Subbed Anime To Learn Japanese

[athena02]

Might be just me, but watching subbed anime helps a lot at improving my vocabulary. At first, it didn't necessarily help. It was also pretty tough to read the subs while also concentrating on the series. But as time went on, I started catching words that got repeated often, and the subtitles were always a great help.

[madroscla]

I definitely agree with you. Anything that's in native Japanese that requires you to listen is incredibly helpful. I feel as though it's best to only watch subbed anime that you have seen previously. That way, you aren't confused about the plot (since yes, trying to read the subtitles can be difficult to do if you are trying to watch the episode itself).

The only problem I have with it is that it can teach very plain/informal language. While this in itself isn't a bad thing, sometimes beginners who learn their Japanese from only anime speak incredibly rudely. I only recommend watching subbed anime if you are at an intermediate level and already have a good grasp at the difference between plain and polite language.

[tar_toei]

I got to learn some japanese words by watching subbed animes but I naturally just watch the show rather than thinking to learn any language but I do sometimes especially for words often repeated in the series or simple greetings.

[Baburra]

I agree. I do this with my favorite Japanese shows as well and although it's still no substitute for a proper lesson, it does help me get acquainted with certain words that I hear over and over until it becomes familiar. Also the into nations and accents along with the word accompaniment below helps a lot with knowing the speech pattern they have.

[gegegeno]

On 2.11.2014 at 5:53 PM, madroscla said:

I definitely agree with you. Anything that's in native Japanese that requires you to listen is incredibly helpful. I feel as though it's best to only watch subbed anime that you have seen previously. That way, you aren't confused about the plot (since yes, trying to read the subtitles can be difficult to do if you are trying to watch the episode itself).

 

The only problem I have with it is that it can teach very plain/informal language. While this in itself isn't a bad thing, sometimes beginners who learn their Japanese from only anime speak incredibly rudely. I only recommend watching subbed anime if you are at an intermediate level and already have a good grasp at the difference between plain and polite language.

 

 

This is a pretty good point. I understand that some people learn Japanese to be able to understand anime and manga, and in that case there's no need to worry about this. But if you, say, plan to spend some time working or studying in Japan, this is a crucial point.

 

Japanese as spoken by native adults is very different to the way it's spoken by characters in anime, which nearly always speak in a very childish and usually rude manner. That's fine for an anime character, but if you speak to a real person like people speak in subbed anime, you're going to sound childish and rude.

 

One of my lecturers has complained that many first-year students of Japanese at my university know a little spoken Japanese from anime, and the language they use when speaking to her is completely inappropriate. Or, on the other hand, some girls learn to speak in a very childish manner - something they'd get away with in a casual context with other teenagers/young college students but which is totally out of place when speaking with your teachers.

 

To be clear, I certainly don't think that you should avoid all subbed anime or anything like that - it can be a great way to learn a bit of interesting, casual Japanese, but just keep in mind that politeness and formality is incredibly important when you're speaking in Japanese, and around 95% of the time anime Japanese is not going to be polite/formal enough.

[zabina12]

I used to watched lots of Japanese anime when I was younger. I would say that I have learned some words from those shows through reading the subtitles. But I usually do not give much attention on it cause I am more into what was happening in the story.

[Hydra]

If I'm trying to seriously learn while watching some anime, I'll watch it without subtitles. If I watch with subs I'll just get immersed in the show and look at them without paying attention to what the characters are actually saying! It's a bad habit of mine.

 

Apart from that, the only issue I have with anime in particular is that it can be so, so informal, and you end up learning language that comes off as really rude without realising. Because of this, I usually prefer Japanese dramas over (subbed) anime when it comes to pure learning. The language is much more realistic, and you get more of a look at culture and daily Japanese life as a bonus.

[sidney]

I have been watching Japanese sentai series lately, and I have unconsciously learned 2 words from it, namely, "hai" which means "yes", and "konichiwa" which means "hello". Their accent seems rough, so sometimes you can't tell if they're angry or not, lol. But it is a great way to learn simple Japanese words, but of course not enough for the serious learner.

[AureliaeLacrimae]

Learning Japanese through Subbed Anime

I believe that learning Japanese through anime is a good way of getting the gist of the spoken language, the simple sentence structure and pronunciation. Of course you're not going to talk to a teacher like that! That shouldn't even be mentioned - it's understood. Speaking to teachers requires a certain level of respect and formal language, but that is something you will learn in class. Anime is there to help you get adjusted to the language.

