I Was watching a Spanish language movie last night with English subtitles. (Guillermo del Toro, Devils Backbone)
I was interested to note that after a while I had forgotten about reading the subtitles as such and simply "Heard" (And remembered#) the dialog in English.
(# IE, there is a good chance that, in six months time, had I been asked under, say, Police interview, I would initially recall the film as an English language one rather than a Spanish language one but for the fact that I have been thinking about this now)
Clearly I was still reading the subtitles subconsciously but no longer noticed them as such and instead was somehow processing them subconsciously into an pseudo-auditory English experience.
I am guessing that I have always done this but this is the first time I actually realised that this is what I was doing.
Does everybody watching subtitles end up doing this? Or do some people have to actually "read" the subtitles for the duration of the film?
If the former, how long does it take to forget that the subtitles are there (EG, 5 Mins, 10 Mins and so on. Looking back on it, I would say it happened very quickly actually. not more than 5 mins or so.)
Again, I am guessing that it may well be different for younger people since I am sure that subtitled films, even in the cinema were far more common in the past and so were something that one just adapted to as part of the cinema experience.
But I would be interested in comments and experiences. This is one of those experiences that I suppose might provide information as to how the brain processes language and as such I find it really quite interesting.
I was interested to note that after a while I had forgotten about reading the subtitles as such and simply "Heard" (And remembered#) the dialog in English.
(# IE, there is a good chance that, in six months time, had I been asked under, say, Police interview, I would initially recall the film as an English language one rather than a Spanish language one but for the fact that I have been thinking about this now)
Clearly I was still reading the subtitles subconsciously but no longer noticed them as such and instead was somehow processing them subconsciously into an pseudo-auditory English experience.
I am guessing that I have always done this but this is the first time I actually realised that this is what I was doing.
Does everybody watching subtitles end up doing this? Or do some people have to actually "read" the subtitles for the duration of the film?
If the former, how long does it take to forget that the subtitles are there (EG, 5 Mins, 10 Mins and so on. Looking back on it, I would say it happened very quickly actually. not more than 5 mins or so.)
Again, I am guessing that it may well be different for younger people since I am sure that subtitled films, even in the cinema were far more common in the past and so were something that one just adapted to as part of the cinema experience.
But I would be interested in comments and experiences. This is one of those experiences that I suppose might provide information as to how the brain processes language and as such I find it really quite interesting.
