faevii: (Default)
Ocean Tea ([personal profile] faevii) wrote2010-11-02 08:05 pm

Chocolate & Subtitles

Realised that I can still eat dark chocolate. Face, meet palm. I never liked it all that much on its own, but lots of things that happen to be coated with dark chocolate have just become an option again.

Also, I recently discovered how easy to use downloadable subtitles are. I thought I'd have to learn how to install them first and was never in the mood to go looking for a tutorial, so I told myself that it was totally okay if I only understood 60% of what I was watching sometimes. Except it obviously wasn't. This is why I am very happy to have accidentally downloaded a torrent that already included the subtitles for all files, which then turned out to be all simple and self-explanatory! If you use VLC, that is - I don't know about other players.

It was about time I figured that out, too. How did I even make it through five seasons of Doctor Who without subtitles?! There was a point, somewhere along the way, when I asked myself if watching things in English was really worth this much trouble. I very nearly started to consider (LOL) downloading German dubs instead, if available.

Then I realised that I don't actually understand German much better. Haha. I mean, of course there is a difference. I've had 24 years to get used to this language, to identify patterns and become relatively good at guessing what someone might have said if I didn't properly catch it - with English I just don't have that. Still, I've seen things in German that I didn't understand more than maybe 75% of, either. Come to think of it, I've had conversations of which I understood less than that. It's all a question of luck.

So basically, all those times I tried to watch something in English without subtitles because after all I didn't "need" subtitles for German, either? I should have considered the option that maybe I do. The stress I could have been avoiding! >_<

Can't decide what it was that fucked me over: lack of information, internalised ableism or pride. Possibly a combination of all three.