Subtitles
 

Howdy,

So I'm working on my Japanese. I've gotten some stuff done, 200 or so word vocab, hiragana, some basic phrases, etc.
I'm also tired of listening to people ask where the bathroom is, but I still want to work on listening to the language. So my brilliant idea: watch some japanese movies and translate as I go. Practice hearing it spoken, expand my vocab scene at a time... easy for me to memorize movies for some reason.
So here is my problem... the japanese subtitles, of course, have kanji. I find it very difficult to look up these symbols... Last night I spent an hour looking through flashcards, and in various japanese programs for a word that has to mean something along the lines of regret( from the english subs).
My interest in Kanji is very limited. Is there a easy way to translate these subtitles? Has someone maybe made a katakana/ romaji script for a popular movie?

Here's the problem. You are at a kindergarten level, and are asking a college level question.

The problem is subtitles are rarely direct translations of what is being spoken on the screen. Japanese sentences are structured differently, so in a long sentence you might be reading the second half while listening to the first. It is an ambitious idea for someone who has studied intensely for 3 or 4 years, but with only a 200 word vocabulary, you are in way too deep.

You spent an hour trying to track down a single kanji. How much more could you have learned in that hour if you were practicing hiragana or katakana?

I know this SEEMS like a brilliant idea, but will only end up as an exercise in frustration. Learn the ropes, then you get to get into the fun stuff.

eh. I know the basics of the sentence structure, generally don't have issue figuring out what words correspond to what part of the sentence. Though non literal translations do send me to ol' books.

Everyone that I know that has learned english has used this method, and when I was studying french this method also got me the best results. (Though I am still reading my other guides and etc.) So I appreciate your advice, but I'm gonna plow ahead.

Currently ripping the subtitles so I can copy and paste those pesky symbols. Best way getting around this I've come up with.

I've studied Japanese for almost two years now and I've been to Japan and back for a 6 week stay and I still can't really do what you're trying to do very well... I would take MMM's advice and get the basics down before you move ahead.

There is a difference though when it comes to English/French. The writing system is something I imagine you didn`t have to learn anew - or at the very least, it`s a much easier writing system to learn than Japanese. If you are unsuccessful at reading the subtitles, it`s really not going to help you.
Especially as it`s pretty popular for there to be written something with a different literal meaning than what was said actually said. It`s a bit hard to explain, but those who have experience with Japanese television and Japanese subtitles will know what I mean.
And let`s not forget that the English subtitles are often so far off from what was actually said that it actually drives me crazy.

You`re welcome to "plow ahead", but I agree with MMM that this is really not a worthwhile idea at all. At the very least, start with something that is actually close to your level - children`s programming, programming designed for Japanese learners, etc. I can only see this leading to frustration and no significant learning.

Yea, my subtitle ripper doesn't support kanji. The filthy writing system that it is.
The non literal subtitles occur often in english as well, but given context it usually isn't hard to find a synonyms. But my question was more do you know of someone else who has already done this... not if you thought I'd be able to do this easily.

Thanks for your feed back everyone, but I take no one has done this for anything besides kids videos, which is a shame... but answers my question.

?

I have done this. I watch Japanese game shows every week without subtitles to practice, and I still don't get everything down. And plus you have to factor in the crazy kansai ben that a lot of the comedians speak. I tried watching a drama when I first started and didn't understand a word. There are almost no grammatical parallels that you can piece together from watching a Japanese show. If this was a European language, it would be a little different because the grammar is so similar and you can say something in one language and translate it word for word into another language and it makes perfect sense. You can't exactly do this with Japanese. This is why it is best that you break down the big grammar wall and get a basic, thorough understanding of Japanese grammar. Grammar isn't even all of it too. You're going to have to get used to colloquial speech, people talking fast, and different dialects.

Everybody wants to learn Japanese in the quickest time possible.
Somebody will want to find their own ways to learn them through their own developed methods.

But really, shortcut methods are doomed for failure. You get hot and interested very fast, plough in all kinds of brilliant learning methods that you think you developed them yourself.

Then, you get stucked. But because you are so determined to get it right, you go round circles, run through all your notes and search across the web, or like what you did, spent an hour searching for ONE word.

Soon, you get frustrated, and weary, and your determination begins to wear off. Then your interest will begin to wane and the more you look at it, the more frustrated you will get. Two to three months down the road, you've given up.

I've seen them all. You should take it easy and don't rush yourself.

So if you like movie? Maybe short movie or song. Have script or lyric first. So then, read first. Right? So lyric like this, so then print, read. Write hiragana, for good song. So then, study lyric Kanji. Read and Kanji together. Listen music, hear words singing, and read lyric also. After maybe, write English with lyric, listen, study words for understand! Movie, maybe difficult, but, always O.K., print script words, for study first. So then, watch movie. Study script words, and write Kanji and hiragana, after, translate in English. And if all words are understand, good! Remember words and meaning. Again, watch movie to remember words.

Hi. I was born and raised in Italy. When I was 30 (7 years ago) I moved to USA, different culture and different language.
I started studying English 10ish years before I moved, just coz I liked the language. I took English in high school and went to private classes. After years, still when I went to class and we had to watch news in English I would still understand like 1/20th of what was said. I might get what was 1 piece of news about, sometimes I would get it all wrong and sometimes I would get nothing. That was after years of study.
From someone who lives in a foreign country, let me tell you this: television and telephone conversations will always be one of the worst enemies. Your brain will get stuck on a word you don't know and miss all the rest coming up. Forget television for now. If you really want to get used to the Japanese people way of speaking use music (and have the script in front of you).

The best way to learn words is not listening to television, but reading. You can't imagine how many books in English I have (all from before I moved to USA). The first books I read are full or translations written on top of almost every words, then when you know many words you don't translate anymore, but you learn to understand the meaning of a word from the sense of the rest of the phrase. Now you can understand people speaking in a TV show or movie.

What you should do (and I can't find them, I wish I could) is buy books written even in kanji, but with furigana and read alot. Read and work very hard to understand the meaning of every phrase. This is the beginning of a long trip...sorry no short cuts.