<p>From my experience, I would say no. The translations for movie subtitles are usually too loose to be of much use.</p>

<p>However, if you watch a Chinese movie with <em>Chinese</em> subtitles, that definitely  helps. You can see exactly what they're saying, so you can test your hearing and work on your hanzi recognition at the same time.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T01:52:47.543Z
对大多数入门级学汉语的学生来说电影中对话说得太快，听不清楚，中文字幕也变化得太快，入门级学生读得太慢。
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T02:05:42.670Z
我同意。可是暂停电影，没问题吧。您感觉如何？
sazarando
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T03:43:43.980Z
经常暂停而同时查看词典的话，看电视片确实会有帮助的，不过需要比较大的耐心。
（为了听得懂所说话语常常还需要把时间标志倒拨几分钟而再次听同一个比较小部分。）
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-30T15:37:29.863Z
some users suggest： stop the video as soon as a new subtitle appears, read the whole subtitle and then listen to the rest of subtitled spoken words, 有用户建议如下，一旦出现新的字幕就停止视频，读完整个字幕，接着倾听该字幕剩余的话语
user6065
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-22T13:54:39.173Z
Exactly what I was going to say.  Even if you match only one word in ten, it's still good practice (e.g. hearing people's different ways of pronouncing the same word), and you'll be surprised at how soon you start recognizing new characters. ¶ If you use translated subtitles, you'll be continually translating in your mind, and that's not a good way of learning a language; you have to start thinking in that language without translating.
Ray Butterworth
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T00:50:28.423Z
2016-06-24T00:50:28.423Z
sazarando
<p>In my opinion it definitely helps.
It improves your listening skills (you get used to the hearing the sounds of the language spoken as they are spoken in a regular conversation). </p>

<p>You'll only distinguish a word once in awhile, but there are words that are used over and over again so you'll especially exposed to words that are more frequent, which is great for beginners. The subtitles may help, especially if the movie has both hanzi and pinyin hardcoded and english subs (non-hardcoded).</p>

<p>This is a good habit. Go for it every time you can.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T02:28:39.957Z
2016-06-24T02:28:39.957Z
TCN
<p>Im sure it is,  just like reading is a great way. </p>

<p>But if you are watching the movie translated into English, then it'll be less helpful. Try with the Mandarin subtitles option. I know that if I put on English subtitles on an English speaking movie, then what they are saying shows below in text form, and it is not translated or disrupted, the exact words are shown below.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T11:43:29.160Z
2016-06-24T11:43:29.160Z
Student909
<p>Does watching Chinese movies with English subtitles help a beginner level Mandarin student to learn and improve the language?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T03:56:30.113Z
This question is not very specific and hard to answer objectively, it will primarily generate opinion-based answers, and as such it does not meet the guidelines of this site.
imrek
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T04:11:38.230Z
However, to reflect on your question, I suggest you concentrate more on learning material geared at beginners and not spend countless hours watching movies in the Internet, here's why: You won't benefit from it as much to justify spending hours in front of your laptop's/TV's screen. As a beginner, you might catch a word or two from every 4th sentence, but most of what you'll hear will go 'unprocessed', – whereas if you spend your time reading and listening beginners' material, you will understand almost everything, make small incremental steps, and  will use your time a lot more effectively.
imrek
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T04:18:24.690Z
Watching movies targeted at native (and advanced) speakers is only going to be beneficial once you will have enough (vocab and grammar) foundations to make sense out of the words and phrases you have not yet heard. The speakers are also speaking much faster than any audio material shipped with your textbook, just to further deepen your trouble. That is however not to say, that you should not expose yourself to real life Chinese from the very beginning, but spending 15 min. watching a short video on Youtube or a podcast will be enough to train your ears, don't waste hours with little benefit.
imrek
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-24T18:37:22.507Z
Great. Thanks a lot for your amazing inputs @DrunkenMaster
ShellZero
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-01T03:14:46.373Z
For the future reader, these kinds of questions are better asked at [LanguageLearning.SE](https://languagelearning.stackexchange.com/).
Becky 李蓓
<learning><movies>
Does watching Chinese movies with English subtitles help in learning Mandarin?
# Does watching Chinese movies with English subtitles help in learning Mandarin?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-06-23)

Does watching Chinese movies with English subtitles help a beginner level Mandarin student to learn and improve the language?

