Look how Europe corresponds with this map of which countries dub foreign languag...

gumby · on Dec 10, 2019

German pretty much only does dubbing (even for some live shows, amazingly) but is marked as "high proficiency".

Apropos the sampling question: English proficiency is (in my experience) poor outside large German cities.

PeterStuer · on Dec 10, 2019

Correlation for sure. Causation? Maybe in part. The cost of dubbing is very much higher that subtitling. So dubbing was only used when the target market was large enough. Larger language groups are more robust against cultural imperialism due to a more significant internal cultural market. Even science, which has universaly adopted English in Europe, was still written in French and German in their respective countries right up to the 1980s.

TheGallopedHigh · on Dec 10, 2019

Is the term cultural imperialism even appropriate here? Cultural adoption might be less loaded.

Leherenn · on Dec 10, 2019

I believe that's still the case sometimes for science, though it is declining. It's probably quite dependent on the field.

dmcdm · on Dec 10, 2019

I have a friend whose wife is from the Netherlands, and she confirms this nearly has in-joke status among the Dutch - "we speak English better than the rest of Europe because we're in love with American TV and we can only get it with subtitles".