Should You turn Subtitles On or Off When you Watch a Movie to Learn the Language?

[@KnightofAges]

From my experience, if the language in question is similar to your own (say a Romance language to another), subtitles can be decisive to learn it. In my case, I ended up learning French by just watching dozens and dozens of times the movie 'Les Douze Travaux d'Astérix' over about a year with subtitles when I was 14-15. To be honest, I did it because I LOVED the movie and had no iinterest in learning French (which I could not understand when I started). Think I watched it (or most of it) almost everyday. But somehow, after hearing it for so long and seeing the words and phrases explained at the same time, one day everything just made 'click' and I suddenly realized that I could read and speak French without problems. Overnight, all the French BD/normal books my dad had and which I could not read until then became just easy reading, and overtime it progressed to a point where rather later in life I ended up taking part in investigations before the French Senate and in trade deals with the French Chamber of Commerce. And every time people asked where I learned to speak such good French and I told the truth, everyone thought I was mocking them.

[@maureenmiaullis6427]

Wow! That is great! Thanks for the idea.

[@transmathematica]

When I started learning Mandarin, I watched Mandarin movies with English subtitles. I learned one word per hour in the first hundred hours. This doesn’t sound much but A1 Mandarin is 150 words so, together with what I was learning in lessons, I was well on my way to A2! I then watched one hundred hours without subtitles. At this stage I could hear every word and, if it was one of the couple of hundred words I knew, I could understand them at native speaking speeds. Not bad for an A2 student. At the end of six years and a few thousand hours of movies and radio I am fluent - and desperate to spend time in a Mandarin speaking country!

[@modmaker7617]

The issue with subtitles and dubbing is that usually, they don't match. They're made by completely different people also because dubbing is audio and subtitles are written. Dubbing is to match the lips and is very localised while subtitles are much closer to the original language version and are condensed to fit on the screen. Also another issue, different countries prefer different types of translations; Countries like the Netherlands, Portugal, Nordic countries, Estonia and the Balkans prefer subtitles and only dub kids' material because kids haven't learned how to read. Countries like Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria use this method called voice-over where they keep the original language audio (sometimes a dub from a different country but that's a mistake) with small amount of voice-actors on top. Polish voice-overs use one voice-actor that speaks in a monotone tone and is usually male and is pretty much audio-subtitles while Lithuania & Bulgaria use about 4 voice-actors and it's closer to an actual full dubbing. While in Poland, Romania & Bulgaria full dubs are starting to become more and more popular with younger people in their 20s and full dubs are being made more often despite that the primary translation method continues.

[@Riceball01]

The other thing to factor is the kind of subtitles that you're getting. Sometimes the subtitles match the original language dialogue are only minimally altered to make grammatical sense. Other times the subtitles are based on the dub script and don't necessarily match what's being spoken in the original language.

[@JanoTuotanto]

@@Riceball01 Also video translations are often cheaply done and full of mistakes.

[@DaxRaider]

what i did was i started watching english shows with german subs then i switched to english subs and after some time i did not need subs anymore

[@yanneyanenchannel]

Sorry if I missed this in the video, but I think it should be clarified that we're talking about subtitles in the target language (e.g. Japanese subtitles for a Japanese movie) and not translations (e.g. English subtitles for a Japaneses movie), which would probably be a whole other discussion. Great video, and I do agree completely!

[@lorenzozapaton4031]

Spanish is my native language. English is the only one I know (not an expert but I can defend myself) and all movies I watch, I watch them with English subs. Even when I watch anime or read manga, I use english subs or an english translation (manga). My dream is to learn french or latin but I am just too lazy, lol.

[@GeekNewz]

I speak English fluently and I mostly learned it from learning basic grammar in school and watching Pokemon without subtitles

[@AthanasiosJapan]

I prefer to study languages, by listening to music, than watching movies. A movie takes a lot of time to watch, while a song is usually about 5 minutes. You can listen it again and again, without getting repetitive. Also, don't underestimate the psychological factor: I admit that sometimes I need gratification when I learn a language. You can learn and master one song in just one day, but a movie is quite long. One song isn't enough, but it helps you start a habit. Mastering one language takes months or years, but one song can be done in short time.

