5 things you need to give up to get subtitle free
It’s one of the internet’s most overused quotes. And I’ve never understood it.
“What gets measured, gets improved.”
What did Peter Drucker mean by that? Measure and then what?
I finally decided to humour this advice a few months ago. Sick of having a double chin in all my YouTube videos, I made the decision to lose the weight I’d put on during my Master’s degree.
I got a little Moleskine notebook and started tracking. I expected nothing. I just dutifully wrote down the number staring up at me from between my feet.
Then I started to get curious. I enjoyed observing the daily fluctuations. Or how, for instance, my weight tended to go up after the weekend.
Somehow, in the process of all this tracking, I had ideas for tweaks I could make in my diet.
- What if I stopped buying white chocolate bars every weekend?
- What if I did a Dry January?
- What if I stopped eating dessert?
- What if I had salad for lunch instead of a sandwich?
- How about forgoing my weekly 300g of Comté cheese?
- Why don’t I make spaghetti carbonara the Italian way, without crème fraîche?
My priority was removal. What you don’t eat is even more important than what you do put in your mouth.
We’re all looking for that magic pill to fix us. To add, not delete. But transformation starts with stripping away what’s not serving us.
Subtitle freedom also begins with freeing yourself from habits and blocks that are holding you back.
Here are 5 things you need to give up to watch your favourite films and TV shows in English, without the subtitles.
#1 Perfection
A student once asked me if it was possible to catch 99% of the films and series he watches in English?
I had to admit that, even as a native speaker, I’m not able to catch 99% of what I hear.
When you watch a film in your own language, do you catch everything? Probably not. You inevitably bump up against something tricky like a weird accent, mumbly dialogue or an unfamiliar word.
Even at a high level of proficiency, you’re not going to catch everything in films or TV series
Why?
- The dialogue in films and TV series is fast and natural-sounding.
- Cultural references are hard to understand when you’re not living in an English-speaking country. As a Brit, I don’t always understand references in American films and TV shows.
- You might come across series and film-specific vocabulary such as medical or legal terminology. And you’re sure to encounter informal, chatty language that you don’t usually hear when you live outside an English-speaking country.
So no, you’ll never catch everything. The real question is: Can you catch 80% of what you hear?
Great, turn off the subtitles. 80% is enough to enjoy the series subtitle-free. You can use other clues to help you catch the last 20% like gestures, lip movements, scenery, decor, and other visual elements.
Catching the last 20% will require 80% of your effort. You’ll burn yourself out trying to achieve it.
#2 Just listening
Do you know what your problem is? If you “just listen” then no.
As listening specialist John Field puts it:
“many gaps of understanding in L2 listening relate not to unknown words but to known words that have not been recognised”
New words don’t cause all your problems. What you’re missing are words you already know such as articles, prepositions, or auxiliary verbs.
These words have multiple pronunciations in fast speech and can sound very different to your expectations.
When you go beyond just listening, you learn how to listen. You’re not relying on osmosis or luck to get you subtitle free.
Here’s how to give up just listening:
- Choose a short section from the series or movie you’re watching and write it out. When I say short, I mean a few seconds. Listen to it a few times.
- Use the subtitles to check what you heard and compare with your version. What did you miss? What did you mishear? What do you notice about the pronunciation of the known words?
- Repeat what you heard, imitating the actors as closely as possible. This helps you to reinforce the link between the word or words and how they really sound.
#3 Watching films like you would in your own language
Watching films in your native language is fun and relaxing right?
You get to snuggle up on the couch, chomp on popcorn, release the tensions of the day and escape into another world. No effort required.
When you try to do the same thing in English, you throw your pillow at the screen, smash your popcorn down on the floor and feel more stressed than when you started.
The truth is, when you’re watching films in English, you can’t watch them the same way you would in your native language.
Watching a film in another language (or sometimes even in your own language) is like being thrown out of a helicopter in the middle of nowhere and asked to make your way back to civilization.
So, how do you make the process easier? Go on a reconnaissance mission first.
- Watch the trailer — these can be hard to follow sometimes, but you’ll get a feel for the film and the story so you know what to expect.
- Read the Wikipedia page or IMDb entry for the movie — you’ll get a highly detailed plot summary in many Wikipedia film pages. But beware of spoilers. IMDb gives a shorter summary as well as links to videos and trailers.
- Watch an interview with the actors or director — you’ll get familiar with their voices and accents before watching and you’ll understand the movie’s plot and goals better.
#4 Guilt about switching the subtitles on
Giving up the guilt is one of the best things you can do for yourself on your subtitle freedom journey.
The subtitle issue isn’t black and white. I’m not saying: you must never use subtitles. Nor am I saying always use subtitles. The subtitles are there to help you when you need them.
And it’s using the subtitles to go beyond just listening, that will, ironically, help you break free from subtitles.
Lost? Stick on the subtitles — that’s what they’re there for.
You don’t get subtitle free any faster through pain and struggle. Give yourself permission to enjoy the film or series first, and understand it after.
My friend and fellow language teacher Elfin gave me one of my favourite subtitle tips ever, called “subtitles on, subtitles off”.
You watch for 10 minutes or so with the subtitles on. And then you switch them off for 10 minutes. And then back on again. You get the idea.
It’s ok not to understand — films and series are tough. In fact, they’re probably the hardest type of spoken language to understand. So give yourself a break. And use the subtitles if you need to.
#5 Watching entire films
After a couple of summer trips to France during my undergraduate degree, I figured out that the key to mastering French, or any language, was immersion.
And what better immersion tool than films? They have it all: culture, emotion, dialogue, drama, real life language. And all you have to do is stick a DVD in the DVD player. Easy.
Except I overwhelmed myself. When I was getting started with Portuguese I decided to watch Ciudad de Deus. I was interested in understanding the lyrics of Bossa Nova tunes. Not the language of teenagers in the gangs of Rio’s favelas.
The subtitles couldn’t help me find my way through a movie that was too far removed from my abilities and interests.
Even with a solid intermediate level of French, films with no subtitles at all were a challenge too far. Instead of building my listening skills, they made me feel crap about myself.
Knowing what I know now, here’s what I recommend instead. You can still watch films, but break it down and make it easier for yourself:
- Watch the film in shorter chunks, scene by scene, or in 10–20 minute increments.
- Watch film clips rather than whole films. Movieclips on YouTube has a great selection and many of their videos come with subtitles.
- Watch movie trailers — you can figure out if you want to watch the whole film or not based on what you can understand. And they’re short enough to do ear and pronunciation training with.
- You can also use the same logic with TV shows. When I’m looking for clips to use with my students, I go onto the channels of TV networks like HBO or CBS on YouTube to find short, subtitled clips.
- Or, you can find a TV show you enjoy and follow it on a regular basis. A series will make your life so much easier as you see and hear the same characters and expressions week to week. If you get completely addicted to it, even better.
Remove these 5 things and you’ll be well on your way to subtitle freedom. And if you must add anything, buy a notebook and start tracking:
- What you’re listening to and how often
- How much you understood as a percentage
- What you did to go beyond just listening
- How you’re feeling about your progress
If you need any help with that process, you can download the beautiful, refillable and reusable Leo Listening Log.
Photo by Mike Kotsch on Unsplash