zenibuka

I just landed on this topic, wandering aimlessly as usual
My native language isn't english either, but since i've been an adolescent i've tried to improve my english by reading aloud song lyrics out of booklet whenever i'd buy a cd, by reading children's books like roahl dahl or lewis caroll even though some would say i was already too old for it (that remains to be seen).
Then came the movies at the theater, in the original languages (english, german, japanese, korean...)
Around 2002, i began downloading movies and tv shows exponantially, and i realised several facts :

A - french actors don't know how to dub english actors at the point of ridicule. When you see someone say a sentence of 3-4 syllables in english, the french dude usually needs twice as much, consequently he either speaks very fast or finishes the sentence well after the character's lips are closed... ridiculous !

B - As time passed, i switched to french subs. While i have a huge respect for anyone who would take on his personal time to work, for free, for his community, it became clear that a french sub can't restitue the whole meaning of the original language. Further more as Alex said, the time you spend reading another language makes you miss the action and a lot of details. As i continued watching shows this way, i realised my english was improving on its own and it made me realise that there were a lot of mistakes in the subs i was using (grammar, syntax, spelling and even meaning) so i switched to english subs.

C - When done properly as it is pratically always the case with Addic7ed subs, using english subs on english shows and movies, you see what you hear, so you're learning really fast, acquiring new vocabulary, predicting coming dialogs, recognising accents - I recently impressed an american friend by telling him he was from baltimore just from his accent (Thanks "The Wire")

D - English is not that complicated compared to certain languages (french, polish, chinese...) so out of respect for the people who write amazing dialogs, for the people who take the time to transcrpt and synchronize it, it is MY DUTY AND PLEASURE to use english subs.

If you've read until this point, i'm glad, but a little worried for you my friend.

As always ADDIC7ED RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULES !!!