[@akl2k7]

Of course, with a song, you won't get the natural cadence of the language (tonal languages sometimes even drop tones!), and the vocabulary can be all over the place in how useful it is. What would be better is watching ten-minute KZbin videos or TV series with 20 to 40 minute episodes.

[@JS-ir7wh]

Think of all the times you misunderstood the lyrics of an English song because of the artistic license taken with pronunciation, cadence, tone, and stress in order to match to the melody or rhyme. "Excuse me while I kiss this guy"

[@lobos320]

​​@@JS-ir7wh exactly. Everyone has the experience of misunderstanding song lyrics in their native language for years. And then you finally see the lyrics written or someone corrects you and finally the song makes more sense. Another widely misunderstood lyric "blinded by the light. Wrapped up like a _______" There was a Smiths song that u misunderstood for literally decades. Iit was a homophobe. I forget right now but it was something like son/sun difference. I thought the lyric was odd but.now it makes.more sense

[@monalisadavinci7076]

I've watched foreign language movies and TV for years, and totally need subtitles. And, I've found that when you stop translating in your head from your native language to the foreign language, you're on your way...

[@sanmar6292]

I would say. In the beginning when you have no basics, just turn on your native subtitles. -> But get your basics from books ect. After you are able to understand basic written sentences -> switch to subtitles that match the spoken language. It will help you understand conversations that are normal/fast paced,. When you are able to understand most words that are spoken -> you could switch back to your native language, to get instant translations for some selected words or phrases that you might not know yet. At this point you should also be able to spot some false/creative translations.

[@SpacePatrollerLaser]

I am intrigued by your use of "musicality....of a language". Since you are exceedingly proficient at language and very proficient at music. I would like to see that idea developed furhter

[@Pdor_figlio_di_Kmer]

I got to my actual level of fluency in English (lesser than yours, but then again, you expatriated in the USA and I am still in Atripalda with no money to travel anywhere) first with written words reading English literature to expand the poor vocabulary of the scholastic English, then I honed my by then horrendous pronunciation (offshoot of of our schools' teachings) with Top Gear (the one that will be forever remembers as the BEST in the history of the programme, with Hammond, May and Clarkson) and the Mythbusters (as above, the one with Savage and Hyneman) and the British Q.I. (with Stephen Fry). Of course the episodes I could get online of those series were strictly subtitle-less, and I can't deny it, on first it was hard, VERY hard, especially since I jumped from UK English to USA English from one programme to the other with obvious confusion, but be it because I REALLY liked those programmes (I cried when they were interrupted, Mythbusters and Top Gear, after of YEARS of media shit I finally found really good programmes to watch in TV, although not Italian TV, and lost them to various happenings I'm not going to rehash here, as for Q.I.... well, the announcer that was put in Fry's place didn't work for me), be it because I'm hard-headed, be it because abusing of the rewind option until I got it, I slowly got to the point I can have a naturally fluid discussion with people from either the UK or the USA by learning to shift gears in my brain into thinking in English, rather than thinking in Italian and translating on the fly (it's a mistake a lot of people do and one that just doesn't work if one wants to reach fluency). Australian... not so well I fear. While my level of comprehension of UK and USA English is about 90% (and the rest I usually glean from the context, or if I can I ask about it), my level of spoken Aussie English attests itself about 35%. I lack training in that version of English and the scarce availability of interesting (to me) TV programmes from there doesn't help at all. All this above to say, I am with you Metatron: I suggest following other languages movies and films with no subs, BUT only if you have the fundamentals of the language down already OR if you can (as in my case) stop howitzer grenades with your cranium taking no damage. To the others I suggest to use the subs on first yes, but with caution. Switch them off as soon you feel you got to a comfortable level of knowledge or they'll become a crutch that'll get you nowhere.

