The Polish Reader (Polski Lektor)

Almost everyone knows that in Spain, since The Franco dictatorship, we dub all non-Spanish speaking documentaries, series and movies, something that if you are already accustomed to it, then it seems normal, but when you start to watch them in the original version, you discover a whole new world in front of you. In the beginning, I thought that in Europe it was different (I mean that everybody watched them in the original version with or without subtitles), but nothing is further from reality. When I arrived in Poland, I turned on the television to watch something and I found a not so pleasant voice, which it was reading in a monotonous way all dialogues from the movie. Ladies and gentlemen, it is “my great pleasure” to introduce to you the famous Polish Reader.

When I discuss this with Polish people about this ‘lektor’ (reader), everyone tells me that it is something normal and they are already used to, exactly the same situation as with Spaniards and dubbing. Even after talking about this with my wife, she tells me that she can clearly hear the original voices of the actors, something that is impossible for me.

Many of you will tell me now that if you have to choose between ‘lektor’ and dubbing, you would choose the first one because it is the closest one to the original version. Below I will only show my opinion about this; I will not try to convince you either way because this is not my goal.

Firstly, in Spain, dubbing provides many job opportunities and the second thing is that we have a lot of talent in the dubbing sector. I do not know any country in the world which does it as well as we do. Also, I have to say that when I watched my first movie in the original version (with subtitles); I cursed the dubbing to which I was used to. Now, I always say the same thing: For example, the first time I listened to the original voice of Leonardo Di Caprio was only seven years ago; before then, I only knew the voice of the dubber and the same was with many actors. Now, if it is possible, I only watch movies and series in the original version with Spanish subtitles.

Now let us talk about the Polish ‘lektor’, which for me it is like a boil on the ass. The first thing I want to say is that this ‘lektor’ only appears in Polish television channels, in most cinemas in Poland all the movies (except for the animation ones for children which are helped by dubbing for easy understanding) are in the original version with subtitles in Polish. I have to say that I do not like this man at all (usually the same one or with an automated voice) that reads the dialogues of a good series or movie without any feeling like monotone voiced robots. I simply hate it and irritates me a lot.

Here is a video so you can decide for yourself:

And what about you, what do you think about the famous ‘lektor’? Do you like it or hate it?

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