I can understand everything on South Park so it's less about hearing and more about presentation. Plus, subtitles are useful when everyone is sleep. I play all games with subtitles even if I can understand everything. When subtitles are paragraphs it's hard to resist reading this entire block of text, which often spoils the dialogue. Subtitle dialogue is there to supplement and show whatever is being said on screen. With subtitle paragraphs, you're often reading something 10-15 seconds before they say it. It's cheap, lazy, and dogshit.
As for the girl thing, I read in many previews that it was possible.