THE TROUBLE WITH BAD SUBTITLES

is that if left unattended they screw up your kid’s English to the point of no return. Don belief? :) It used to be that teachers and parents were concerned that the SMS revolution was going to have a profound and permanent effect on how kids spelt words because they were shortening words to type quicker. Then pirated movies flooded the market and it got out of control. Without any scientific study and evidence to back my suspicious, I have a feeling subtitles have a subliminal effect on the viewer. You tend to go along with it subconsciously. Just think of the opportunity here when your little ones are taking in the words they see on TV and it all starts at an early age. And it starts with a popular title such as Over The Hedge …

The problem does not go away when they’re older. Like pimples to a teenager, bad subtitles continue to flood every home including popular titles such as Camp Rock

including The Transporter 3 …

Too Fast Too Furious …

and all the way into adulthood with Hitch!

So you see, bad subtitles and bootlegged movies are now a way of modern life and you thought that your Indonesian or Filipino maid’s language skills were shockingly bad (for the children). It’s hard to tell which syndicate is responsible for this crap and it doesn’t help that parents continue to let their kids watch DVDs that do not help or encourage proper use of the language. Most of these DVDs come with multi language subtitles and I wonder if the others are just as bad.

I’ve noticed that some players turn on subtitles by default while others do not. Given a choice, I’d rather the kids watch the Cartoon Network on satellite TV where it’s inherently safer (in moderation).

What has been an on-going challenge for IP enforcement agencies against software piracy, bootlegged DVDs is and should now be on the radar of Ministry of Education as well.