Video Dubbing Reflection
Our final module of this semester was video dubbing. I had only tried dubbing in senior high school, and I only dubbed short sentences. This time, I finally had a chance to fully experience how to dub and the what skills it requires. I teamed up with Shining, Jenny and Howard. We spent quite some time exploring videos for dubbing. In the beginning, we chose Phineas and Ferb as the dubbing material. It was quite challenging to find a clip that have 4 characters. In addition, we had to consider the speed of the speech, since we are not the native speakers. Eventually, we gave up dubbing Phineas and Ferb because the dialogue was too fast for us. Instead, we chose Kung Fu Panda for dubbing because it is a famous animation and it includes four characters. The dialogue is slow and easy for us to practice.
We translated the subtitles based on the characters we chose. We also use some tools to help us smooth out the lines. I learned that in the process of translating character’s lines, we should not just follow the official subtitles, because sometimes even the official version contains mistakes. Since this activity trained our language ability, we should come up with our own version of subtitles. We also worked together to edit the video. I think this activity helped improve my pronunciation and how to stress the words. I had to mimic how the character spoke and repeat it several times to make the sentences more fluent.
During the rehearsal, we made some changes. Initially, I played Master Oogway. After the first try, my teammates thought that I could change the role with Jenny, because our voices matched to each other’s characters. I ended up playing Master Tigress because she is a female character with serious tone. I found that dubbing is not an easy task. It was challenging to dub scenes that I had never experienced. I learned that to mimic the lines, I had to feel the character’s emotions and imagine myself in their situation so that my voice could sound more accurate. After practicing several times, I managed to capture the character’s emotions and speak more fluently. I improve a lot in the presentation. I became more confident and calmer while dubbing. I was able to express emotions through my voice. I’m glad that everyone enjoyed our dubbing performance and our characters.
I enjoyed the dubbing activity since it trained my pronunciation and intonation. I rarely practice speaking in daily life. It provided an opportunity for me to speak out and mimic how native speaker talk. The dubbing module gave me a positive and meaningful experience. In the future, I hope to use dubbing as an innovative teaching material to inspire students to practice speaking English. When students dub for the characters, the atmosphere is light and engaging. Students try their best to capture characters’ emotions. They will focus on how to create the lines that fit the original soundtrack. By repeatedly mimic the sound, students’ speaking skills will greatly improve.