Never watch Netflix with subtitles

The cognitive psychological insights into why we learn English better without subtitles

One of the most common mistakes I see English learners make is watching Netflix using English subtitles, or even worse, subtitles in their own language. Of course, I’m using Netflix metaphorically here to refer to any platform on which we watch TV series, shows, and films, since Netflix was essentially the first of a kind.

So I’m going to explain the cognitive psychological reasons why watching Netflix with no subtitles is the best way to learn and get fluent in English, or any language for that matter. Watching TV shows in Polish without subtitles, was how I went from speaking zero Polish to feeling at home speaking Polish in most situations.

If you get to the end of this article, absorb the knowledge, and practice the advice just as described, I can ensure you that within 3, 6, and 9 months, and beyond, you will be seeing visible results and changes in your English.

Language is embodied:

why language is a product of the brains and bodies we have

First of all, when we switch on subtitles to watch a TV show, we also switch on the part of our brain that reads. This is mostly a conscious part of our brain, which attends to the patterns of words (lexemes) and sentences (lexical structures), what we call symbols, sometimes signs, but this is a moot academic point. Symbols stand for and represent things. In written language the symbols stand for the language that we speak, say a word, but a whole sentence is also a symbol, because it symbolises a spoken expression. But a spoken language is not just written symbols, these merely encode meanings a language conveys.

Rather language in its truest sense is something embodied and largely unconscious. This means that the language, and languages, that we have are a product of the kind of bodies and brains that we have as humans. And the language that we have wouldn’t exist in the way it does, without the bodies and brains that we have. This is what the past 50 years of cognitive science research has very convincingly revealed, and is commonly referred to as the embodied cognition view of mind, meaning, and language.

According to the first generation of cognitive science, and the old faculty psychology view of the mind, it was thought that our brains had dedicated faculties, for example a faculty for logic, reasoning, or language. Rather what cognitive scientists discovered is that our language and reasoning abilities are structured on pre-existing areas of the brain, for example the motor cortex, auditory, visual, and spatial processing cortices. The brain had already evolved areas to move us through space, engage with objects and our environment, to process perceptual stimuli such as sound, vision, spatial dimensions. The brain did not suddenly evolve new areas for language and reasoning, but what was preexisting was adapted to our needs to communicate and reason. This discovery seems so logical and obvious now, but as with all great scientific discoveries they seem obvious only in hindsight. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20:20.

Academically and culturally, the full implications of the embodied cognition view of language are still being absorbed. And it has has deep implications for understanding the nature of language and language learning.

Subtitles: handicapping the brain and body

So when we switch on subtitles on Netflix, we switch on a much more recently adapted ability in the brain, our ability to identify symbols — written language. But at the same time we turn off, or at least block, a large part of our unconscious brain, much older, for visual, auditory, and spatial perception, that detect movement, body kinetics, body language, facial and emotional expression, coupled to the tone, rhythm, and intonation of voice, and other vital contextual information.

Subtitles literally handicap our brain for processing and understanding spoken language.

To emphasise this point further, just think that when we communicate in a language we create sounds using our vocal cords, the muscle structures in our throats and neck. When we talk, we engage facial muscles that form complex expressions that convey our underlying psycho-emotive state. The tone and rhythm of our voices is also rich with information, whether we are being serious, ironic, humorous, or if we’re angry, happy, resentful, and much more emotional content. Our body kinetics and body language show a great deal about our internal state, our relationship to others, and our underlying intentions. Layered into this are an array of contextual cues too. In this way we can see just how language is embodied.

All this richness of information that we unconsciously pick up on and process is mostly lost when we have subtitles switched on. We can’t watch the action and behaviour on screen with our full attention and unconscious awareness, when we are distracted by subtitles, no matter how good we think we are at watching with subtitles.

This effect is worse when we have subtitles switched on in our own language. As then our brain is not only reading but contextualising, referencing, and inferring in our first language. Yet, when subtitles are in English (the target language), while the effect is not as degenerative, subtitles-on still blocks our brain and body from fully immersing in the experience of watching.

Being immersed in watching: learning from kids

The best way to understand this phenomenon is to think of a very young child watching TV.

I ask this question to parents all the time. I ask, when your child is watching TV how do they watch? I can bet they watch seated like a statue, eyes wide open and glued to the TV, almost not blinking, oblivious to the world around them. Parents without hesitation respond — that’s exactly how they watch! Then I ask, but do they understand 100% of the language being used? Parents invariably answer — for sure not! Then I ask, but do their kids understand what’s going on in the show, programme, or film? And parents pause, but then quickly respond — yeah, actually they know pretty much exactly what’s going on!

Here we have a fascinating insight.

It would appear that young children can understand only a fraction of the spoken language, while being able to understand pretty much everything going on.

Children glued to the TV

So what’s happening here?