[@cahallo5964]

I believe you are insane but in a good way and I wish you succeed in life in all your endevours

[@Pdor_figlio_di_Kmer]

@@cahallo5964 Thank you. Sanity is overrated anyway. ❤ The same to you. 👍

[@patricialavery8270]

You can learn to read Elvish from Tolkien's books,but unless you find that clip of him reciting a poem in Elvish you don't know what it was meant to sound like.

[@krupam0]

He quite thoroughly lays down the phonology for the languages in the Appendices for LotR ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@D00Rb3LL]

Thank you, learning french rn and i’ve been listening to a lot of french but always with subtitles, now I will balance out by practicing listening alone. No wonder my reading comprehension is improving but my listening has not haha. I just didn’t know.

[@evelioguaperas]

Maybe this is a bit unrelated but I'm pretty fluent in english. When I talk with english-speaking people I understand 100%. When I watch youtube I understand 100%. But movies and series are a no-go for me. I understand most of it but I miss a lot, I feel like I only understand 80%.

[@pierangelosaponaro2658]

Movies, TV shows and news are the biggest test for comprehension. With certain languages, reading and writing are easier. We feel that we are more knowledgeable by understanding through reading. Speaking is the hardest I believe.

[@ItsJustMe0585]

I'm starting to learn Italian right now. One thing I've found is watching children animation is actually the best, because for some reason they tend to speak slower than live-action movies. Adventure time is f'ing great. I still have very VERY little understanding, but the ability to pick out a word here, a word there, and maybe even a full sentence now and then, is actually a BOOST to my self esteem than just memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules with sentences like "The red dog is not eating your bread"...or whatever.

[@JackShephard777]

where do you watch cartoons dubbed in Italiano at? sto imparando anche l'italiano

[@helgenlane]

Children animation + children books are great for learning. Another great way - watch your favourite shows/movies in another language. This helps contextualise the phrases that you hear because you already know the context and meaning from the previous time you watched it.

[@monalisadavinci7076]

Kids books have helped me too while in a foreign country, by going to a book store or library, and just casually scanning them for awhile without buying or checking them out.

[@keithkannenberg7414]

I like to watch documentaries. The narrator of a documentary tends to articulate very clearly with standard language. I find this a lot easier to understand when learning than a TV show or movie where actors will speak in quickly in colloquial language. You have to like documentaries though!

[@monalisadavinci7076]

I get my international news from French, German, and Japanese TV channels in English. But there's also lots of other languages spoken that are either subtitled or voiced over with the original language heard faintly in the background. And that goes for documentaries too, presented in the same ways.

[@me.know-it-all]

I kinda agree , but the major problem that ecounters me when i watch a movie or a tv series is that there are many distractions that hinder me from hearing what actors say, the movie usually uses music, songs and soundtracks that may be higher than the voice of actors, and i don't think that the soundtrack will present in reality so probably tv- series or movies aren't the best choice to learn a language. I usually can understand what fluents say, either in boadcast or in youtube without subtitles, but songs, movies, tv series and even an audiobook that uses AI voice are not comrehensible/understable to me.

[@shutterchick79]

Having background noise can, though, be beneficial. It could train your ears for, for example, listening to the seller at the noisey market in Morocco, or announcements on the Paris subway.

[@tartufo4870]

Subtitles are good bc you can learn easier,definitely 😃🥰

[@RickardLejonhjarta]

the argument for subtitles being inaccurate is important to remember

[@exploatores]

sometimes I wounder if the person who write the subtitles realy understand. the language they should translate.

