I think I can read Japanese a little better than I can understand spoken Japanese, but I love practicing reading and listening at the same time when watching Japanese content. Is this too much of a crutch, or do you think that the two skills support each other?
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Too much of a crutch hands down. In my studies, if subtitles are on while watching it’s reading practice and not listening.
What I did do for listening practice though was listen first without subs and then check subs when having issues after a few tries
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IMHO anything that ‘works’ is good.
I occasionally do that too - it’s more effective than using English subtitles (which I also do) - even though I struggle to read the Japanese subtitles quickly enough before they disappear from the screen.
And I mix it up with watching and listening to Japanese content without any subtitles. Yes, I also struggle with that, but I’m slowly improving over time.
I expect that with more practice I will get better at both listening comprehension and at quickly reading the Japanese.
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Too much of a crutch for listening side. However, English sub could qualify as listening practice when Japanese comprehension could catch up to speed (however, not easy).
You might need other listening exercises elsewhere.
Years ago I learned English by gradually listening with subs, it was a smooth transition that I found quite effective and enjoyable. It also helped a lot with English spelling.
I am doing the same with Japanese and so far I’m quite happy with it. I don’t have to stop and replay multiple times to catch a word or a sentence, and by visually recognizing kanji while reading it helps with my kanji retention as well.
As a rule of thumb, I would say that you should do whatever works for you and that you find enjoyable. As long as you are consuming Japanese media you are on the right path.
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Depends what I’m listening to. There’s listening that’s too hard, which turns into just reading subtitles. There’s listening that’s very slow and clear on purpose where I don’t need subtitles. There’s somewhere in the middle where both seem to be working.
Another factor is I tend to need/prefer subtitles for English voices, and I’m not sure how much that relates to Japanese voices and subtitles.
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I’m very bad at listening so I do use subtitles and find it valuable. But you have to make the effort to actually listen and not just ignore the audio and focus solely on the text. Headphones at a comfortable volume help.
Switching the subtitles off and on as needed can also be good, although it quickly becomes tedious if you’re just trying to enjoy a video.
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The thing is we have to start somewhere. If we never listen without sub, it most probably just doesn’t immediately become possible. It’s just as stressful as a type of studying.
This is also true for my English listening without sub.
I think that at least, leave some materials for regular pure listening. Vocabularies can be learn in other places, but vocab detection is the skill to be practiced.
Slow and sparse speech will reduce the need to pause or replay.
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Depends on how much you’re focusing on the subtitles and where you are at in your learning journey !
If you’re not constantly reading them (if they’re just there as a backup) then it’s not too much of a crutch.
If you are constantly reading them, then it can be too much. Unless you are at a point in your listening journey where you can’t understand at all without them because you’re still struggling to tell apart when words start and end, in which case it can still be helpful but you might want to do a rewatch a few days later without the subs.
(For the second category, having a transcript you read ahead of time might be better than having subs.)