Why Watching Subtitled Media is Better.
Understand the story better with Visual Dialogue.
I receive a lot of questions from my students asking how to learn English better and faster. Most of the time, I tell them to get off their phones and enjoy conversations with native speakers, but this generally goes unnoticed for a while. The other piece of advice I give them is to watch movies or television series.
They often reply with a rolling of their eyes or shrug of their shoulders as if I am an idiot. Like the advice, I am giving them, is so plainly obvious that they are easily wasting their money in my class.
Because of their reaction, I decided to take some time and watch films with the subtitles on. A little piece of my own medicine so to speak. I did this to prove that the more content you watch the more you will learn. To record my actions, I set myself a goal of becoming conversational in a language with one of the students.
It took a few months, but the results spoke for themselves. I was able to have a fully-fledged conversation with a student in Portuguese with little to no mistakes. Granted, I had done some study back in the day, but the use of subtitles in Television and Film, helped me get a better understanding of the way the language comes across.
I was able to use certain colloquialisms and metaphors that I had picked up from watching subtitled content but expressed them the right way because of how I saw the characters doing it.
This is one of the aspects of learning that I find so important.
You can learn vocabulary and grammar in any old book, but you need to visually see how the people are interacting with one another with their gestures, body language, and expressions, to really get a feel and understanding of the language.
Since this little challenge began, I haven’t been able to watch a movie without subtitles. Now I actively avoid going to the cinemas, simply because the subtitles are not included in the overpriced ticket.
Why? Because I find that I am learning more and getting more out of the film than by simply watching the action unfold on screen.
By turning the subtitles on, I am actively tuned into the conversation and any word or expression that is unheard is suddenly seen to create more sense between the characters.
Not only do you get a visual understand of the language that is being used, but you can also associate it with actions that characters show on the screen.
I wrote about this in my first ever Medium article;
It is really important to use various methods and techniques to learn more from watching content.
Yes, it is great to sit down and be entertained for an hour and forty minutes, but what else can you take away from that time?
Start using the subtitles to your advantage and take control of learning outcomes. It doesn’t change the quality of the film or show but will change the quality of your knowledge.