[@thegreekguy1124]

I basically learned English through KZbin. All of my vocabulary I learned hearing natives and this has helped a lot with my pronunciation. When I started I only knew some basic grammar and a bit of vocabulary and in less than a year I moved from having to turn subs on IN GREEK(cause I would understand nothing)to I don't like having subs occupying space in the bottom of my screen What I did was I started with Greek subs,then English subs and trying to understand and then from there at some point I just turned then off and I was pretty close to fluency by that point

[@sweethistortea]

My mom actually learned ho to speak English from soap operas. Her native language is Czech and she said it was hard for her to grasp English.

[@Mode-Selektor]

4:42 sometimes I watch for 5 minutes and understand everything and it feels great. Sometimes I watch for 5minutes understand like 2 words and feel like crap.

[@veidt3764]

Thank you metatron for this video! I am German, english is my second language, and russian is my third language. I had a english teacher in university, who said that my english was very lackluster. Beside me were only girls in this course, and they looked down on me. The teachter said that i should practice more and better, but she said it a very discouraging way. Still i didn't let her discourage me, despite getting a bad grade from her. I kept on watching english series (married with children), movies (blade) and read english books (who we are and how we got there). If i watch english films and series, i am certainly counting the words that i did not understand (if i am listening to russian, i count also the words i did understand). Also i can understand the conversations in nearly every film (but still not every word). So it seems that i am on the left side of the mountain, and so your video is a very big encouragement for me! And i would say that subtitles are simply good if u are a beginner, but not if u are intermediate or better.

[@lobos320]

I have a BA in Spanish but right now in my life i dont use Spanish everyday so i am out of practice so i forget words etc. I find that if i watch a movie in Spanish with subtitles, i end up just reading the subtitle and translate to English. Not "hearing" Spanish and my thinking remains in English. If i dont have subtitles on its takes a few moments but my brain "switches" to Spamish. And i can enjoy the movie more. I stop trying to translate, trust myself i understand fully with out the extra step of translation. It reminds me of when i was in University takinf Spanish classes everyday. I would go out to the bar with friends. My friend Laura was also a native English speaker majorinf in Spanish. After a few drinks i would relax and the Spanish would flow effortlessly. Laura and i would have our conversation all in Spanish. Outtside lesson plans, assignments etc. We would help each other when needed, didnt feel on stage or display in class worried about "not sounding American". Other people overhearing us talking in a loud bar would think we were from Latin America. (And thats ever people from spanish speakinf countries). It helped me with confidence, listeninf skills, reading lips in Spanish.. It helped me get past thr "translating in my head" stage. Thankfully i can do that now without the "alcohol social lubricant" and just listen to someone. However tryinf to learn Portuguese. I find subtitle very helpful . The sound and rhythm of Portuguese is very different from Spanish but frammar and vocabulary nearly the same. Having the subtitles helped me to identify vocabulary i know, and learn the way portugese is pronounced. Subtitles for me are good if i don't know the language . But were somewhat of a albatross in Spanish, keeping me stuck on English . I find watching movies in German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Subtitles show me the cognates easily. I eould mych rathe watch a movie in the original languge with subtitles that watcha dubbed movie . The mouth movemenr mismatch with sound really bothers me. Its like ehen the audio and visual track are out of phase.

[@TheAlison1456]

5:50 that's how I learned english phonetics. Constant listening and occasionally checking.

[@DaveHawthorne-lk9mz]

Dude, you speak fantastic English. English IS diglossic. Fluency at B2 is good enough for conversation but inadequate for course at Uni. With respect to subtitles, I use them to learn but also turn them off because I see the need to learn to identify and process everything I hear in Spanish. I tend to watch the same thing repeatedly until I know it or get sick of it. I find I use less energy over time to understand what I am hearing. At the beginning, listening can be very draining.

[@VitorEmanuelOliver]

My suggestion to anyone trying to improve their target language this way. If you have the time, take a movie you really like and watch it with subtitles, preferably in the language you're studying. Then watch it a second time without subtitles. You learn words, you put them to practice, you practice your listening. But don't take a horrible movie that you wouldn't want to watch a second time lol

[@billr6887]

Thank you so much for your videos. They are instructional at a deep level, easy and fun to understand, and undoubtedly have a major positive impact on language learners. It is also inspirational to know that English was not your native language and yet you speak it with such grace and nuance.

