Subtitles and Logograms

When you watch a movie, do you turn off the subtitles?

I have heard that Taiwanese people prefer subtitles more than people in other countries.

I don't know if it is true.

That is never a thing for us.

So maybe we do like to 'read' subtitles.

I'm curious about it, so I scrolled online and found a theory.

For example, '木' means 'wood' in Mandarin, and '森' means 'forest', because a forest is made up of many trees.

But as a full word, we use "森林" to represent a forest.

Fun fact: '林' means 'grove' because it also consists of trees but fewer than a forest, so this character contains only two 'woods(木)'.

The theory suggests that languages using logograms make it easier to consume information through reading because each character is like an image.

That's why we like to 'read' subtitles when watching videos.

To be clear, this is not an academic article; it is just a random discussion online.

I want to learn more about it.

Subtitles and Logograms

When you watch a movie, do you turn off the subtitles?

I have heard that Taiwanese people prefer subtitles more than people in other countries.

I don't know if it is true.

But I know that in Japan, they dub every movie if the characters don't speak Japanese, whereas in Taiwan, we don't do that unless it is an animation or a movie for children.

And when I watch Western TV news, they dub the interviewee if they don't speak English.

That is never a thing for us.

As for YouTube, I notice most YouTubers don't put subtitles on their videos, but most Taiwanese YouTubers do, even if their audience can perfectly understand Mandarin.

So maybe we do like to 'read' subtitles.

I'm curious about it, so I scrolled online and found a theory.

It said because most languages in the world are phonograms, the alphabet itself doesn't have meaning.

But Mandarin is logogram, which means every character has its own meaning.

For example, '木' means 'wood' in Mandarin, and '森' means 'forest', because a forest is made up of many trees.

But as a full word, we use "森林" to represent a forest.

Fun fact: '林' means 'grove' because it also consists of trees but fewer than a forest, so this character contains only two 'woods(木)'.

The theory suggests that languages using logograms make it easier to consume information through reading because each character is like an image.

That's why we like to 'read' subtitles when watching videos.

To be clear, this is not an academic article; it is just a random discussion online.

But isn't it interesting?

I want to learn more about it.

Subtitles and Logograms

When you watch a movie, do you turn off the subtitles?

I have heard that Taiwanese people prefer subtitles more than people in other countries.

I don't know if it is true.

But I know that in Japan, they dub every movie if the characters don't speak Japanese, whereas in Taiwan, we don't do that unless it is an animation or a movie for children.

That is never a thing for us.

As for YouTube, I notice most YouTubers don't put subtitles on their videos, but most Taiwanese YouTubers do, even if their audience can perfectly understand Mandarin.

So maybe we do like to 'read' subtitles.

I'm curious about it, so I scrolled online and found a theory.

It said because most languages in the world are phonograms, the alphabet itself doesn't have meaning.

But Mandarin is logogram, which means every character has its own meaning.

For example, '木' means 'wood' in Mandarin, and '森' means 'forest', because a forest is made up of many trees.

But as a full word, we use "森林" to represent a forest.

Fun fact: '林' means 'grove' because it also consists of trees but fewer than a forest, so this character contains only two 'woods(木)'.

The theory suggests that languages using logograms make it easier to consume information through reading because each character is like an image.

That's why we like to 'read' subtitles when watching videos.

To be clear, this is not an academic article; it is just a random discussion online.

But isn't it interesting?

Maybe the writing system of a language does create significant differences on how we processing information.

I want to learn more about it.

Subtitles and Logograms

When you watch a movie, do you turn off the subtitles?

I have heard that Taiwanese people prefer subtitles more than people in other countries.

I don't know if it is true.

As for YouTube, I notice most YouTubers don't put subtitles on their videos, but most Taiwanese YouTubers do, even if their audience can perfectly understand Mandarin.

So maybe we do like to 'read' subtitles.

I'm curious about it, so I scrolled online and found a theory.

It said because most languages in the world are phonograms, the alphabet itself doesn't have meaning.

But Mandarin is logogram, which means every character has its own meaning.

For example, '木' means 'wood' in Mandarin, and '森' means 'forest', because a forest is made up of many trees.

But as a full word, we use "森林" to represent a forest.

The theory suggests that languages using logograms make it easier to consume information through reading because each character is like an image.

That's why we like to 'read' subtitles when watching videos.

To be clear, this is not an academic article; it is just a random discussion online.

But isn't it interesting?

I want to learn more about it.