Be careful with subtitles for language learning

Do you use subtitles for language learning? A lot of language learners are under the misconception that it is easier to watch a movie in the language you want to learn if you have the subtitles in your mother-tongue.

FALSE!!!

Don’t do it!

Here is the reason why:

Firstly, because you are inevitably going to end up reading the subtitles, and not paying attention to the audio.

Secondly, it is exhausting. Your brain has to do the incredibly hard task of thinking in two languages at the same exact time. It has to process the information from the subtitles in one language, and even if you don’t focus on it, still has to process the sounds coming from the audio in a different language.

It is not effective.

Instead, I recommend having the subtitles in the target language. You can get way more out of your practice, even if you don’t understand anything. As I have mentioned in the other post, Start learning a language by listening it does have benefits to listen to the target language, even if you don’t understand a word.

Hope this helped you use subtitles correctly for language learning,

Zsófi

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