Should you use subtitles to learn Japanese? (feat. ニック兄さん)

This is one of the most common questions asked by beginners... and the answer, unfortunately, is that it depends. Subtitles make Japanese media more accessible, but depending too heavily on them can prevent you from developing your listening comprehension skills. With this in mind, the decision to use or not use subtitles is a choice that should be made consciously, depending on what type of immersion you're currently doing: intensive, extensive, or hybrid. Nick is a foreigner who speaks Japanese fluently and did comedy in Japan, and his take on this question is as follows: 0:00 A quick disclaimer 0:52 Introduction 2:18 Beginners → don't use subtitles 5:39 Intermediates → sometimes use subtitles to mine words 8:00 Choose → if mining, use subtitles; if not, don't And here's a few other videos in which we discuss this topic: - Hybrid input → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xzw9F67WVA - Intensive (listening) input → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfYRsvyEjE - How to choose the right input modality → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1L0nfZ2a_Y&t=17s