I don't know why subs are ''difficult to follow''. I follow them easily. But then again, I live in a society where subtitles are a normal thing and every single foreign movie or TV show is subbed - be it English, Spanish or Turkish even (yes, a lot of Turkish soap operas lately - which I find really annoying at times, but oh well). I'm used to them. For me, it's natural to have them there, so I guess my attention isn't really divided. I have watched Esmeralda when I was three (yes, I could read when I was three) and so did my brother. Exposure to foreign TV was crucial here. I have found that Germans get distracted when they have subtitles, simply because all of their shows are synchronised into German and so they're not used to reading them and following the action. Perhaps this too is a factor which contributes to this. But as they say, practice makes perfect. Given time, anything is possible.

[Morvavk]

I try to do the same. Though it is not the most efficent way to learn japanese. Specially when you hear the same japanese word, but a different english words was used in its place, than other examples you have seen. For example, "teme", I have seen several different english insults for. I started doing this watching bleach.

[AExAVF]

For me, watching anime is not the only way for me to learn Japanese.  I also watch non-anime shows such as tokusatsu (Japanese special effects) shows as well as certain films such as The Last Samurai and Battle Royale II.  Of course, I am planning to learn Japanese the traditional way by enrolling in a basic language class.  If I'm planning to grasp Japanse in a formal manner, I have to take these things seriously.

[ariana4]

I think that subbed anime allows too much 'cheating'. Its better to watch unsubbed anime then in another tab look up the subs-- or read untranslated manga, with the same concept. This way you aren't constantly looking at the subtitles, as it's too easy to do

[AureliaeLacrimae]

On 19.11.2014 at 5:32 AM, ariana4 said:

I think that subbed anime allows too much 'cheating'. Its better to watch unsubbed anime then in another tab look up the subs-- or read untranslated manga, with the same concept. This way you aren't constantly looking at the subtitles, as it's too easy to do

 

 

Yes, you're correct. Subtitles do feel like cheating, don't they? However, if you're a beginner, you don't really understand what they're saying until you have the subtitles, for instance subbed anime, so this method is appropriate only for those who already have some knowledge of the elementary spoken Japanese. Same goes for manga, really. If you can't read Hiragana, there's no much point in reading manga in Japanese when all you would see would be meaningless symbols. I believe, as a beginner, that it helps a lot when you can follow the story properly. Subtitles are an excellent way to start somewhere. I once watched a cartoon without sound (I was bored). I found that I could follow the story, but I was guessing a lot. It turned out that some of my assumptions were wrong. So yes, we can get some insight by just following the clues they give us while watching, but we need other things as well to have the full picture.

[Morvavk]

Yes, you're correct. Subtitles do feel like cheating, don't they? However, if you're a beginner, you don't really understand what they're saying until you have the subtitles, so this method is appropriate only for those who already have some knowledge of the elementary spoken Japanese. Same goes for manga, really. If you can't read Hiragana, there's no much point in reading manga in Japanese when all you would see would be meaningless symbols. I believe, as a beginner, that it helps a lot when you can follow the story properly. Subtitles are an excellent way to start somewhere. I once watched a cartoon without sound (I was bored). I found that I could follow the story, but I was guessing a lot. It turned out that some of my assumptions were wrong. So yes, we can get some insight by just following the clues they give us while watching, but we need other things as well to have the full picture.

Exactly. If you don't have a basic grasp of japanese, watching no subtitled anime would be like watching them speak in german, and try to learn japanese. It is just meaningless sound unless you have a way to line it up with your native tongue.

[OddVisions]

For a beginner, using subtitles to learn some basic words like 'nani' or 'daisuke' is fine. In fact, it's probably one of the easier methods to use in regards to helping a beginning learner for Japanese language. However, as time goes on this doesn't seem to truly be enough to help with the more complex words in the language. To be fair though, there are a few online teachers who do this and break down sentences from the subtitle/visual of the anime to help. Unfortunately, this is not often the case.

[petrushka]

I don't know... maybe it can help in sharpening your listening skills? I don't think it helps much apart from that though, and maybe in widening your vocabulary with regards to the most common words and phrases.

Have you ever watched anime in your native language and wondered why some of the voice actors were so exaggerated in their speaking manners? Anime is like that, because obviously, the seiyuu are acting through their voices. I think it might be more helpful to watch Japanese movies and tv shows because they're less exaggerated from what I've seen. Unless it's an obviously campy show. Then of course exaggeration is key.

Subtitles are also not something that can be relied on because translation work takes into account the audience. If the audience is English speaking, sometimes English-popular metaphors are used even if it's not a direct transliteration of what was said. Subitles -- even scanlations -- are often not direct, literal translations of the words -- they take the lines and transform them to what an English person will understand so there will be some nuance lost that might not be fitting when talking to an actual Japanese person.

It's useful in common phrases though I think. Can't get wrong with the most common ones... maybe.

[xShimusx]

To learn it primarily? No. Never use social media, no matter if subtitles or not, for in-depth sentence structure and forming.

