I'm leaning German and i can pick up some stuff. I was wondering if you think its a good idea to either watch movies and TV with subs or without? If you watch it without, it keeps you guessing. If you watch with, you know exactly whats going on and might lean new words. I don't know. What do you think.
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Anonymous2009-07-12 0:00
I meant "it keeps you guessing" as a good thing, it makes you focus more and you watch facial expressions, you're more active and concentrate.
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Anonymous2009-07-12 1:27
remember that subtitles aren't always accurate. an expression in german will translate into jibberish so they'll substitute with a similar english expression.
it can help with short phrases and expressions that translate easily but due to sentence structure differences i think long sentences will be difficult to follow (unless you stop/start/rewind a lot)
good way to tune your ear into hearing and understanding accents though
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Anonymous2009-07-12 3:52
Yeah, I'm learning German myself and I've found that listening to German music a LOT helps, to the point where you can sing along to the song even if you don't know what the words mean, because then you can use a dictionary site or a reliable translation site to find out what the word means, that's taught me a lot.
I use dict.cc as my dictionary site and I listen to Oomph! and Rammstein as my music.
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Anonymous2009-07-12 10:42
No subs>subs
If theres subs, you won't be able to concentrate on listening when you're reading. Plus reading it translated doesn't help much because it puts you in an English mindset.
However, subs aren't necessarily bad, if you use them right, they'll be better than no subs. One way is to only look at the subs when you don't understand something (advanced) another which is honestly the best, but time consuming is to watch it with subs first, then the exact same episode without. This way you know everything they're saying while properly being able to concentrate on what's being said. It's by far the best method but who wants to watch something twice...
I recommend you to watch it without any subs first, then if you missed a lot of dialogues watch it again with German subs. If you still missed a lot of dialogues watch again with translated subs.
Personally I think listening to music > watching movies because watching the same movie more than a couple of times is just boring even if you love the movie. With music, it takes longer to lose interest in a song.