I think it is possible to use subtitles to help learn the Japanese Language. I think it is entirely possible to use it as a tool to help with listening comprehension when it comes vocabulary, and maybe even so far as figure out some grammar too. It is just another fun way to have fun with a language.
First, lets get something out of they way. A lot of people say to better learn Japanese you MUST turn off subtitles when watching anime or J-Drama’s. I partially agree with this, but only to a point. I say this because while listening to conversations far above your head help you to get tones and eventually remember words; it sucks because you have no idea what is going on. It gets frustrating. At Tokyo in Tulsa I watched the first disc of Ai Yori Aoshi in raw Japanese no subtitles since I was doing late night in the Anime rooms and no one was there. Its depressing to only know bits an pieces of the conversation, and basic conversations at that. In short watching anime and J-Drama without subtitles can help, but it sucks. I do recommend it, but not all the time. I mean we Otaku, Americanized reference, want to enjoy what Japan has to offer and understand it.
That all being said here are 5 simple ways, from experience, subtitles help you learn.
- Correcting the Subtitles – Often times we get speed subs of stuff to watch so the translations aren’t all that great, even some non-speed subs are bad. This leads to an excellent opportunity to listen to what is being said while watching and reading the subtitles, and correct them. Basically watch what is happening, listen to tones and words, and read the subtitles (easier than it sounds). At this point you can start to tell what is being meant by the tones, which helps in Japanese conversation, and by words, which helps in comprehension. Those are the two keys after that pick up the vocabulary and you will start to notice times when the subtitles could be a bit better or how they are off just a bit, or completely. Its okay if they are because YOU have now found out they are, and that means you are learning Japanese.
- Word Recognition – When studying we learn a lot of words and can somewhat keep track of what words we do know. While I watch anime I will read the subtitles, and when I read a word in the subtitles that has been said and I do know the Japanese counterpart I’ll make sure I hear it. I suggest you do the same. If you don’t hear the word you read in the subtitles rewind and try to find it. If you can’t then it might be an opportunity for #1 above or you need to work on the word a bit, as long as it is not a word in a different dialect. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t hear the word you will eventually.
- Speed Recognition – If there is one thing to be learned it is that Japanese is a FAST language. it can be read and spoken fast. This leaves us at a disadvantage because English isn’t really a fast language it takes a while to read in comparison and with some of the most complex sentence structures available it doesn’t leave room to consistent speed talking. So how do subtitles help with this? well it helps us tune our ears to start reading the subtitles faster, but also trying to pick up the phrases too. Sometimes I have caught myself reading half the subs and picking up the other half by listening to dialog.
- Sentence Structure – This one is a tad bit harder to really follow unless you geek out a bit on grammar, both English and Japanese. When the subtitles are good subtitles and it is a leisurely show you can concentrate on what is being said and make out the differences between English and Japanese. This may not be important or even notable to most people, but it can help when learning general sentence structure in spoken language which can differ quite far sometimes from written. Again this can only really be done when it is a leisurely anime and you are paying attention, but it has helped while in speaking situations at my Japanese language club.
- Enjoyment – This might seem to be a cop-out point, but I really believe that if you don’t enjoy doing any of this then you aren’t going to get any benefit from it. I tend to do the above naturally, but I also do it as a fun exercise. After all learning Japanese should be fun and not a chore so finding fun ways of doing it is important. Too many people in my Japanese class aren’t actually enjoying the experience and having fun with it so they don’t get very far. Every time they mess with Japanese is it a chore so things like this ruin their experience of Anime or J-Dramas. So don’t do any of this if you aren’t going to enjoy it.
In the end learning Japanese is what you make of it. Nothing more nothing less. This is a way for you to maybe get more out of what you do, and also maybe gives you another way to look at study habits when dealing with media.
Have you found ways to effectively use subtitles to help you learn?
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After 4 years of consistently listening to anime speech and reading subtitles, all 5 ways probably helped me to learn the Japanese language and be able to understand it to a point where I can actually watch raws.
Yet subtitles are still much required and without formal Japanese training it is quite impossible to pick up the nuances of grammar, among other things. I am still weak in that area.
Nice article. I, for myself, am a long time “otaku” now (over 15 years) and at one point I started teaching myself Japanese.
