Perfectly understandable black man on the bbc subtitled......now why is this?

[foxinsocks]

Because I can understand him. And this happened last week too (on the real swiss family robinson).

Are we really all so useless that we can't understand other accents?

and this isn't the first time I've seen black, mainly African people, subtitled when they are speaking perfectly understandable English

I've seen it happen with perfectly intelligible white Glaswegians too FIS
Weird isn't it :hmm:

I said this to my DH on the first Swiss family.

Today on some other daytime nonsense I was watching whilst ironing, a young woman speaking English (as her first language) was subtitled - but actually her diction was so poor, I was struggling to understand her.

lol at subtitling Glaswegians

it is a bit ridiculous

especially because if we wanted subtitles, all we'd have to do is turn them on (via the hard of hearing thing)

are you watching Marmaduke?

I love the intermittent subtitling so that they obviously deem some parts of his speech understandable but not all parts!

when these rows come up it's always about glaswegians

I can never understand the Weegies but can the Africans/blacks that are subtitled.

No, just the first one fox.

I would secretly love to do it, but my useless DH would ...well, be useless

After the first one he said, "you'd really love that, wouldn't you?" "yes," I replied, "but I don't have the kind of husband that can knock me up a little kitchen and catch fish." his answer, "Yes but you can can't you."

lol yes I think I would love it too. It's not like they have to go for very long.

Dh would hate it too. I think even the thought of being separated from his ipod and blackberry would do his head in .

i nnotieced this too last night

fox msn!

Not always Glaswegians - there was a chap from Sunderland on The Secret Millionaire and he was subtitled. I could tell what he was saying no problem.

Who decideds whether someone should be subtitled? My guess is someone who has never travelled beyond the home counties.

Kingrolo, The secret millionaire had quite a strong yorkshire accent. I understood both of them perfectly.

Maybe it's due to dialect and lipreading?

Yes, he was from Barnsley wasn't he? I love TSM - never fails to make me cry .

We commented on the Swiss Family Robinson sub-titling as well. Later in the programme there was the occasional word that was a bit hard to hear, but most of the subtitling just looked patronising. He was more coherent than certain of the family at times .

Yes, fox, the first question my DH would ask would be about wireless or crackberry.

VQV, yes that must be it.