I Can Understand Spoken English—Until Japanese Subtitles Appear

Last night, I was watching a television variety show with my wife.

Partway through, a guest from overseas appeared and began speaking English.

I decided to see how much I could understand. Since I study English regularly, my ears automatically react whenever a situation like this comes up.

Then an unexpected enemy appeared.

Japanese subtitles.

Helpful Subtitles Somehow Get in the Way

English was entering through my ears and Japanese through my eyes. You might expect the combination to improve comprehension, but the opposite happened.

The moment I tried to read the subtitles while listening to the English, I could no longer tell what was being said.

Even when I tried to concentrate on the spoken English, the Japanese subtitles forced themselves into my field of vision. And the content and timing of the two were slightly out of sync.

When you think about it, English and Japanese use very different word orders.

In English, the verb follows the subject. In Japanese, the verb often comes at the end. Television subtitles are also adapted for readability rather than translated word for word.

In other words, my ears and eyes were receiving the same meaning in different processing orders.

Trying to understand two languages at once created a traffic jam in my brain.

When I Ignore the English, I Really Stop Hearing It

After all, I was simply relaxing and watching television with my wife. I was not there to study English.

So I gave up trying to listen to the English and decided to read only the Japanese subtitles.

Then something even more interesting happened.

My ability to understand the English collapsed to a surprising degree.

Even words and phrases I had understood moments earlier turned into mere sounds.

I could tell that English was being spoken. But the moment I stopped consciously trying to understand it, it began to sound almost like a language I had never learned.

My English ability had not suddenly vanished. My brain had simply abandoned the task of understanding English.

That surprised me a little.

I normally work to improve my listening ability, yet merely directing my attention toward Japanese caused that hard-earned skill to clock out immediately.

What Happens Inside a Simultaneous Interpreter’s Brain?

That made me think about professional simultaneous interpreters.

I once heard that simultaneous interpreting is so demanding that interpreters often switch every 15 to 20 minutes.

They listen to someone speak, understand the meaning, convert it into another language, and say it aloud themselves. All the while, the speaker’s next words continue arriving without mercy.

Just imagining it gives me a headache.

I become confused simply by listening to English while reading Japanese subtitles. Interpreters do that while also generating Japanese themselves. I have tremendous respect for them.

They cannot exactly interrupt halfway through and say, “Wait a moment. Could you repeat that last sentence in English?”

I felt I could finally understand why professional interpreters rotate after such short periods.

My Brain Was Built for Single-Tasking

What I learned from this experience is that, at least for me, it works better to focus either on the English audio or on the Japanese subtitles and consciously switch between them.

Trying to process both at the same time actually reduces my comprehension.

Working in IT, I often think about CPU performance and memory capacity. But I had never seriously considered the processing limits of my own brain.

Listening to English while reading Japanese subtitles.

That alone was enough to expose the limits of my processing power.

Apparently, my brain does not support multitasking. Worse still, I cannot add more memory or replace the CPU.

My only remaining option is to use it more intelligently.