Movies with Mandarin audio and English subtitles

[Jan Finster]

I started watching Netflix shows in Mandarin with German or English subtitles. As I simultaneously read the subtitles, I can actually understand some/much of the Mandarin. In other words, I can tell which words in Mandarin corresponded to the English text.

 

I wonder if this is a useful and effective way to improve my Chinese listening skills?  

[Dawei3]

I think it is an excellent way.  When I first started watching movies, I might understand 1 in 50 words.  Then it got better & better.   Overtime, I learned to critique the subtitles.  

 

Sometimes the subtitles taught me things I wouldn't have realized:  A young guy said to a young women:  我喜欢你。Wo xihuan ni.  The subtitle was "I love you."  

 

I asked Chinese friends about this.  Many said "I never say to my wife 我爱你。 Wo ai ni.  I say "Wo xihuan ni." but she knows the meaning is "I love you."  Some do say "Wo ai ni."  Everyone agreed the subtitle was correct.  The literal translation was "I like you", but he REALLY meant "I love you."

 

If I had just watched it, I would have thought he said "I like you" and thought nothing more of it.  Later I read "Dreaming in Mandarin" in which the author has a whole chapter on this topic (I love you in China).  The subtitles gave me a depth of understanding.  

 

I live in the US, so watching movies is one way to get a lot of listening practice.  This was particularly important in the beginning when I knew little and couldn't hold a conversation.  I could talk with a Chinese friend, but I couldn't keep saying "Qing zai shuo yici? Qing zai shuo yici?"  My DVD player doesn't care how many times I hit rewind.?

 

I found watching movies really trained my ears.  Once I started doing so, I could also more rapidly distinguish between different dialects.  

 

 

 

 

 

[wibr]

@Jan Finster Any shows you can recommend? Does Netflix also provide simplified/traditional subtitles or only translations?

 

I think especially in the beginning it's a great way to get more familiar with the language, it might not be the most effective method but obviously still better than watching English or German TV series.

[Jan Finster]

25 minutes ago, wibr said:

@Jan Finster Any shows you can recommend? Does Netflix also provide simplified/traditional subtitles or only translations?

 

I realised that once you create a profile and choose Chinese as the main language for that profile, then Netflix suggests tons of movies or series in Mandarin. On top of that you can search "Chinese" in the search bar.

I cannot really recommend anything as I just started and I have low standards: I mostly want to learn Chinese and would not even care if the show is a corny chick flick. So far I have tested: Wu Assassins, Boss, the Kingdom and the movie Connected.

[Jon Long]

Jan, you absolutely must try out this Chrome extension called Language-Learning with Netflix. It gives you subtitles in L2, with human AND machine translated subtitles in L1, with a hover thesaurus/dictionary. I'm learning Russian with this and it's absolutely a must-have.

[Leslie Frank]

@Jan Finster, I think it's best if you can see both Chinese and English subtitles so @Jon Long's suggestion would be ideal.

 

For those of you who like mysteries, Tientsin Mystic is good, as is Day and Night; it's just that TM is beautiful to look at as well. Both on Netflix.