I am very new to listening practice. I’ve seen some people say listening while following along with JP subtitles is beneficial, and some people say it made them dependent on the subtitles.
currently I’m having a hard time breaking out certain sounds. one that comes to mind is “に行っていました”. That transition from the に sound into the い sound in 行く is very hard for me to separate and if I had to write what I hear (without subtext) I’d write “にっていました” or something. Another good one I heard today was …に見に…. I had to keep replaying it cause it just sounded like a garbled mess. I’m trying to determine if using subtitles would act as a crutch for this weakness and prevent improvement, or as training wheels and easy me into it.
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I’m looking for some advice or anecdotes to improve my listening practice.
\–Thank you!!!!
2 comments
both. there’s no one true path, and both teach different things in different ways that are all helpful. also any one path gets boring. do all the paths.
Agreed with u/eruciform — both are beneficial in their own ways.
With subtitles ensures that you’re not missing anything, can help you pick up on contractions that might have slipped by you (as you describe), serves to reinforce your reading skills, etc.
Without subtitles serves as better “pure” listening practice, since it forces you to actually train your ears to understand everything.
It’s definitely good to do both — you can even do both with the same material if you like.