Dubbing enables the world to share movies. But it takes an army of people to translate, voice over and make it seem natural.
A scene from “Squid Game.” (Image courtesy of Netflix)
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This is Giselle Spiteri Miggiani’s set-up: world map on the wall to the left; speakers perched on a glossy white table; books peering down from shelves and two black monitors, one stacked behind the other.
She types out dialogue on the shorter screen while the taller one plays a clean feed of a TV show.
Miggiani has been a dialogue writer for dubbed content since 2006 — first documentaries then TV shows. Now, she’s also teaching students how to do it as senior lecturer at the University of Malta.
More people watch TV shows and movies in more languages than ever before. Companies are responding to this demand. Streaming mammoth Netflix first started dubbing its content in 2015. Between 2020 and 2021, the company reported a rise of 120% in consumption of dubbed content. So, what’s driving this dubbing sensation?
“It’s ultimately because of the effects on the industry of the internet,” said William Brannon, researcher and PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “It’s easier to acquire and distribute this content.”
Giselle Spiteri Miggiani uses two computer screens to compose scripts for dubbing.
The value of voice overs
Dubbing is a process where extra recordings are made over existing films or audio, usually to translate content. The biggest catalyst for creating and consuming dubbed content: South Korean movies and TV shows. “Squid Game” was dubbed into 22 languages, including English. The show was watched for 1.65 billion hours in the first 28 days after release. By October 2021, it earned US $900 million.
And early numbers from Season 2 are no different: 68 million views in its first three days since release on 26 December 2024, reaching No. 1 on its weekly non-English-language TV charts in 92 countries. This show is part of the larger Hallyu, or Korean wave, which also includes music sensations BTS and skincare trends like Korean “glass” skin.
Despite its popularity, dubbing has its challenges. It takes a long time to dub TV shows and movies. Adapting a script involves multiple rounds of rewriting and editing.
“We start by receiving the original dialogue list or script along with the video material,” Miggiani said. “A translator, who produces a raw translation from the source language into the target language, and an adapter, who refines and adjusts this translation to meet the specific requirements of dubbing.”
This involves considering cultural and linguistic nuances. In Korean for example, the word for “aunt” changes based on how they’re related to you. It’s 이모 (imo) for your mother’s sister and 고모 (gomo) for your father’s sister.
Getting the voices right
Dubbing is also affected by how quickly or slowly languages are spoken. “English is generally delivered at a slower pace compared to Spanish,” Miggiani said. “The speech delivery rate in spontaneous English discourse is typically slower.”
Most importantly, dubbing should have lip synchronization: “This means aligning the translated text with the timing, tempo, lip movements, and body language of the original actors on screen,” she said.
There’s a growing demand for English-language dubbing scriptwriters but a shortage of trained and skilled adapters to meet this need. So, other languages need to act as pivot languages — a bridge that can help a bilingual Japanese person translate a Korean show to English for example.
This adds to the overall process time and may explain why poor dubbing makes people sound like caricatures of themselves.
Take a look at an animated show like “Pokémon” or even “Squid Game.” The voice for a character may be too deep or airy; too loud or soft; or delivered in a tone that’s stilted or lighthearted. It’s definitely an issue with older shows, says Miggiani.
Dubbed movies as language lessons.
Translators should be mindful of alternatives that can lead to more nuanced interpretations without compromising the original meaning, she said.
So, when dubbed TV shows and movies are used to teach English as a second language, experts have cautioned to be wary of the level of English being taught.
In the Philippines, falling English standards sparked calls for a ban on film and TV dubbing. In Spain, similar demands were made to improve the country’s English proficiency. Studies have found the same: the citizens of countries where foreign films and programs are shown in their original version on television will likely speak, on average, better English than those that live in countries where television is dubbed.
Now, even a decade after Netflix first started dubbing, its content is still mostly translated to English. The company operates in more than 190 countries. Only 57 of those countries have English as their official language. That means most people in countries where Netflix operates are listening to a language that isn’t their own.
In Canada for example, almost 28 million people speak English while another 6.5 million people speak both English and French as their first official language. So, most people who watch popular K-dramas, or Korean drama TV shows, don’t speak Korean.
Only a fraction of content is dubbed.
An independent analysis by this journalist found that half of the total Korean dramas released in 2023 and 2024 did not have dubbing in English or any other languages. Just one show, “Gyeongseong Creature,” had been dubbed to 19 languages. Two shows, “A Virtuous Business” and “Miraculous Brother,” had no dubbed versions at all.
Dubbing when done well captures the breadth and depth of a scene and helps connect people worldwide. Propelled by the popularity of Korean food, skincare, TV shows and movies, South Korea saw such a surge of foreigners over the last five years, they introduced a new visa which would allow them to live and work in the country for two years.
These shows and films have boosted businesses, cultural exports and whole economies. So, what can be done to smooth out the dubbing process?
Brannon, the MIT researcher, says incorporating existing dubbing methods with more automatic approaches can be a solution. This kind of tech helps edit mouth movements of a video to match the dubbed audio track — a feat which would be exorbitantly high otherwise.
“Developing the right tooling to put [automatic processes] to use supporting human dubbing can help,” Brannon said.
Questions to consider:
• What’s driving the dubbing craze at Netflix?
• What is lip synchronization? What happens when this dubbing component is missing?
• Why are experts wary of using dubbed TV shows and movies to teach English as a second language?
Norma Hilton is an independent journalist covering everything from K-pop to murder-suicides. She has worked in Canada, the United States, Australia, Singapore and Bangladesh.