General Chat

I once acted as interpreter between cockney and a scouse workmen who were on the point of a punch-up, calling each other bloody foreigners. This happens with other nationalies too. I once had a couple of Germans in my office, one from the North of Germany, the other from Bavaria. They had to talk to each other in English. Len

For what it's worth Christine we've got 'Billy Eliot' and 'Angela's Ashes' both with sub-titles ... could have originally been done for the deaf, but came in really useful with our Amercan friends. Magi

It is amazing the different accents and dialects there are in the UK, even the difference in towns only a few miles apart! Zoe , no I missed that! So it wasn't just me that was anoyed! LOL Maggie you mentioned Morayshire.....my brother lived there for a few years and I found the accent there quite easy to understand and yet not that far away in Aberdeenshire, it's like a different language altogether! I suppose Greenock accents, as they had in that film probably are difficult to understand, even people here in Edinburgh have commented to me that they wouldn't have picked up everything that was said in the film without subtitles, but it was just I felt it was insulting that a Scottish accent should be treated as a 'foreign language' and the film given subtitiles. Christine

I'm a bit late here LOL Abigail - it wasn't Morayshire was i???? maggie

I am a Londoner and find the accents in Eastenders an uncouth rendition of the true East-end accent, rendered by a hotch-potch of actors from other regions. A bit like Dick van Dyke's cockney in Mary Poppins. Len

I too sometimes use 888 to add sub titles but it is hilarious when the sub title says 'door slams' 'bell rings', and the adverts with sub titles are even more funny. i didn't watch the film but saw the beginning with the sub titles and Husband remarked on the fact. i have to say though, having a hearing problem i do find some of the Scottish dialects quite hard to decipher. when i was at work i used to dread going for a promotion board and having a Scottish interviewer. Ann glos

Hi Christine, I didn't see this film, but I'm offended when this sort of thing happens. Sometimes there are subtitles when I can understand perfectly what is being said!! :-) Lucia

was some film about a teenage drug dealer the other night. we laughed when we saw the subtitles but they were all put into english instead of what they were actually saying.

I didnt think of that Brian, perhaps thats why theyve done it, but then why only on the Scottish programmes? Deanna

I too am offended.which programme was it? Perhaps we should complain about it but, then they only send on someone to explain, HOW WRONG YOU ARE'. Deanna

Christine Did you spot the bit in the papers yesterday about an MSP comlaining to the Beeb and raisng the issue at Holyrood Zoe

Oh, Well, I'll shut up then :-)

Hi Daniel, as Zoe said in the cinema the film had subtitles only for the first few minutes...but not for the rest of the film, so it must be a decision taken by the BEEB! Christine

Yes, they are in fits and I am gazing blankly from one to the other! I know what you mean though, I once asked a friend ( a Portsmouth girl) ' are you not hot?' and another friend (a Liverpudlian) had to translate after I had repeated it three times. We were all hysterical. Still dialects are fascinating. Abigail

LOL Brenda! Christine

If you go on teletext and press 888 you can get subtitles. As this is a film the director, etc would have added the subtitles, not the broadcaster.

When I went up north to college, one of my fellow students said: 'I bet you think the North is just like Coronation Street' I've not got much of an ear for accents. I hadn't the heart to tell her that I'd seen all the shots of rooftops and assumed it was set near London Bridge!

Hi I put the substitles on for Eastenders as I can't always understand what they are going on about & I only live about 10 miles from where it is filmed!! Penny

May be they thought we wouldn't understand lol

Thank you Len, my point exactly! Christine