Hi Lennon, Yes - subtitles can definitely be helpful, especially if you can't understand the movie without it. I'd also suggest finding a movie or podcast with simpler English, that you can understand about half of. Try listening to it without subtitles once or twice and THEN listen or watch again with subtitles. This will improve your listening skills and will help you to focus on new vocabulary and the pronunciation of the words you're hearing. Hope this helps! Nick

My favorite way to watch a movie is with captions that are written in the same language as the audio (I am learning Spanish, so I like watching Spanish language movies with Spanish captions). I think my brain is a little lazy, and if there are subtitles in my own language, my brain mostly pays attention to the words that I can easily read -- and does not pay very much attention to the foreign words I am hearing. There are still benefits to watching a movie with subtitles written in my own language (probably I am learning more than I realize!). And it can be nice when I want to relax and just enjoy the movie -- or when I am watching it with someone else and they would be unhappy if I sometimes pause or rewind the movie to read a caption more carefully, ha ha.