People who try to judge foreign acting....

People who try to judge foreign acting (or writing) are one of my biggest pet peeve.

I know that, as a reviewer, I shouldn't be talking badly about my fellow "colleagues," but I really cannot stand it.  When you are watching a show from a foreign country, there are many things that you will not be able to understand.  There are many parts of acting that you have to be a native, or have a lot of experience living in that area, to really understand.  One of these things is the tone of voice.  All languages have their own common speech.  How you say a phrase can create multiple meanings depending on what words the actor chooses to emphasize.  I guess you could call it a "dialect."  A common language pattern can predict what phrase a person might say to express their feelings, as well as what words are emphasized.

As far as writing goes, you cannot fully review one's writing ability without complete knowledge of the language and culture.  In a Korean drama, a person put a flower in a woman's hair.  To an American, that might be romantic.  However, in Korea it is a common reference to crazy people.  Also, you cannot take translations at their word.  Translations are only as good as the subber.  Most of the time translations are not literal.  Most subtitlers try to convey the basic idea as a lot of phrases make no sense if spoken literally.  The words on the screen may not fully impact the same way as in the original translation.  (This has to do with religion as well.  You cannot treat a translated religious script as you would an original script that has not been translated from a foreign text.)

That being said, you really cannot completely judge a person's ability if you are a foreigner unless you are fluent in the language and culture.  People whose native tongue is different from the film they are reviewing will have a hard time noticing things.

Please, dear bloggers, do me a favor.  Please don't say that an actor is good if you do not have the experience.  You can judge if a person is a bad actor if their facial expressions are bad, but you cannot necessarily say that they are wonderful.