How much do you rely on subtitles when you are a beginner or intermediate language learner?

Language Discussions Language Learning
1

When you watch a film or drama in your target language to practice, how important are subtitles to you?

  • a) I just listen to the audio, I don’t care about subtitles.
  • b) I watch without subtitles, as a test. I don’t care about them.
  • c) I heavily rely on subtitles for vocabulary. I care a lot about their quality.
  • d) I use subtitles to improve vocabulary precision and language flow. I totally count on them.

0 voters

2

I miss the - I don’t care about good subtitles that much, as long as I get the gist of the story it’s okay -

I am not that kind of viewer, nor do I think a lot of volunteers think that way, but I often got to hear - better bad subs than no subs.

3

I totally have found that it’s helpful to have subs, even if I think I already understand the target language. That way, I’m always learning new vocabulary words and not misunderstanding things to find out later they were wrong!
Not to mention beginner or intermediate language learning, it can really be a game-changer.

4

I wouldn’t have thought it existed as a learning option! As a language learner, I think counting on bad subs to get the gist is counter-productive, because afterwards we will have to “unlearn” the wrong information and then “re-learn” it. Maybe these learners are fluent already and that’s why they don’t pay attention to subs?

This is true, at least in my experience. Bad subtitles are backward steps in my learning progress.

5

Forgive me, I think I wasn’t fully awake. I was on the wrong path … What did I read? Maybe it’s time for new specs. Once again, sorry.

6

Is the quality about word wordly translations or about fluent and nice to read subs in my native language?

I always prefer fluent native language subs over word wordly subs because it is no fun to watch something with bad written subs in my native language. Even for learning a foreign language while watching I prefer good written native language subs because even language learning courses alter it to a way how it is said in both languages and do not write sentences word wordly that then become super odd in one language.

1 Like
7

The question is whether fuzzy/bad/inaccurate subs help learners or not. As a learner, I rely on subs and bad ones just waste my study time, not to mention my braincells.

I agree, they help neither with watchig nor with learning. Also, they may be totally wrong for languages with different structures.

8

As a voter I went with choice d anyway, if learner or translator, if one has not the right base your wording will just be imprecise or totally wrong.