Watch content in english and then in mandarin, or straight in mandarin?

[karakorum]

Hi,

I've been stuck in Anki limbo for months now and I need to practice my listening skills.

I plan to do that by watching the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender dubbed in chinese (good translation and voice acting quality apparently,  link here)

As stated in the title, I wonder if watching each episode in english first and then in mandarin would make me improve faster, so I could learn by association instead of pure recognition. (no subtitles this time)

Of course it will be a bit annoying to watch the same episode twice in a day, but thinking back I believe that this is the method I used to learn english when I was a teenager, watching LOTR and Starwars in english when I already knew every sentence by heart in my native language..

 

Does this method have a name? Does anyone use it?

[Wurstmann]

I would probably watch it in Chinese first and then in English to fill any gaps. You could try to find transcripts and study unknown words in advance.

[agewisdom]

6 hours ago, Wurstmann said:

I would probably watch it in Chinese first and then in English to fill any gaps. You could try to find transcripts and study unknown words in advance.

 I second that but let me explain further the rationale from my perspective.

 

1. Firstly, when you watch the episode in English first, your attention and interest is at its' peak since it's something brand new. Hence, when you re-watch in Mandarin, the mind partially tunes out. You should watch the episode in Chinese first, when your mind is at its' most fresh and in peak condition.

 

2. Secondly, watching in English first is somewhat cheating yourself. The mind is an incredible machine. Although you think you understand the episode in Mandarin perfectly when you re-watch it the second time, that's not the case. It's just the mind remembered what you watched in English earlier and helps you fill in the gaps. You MIGHT quite unconsciously think you understand but that's not the case.

 

So, watch in Chinese first.

[abcdefg]

Agree with that analysis.

 

Most days I watch the evening news (Channel 13) in Chinese first and then fill in the gaps by watching an English version on CGTN later the same day. I do the same when looking up China-related things on-line: Baidu first, then Google.  

[karakorum]

Thanks for your answers, I'm going to think about what you said

[Flickserve]

Avatar is a hefty undertaking 

[karakorum]

I tried, but I had to give up. There is no subtitle that goes with the chinese dub version that I can find, only subtitles that come from the translation of the english version. Because of this, even tho I understand most of what is said, I have no way of checking the parts that I missed.  It's a big shame because the dubbing is of really good quality.

[DavyJonesLocker]

I'd try a Chinese movie like operating red sea. Chinese and English subtitles available. I watched 15 min slots looking at the Chinese subtitles then rewatch  rereading the Chinese subtitles and checking the English ones  

 

I think it's better to use VLC as you can watch, rewind 10 secs , pause very easy with keyboard shortcuts .  i also have the English subtitles (srt file) displayed in MS  word st the bottom corner of the screen. You can download an application that always keeps the window on top of VLC. If I keep the Chinese and English in the same srt file I'll just look at the English and ignore the Chinese 

[amytheorangutan]

I watch some chinese dramas like this when I can’t wait for the English sub haha just plow through without sub even though I don’t understand a lot then go back with the English sub. Watching them the first time without sub definitely makes me pay very2 close attention to the dialogues. I also feel like I pick up a bit more vocabularies this way. I normally do this with cheesy light romance dramas though as heavy/historical dramas or movies would be way too much for my level of Chinese to watch without sub and I would quickly lose interest.