[@yato329]

i am learning french and the biggest problem i am having is finding media in which the subtitles actually match the spoken words. this especially bad on netflix.

[@lugo_9969]

Subtitles in my native language is like eating savoury & sweet at the same time....confusing. i only use the subtitles in the same language as the movie. And the big secret to fluency & progress ? Thousands of hours of contact

[@MeganMay62442]

Any platforms where you can have free conversations with other students? My issue is I have no one to practice with or talk to, everyone I know speaks only English haha.

[@karliikaiser3800]

Watching a movie you know good in your mothertongue in the language you are learning will help you a lot. This helpled me with italian. Because I knew allready what they are saying and I understood pretty much everything because I know what they are saying in my tongue.

[@dustinluthro3023]

My Japanese wife and I watch American shows and movies with Japanese subtitles and we laugh at how bad they translate stuff all the time.

[@keithkannenberg7414]

Sometimes I'll watch a video that has subtitles and make a conscious effort to ignore the subtitles, focusing on the people and things I'm seeing on the screen instead of the words. Then if there's a phrase that I don't understand I'll glance down to see if I can get the meaning from the subtitles. It takes discipline though, because it's really easy to keep reading once you've started.

[@MyOpinyin]

I was hoping you'd comment on subtitles seemingly being formed in two ways: what the person is trying to convey and other being as literal of a translation as can be even if it's clunky. maybe you can comment on this in a future video?

[@Languagebeta]

I listen to Chinese music and podcasts with Chinese subtitles, or no subtitles at all, I've been learn for a full year

[@lifigrugru6396]

Even if i understand the languige i can find easy in subtitle not the exatc word use what i hear. The second if subtitlles running the most of us start and keep it reading, less focus on the movie self. I would use a film to learn if i have see it, mostly after see it white subtitle, later less support from subtitles. I have see more serie on 3+ languiges the second was help to learn a languige later just cant find it in my motherlanguige have see in original languige.

[@franohmsford7548]

So many English subtitles are terrible and miss a lot of words or even get words wrong. Are subtitles for other languages better?

[@logenvestfold4143]

I am learning French so I use subtitles to help with spelling. But I will often watch something with subtitles then watch the same content again without subtitles.

[@Arassar]

I've learned enough Japanese through osmosis that I can pretty easily tell when some subtitles are way off. And it annoys me.

[@andyking957]

"learning by osmosis" is a really good thing I prefer too but takes time and patience. All native speakers do the same thing as a child. As an average adult they will not be able to explain educated grammar stuff, but will speak their language at "native" level (LOL). It is some thing like the Japanese Archery do: you learn most just doing it by absorbing alot of teaching lessons, books, own experience. In the end i cannot say: this I learned this way...Somehow every influence counts....

[@JohnnyLodge2]

I watch RAIplay with Italian subtitles on.

[@belstar1128]

gebruik gewoon ondertitles als je een begginer bent (ik schrijf dit in het nederlands om dat youtube mijn comment verwijderd heel vreemd)

[@jeice13]

One issue with subtitles is varying levels of accuracy. Anything too localized will probably be counterproductive with subs

[@jeice13]

Theres also the question of how different the grammar rules are as that can lead to less accurate subs to avoid confusing people

[@mansfieldtime]

The problem with languages is that they are constantly changing. American English is notorious for doing this. I grew up speaking American English... sadly it's the only 1 I know... and still when speaking I'll come across unfamiliar words. While reading I discover an odd or new word at least once a month, sometimes once a week. When writing reports or letters... spelling, forget it. So your English is probably better then mine.

