You make a good point about cultural things that would make one excited to learn a language. But I really struggle to imagine what could be done to fix that? Injecting more money into the film industry would just lead it to the same people at the top of it where they'll produce the same mediocre output as they have for ages. hmm
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German films are mostly not great, but if one wants to get immersed into the language, music and literature are much better places. And also comedy. The language allows for some great puns.
All foreign films are also dubbed, something I'm not a huge fan of, but at least you don't have to watch an actual German film to hear German...
Also, BTW, there are some very good German films, but to enjoy most of them, you have to be able to relate to the cultural background.
A lot of good video games have decent German dubs, it was how I reached B2 German.
> A lot of good video games have decent German dubs
This in my experience only holds for AAA titles.
For many smaller games, the German translation/localization is so bad that if one's English level is not insanely bad, it's even more comfortable to play the English version, and use a dictionary for lots of words (i.e. invest more time using the dictionary than playing the game) than tolerating the pain of how bad the German translation/localization is.
Idk, do you play those point and click adventure games from early 2000s? Syberia? Broken Sword? they’re decent. Deponia also good, Truberbrook. What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing? Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”.
> do you play those point and click adventure games from early 2000s?
Yes (but this is off-topic).
> Deponia also good, Truberbrook.
For both of these games, the original native version is in German, so of course their German (not-)translation is good. :-)
> What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing? Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”.
Yes, this is called called "Pluralis Majestatis":
> https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Majestatis
The Pluralis Majestatis is a formal addressing that is more formal than (singular) "Sie" for a single person (typical for addressing aristocrats of higher a noble rank).
The "Pluralis Majestatis" is not to be confused with the Pluralis Auctoris
> https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Auctoris
and the Pluralis Modestiae
> https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Modestiae
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Concerning your point "What I cannot stand are things that are medieval and then everyone refers to you as Ihr instead of du or Sie. Was that even a thing?" Even the star wars games do it… which i guess it’s because jedi “knights”.
As I already hinted: this is the correct for medivial setting if you have to address people of a higher a noble rank (if you don't use it, it would feel deeply wrong to native German speakers).
Concerning "Star Wars": I know little about this topic, but your point shows that for a proper German localization, you really have to think deeply about which kind of group needs which kind of addressing to which group (informal pronouns, formal pronouns, Pluralis Majestatis, ...).
For such settings which have no historical reference such as Star Wars I consider it to be very plausible that if the original setting was written in English, the authors never actually thought about such questions, so it is very likely that such questions were hushed over when a localization was done under time pressure (or English native speakers who commissioned the translation/localization underestimated the importance of such considerations).
> if you don't use it, it would feel deeply wrong to native German speakers
I don't think its true. In fact the opposite is both more common and more ridiculous, e.g. phrase like "Halten Sie die Fresse".
Or are German in the first place. The original Gothic games and Daedalic point and click adventures for example.
The Witcher 3 is great in German. It actually suits the game a lot better than English imo.
Yeah I’ve only played witcher 3 in german. I don’t even know the english names of many characters.
On the other hand, the dubbing for foreign movies is usually very well done though.
It's one of the things I can't stand. Just by hearing, not even seeing the actors or knowing the movie title, you can hear it's a dubbed movie. I always find it uncanny to listen to.
A lot of Germans have Satellite TV, where it would be possible to send multiple audio tracks. But they use it to send dubbed German and dubbed French (in case of ARTE). AHHHH.
German movies can be great though. Land of Mine (2015) comes to mind.
German dubs used to be great in the 80s and 90s. Check some TV shows from that time to see what I mean. They used to take care that the voice fit the actual situation, mood, and character. There were many good dubbing voice actors who sometimes became famous in their own right.
I'm not sure why, but something changed in the late 90s, early 00s. Suddenly, all the voice actors started shouting all their lines, and seemed obsessed with extra weird or supposedly funny enunciation. No relation to what's happening on screen.
Dubbing seems to be a lost art.
Hard disagree. German dubs are extremely fake sounding and there way to few voice actors doing them so everything sounds the same. Completely unwatchable if you haven't grown up with that crap.
I wanted to leave this Faden for all the immigrant voices but this misinformation simply cannot stand, lol.
Dubbing for foreign movies is an art long lost in Germany; the East Germans (DEFA) were especially good at it, my favorite being Karel Steklý's eternal Dobrý voják Švejk (The Good Soldier Schweik), for which DEFA tapped the Austro Rudolf Wessely.
And today? Whenever I get exposed to a German dub I get reaquainted why I call that stuff the Fremdschämspur (the cringe track).
I have no idea what you mean, because I also feel dubbing in Germany comes out pretty much right. Mouth is moving (mostly) in sync, even. I can compare with other countries where I watched dubbed stuff, but let's not compare and stick to Germany: well done.
It might be good compared to other countries, but it still "feels" strange. Unsettling. I rather have the undubbed version.
Big budget animated movies often have great dubbing.
> [...] because I also feel dubbing in Germany comes out pretty much right.
You've got to be kidding me, lol. Anyway, voice (character) mismatch is the first thing I often notice. How often have I heard a commanding adult in English dubbed into what sounds like a tortured, overemoting teen/twen in the German version (I feel it's especially pronounced in women's characters but that might be just sample bias). Even deadpan delivery sounds tryhard. And it's not just for English, either.
Modern German dubs, to me anyway, are their own comedic genre. And make no mistake: I'm fuckin' serious about it. Just study some classics. You'll see.
> Injecting more money into the film industry would just lead it to the same people at the top of it where they'll produce the same mediocre output as they have for ages
Not necessarily, if you apply discipline and intentionality.
Canada famously created “CanCon” (Canadian Content) by law. They forced media in the country to be X% local, and that built out the industry by sheer necessity. The reputation was poor in the early years, but now a talent pipeline, local services, and industrial knowledge has built up and they have a thriving entertainment industry.
Germany has the disadvantage against Canada which could benefit from speaking English and cross selling to the US and UK. But it can become a source of local pride and distinction. The French are very proud of their language, even though it’s also not heavily spoken internationally.
The building blocks exist to successfully build cultural capital if it’s a priority.
Well, we sold our most prestigious film making location to the US fairly recently, a few years ago (Filmstudio Babelsberg). Not much good has happened to it since then. Admittedly, it was already not going too well before, but we can expect further decay at the hands of US investors.
German culture is imho stuck in a permanent subsidy slop problem. Basically every German film is written to appeal to the subsidy committee, not any greater audience. And it shows.
Some of my favourite movies are German - Das Boot, or Lola rennt. Also series, like Dark.
Do you also have anything from the last 25 years? :D
Those are some old movies.
I can suggest "Land of Mine" but it's now also over 10 years old.
I didn't watch any movies in the last years so no. The misconception being, they would all equally suck.
Also, it's Danish, not German. :-)
Well yeah kinda. ZDF did help I guess? German / Danish production with Danish director, with mostly German being spoken.
I think those are more the exception that proves the rule.
Arguably the average Hollywood productions aren't culturally stellar either, but I digress. To me what did it was having a kid in the kindergarten/school and everything related to that. You get to participate to all kinds of social setups (you could avoid them but what's the point), you get to watch German movies with them, German TV to chat about, you get into the daily lives of your co-citizens. Don't worry, they don't do much Goethe either, if that scares you. Just normal people doing normal stuff, maybe joining some (team) sports club and and and. It just works naturally.