A child instinctively and intuitively is engaged in all that is happening on TV, all the stimuli. The colours, sounds, shapes, actions, words, stories, whatever it is. Yet, they haven’t developed the capacity to process language completely, they still don’t know complex terms, expressions, or more complex grammatical forms. Yet, the child isn’t interested in understanding 100% of the language, and they never ask for the subtitles to be switched on. Well, they couldn’t even read them if they were!

What seems to be happening is the child is instinctively able to watch the TV programme, and understand what is happening, through watching and sensing. The child knows, who is talking to whom and why, who did what to whom and why, who was fighting with whom and why, who lied, or cheated, who helped someone or did something nice, and how they felt about all these things. This all happens instinctively for the child. This further confirms how language is embodied and mostly an unconscious process.

And of course, furthermore all the time the child is unconsciously picking up and assimilating precise words and expressions without really knowing they’re even doing that.

And this is no different for the adult brain, if we just give ourselves the chance to learn once more as naive, innocent children.

Watching Netflix as a child would

So the trick is to first accept that our adult expectation to understand 100% of “the written language” and “the spoken language” in a TV show is a ridiculous expectation. It is largely due to the fact that the adult ego is much more pernicious than the child ego. Our adult ego is made uncomfortable watching something and not understanding all the “language”.

However, if we put aside this expectation of our egos, and just accept that we can watch something and understand more or less what is “happening”, who killed whom and why, who cheated whom and when, why someone is upset, and all the rest of it, then we will be allowing our brains to process all the information that tells us what is happening, and this is the information that makes up a language.

By beginning to watch shows as a child would, we open our minds to seeing body language and kinetics, facial expressions, we get good at detecting moods and emotions as they are written into facial expressions and behaviour, we do all this unconsciously. And magically, as we allow ourselves to do this, behaviours, facial expressions, moods, marry contextually with actual spoken words, expressions, and idioms and we are much more likely to absorb new expressions and words, and more often consolidate words and expressions we have already heard but which are not in our working vocabulary.

Watching sitcoms: a little trick to make it all easier

One of the best tricks to begin watching Netflix without subtitles is to begin with one of your favourite sitcoms. Why?

Well, sitcoms are easy watching. They are usually short 20 to 30 minute episodes. They are familiar, as often we have watched the sitcom before, but you could start with a new one. I recommend things like Seinfeld, Modern Family, Curb Your Enthusiasm, as they are my favourites, but I know sitcoms like Friends, The Office, The Big Bang Theory are widely loved. Once we have watched several episodes, the setting, the characters, their behaviour, facial expressions, way of speaking, their way of joking, all become familiar to us, and it becomes easier and easier to understand the language that they use.

What is more, if you can understand comedy In English, I argue you can understand most things in English.

So once you’ve picked your sitcom, say Modern family, sit back, turn the subtitles off and just enjoy watching. But be prepared, you need to put away your phone and avoid distractions. You need to give your full attention, just as a child would. You need to watch everything closely, absorbing all the details of behaviour, and you need to be really motivated to understand what is happening.

Now, of course, there will be moments when you really don’t understand something, and you want to know what happened, this even happens to me in English! No matter how many times I rewind and listen, I can’t catch what is said. It happened to me recently watching a famous scene in Game of Thrones, season 3, when Jaime Lanister is bathing for the first time after losing his fighting hand. He is talking to Brienne of Tarth who is in the same bath (yeah, it’s a weird scene). And no matter how many times I listen, or how high the volume is, I can’t catch what he says, as he is mumbling, and the audio is not so good.

In such cases, pause, switch on subtitles in English, go back and try to understand what has been said. If you don’t understand, then of course go to your own language, satisfy your curiosity, and then go back and continue watching without subtitles. You might need to do this a few times during a show depending on where your level of English is. You will find overtime, you will do this less and less, as you are just capable of following what is going on.

Some of you maybe diligent enough to pause, put on subtitles in English, and make a note or screenshot of the the English subtitles for later reference and revision. I did this back in the day watching a Polish TV drama comedy: Ranczo. It’s still one of my favourite shows. There were no subtitles available in Polish, never mind in English, and I had to pause and transcribe what I heard and then check in the dictionary. It was a very time consuming exercise, and I filled several notebooks this way, but it paid dividends. Now Ranczo is actually on Netflix, and when I watch it, from time to time, I never watch with subtitles. I still certainly don't understand all the language, but I know what happens, and I still learn when watching, and I enjoy it.

Final note

You will probably feel very frustrated when you begin.

Your hardest task will be simply mastering your frustration, and the desire of your ego to simply switch on the subtitles and know what’s happening. However, we need to exercise will power in these moments, resist that urge, and push on. The more we practice resisting such temptations, the stronger our will power becomes.

After all, we are what we practice.

Practice watching without subtitles until it becomes second nature, and you will unlock your secret ability to learn a language unconsciously.

And of course, you’ll never watch Netflix with subtitles again (well almost).

Enjoy!