Did it help? Definitely. And it's what sparked my interest of the whole thing and researching their ways of life and culture. I especially find Archery Club and Kendo Club to be awesome, and I would have did them in my school if they were offered. We only did silly stuff here.

From the anime though, I've definitely learned to UNDERSTAND the language, when it's being spoken to me. Sometimes I read in Romaji though to get a firm grasp on how to say words and where the accent on the syllables lie. It will not help you LEARN it, however. That takes time. Dedication.

[Owl]

I definitely agree with you, it's boosted my vocabulary a lot. I've definitely picked up a few small phrases from it too and not to mention I can kind of get by watching raws now and at least understand the gist of what's going on, and I have yet to even start classes. I think it's a useful tool but I probably wouldn't make it your main one, since there's a limited amount of things you can learn from it. Not to mention subtitles aren't always correct.

[Hybridlullaby]

I like watching subbed anime because it has been helping with pronunciation. I read a lot of books, but books can't help you understand how the word is supposed to be spoken. Anime has been filling that void for me pretty well. I have been able to recognize words from the books and put a sound to them. I understood basic words even before picking up books because they are repeated so often in anime. I think it is at least a decent beginner stepping stone.

[languagelover]

Anime subtitles can be a great help. Just be aware that occasionally the sub-titles might not be correct, especially if the anime was subbed by a non-native Japanese speaker. This shouldn't be too big of a problem and the benefits definitely outweigh the risk, but it is good to be aware and check the source of the subs if you can. Once you understand the meaning from using English subs, it may also be helpful to watch with Japanese subs also. This can help with learning Kanji.

[rilakkumasenpai]

Personally, I would only do so once I've seen the anime.  I wouldn't start a new anime, because that would be a distraction.  I also agree with some of the previous commenters and I think you should be a little past a beginner to start learning from anime.  Though I feel like a hypocrite because I started learning Japanese that way when I was in middle school, before actually taking Japanese in high school.  It did help though! :shy:

I think trying to learn from subbed anime is a good addition to any other outside non-anime related studies you are doing, but it would be better to learn it from raw anime without the subtitles.  I also feel like it's much easier if you watch children's anime, like Anpanman and Doraemon.  Even for someone who considers themselves intermediate, I caught these raw on television and learned a few new words from it.

[Gamer]

I wouldn't say that anime is a great source to learn from, especially as a beginner.My main reason for watching anime is simply because I enjoy it. However, picking up commonly spoken words is definitely a bonus. For example, I've frequently heard anime characters say "chigau" to tell someone that they're wrong, or "daijoubu desu ka" to ask if someone is okay. When I learned these words in Japanese class, they were very easy to remember because I basically already knew them. This applies to a myriad of different words I've heard in anime. I believe that it can be a very good supplement sometimes.

Aside from its usefulness in learning Japanese, anime is probably the biggest reason I decided to take the language. It was somewhat of a pipe dream to be able to one day understand an anime episode or a Japanese song without any subtitles. I'm not sure if I'll get there, but it's still my main goal in Japanese. 

 

 

[Tyrell]

I tried, but it doesn't work with me. I'll admit that it somewhat helps with some of the pronunciation, but not everything else. The reason is because I, like many other people, only learn words that stand out. Kawaii desu ne, senpai, moshi moshi, baka, nani and then some awkward indescribable high-pitched screams and moans. But those common words aside, I know and get practically nothing else.

[111kg]

I tried, but it doesn't work with me. I'll admit that it somewhat helps with some of the pronunciation, but not everything else. The reason is because I, like many other people, only learn words that stand out. Kawaii desu ne, senpai, moshi moshi, baka, nani and then some awkward indescribable high-pitched screams and moans. But those common words aside, I know and get practically nothing else.

Well, learning a foreign language from cartoons can really be helpful. For instance, most of the English I know I learned it on Cartoon Network. On the other hand, when it comes to Japanese, I think that it's pretty impossible to learn even the most basic words. It can be confusing, especially with the anime series, where most of the characters are speaking either loudly or using high pitched tones.

There are better resources even on Youtube, where you actually can learn how to recognize certain words or how to speak correctly.

[zurcminister]

Might be just me, but watching anime with subtitles helps a lot at improving my vocabulary. At first, it didn't necessarily help. It was also pretty tough to read the subs while also concentrating on the series. But as time went on, I started catching words that got repeated often, and the subtitles were always a great help.

Yes athena02 you are right in saying that subtitles from anime are a really good tool in trying to learn the Japanese Language and if you can read that fast and comprehend at the same time, then well and good. I have also tried to learn the language  a little bit this way. I also think that there is though a limitation to this type of learning aid because we really are not sure if the subtitles used are really correct and if how the language spoken in the particular anime shown is the proper way of speaking to others. There is still no better way than learning through established media like books and Japanese movies and immersing oneself with real Japanese speakers and learning directly from them.