I’m at a level where I am comfortable playing games that utilize Japanese subtitles, like Cyberpunk, which in practice should still be above my level due to subject matter and vocabulary, but thanks to subtitles I understand a lot more than I would just from listening. I also understand a lot just from listening when watching simpler anime like Sousou no Frieren.
But when I want to watch Jujutsu Kaisen for example, or the recent Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, there are moments that I get everything and then there are moments where I can catch only single words for a couple minutes straight and not uderstand anything. It of course bothers me because it’s not fun and I start doubting why can I watch something else perfectly fine and then encounter something that still sounds like total gibberish (I know the rational answer to this, I just wanted to describe how I feel).
What I wanna ask is if anyone had a period like this and can share their experience, whether they persisted without subs and saw some benefits to that, or used subs for these harder media because it was simply no fun to go without them.
7 comments
Maybe use less fast paced shows like slice of life or romance?
try re-watching shows you’ve already watched with subs without them. That way you know the context beforehand and don’t need to worry about missing story details.
I have a slice of life anime that has no option for JP subs, so here’s what I do:
1. Listen to a sentence with eng subs turned off
2. See how much I understood
3. Rewind a bit to check how much I got right.
Hello. I am more or less in your same situation. About to take N1 for fun and it’s been a year and a half or so I’ve been watching anime subtitle-less and stumbled upon your same stone: complexity of vocab depending on the genre.
I have watched plenty of fantasy-related anime and by now I instantly recognize all the “field” words. I watch all fantasy-related anime sans subs. It works the same as in any area of life, the more you are exposed, the more words you know.
(Slice of life are also a piece of cake, for obvious reasons.)
But when things get murkier… I attempted watching Vinland Saga without subs. Result: absolute disaster. Too many historical words (weapons, tools, actions, types of places…). And the same happened when, like you, I attempted watching the new Jujutsu season without subs. I fumbled through the onmyoji-ish terminology.
My tactic for this problem is just what you suggested: watching terminology-dense anime with (Japanese ofc) subs. Maybe the next similar anime will be easier without subs.
I honestly like more written Japanese than spoken one, I’m fascinated by ideograms and all their possibilities. But watching anime subtitle-less is also very rewarding.
Sorry if it wasnt of much help, but I liked finding someone similar to me.
PS: I own a couple of denshi jisho and they have been tremendously useful to retain vocab from anime, as the search and look up process is insanely faster than phone. Truly recommend getting one
I’m not familiar with any of those shows, but is possible that there’s some element of the dialogue that’s tripping you up? For example they use a lot of specialized terminology or the characters used antiquated speech patterns for characterization.
I’m not a big anime person, but I recently watched わたしの幸せな結婚 and found that to be more difficult than most because the show liked to used historical speech patterns, lots of keigo, and used lots of made up words for the fantasy elements. I found myself occasionally turning on the English subs to spot check my understanding of certain lines. I’ve passed the N1 and used to work in an a Japanese-speaking office, for context.
Do you think using something like language reactor would be helpful for you?
IME English subtitles deactivate learning, so I try to avoid them where possible. My polyglot buddy said that audio alone is better than video as the brain gets lazy with images, simple plots, low word density, simple language; this is an inconvenient truth.
When I moved to Japan, the Japanese TV subtitles became useful but eventually were irritating for content I was familiar with. However, with new topics, my comprehension dropped off a cliff so I put on the subtitles (and pulled out a dictionary).
For example, eventually I understood most of the news. But then a legal drama series started and I struggled for a while. Or some technical science drama.
Traditional denshi jishos are not popular on this subreddit, but in the real world they are great for tv and paper books/magazines. Fast, good handwriting recognition, no drain to mobile phone battery, no phone distractions. Good used ones cost around $70 (or less), shipped globally.
I mainly subscribe to the ACTFL scale because of my job, so let’s say “intermediate” is N4-N3: you’re able to make independent sentences and at a stretch can order them in a paragraph. You can handle most daily conversations and express your thoughts with some effort in a way that a native speaker should be able to understand with some effort.
The genre of anime might have a limit on what you can understand without difficulty.
Children’s shows like Pokémon or Card Captor Sakura should be okay. Some slice of life like K-On! and Polar Bear Cafe would be alright.
You might have issues with stories with deeper philosophical or polical themes