[@garrysmith1029]

As a native English speaker I do struggle at spelling. I do encounter new words here and there. If you read a book I promise you there's going to be at least one new words you didn't recognized. At least in my experience. I'll say my lexicon is good but there are so many words in English. It's impossible to know them all.

[@darthguilder1923]

13:05 Fact: 90% of students quit a language right before becoming fluent

[@brianmccarthy5557]

To me as a native American😂 speaker, albeit one who grew up listening to very strong Irish accents, the giveaway that the Metatron is not a native English speaker is that you speak so fast. I've noticed that in other non-native speakers. Your English is so good that you speed it up and sometimes the natives get lost. My cousin who is completely fluent in Japanese, lived there many years, has a Japanese wife and works for the Japanese government told me that years?ago when he?was working for a?Japanese corporation he?was assigned to review resumes. He noticed that some of the applicants, all Japanese, made errors in the formal phrasing necessary in such documents. He mentioned it to his boss. The boss told hum not to be concerned as Japanese made those errors?all of the time and nobody noticed or cared. His Japanese was better than the native Japanese. Something which I often see in America with so many immigrants. Don't stress out too much. I've found that valuable with my Spanish and German.

[@nattoralikk]

I think the speed depends. I'm a native English speaker from NZ and we are known for speaking quite fast. Metatrons speed is standard here. To us Americans sound like they speak slowly lol

[@tott598]

In Belgium (at least in the Flemish parts) and the Netherlands we dont do dubs, evrything is in the original languege with subs. Exept for childrens programs wich are dubbed by the Netherlands 90% of the time and young kids in Flanders will often use words with a dutch accent instead of the flemmish one, it passes after a while tho. The benefit of having evrything with subs is that we almost pasively pick up English since thats whats most used in mainstream media. Getting fluent requires some more practice but theres alot of opportunity to do so aswell. Even though i understand evrything from english movies i still prefer to have subtitles on, having grown up with them it doesnt bother me when watching a movie, and theres just alot of times when its really hard to understand what someones is saying because of background noise or obscure accents, its nice having the subs on for that so you dont miss anything from the story.

[@reilysmith5187]

Subs for videos like these arent necessary. But when watching a hollywood movie it happens so often that I just cant hear what is being "said" even at max volume, so you really need subtitles in that case.

[@DayL147]

Can this also apply to songs in the target language?

[@dragonsman4733]

If your not using Google translate subtitles, you should be fine 😅 (seriously, I was watching a Mandarin dub of a Sub Wukong film, and the characters said really dramatic things in mandarin, but the subs made it look like they were talking drunk nonsense. Hilarious, but unhelpful.)

[@belstar1128]

Usa subtítulos si eres un principiante

[@TheAlison1456]

7:50 "touuggg" 🤣🤣🤣. Accurate.

[@wesolson4111]

Super encouraging.

[@christopherellis2663]

Subtitles, especially if in the target language. But do your homework first.

[@ChanyeolsHaneul]

I watch Korean dramas with English subtitles mostly for enjoyment, I listen Korean radio for listening, I copy books and ads for hangul practice. But I also watch interviews of my favourite Kpop artist ( EXO) without subtitles, the news, advertisements, and TV shows and KZbin channels without subtitles ( most of the times they aren't available) But the combination of all of it had help me to learn much more than I though I would. Now I am considering starting my own KZbin channel to document my journey uo actually fully learn Korean and maybe later I can the other languages I have in my bucket list, celtic languages and nordic ones 😊

[@Deibi078]

Nah

[@zzzaaayyynnn]

I'm living in Italy now, so I've been watching some classic Italian films with no subtitles to see how many words I recognize. Not really teaching me Italian, but it does help me hear how words work in conversation. Spoken Italian can sound "flowing" to me, making it hard to hear individual words.

