Simple Swedish Podcast - #266 - Hur man använder undertexter

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Nivå: A2-B1 Att se på svenska filmer och serier med svenska undertexter är ett av de bästa verktyg som finns för att träna på språket. Men hur använder man undertexter på bästa sätt? Det ska vi prata om i det här avsnittet! Länk till Februariutmaningen här. Länk till Language Reactor här. Länk till transkript till alla avsnitt här. --- Transkript Hallå där och välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast. Idag ska vi prata om undertexter. Alltså de här texterna som man har i filmer och serier och så vidare, för att förstå vad folk säger på andra språk. Så till exempel om jag tittar på en film från Japan, då måste jag använda undertexter för att förstå vad de säger. Men det finns lite olika saker att prata om när det kommer till undertexter och att lära sig språk. Så det ska vi prata om idag. Först ska jag tacka några nya patrons. Det är Alicja, Oliver, Ana-Maria, Duncan och Karen.   Stort tack till er för att ni stödjer den här podden. Transkript till alla patrons som ni vet på www.patreon.com/swedishlinguist.  Om man är patron på 10-euronivån får man också en uttalsövning varje vecka. Så ja, alla vet att uttal är viktigt men också ganska svårt. Så därför kan det vara bra att få en uttalsövning varje vecka. Om man är patron på 10-euronivån alltså.  Så, undertexter. Först och främst är det ju stor skillnad mellan olika länder i hur mycket man använder undertexter och inte. ..för hela transkriptet, klicka här!  

Hello there and welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast. Today we will talk about undertexts. have in movies and series and so on to understand what people say in other languages So for example, if I watch a movie from Japan then I have to use subtitles to understand what they are saying. But there are some things to talk about when it comes to subtexts and to learn languages. So that's what we're going to talk about today. First I'm going to thank some new Patreons. It's Alizia, Oliver, Anna-Maria, Duncan and Karen.

Thank you so much for supporting this podcast. Transcript to all Patrons, as you know, on Patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist. If you are a Patreon on the 10 euro level you will also get a speech practice every week. So yes, everyone knows that speech is important but also quite difficult. So therefore it can be good to get a speech practice every week. If you are a Patreon on the 10 euro level. So, subtitles. And first and foremost, there is a big difference between different countries. In how much you use subtitles and not.

So I live in Spain, and here people don't use that much subtitles, but everything is dubbed instead. So dubbing, for example, a movie, means that you replace the original sound track with new voices in a new language. For example, if we take a Hollywood film in Spain, they dub it into Spanish. So they record Spanish voices and use Spanish voices instead of American voices. So you dub the movie or the series or something. So that's very common here. But in Sweden on the other hand, we only dub children's movies. So I have grown up with reading a lot of subtexts, because we have a lot of foreign movies and series, especially from the US in Sweden. We don't change the voices, we don't dub, we use subtexts.

And I can't really do dubbing, I think it's really hard to listen to because first and foremost it just looks wrong when the mouth moves but the voice you hear does not match what you see so the lips movements are not synced with what you hear. Because when you dub it becomes different. But then the dubbing sounds weird. Especially here in Spain. You only hear for one second through listening, you immediately hear that it is a dubbed movie. The voices are strange, they are artificial, they sound strange.

I always try to watch with subtitles, I like them. But subtitles are also very useful when you learn a language. And there are different methods of course. The most common and perhaps the best is to just have the subtexts activated, focus on listening, so you try to understand what they say by listening, and the subtexts are there as a help. a help, like but if you are still not at a high level then maybe you have to

read the subtitles more, maybe you have to pause translate a word read a little slower and so when I watched series in Russian for example, then I needed to pause quite often, almost all the time, because it was too

difficult to understand simply, just by listening and watching and also because Russian is written in another alphabet but since I have read Russian quite a lot I am quite used to the Russian alphabet now, but... But it's still pretty slow to read, but... But above all, it's still very difficult to understand by just listening to Russian for me. But I remember, for example, with Czech, so when I learned Czech

I had a series called Vipravje, which I watched every morning for maybe a year or something like that. For a long time I had a routine that I watched this series every morning and then you learn to know the characters, you get to know the language and... So when I started to feel that it was pretty easy to understand with subtitles Then I thought okay now I will try to understand without subtitles and

In the beginning it is always of very difficult, because you're used to using subtexts. So it's just pretty difficult, of course. If I'm used to using subtexts, it will be difficult to try to understand without subtexts. And it's the same with all languages. So if I get used to always looking at everything with subtitles, then I get used to it and it becomes of course harder to understand without subtitles. But I learned to understand without subtitles pretty well. But I sometimes needed to rewind, look again with subtitles and so on. But then it's also important not to be a perfectionist, because you will not understand everything when you remove the subtexts.

