ARE SUBTITLES HELPING YOU IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS?

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The lack of use of subtitles for foreign films--most of which are originally acted in English--make Italian people some of the worst foreign language learners in the world. In Italy, all non-Italian films are dubbed in Italian.

Northern Europeans, on the other hand, generally watch foreign films in the original language using subtitles in their own native tongue. Being exposed to the original sound of American movies greatly helps them get by in English without much effort compared with Italians, and it makes their pronunciation a lot better.

In the mind of most language learners, however, this fact is often used as a confirmation that subtitles actually work when it comes to honing your listening skills for dialogues in movies. In fact, that is far from the truth. You can't improve your listening skills using subtitles.

The fallacy in the point above is quite evident. Language learners usually consider subtitles and exposure to the original language in a movie as one single factor. These are, however, two separate variables acting independently. The latter (exposure to the original language) is what helps. The former (subtitles) is what hinders.

The average German or Swede might speak some decent English, but turn off the subtitles while they're watching an American or English movie, and they'll probably miss a good chunk of dialogue.

Many advanced language learners will not be able to watch a movie without subtitles and follow along with its average everyday dialogue regardless of their general speaking skills.

When you use subtitles, you'll stop listening. You'll only read. Do you want to try an experiment to prove the point? Then do this: next time you're watching a movie in your own native language, turn on the subtitles in your native language. I promise you your eyes will shift down and stop watching. They'll read. You won't be watching and listening anymore.

Therefore, dropping subtitles altogether is what you should aim for.

Here are two ways you can do it.

The first way is the cold turkey way. Not much to say there. You just drop them altogether, tip your hat off, and never use them again. It's not easy, though. If you decide to try it that way, you must accept that for a while you won't be understanding as much as you used to. The cold turkey way requires patience, focus, method, and resilience. It's easy to get frustrated, lose your heart, and decide Italian movies are just too damn difficult to watch without subtitles. In other words, it can easily break your confidence, and I surely wouldn't want that for you. As an analogy, it's like getting a $299 per month premium gym plan subscription without being quite sure whether you are going to take full advantage of it.

There's a more gradual approach that you can use, and if ever this whole article is too long and tedious for you to read through, THIS and THE NEXT are the two paragraphs you should pay attention to.

Keep subtitles only for the important things, for example an Italian movie you care so much about you just can't afford to miss one single syllable. However, my advice is to use subtitles in your native language rather than in Italian. If you keep your subtitles in English, you'll still listen and be drawn to comparing structures from Italian to English.

Choose shorter videos--like movie scenes, documentaries, news stories, journalistic investigations, etc.--to experiment without subtitles. The latter is what I refer to as 'controlled environment'. Here you must accept that you will understand very little, at least initially, and that's just fine. All you want to do is sit back and relax all your muscles, especially those in your upper torso, neck, throat, and face (cheeks, nose, eyebrows, forehead, etc.). If you try to listen, your attempts will automatically result in muscle and mental tension. Tension is a barrier preventing words, phrases, and sentences to come to you smoothly. They break up into smaller units. You'll end up catching few words here and there and very little about the general gist. Or at least not as much as it falls within your potential.

How long before you get results--and by results I mean, you start to realize you can actually understand more and more as you go (smaller and larger units of speech)? There's no precise answer to that. You are the X-factor. Results depend on how often you do it and for how long, your attitude towards it, your focus, how much vocabulary you know, your level of Italian, etc.

Here's another effective addition to the practice. Imagine you are passionate about cuisine. Make sure to memorize as much vocabulary about cuisine as you possibly can. Let's say two-hundred words in ten days or two weeks. After that, you start watching every possible cooking show, or cuisine documentary, etc. you can find out there for a month. I can promise you your listening skills won't take too long before you can see solid results.

Do not fool yourself, however. This takes work, motivation, focus, and method. It doesn't matter if you do it my way or someone else's way. There are no shortcuts. Whoever promises you quick and easy outcomes is either out to get your money, or your clicks, or doesn't know what he's talking about.

And this is The JP Method.