I don’t think there’s a specific number to recommend, but two reasonable limits are: 1) when it gets boring and 2) when you know it by heart, whichever comes first.

Sure, let’s do it like that then. I’ll send you an email sometime in the future when I feel a got a good grasp about the whole thing and perhaps I’ve also come up with a few variations on using it by then.

I think that the legality of the method isn’t a problem; as long it’s not nuclear weapons or something like that, a method itself is seldom illegal, so as long as we avoid directly linking to illegal material, we should be okay. People could after all get hold of subtitles in two languages legally. Just leaving that bit out and allowing people to figure out for themselves how to deal with it should be okay.

Since you have only used the method for a few weeks, how about just recording a few notes about your experience for now and postpone thinking about an article a bit until you feel that you really know the method and have more to say about it’s efficiency? It seems to me that an article would be more interesting if the author has a more in-depth knowledge about how it works, especially if people start asking questions. 🙂

Hi Olle,

The basic idea and use of subs2srs has been mentioned and discussed on Chinese Forums several times over the years, that’s where I originally got it from – unfortunately I can’t find the biggest thread on it anymore. However the limitation always was that subs2srs needs one L1 and one L2 subtitle file, but separate Chinese subtitles in text format (SRT) are pretty hard to find for any Chinese media. So I simply modified the approach, using the subs2srs screen capture feature to capture the hard-coded Chinese subs that accompany almost every Chinese-language TV programme these days.

I’d be happy to provide you with a more detailed explanation with how-to screenshots and so on if you think it would be helpful or interesting. I’ve only been using the method for a few weeks now so I can’t say anything to its efficacy, and the results largely depend on how well timed the external (i.e. English) sub file is to the audio, but when it works, it works extremely well.

Anyway, the end result looks like this plus audio:

http://imgur.com/Eu9c6zQ

This is from the first episode of In Time With You and I got about 1,400 cards out of it. The actual usable amount will probably be lower, because you have to throw out all the useless stuff as you go along i.e. cards where either audio and/or subs were not captured correctly, one-word responses, etc. but it’s still a lot of material to work with.

There’s a fairly dedicated fandom that regularly translates the most recent Taiwanese and Chinese dramas. Simply googling for some recent popular series together with “+subtitles” “+torrent” etc should provide ample results but of course it’s a pretty grey area legally (though basically the same as what anime fansubbers have been doing for decades)

“2) Choose an episode of your favorite Chinese/Taiwanese drama”

Any tips on where to find Chinese videos with both Chinese and English subtitle files?

Also the only other thing I like to do differently is to turn my audio into a speaking exercise. I think dictation is really helpful but can never be bothered to do it. Instead I just like to periodically summarise the audio by talking to myself.

I’ve been reading a lot of literature about TESOL methods lately that recommends training learners to use background knowledge ‘top-down processing’ to become better listeners. Have you found that this is a valuable strategy worth training at all or is it simply a case of if you have the necessary background knowledge then you can automatically apply it?

Great article!

Yes, I’m convinced of the overall soundness of the strategy you suggest. I wish I had thought of something similar when I first started learning Chinese. Do you know if this method has been described in detail somewhere else? If not, would you be interested in contributing to an article or something about this? You probably know the practical details much better than I do and my knowledge of the method would be mostly second hand. I’m sure readers in general would be interested in trying this out, though!

Yeah like I mentioned, if you’re good at reading, you can simply put the accompanying subtitle for the dialogue line on the back, not the front. In any case, it’s there as a failsafe to check against any potential misheard words – a luxury you mostly don’t have when you’re purely transcribing from other audio-only material without any existing transcription, so I think it’s especially good for beginners and intermediate learners.