Watching Japanese TV shows with my kids

PatPaul said:

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can watch and understand Japanese TV. My Japanese level is low and I try to spend time with my kids watching their favourite TV shows on a regular, falt-screen TV;however, with most of the shows, there are no subtitles (English or Japanese), so I am completly lost...

PatPaul

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nice gaijin said:

Japanese TV doesn't really cater to non-Japanese speakers, and I don't think I've ever seen English subtitles on Japanese TV, so your options are to either find a streaming source that provides subtitles, or to study more so you can watch live TV. If you're living in Japan, it's always a good idea to work on your language skills.

If you're into self-study, there's a "language learning with netflix" chrome plugin (I guess it's called Language Reactor now) that lets you set multiple subtitles and change playback speed. Once you have a solid base in Japanese, this can help you reverse engineer what's being said, and figure out grammar patterns for Japanese speech and natural word choices, depending on what you're watching. If they're into anime, I think Crunchyroll offers subtitles for the shows on their platform.

That being said, you can continue to watch with your kids, just as a way to spend some time with them. Even if you don't understand it it's good exposure. If they're growing up bilingual you can ask them questions, which can also be a good way to bond and to mutually practice language skills.

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