**Tags:** learning, movies
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This question is not very specific and hard to answer objectively, it will primarily generate opinion-based answers, and as such it does not meet the guidelines of this site.  
> **username_1**: However, to reflect on your question, I suggest you concentrate more on learning material geared at beginners and not spend countless hours watching movies in the Internet, here's why: You won't benefit from it as much to justify spending hours in front of your laptop's/TV's screen. As a beginner, you might catch a word or two from every 4th sentence, but most of what you'll hear will go 'unprocessed', – whereas if you spend your time reading and listening beginners' material, you will understand almost everything, make small incremental steps, and  will use your time a lot more effectively.  
> **username_1**: Watching movies targeted at native (and advanced) speakers is only going to be beneficial once you will have enough (vocab and grammar) foundations to make sense out of the words and phrases you have not yet heard. The speakers are also speaking much faster than any audio material shipped with your textbook, just to further deepen your trouble. That is however not to say, that you should not expose yourself to real life Chinese from the very beginning, but spending 15 min. watching a short video on Youtube or a podcast will be enough to train your ears, don't waste hours with little benefit.  
> **username_0**: Great. Thanks a lot for your amazing inputs @DrunkenMaster  
> **username_2**: For the future reader, these kinds of questions are better asked at [LanguageLearning.SE](https://languagelearning.stackexchange.com/).  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-06-24. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

From my experience, I would say no. The translations for movie subtitles are usually too loose to be of much use.

However, if you watch a Chinese movie with *Chinese* subtitles, that definitely helps. You can see exactly what they're saying, so you can test your hearing and work on your hanzi recognition at the same time.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: 对大多数入门级学汉语的学生来说电影中对话说得太快，听不清楚，中文字幕也变化得太快，入门级学生读得太慢。  
> **username_3**: 我同意。可是暂停电影，没问题吧。您感觉如何？  
> **username_4**: 经常暂停而同时查看词典的话，看电视片确实会有帮助的，不过需要比较大的耐心。 （为了听得懂所说话语常常还需要把时间标志倒拨几分钟而再次听同一个比较小部分。）  
> **username_4**: some users suggest： stop the video as soon as a new subtitle appears, read the whole subtitle and then listen to the rest of subtitled spoken words, 有用户建议如下，一旦出现新的字幕就停止视频，读完整个字幕，接着倾听该字幕剩余的话语  
> **username_5**: Exactly what I was going to say.  Even if you match only one word in ten, it's still good practice (e.g. hearing people's different ways of pronouncing the same word), and you'll be surprised at how soon you start recognizing new characters. ¶ If you use translated subtitles, you'll be continually translating in your mind, and that's not a good way of learning a language; you have to start thinking in that language without translating.  

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### Answer by username_6 on 2016-06-24. Score: 0

In my opinion it definitely helps.
It improves your listening skills (you get used to the hearing the sounds of the language spoken as they are spoken in a regular conversation).

You'll only distinguish a word once in awhile, but there are words that are used over and over again so you'll especially exposed to words that are more frequent, which is great for beginners. The subtitles may help, especially if the movie has both hanzi and pinyin hardcoded and english subs (non-hardcoded).

This is a good habit. Go for it every time you can.


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### Answer by username_7 on 2016-06-24. Score: 0

Im sure it is, just like reading is a great way.

But if you are watching the movie translated into English, then it'll be less helpful. Try with the Mandarin subtitles option. I know that if I put on English subtitles on an English speaking movie, then what they are saying shows below in text form, and it is not translated or disrupted, the exact words are shown below.


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