Some tips on learning japanese with netflix?

Japanese Language Questions
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Hello!

I’m trying to consume more content in Japanese, so I thought about trying to watch some anime with Japanese subs, using Language learning with netlix, but I’m not sure what is the best approach to make it both fun and useful.

I hardly understand some words, less than one in each sentence, so just by listening, I almost don’t understand anything.

What do you think it’s the best approach to learn? Just watching it all without English subtitles not understanding anything, hoping my brain will start figuring out the meanings by itself? Using autopause in each sentence to go look up the translation? Watching it first with English subtitles and then again without it?

Any tips would help me a lot :smiley:

Thanks!

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I do not recommend watching without subtitles at all or going with both ENG and JP at once and comparing them. For me the best approach is to have Japanese subtitles only. I only check the current English line if I have absolutely no idea how to grasp the meaning.

Watching it with English subtitles first and then rewatching it with Japanese may work but I worry that if you rewatch it immediately after then you will remember the lines and end up mapping Japanese to English which you should generally avoid.

Additionally what you can do is after going through an episode, dump its audio and listen to it without watching. Since you know what happened and have seen and understood the Japanese subs, you will practice the listening that way.

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At Level 13, I do believe that it’ll be a major struggle to sit through a Japanese drama or an anime, even with Japanese subtitles primarily due to the fact that you won’t be able to recognise most of the words and kanji in the shows yeet.

I tried to watch an anime/drama with Japanese subtitles as well when I was in the Level 10s and 20s but I struggled pretty hard because my vocabulary base at those levels was still insufficient to sit through a Japanese show.

I eventually tried running Japanese subtitles concurrently with English subtitles, but it wasn’t any fun spending an hour to watch a 20 minute episode because I had to look up the dictionary all the time. It was an absolute chore.

I eventually gave up and just listened to YouTube and podcasts for listening practice and read the news for reading practice. Eventually, when I got to Level 40, I began to start watching the same drama I struggled with previously and now I can understand about 90% of it with subtitles. Knoweldge on N3 and N2 Kanji+Vocabulary really takes one’s comprehension skills to the next level imo.

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Do you remember the youtube and podcasts you used around that level?

I’m getting tired of learning Japanese without actually watching Japanese content :sweat_smile:

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Do note that I’m very much a beginner!

However, I use it mainly for listening practice. E.g. watching Terrace House and gauge what I understand.

I sometimes pause, rewind, and repeat words or phrases I hear.

I mostly watch it for the entertainment though, learning with Netflix is more of a bonus.

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