of dialogue can still be hard to understand.
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The kind of feeling has been if you want your movie to feel quote-unquote cinematic,
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you have to have wall-to-wall bombastic loud sound.
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A lot of people will ask like, why don't you just turn the dialogue up?
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Like just turn it up and the...
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If only it was that simple.
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Because a big thing that we want to preserve is a concept called dynamic range.
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The range between your quietest sound and your loudest sound.
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If you have your dialogue that's going to be at the same volume as an explosion that immediately follows it, the explosion is not gonna feel as big.
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You need that contrast in volume in order to give your ear a sense of scale.
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But the thing is, you can only make something so loud before it gets distorted.
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So if you want to create that wide dynamic range, you have no choice but to push those quieter sounds lower, instead of pushing the louder sounds louder.
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So, explosions go up and dialogue comes down.
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Which brings us to the Christopher Nolan of it all.
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A separate structure within the other staff.
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What is that after you, right?
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We're kicking out of orbit!
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Nearly every film of his has been criticized for its hard-to-hear dialogue that essentially begs for subtitles.
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But as this headline explains, he likes it that way.
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According to an interview in a book called The Nolan Variations, he said that he gets a lot of complaints, even from other filmmakers, who would say,
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I just saw your film and the dialogue is inaudible.
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The truth was, it was kind of the whole enchilada of how we had chosen to mix it.
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And in his 2017 interview with IndieWire, he said, we made the decision a couple of films ago that we weren't going to mix films for substandard theaters.
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And this is kind of the crux of the matter.
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The content that we watch here and here and here is not mixed for us primarily.
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Re-recording mixers mix for the widest surround sound format that is available.
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Typically like big release films, that is Dolby Atmos, which has true 3D sound up to 128 channels.
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The thing is, if you're not at a movie theater that can showcase the best sound Hollywood has to offer, you can't experience all of those channels.
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So after the movie is mixed for the 128 Atmos tracks,
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somebody has to create a separate version of the film's audio where all those same sounds live on one, or two, or five tracks.
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This is called down mixing.
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Down mixing is the process of taking that biggest mix and folding it down into formats with lesser channels available to it.
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So say Atmos down to 7.1 or 7.1 down to 5.1 or 5.1 down to stereo, stereo down to mono.
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Unlike old TVs that were gigantic and had a ton of space for speakers, TVs today are super thin.
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Like this one that I have in my living room is about the same thickness as my iPhone.
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So even though it's outputting the same mono or stereo sound that an older TV might,
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it's still going to sound worse because you have to have tiny little speakers to fit into this tiny sleek form factor.
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These tiny speakers are also usually on the back of the TV, so the down mix version of this movie
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that went from 128 channels down to just two is going to sound even muddier when it's pointing away from you.
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And when you're watching on your phone or a laptop, it's generally not much better.
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When you combine not great speakers, naturalistic mumbly performances, dynamic range featuring bombastic sounds over dialogue and a flattened mix,
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it's no wonder we have trouble hearing what's going on.
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And it seems like the industry knows this because TVs today are shipping with all kinds of settings built in, like this intelligence mode.
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You can put on active voice amplification in hopes of making that dialogue track come through just a little bit clearer.
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But of course that's more band-aid than it is solution.
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The way movies get mixed likely isn't going to revert back to super pristine dialogue.
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So the solutions we have are one, buy better speakers and only go to theaters that have impeccable sound.
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Two, take a chill pill
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and try to just worry a little bit less about picking up every single word that gets said, or three, just keep the subtitles on.
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For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, subtitles make movies and TV shows accessible,
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and this accessibility has just expanded in recent years.
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Laws have been passed to ensure that movie theaters have at least a few screenings weak with captions.
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Pretty much every streaming service has standardized them,
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and speech recognition technology has made them accessible in pretty much every YouTube video and TikTok.
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Plus they're super easy to toggle on and off.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación de nivel C1 se basa en el vídeo “Why we all need subtitles now”. Las palabras que más se repiten: sound, dialogue, movie, mic, mix. Este vídeo tiene 136 frases y 1792 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 10:42. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 168 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. El 82 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| subtitle sustantivo | /ˈsʌbtaɪtəl/ | subtítulo, título seccional / menor |
| microphone sustantivo | /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfəʊn/ | micrófono |
| stereo sustantivo | /ˈstɛəɹ.i.oʊ/ | estéreo |
| bombastic adjetivo | /bɑmˈbæs.tɪk/ | bombástico, rimbombante |
| mixer sustantivo | /ˈmɪksə(ɹ)/ | batidora (amasadora) |
| mononucleosis sustantivo | /ˌmɑnoʊnukliˈoʊsɪs/ | mononucleosis, mononucleosis infecciosa |
| muddy adjetivo | /ˈmʌdi/ | barroso, enfangado |
| amplification sustantivo | /ˌæmplɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/ | amplificación |
| diligently adverbio | /ˈdɪlɪd͡ʒ(ə)ntli/ | diligentemente, con esmero |
| distort verbo | /dɪsˈtɔːt/ | deformar, distorsionar |
| enchilada sustantivo | /ˌɛn.t͡ʃɪˈlɑ.də/ | enchiladas |
| famously adverbio | famosamente | |
| flatten verbo | /ˈflæ.tən/ | aplanar, achatar |
| impeccable adjetivo | /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/ | impecable |
| impede verbo | /ɪmˈpiːd/ | impedir, empecer |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| pick up verbo | coger, asir | |
| figure out verbo | averiguar, captar | |
| go through verbo | atravesar | |
| go up verbo | subir | |
| line up verbo | /laɪnˈʌp/ | alinear |
| turn out verbo | resultar |
Frases que vale la pena repetir
Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:
- I'd like to always be more.
- Do you watch it subtitles?
- Technology that got us from this… I'll get you!
- Here's the mic, you talk towards it.
- Otherwise, you couldn't hear a thing.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | hasn't always been · has happened · They've become |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | should be kissed · be hidden · were wired |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | Atmos, which has · people who are |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 36 contracciones y formas reducidas, como I'm, I'd, you're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: amplification /ˌæmplɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, caption /ˈkæp.ʃən/, showcase /ˈʃoʊˌkeɪs/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: mononucleosis /ˌmɑnoʊnukliˈoʊsɪs/, amplification /ˌæmplɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, diligently /ˈdɪlɪd͡ʒ(ə)ntli/, enchilada /ˌɛn.t͡ʃɪˈlɑ.də/, impeccable /ɪmˈpɛkəbəl/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: stereo /ˈstɛəɹ.i.oʊ/, straightforward /ˌstɹeɪtˈfɔː(ɹ)wə(ɹ)d/, spouse /spaʊ̯s/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: lavalier /ˌlæv.əˈlɪɹ/, revert /ɹɪˈvɝt/, carving /ˈkɑɹvɪŋ/, overlap /ˌəʊvəˈlæp/
- /dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: diligently /ˈdɪlɪd͡ʒ(ə)ntli/, intelligibility /ɪnˌtɛl.ə.d͡ʒəˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/, intelligible /ɪnˈtɛləd͡ʒəbəl/, gigantic /d͡ʒaɪˈɡæntɪk/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como subtitle, microphone, stereo.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.