Dubbing Morimoto

[Luna_Estrella]

I'm doing a rhetorical criticism of Iron Chef America and the way they use dubbing for Chef Morimoto. Can anyone tell me why? He has lived in America for 27 years.

[duonyte]

You might be better off asking this in the Celebrity Chefs forum - I have no idea of who you are talking about but I understand many of the chefs are discussed there and someone might know the answer.

[Molly53]

Luna_Estrella wrote:
I'm doing a rhetorical criticism of Iron Chef America and the way they use dubbing for Chef Morimoto. Can anyone tell me why? He has lived in America for 27 years.

I read somewhere that the older a person is when they move to another country/learn a new language, the stronger their accent in the new language will be.

For example, if someone moves before the age of 13 or so, they will assume the accent and intonations of their new location. After that, not so much.

My spouse has been in the US for 35 years and still has a noticeable accent.

For TV purposes, I'm guessing that his accented English is too strong for the everyday viewer, thus the dubbing.

[Luna_Estrella]

Thank you so much. I got a little lost in the topic titles.

[Luna_Estrella]

Molly,

Thanks for your response. It's no secret that many Americans are uncomfortable at the thought of trying to listen harder to a non-native English speaker (which is something producers will pay attention to), but as a global thinker, I'd really like to see them let Morimoto speak for himself - perhaps aided by subtitles. The dubbing just seems so demeaning to me for some reason.

I sent a query but was sent here to "ask others what they think," so I guess this is it, lol.

Thanks again.