And you have to be okay with that, just like with... I mean, generally when you learn a language, you have to be okay with not understanding everything. You always have to be okay with not understanding everything. You always have to be. The main thing is that you can follow the action and understand it in general. You think it's nice, fun, interesting and you get better and better. better and better and so on. And I think it can be a good thing to have subtitles until you feel that it is easy to understand with subtitles. Because you learn a lot of good words and expressions when when using subtitles. Especially with spoken language, because generally when you read, you don't read spoken language.

But spoken language is of course a little different than written language. So it's a very good way to learn new words and expressions when you use subtexts. And I, for example, I understand Spanish well, but I still often use subtexts because I know that I will learn new expressions and words. But that is a question I often get. How to deal with undertexts. Is it good to try to listen and understand without undertexts? And of course it is good, but I think you should wait with

that until it's easy to understand with subtitles and then you can start trying without subtitles. Yes, because you want to train your listening comprehension And Speaking of listening comprehension So We will do a specific challenge in February For everyone who wants to practice listening comprehension. So if you feel that you want better listening comprehension, that you want to understand better when you listen to Swedish, you feel that you want to understand Swedish better when they talk,

you want to understand series without subtitles, you want to understand podcasts. Also when I speak a little faster, maybe it would be good to understand me even when I speak a little faster and so on. So then you will participate in our February challenge. And it works like this, that you write in in a special document and I leave a link to it in the description. And you write in in that document and you should listen to Swedish at least 15 minutes every day in February

and even better if you listen more than 15 minutes every as you can but at least 15 minutes because we we are trying to build a habit and there are tips on material and content resources and we have

a community as well so if you go to school.se slash Swedish, that is skol.com slash Swedish there is a link where I write all the instructions and yes so you can go there, check it out, write yourself in the document and we start Monday, the third of February. I want to say something more here. I want to give you a tip about a very good app. It's a plugin called Language Reactor. called language reactor. Language reactor works when you watch Netflix for example

and there are a lot of different functions I personally usually use for example if I watch a russian series I only use russiantexts, but you can hold the pointer over a word and you get the pointer over the screen, the mouse pointer. So you hold the pointer over a word. And then it gets a transition right away. You can also activate a side panel

where you see all subtexts. So you get an overview over all under texts and there is also a function that automatically pauses on every under text so that if you still do not have a very high level, but you want to watch series, but you feel that it goes too fast. Then you can activate this pause function. It pauses on every subtext so you get time to read it. And then you can just go back and listen again. So it's a very good tool for using subtitles.

You can also activate double subtitles. I think double subtitles are maybe not so good, because then you will automatically focus on the English subtitles or what language you use. When you use subtitles, when you learn a language, when you use series and movies to learn a language, then... I mean, it's... It's not that useful to use subtexts in your own language. I mean, if you learn Swedish, you should only use Swedish subtexts, not other languages. It might be better than nothing, but... I don't think that it is particularly helpful if you use, for example, English subtitles and try to listen to Swedish.

You will simply focus on the English subtitles. However, if you listen to Swedish and read Swedish, you will of course focus on the English subtitles However, if you listen and read in Swedish, you will of course focus on Swedish But anyway, I have used language reactor quite a lot, it's a very good tool And... Is there anything else I want to say I think No, it's maybe just this That it depends a little on what level you are on So if you are a beginner, yes, then I think that movies and series are Well, then I think that movies and series are not that suitable, because it is too difficult, simply. You should always try to use resources that have a suitable level.

But then when you get a little more on a medium level Then you can start using series And for example together with Language Reactor So you get the subtext, you get transitions, you get a lot of functionality Then when you get a little more advanced, just try to focus on the voices and use the subtexts as a help. To fill in the gaps that you didn't really understand and learn new words and such. And then, probably after quite a long time, when you are quite advanced and you already think that it's quite easy to watch series with subtitles,

then maybe you can try to watch without subtitles. But I don't think you need to do that if you don't want to. The main thing is that you get a lot of input. So if you prefer to watch series with subtitles, with Swedish subtitles of course, then continue with that because it's really good input. The best training is the training you will do. I think that's a good quote.

And it also applies to language. So what you like to do, just keep doing it. But yeah. Now you have heard some of my thoughts about undertexts. I hope that was useful. And join the February challenge and yes, see you soon again bye