I had this moment of realisation when moving to the Netherlands and going to the cinema for the first time.
I said it’s a shame there were subtitles as I keep getting distracted and looking at those instead of what’s actually happening.
Then I saw people’s incredulous reactions to my statement. The native English speaker living in a country where he doesn’t speak the first language just complained about there being subtitles to make the film more accessible to people who want to enjoy it. No-one actually said anything, but their expressions said it all.
Moments later after I’d had a few seconds to process the situation I apologised profusely and it was a turning point for me with regards to subtitles in general. There’s a whole variety of reasons why subtitles help people engage, from the obvious to the less obvious, and nowadays I get more annoyed when I see their absence. It was the thing that made me realise quite how privileged a position I had with this.
