this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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I have the DVDs of The Orphans of Simitra in which the only easily-found soft subtitles are in Arabic. I thought I can get the gist of the show by reading the source material (book) first then watch the show without subs.

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[–] missingno@fedia.io 29 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

No amount of just passively watching anime will teach you a language, especially when you're just reading subtitles in your own language. Your brain is not paying attention to the target language, you're just paying attention to your native language.

To actually start learning, you need to do real study. Textbooks, lessons, spaced repetition, graded readers, etc.

Once you've learned a good amount of vocab and at least a little bit of grammar, you'll have to take the plunge into immersing yourself in native content.

But here's the catch: you will not be comfortable the first time you try to watch something without subtitles. If you keep putting this step off until you think you're ready, you'll never actually be ready.

The first time you start immersing, you're barely going to pick out a few vocab words, but you're not going to parse a full sentence, let alone follow along with the story. And it's going to feel overwhelming and frustrating.

But that's the grind you gotta push through. Little by little, the bits and pieces you pick out will add up. Ideally you should even be taking notes as you do it, looking up new words and making flashcards. Immersion learning is homework, and you have to really work at it. The trick is that you're not just watching passively, you're studying actively.

You'll never get to a level where you'll feel comfortable until you've spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortable first.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I wonder if it would help to watch content where you have already watched with subtitles. So you have a rough idea of what’s going on already and your brain has more bandwidth to process the words themselves

[–] missingno@fedia.io 2 points 2 weeks ago

That is the best place to start. Also just helps you tolerate the frustration a little bit if it's one of your favorite shows.

[–] hypertown@ani.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yes, especially in the beginning when you have to look up multiple words every few seconds. You can't really focus on the story with all the interruptions and you're going to miss a lot of context that can't just be easily translated with a dictionary so if you already know the context and the story you'll have a much easier time.

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