Before that: I also like to talk about (the Japanese) Language. Have a look at some of my articles regarding this topic:
http://figurefan.blogspot.com/search/label/Language
I trained really classic with Kana printed on paper memorizing them while going by train and learning vocabulary. I was quite good and had over 800 words memorized but over time you loose much.
Only the stuff that is recurring in anime is now my basic Japanese knowledge. Grammar is not a problem. It’s so easy (compared to Western Languages) you can learn it in one weekend).
What I want to say is: Anime Japanese is really not that hard.
The hardest part would be to take the slang from shows you see and try to find it in actual learning books -_^ !!
I agree with you – I’m a very visual learner so for me, watching along with reading the subtitles helps me enormously.
My Japanese friend once had me pause a scene of a movie and then write out the subtitle. We then parsed the grammar and he had me memorize the phrases I’d written down. That was over two years ago and I’ve still got them in my brain; they were far above my level at the time so they were a good preparation for the more advanced grammatical structures. Super helpful.
I’m not a huge fan of using anime/films to learn Japanese as it’s rare it’s ‘as real people speak’, however pretty much all five of your points here are viable and logical. So yes, consider me converted, am going to give this a go with a few films
@Panther – Yeah subtitles can only get you so far, but that distance is lot longer than most people would expect if you apply some science to it.
@El Bastardo – yeah I doubt to much of the slang would be in language books, but I also doubt a majority of it is in real language.
@Liv – That is cool. Most of what I grammar wise is stuff I already know and/or is super basic structures.
@Mike – yeah subtitles are easy to dismiss because everyone says they don’t work
I tend to see what a lot of people say is true and try to find ways it isn’t actually true. LOL. unfortunately I’m wrong most of the time, either that or my experiments were so far off base it didn’t matter. heh.
try watching a Western movie with the Japanese subtitles on and you will really learn Kanji fast !
I agree with shibuya246 here, but if you can turn on the Japanese dub too! Since the subtitles are there, you can pause and take the time to go through and study new vocabulary/grammar. You can apply this to anime, too, but Japanese anime DVDs are dreadfully expensive.
As far as watching anime with English subs, this is good to a point, but if you have a desire to learn Japanese fluently, this is a real crutch. For one thing, I find that reading subs drowns out the Japanese since I mostly hear my inner monologue reading English. You’re focus should be 100% on the Japanese. For another thing, subtitles have to translate Japanese culture. Now going back and watching anime I’ve seen before, but this time purely in Japanese, I get a new appreciation for different levels of politeness (which goes along way to defining characters and relationships in Japanese) reference to famous Japanese people, historical events, everyday items/customs, the list goes on.
It may seem overwhelming but you can go subtitle-free! Ease into it by getting the subs in Japanese and studying those carefully, and then watch it again without subs. It’s a great feeling when you can listen and understand everything.
I watch a lot of anime Japanese only. I just don’t subscribe to the school of thought that you can’t use subtitles to help you learn. I believe if used effectively, like in my post, you can get a lot of benefits from subtitles. However, at the end of they day you need to go beyond subtitles in your study to actually be able to speak and understand everything.
I tried something new yesterday, I watched with subtitels … but i always looked above em so i cant read em … ( its the same as giving a performance and always look a bit above the croud's heads so you dont get nervous
in news reports and stuff…
and i respoke the said japanese in my head to figure out the words and sentece structure, i noticed how much i understand o.o and i could always look fast down when the switched to keigo
The anime I'm soeaking about is Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 …it's great because they don't speak soo fast or have fast dialogs…
but I'm still searching a japanese learning fansubs wich release animes with more subtitle optios like:
1.full japanese (hiragana katagana kanji)
1.5 with furigana
2.Hiragana (with spaces)
(maby but not sooo good, then better use english) 3.romaji
4.english
this would be really the best to learn japanese for all kind of learners…
so who wants to join
Great point. When you are learning Japanese I think it is perfectly fine to use English subtitles. For language practice, watching a movie with English subtitles, and then again with Japanese subtitles, and finally with no subtitles works very well. It is important to choose a movie you really like though lol.
You made some good points. Watching movies is definitely a great tool for learning Japanese. To get the most out of it is usually best to watch a movie several times. The first time you will learn the story and the times after that you can focus on learning Japanese. And of course, it should be fun!
Very usefull to watch film with subs in 2 languages.
I use http://dblsubs.com convert it.