Învaţam japoneza folosind subtitrarea filmelor

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?