The downside of watching jdoramas with Japanese subs

 

We are living in the golden age of jdoramas. If I wanted to watch something with Japanese subs, I would have to download the subs from jpsubbers and then retime them which was a pain because the timing would go off everytime there was a commercial break.

Everytime there was a CM break, I would have to figure out how many more seconds to adjust it again until the next break. It was annoying but Japanese subs help me understand what was going on a lot easier and I uploaded a few retimed Jp subs to d-addicts.

Later I got too lazy to pause and retime and started using the VLC player shift subtitles shortcuts to change the timings on the fly. Soon all the magicstar uploads came with Japanese subs and it was glorious! Japanese subs make it so much easier to understand.

However, I have noticed something recently, especially when I was watching the latest Shiroi Kyoto remake: my eyes were darting straight to the subs instead of listening to what was being said. I was reading first and not really listening. I think the listening was helping me to read.

Shiroi Kyoto was full of medical and legal jargon and Japanese subs while it helped me understand what was being said, it did not help me improve my listening. Another time Japanese subs really help is when there is an old man mumbling away. Maybe I should learn to listen instead of using Jp subs as a crutch? I feel like it an reading subs instead of watching a jdorama. It is actually 'cheating' because I am not really reading the sentence out loud in my brain; I am just picking up with kanji or words to understand what it is about and filing out the rest with my listening.

It is the same when I watch Japanese news. It is so easy to understand because there are words everywhere. I glance at the screen and there are plenty of words to tell me what is going on. When I am listening to a new podcast (shout out to Round up World Now!) I need to really concentrate or I get lost.

What I am saying is that Japanese subs are crutch don't doesn't help me improve my listening and I think I am going to watch most of my Jdoramas without Jp subs now. Jidaigeki's would be the exception and really fast talking shows like Saigo Kara Nibanmei no Koi.

I have been slowly redownloading my jdoramas so that the ones I want to rewatch are at least 720p and I don't want English hardsubs anymore in my collection. Why are there only a 480p version of Yami no Bansosha. I want to watch both series in 1080p.

I am rewatching Keiji to Kenji, Tokidoki Hanji without subs and am enjoying it more after watching the first season. Meguro speaking English all the time is not annoying anymore after watching his story with Imada Mio in S1. Not as funny as S1 but still fun to watch.