Reading sentences in English and listening in Japanese

6 comments

1. Only if the translators were sticklers for absolute direct translation.

   But try it and let us know how it goes.

2. Personally, the only 2 uses I see for subtitles are (1) familiarizing oneself with stock phrases, and (2) seeing how the translators handle words that don’t quite exist in English, and/or whose translation depends on context (e.g. 困る, 対応する, ちゃんと, 勝手, 都合, 具合, 程度). They (usually) give some insight into how they’re meant to be taken or interpreted.

3. Try it if you insist, but I’m willing to bet you’ll be asking how to stop trying to translate every little thing in your head not too long after this if you do.

   If you were going to try and piece things together from English translations, you’d be better off trying to understand unknown vocabulary and grammar using a dictionary and a grammar resource, and then rewatching the video.

   Bite the bullet and try to increase your skills without relying on English subtitles as a crutch. At the very least, use Japanese subs. Too many factors make non-Japanese subs unhelpful for learning Japanese.

4. Exclusively Eng subs are minimally useful. Dual lang subs are really your best bet, imo. For example, Onomappu’s channel:
   https://youtube.com/c/Onomappu

5. I find (good) English subtitles can be useful when trying to follow Japanese audio. Mostly I try to ignore the English, but inevitably something comes up and I start getting lost. The English subtitles can then get me back on track and the listening practice can continue.

   You don’t want to try to match, word for word, English to Japanese though. Most of the time that simply wont work. Good English translations only semantically match the Japanese, and word to word mapping is not possible.

6. Mmm, I can share a story that might be relevant. I grew up in Singapore in the 1980s and 90s, before there was really much of an internet (ah the good old days of 56 kbps modems), let alone YouTube, Netflix, etc. And a lot of local TV programming was in Mandarin, and they were all subtitled in English (because 30% of residents weren’t ethnic Chinese).

   So I grew up just always watching Mandarin TV with English subtitles. Was it terrible? I don’t know. I’m fluent in both languages now, but I also studied both languages at school. My Mandarin literacy is poorer.

   Another data point: I also watched English cartoons on Malaysian TV because we could receive them here, and all the subs were in Malay. And I have barely any Malay now. I didn’t study it in school too.

   Because of growing up in this kind of very messy, very un-textbook-ish linguistic melting pot environment, I don’t set a lot of store by absolutist or strict learning methods. If you use a language and comprehend it, you slowly acquire it.

   I had teachers with local accents all through my early schooling. When I went to university, it was the first time I had to understand all kinds of accented English (American was the easiest, Italian was okay, Chinese was hard surprisingly, and we had a UK prof I only understood near to the end of the semester). And now I can switch to an accent my friends say is “poseur” – because I acquired it for school/work (my BA was in English Language, and I became an English teacher right after).

   So, I would say, (granted, there are always “better”, “more optimal”, methods) don’t worry about it, just learn from what you enjoy doing or happen to come across. I don’t think there are irreparable mistakes on a language learning journey. If there’s some aspect of your linguistic performance you want to fix later, you probably can, like I did.