Enhance Your English Listening Skills with Delayed Subtitles Technique (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. I have a question for you. How do you learn English with movies? When some people try to learn English with movies, they use subtitles. The problem is that when you're watching a movie with subtitles, you aren't practicing your listening skills. Instead, you're practicing your reading skills. This is not what you want. Listening is much more difficult than reading. So when you learn English, you should do more listening than reading. This is why some people watch movies twice. They watch a movie with subtitles first, then they watch the same movie again without the subtitles to practice listening. Now, this is an effective way to improve your listening, but I think it's really boring to watch movies twice. So personally, I never use this approach. It's not for me. So today, I want to share with you a new approach. This approach is pretty effective in improving your listening and vocabulary. And with this approach, you don't have to watch movies twice. Are you ready to learn about this approach? Here's what it is. Watching movies with delayed subtitles. To use this approach, you need a movie player that can delay subtitles. Now, before you watch a movie, turn on the English subtitles and then delay the subtitles for about 2 seconds. This will make the subtitles appear 2 seconds later than usual. Let me show you a movie clip so that you know what it's like to watch a movie with delayed subtitles.

Speaker 2: Enjoy the replay. 06.

Speaker 3: The 07. 08. 09. 01. 03. 00. 01. 02.

Speaker 1: 10. 02. 01. So, what do you need to do when watching a movie this way? Well, it's simple. First of all, when you hear an actor speaks, try to listen with full attention. Don't worry that you may not understand. You can read the subtitles later when they appear. Now, if you can understand the actor, then don't look at the subtitles. Read the subtitles only if you don't understand. If the actor is talking really fast, if you feel like you need more time to read, you can pause the movie before you read the subtitles. Now, let me show you another movie clip. This time, try not to read the subtitles unless you don't understand. Are you ready? Here we go. What's going on with you and Bryce Lasky?

Speaker 4: What do you mean? Nothing.

Speaker 1: Oh, okay. My mistake.

Speaker 4: Why would you even think that?

Speaker 1: No reason. Just that you talk about him all the time?

Speaker 4: I do?

Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. I don't know.

Speaker 4: I guess it's something about his eyes. Or maybe a smile.

Speaker 1: How did you do? Were you able to understand the clip without reading the subtitles? If you had to read the subtitles, that's okay. For most English students, movies are really difficult to understand. In fact, even native speakers have trouble understanding movies sometimes. So in the beginning, you might have to read subtitles almost all the time. That's okay. Reading is a very difficult skill to improve. So make sure you practice a lot and do it regularly. And over time, your listening and your vocabulary will get better.