[@wgcdrelliot8989]

There are 3 possibilities 1. You don’t care about the language and only the content => Watch in in your native language dub 2. You speak the language => Watch in that language dub 3. You learn the language => Watch in that language dub (if you prefer with that language subs) In my opinion there’s no 4 option

[@wolfcryerke]

I usually use subtitles as a complement, because it happens that I miss a word because I'm not paying 100% attention or something is said in the background which I didn't pick up. I use the subtitles as backup so to speak. And I'm not always reading them.

[@alajaksa]

I am fluent in two languages but I dont remember learning my second language. I dont remember time when I did not understand English. I have watched all English movies etc without subtitle since I was 12. I read mostly in English because not all books get translated to Finnish and the English versions are cheaper. I come across a word I don´t know every now and then but mostly they are words I would have not known even in Finnish and most likely majority of native speakers do not know them either. Last word like this was mercurial when describing someones personality. With Japanese I like to watch anime episodes without subtitles that I have already seen subbed.

[@helgenlane]

Sometimes I watch stuff with subtitles in my native language just so I can recognise all the errors/differences in meaning that are introduced by the translation and be proud of myself for being able to appreciate the content in its original form. I'm joking, but I noticed that subtitles and voice-overs often have a lot of mistakes and even change meaning of the scene. From simple misunderstanding: "I'm tired of you" becomes "You must be tired of me", to completely different meanings: "This is a great victory for us all" becomes "The battle is over, but at what cost".

[@Asphyx12]

Im majoring in learning Deutsch in Indonesia. Should i apply what you said in my studies too? since it's not japanese or spanish im asking.

[@TheVisitorSNAFU]

Great video! Also there is a film projector clicking/grinding sound in the back round.

[@bliblivion]

i learned english by watching tv shows without subtitles,. I would pause every time i didin't understand a word, I would tipe it on google to get it's meaning and translation. i find it difficult to apply this technique to japanese for exemple because i don't know how to spell the word i hear in order to find it on the internet and have more information. ( learning the base of a language in a scolar way does help a lot)

[@martecoronel]

Are there any particular series or anime you'd recommend for an intermediate Japanese student? I've heard reality shows can be good.

[@ZombieLicorice]

I think both have a place. Depending on the show you'll learn a lot of stuff they don't teach in class. Cuss words, slang, filler words, etc.

[@Taltosmaster]

I completely agree with everything that was said in this video. I still watch movies with subtitles though, even after reaching a decent level in the respective language. But only because I am able to ignore them. So even though the subtitles are there, I just listen to the movie and only read when something is unclear.

[@TeamKhandiKhane]

Having this happen naturally with Spanish due to where I live and Korean because my brother got me hooked on Korean Cinema the interesting part here is that I wasn't looking to learn either language and I still really don't know a lot. But as for "word" recognition, that's learned well. Separating each individual piece becomes so much easier even if you don't understand the language the extreme basics can get you to a place where learning could easily take off... that said might need to sit down and learn Korean now so I stop leaving the subtitles on when I watch things in English.

[@ChanyeolsHaneul]

I also learned a lot of korean phrases without even trying because they use them constantly. And only now I want to learn Korean for real and having so many sentences already known it makes things much more easy for me 😅

[@braukorpshomebrew6039]

Agreed with all the points you give. Sometimes I find myself too focused on reading and not listening with subtitles.

[@krinkrin5982]

Same here. I usually read subtitles in my head and don't really follow the spoken words that much. I think if you are just starting out, watching a movie with subtitles is a great help to understand what is going on, but I would then follow it by watching the same movie without subtitles and trying to pick out the words now that I know the context.

[@haidner]

I've heard that the best way is to start with English (or your native language) subtitles, just to get the idea if what the show is, then to watch again with subtitles of the language of the show, then without any subtitles. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed.

[@TheRedleg69]

This is why I recently got Disney plus. Watched all 9 Star Wars movies in English (native language) and now I'm going back and watching in German with subtitles. I'll probably watch them all 2 or 3 times before turning off subtitles and seeing how much I actually understand of them speaking

[@geargrinder7714]

Yay for metal tron!