Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — non-exact Japanese subs
木更津キャッツアイ　日本シリーズ — no Japanese subs at all
木更津キャッツアイ　ワールドシリーズ — exact Japanese subs

with info about how (-which page, etc.) I can sign into some japanese virtual library, where I could read books (history, culture related) in japanese, please enlighten me. Please. I’m studing Tokugawa period with special emphasis on works of Suzuki Harunobu and there’s a scholar Nishiyama Matsunosuke (西山松之助 ) with brilliant input…that I can not yet reach in japanese! I read most of his stuff in eng, but I want it in jap. as well.

Anyhow, I’m probably posting this way out of proper section (studing binge, sleep deprived,etc),Khatzumoto, sorry if you’ve already given this info-I browsed FAQ,didn’t find it there,so…

どうもありがとうございました! Blessed is the day I stumbled upon your page, keep up the good work! Oh, I really need the “virtual version”, not printed book, no Amazon, just something along the lines of Questia (online library, very easy to use).

Najlepša hvala!

I did a bit of research and exactly two Japanese people had the same disappointment I did. And of course, I can’t seem to find the Japanese dubbed version anywhere online. I would make an exception to my rule and just order the Japanese Blu-Ray, but then it won’t play in my American PS3.

The US version of the DVD box set is $30, but only has English dubs. The Japanese version is $108.

And I obviously get zero points for missing the words,’… but these are almost never exact dialogue transcripts (****at least, I have never seen one****)…’ in the 2nd paragraph of this article doh!

Anyway, keep up the great work.

Mark

Another very useful article - thanks.

As you have mentioned elsewhere on this site, there is often a problem with (specifically) American movies in that the dubbed Japanese dialogue often doesn’t match the Japanese subtitles.

I have the Aliens 2 and a few of the Star Wars movies and this seems to be the case.

Do you, by any chance, know of any American TV drama series or movies where the dubbed Japanese and Japanese subtitles do match?

Any chance of a blog post on this??? I seem to remember that you have 24 - does that have matching J dubbed & J subs?

Thanks again for answering my questions…And apologies if I have missed a previous blog post on this

Mark

Khatzumoto, thanks for all your work, publishing some of your thoughts on language learning, and maintaining this site!

I just rented タイガー＆ドラゴン today, so I’ll be checking that out in the following week.

DVD subs (as far as I know), are images.

Most Chinese shows come with Chinese subs (they are the rule, rather than the exception), assuming you buy a release intended for a Chinese audience, as opposed to, say, an American or Japanese release (sometimes, foreign releases come without Chinese subs…there are exceptions, but you need to be careful). Ebay is a good place to get Chinese shows. Check these out for starters (I don’t know that many Chinese shows yet! Haha…):

Moment In Peking
Chinese Paladin

Are the subs always just displayed as images on the screen, or sometimes available as separate text that can be processed on the computer?

I’m also considering doing the same thing with タイガー＆ドラゴン. I watched it some time ago, with English subtitles (I was studying casually at the time, and didn’t know how “evil” they were), and it was one of the coolest shows I’ve ever seen. But it was very frustrating not being able to understand the stories fully in Japanese.

Having said all that, Alec…your question about becoming text-dependent is interesting, because I hear from my friends that a lot of older people are complaining that the young generation “are accustomed to getting too much text confirmation (as on TV), and are not good at listening anymore”…But you know what? Older people as a group whine too freaking much sometimes. They’re never happy with what the young people are doing. Either they’re not reading enough and forgetting kanji, or they’re reading too much and becoming visual-centered bookworms. Which is it? It can’t be both!! Text is a good thing. Text clarifies. Text is “solid” in a way that audio isn’t. So, get off our backs, older people!!

Haha. Anyway, thanks for commenting, Alec. LoL, I hope you don’t feel flamed! Please feel free to comment any time.

Hmmm…the answer to that is “nes”. No and yes.

First of all, Japanese learners who can read Japanese so well that they lust for subs? That isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Secondly, reading subs can be a great vocabulary-building exercise. I pick up words that I would have just slipped by because I could follow the conversation without knowing exactly what they mean; as with one’s native language, it’s easy to (almost subconsciously) infer a stray word. But subs force it to your conscious attention.

As long as the subs are in JAPANESE, I see no problem with it, because ultimately, it can only make your Japanese better. Knowing more words through parsing subs will reduce your need to look up words in the dictionary, and in turn reducing your dependence on subs. So, like the dictionary, subs may seem to bind, but in the end (used correctly), they set us free.

English subs, on the other hand…are the devil.

And, I know I’m repeating myself here, but so many foreigners in Japan are illiterate. Even what appeared to be a Korean girl I saw at immigration a couple of days ago couldn’t write kanji; filling in a form, she asked: “is romaji okay?”. For us non-Japanese to become a class of “super-literates” (more intimate with the Japanese writing system than typical people from Japan), then, can only be a step forward. Besides, if the worst comes to the worst, you can always ask someone to repeat, restate or clarify themselves in a conversation.

So don’t fear the subs (as long as they’re in Japanese). Don’t avert your eyes from the subs (as long as they’re in Japanese). Because if you can read Japanese subs, Alec, that is a WONDERFUL state to have reached.