foreign subs usually match the original subs… they translate the subs not transcribe the spoken word… unless it’s CC but that’s rarely available online for dubbed stuff.
2 Likes
I didn’t even think it would be available at all. What could possibly the use case for CC of dubbed content?
(Expect a learner trying to figure out exactly what is being said, I guess, but that demographic is probably vanishingly small, since I assume people would just for content from the target language rather than dubs)
That makes sense that you can’t grade it if you have it marked EN subs. Even if you actively listen the whole way through, you’ve still got the EN subs to fall back on, which would throw off difficulty. Target-language subs might too, but not to the same extent, since it’s the same language.
When audiovisual was newer, I was considering tracking the anime and dramas I watched, until I saw that the attitude on here seems to be that watching w EN subs automatically means there’s zero way you’re learning anything, and marking stuff as EN subs was frowned upon, which made me feel… dirty? guilty? a fraud? idk, something like that, at the thought of doing so. So even when I do watch something, I don’t do anything on here w it unless it’s JP or no subs, though I haven’t watched any like that yet since its implementation
idk, maybe it was just a minority, but that was still the impression I got then
4 Likes
The first time I heard “no subs” was from ajatt, which has a lot of good ideas, but also a lot of unsupported dogma. You can take this advice even further with Dreaming Spanish where Pablo says not to even read your target language until you have hundreds of hours of listening. On the other hand, I’ve seen other language learning communities recommend watching with English (or whatever L1 is) subs to pick up the way that the translators expressed what was said into English.
My personal takeaway is that there’s always value in engaging with your target language. If you are trying to economize time, L1 subtitles is probably not the way to go. If you want to enjoy content higher than your level right now while picking up some practice listening to phonemes, language cadence, and occasional new words and phrases, English subs are still better for your language practice than watching something fully in English.
With respect to English subs being treated differently on Natively, my read was more along the lines that watching with English subs is like grading a book in your native language. There’s nothing wrong with you consuming the content, but it’s across purposes for the website’s goals.
Fwiw I do enter English subs (or in the case of something like Sailor Moon which I’ve seen various
parts dubbed, with English subs, Japanese subs, and no subs) on something that I want to rate and/or want to add to my profile as a favorite.
13 Likes
Unfortunately no. You can only mark movies/tv seasons as completed with English subs, no partial updates.
I know there are many types of immersion methods, where people are rewatching things with subs or english subs, but it gets quite complicated to track. Eventually when we handle rewatches we may handle some of it, but tbh, I think there’s some value in being a little inflexible but simple, rather than handle all the edge cases.
We’ll see, but currently no, only full tv seasons can be marked with english subs.
Aw, I’m sorry you felt that way @enbyboiwonder 
, that certainly wasn’t the intention! Really, by all means if it’s working for you, go for it!
I’m not fully opposed to allowing tracking with english subs, but it does complicate the process and, generally, could open us up to a massive flood of anime watchers using us as a AniList-like service 
… so I’m quite wary. I think there is something special about keeping the activities very much focused on language learning and, while requiring no english subs may be a high bar that eliminates legitimate language learning like yours, I don’t think it’s a totally unreasonable bar.
Happy to chat more with you or others about it, but let’s do it in a formal ‘allow progress tracking w english subs’ product request.
8 Likes
BTW: The images on some book’s page are too broad. Please compare the image here わたしのお嫁くん 3 | L24 with the correct one on amazon, or on my profile page.
1 Like
Sorry, i’m not sure i’m seeing the difference/issue … i’m bad at noticing image quality concerns 
They look the same to me.
It’s the scaling that is wrong. x-y-ratio is not preserved.
2 Likes
Oof, you’re correct! That was right at one point but no longer… will fix, thanks!
3 Likes
Maybe for hearing-impaired not deaf people, so what they potentially can hear matches the subs? I have definitely seen it for German on stuff that is originally English. 
2 Likes
That’s not how it should be. 
I track stuff that I watch with English subs. No qualms there. I know, for myself, that I definitely take away less from things I watch with eng subs, but meh, it’s actually a good way to keep track of what I watched with Eng subs, with JP subs, without subs. 
6 Likes
I guess that would make sense for TV where you have no choice but to watch the dub?
At least subs have always been different than the dub for me in Japan. I have a whole three (3) French dvds that happen to be originally in English, and sure enough the subs did not match the dub. I think I heard that the process of making the text for the dub and the subs are unrelated?
I just checked my other French dvd (so, no dubs) and none of them had CC. I guess that, in France, screw you if you are hearing-impaired 
1 Like
Yeah, I can confirm that. Subtitles are still better than nothing, but I really wish that there were more close captions in French content.
Also, for whoever was asking what cc are useful for, they can also be great for people with chronic fatigue or ADHD. It all comes down to personal preference, but for some people it really helps.
4 Likes
that is indeed correct.
1 Like
Funnily enough I have ADHD and captions can make it harder for me to pay attention (specifically if the captions are on the screen for too long and I read it over and over and over). I’m in a vast minority as far as I can tell, and not a good reason to not have it as an option.
3 Likes
I have ADHD and I like regular subtitles but hate CC because they’re cluttered with stuff I don’t need. (I can hear the music and FX, I can hear how they’re saying it, I don’t need all that. What I need is what they’re saying because my brain’s refusing to process spoken sounds into words properly)
The one time I watched something on Netflix w JP subs, it was actually CC, and I hated it. I definitely missed stuff specifically bc I’m not fast enough at determining what’s extraneous and what’s the actual subs. It’s not quite as bad in EN since I’m much faster at reading, but I still don’t like it. Maybe if I were watching it muted, since they are specifically for when you can’t hear the audio at all, but if the sound’s on? No.
3 Likes
I’m also in the “I have ADHD and subtitles help”, in my case by providing something else to do (reading) while I’m listening. Otherwise my mind will just wander off.
That being said, it drives me crazy if they don’t match what is being said (so I’d rather have CC than subtitles, but I usually just not watch dubbed content, or without subtitles if I have to)
I can’t check right now, but I feel like on Netflix the info are presented in italics and subtitles in standard typeface. I may be misremembering, I haven’t watched anything in a long time.
1 Like
The annoying bug around custom tags generating activities is now fixed 
9 Likes
I’ll go ahead and close the PR then!
Thanks!
1 Like
Yaaay! Thank you Brandon! Time to go reorganize a tag 10 times in a row because I can’t decide what I want. 
4 Likes
