I would use subtitles all the time if it didn't ruin dramatic and comedic timing. I often find myself wishing movies and video games had "proper nouns only" subtitles.
I got so used to subtitles (learning English + anime). That I can put them in the background when I focus on the movie and quickly check them in case I did not understand something. Kinda like when you blur out the surrounding controls when watching YouTube.
> I often find myself wishing movies and video games had "proper nouns only" subtitles.
This would be an excellent idea! Oftentimes I'll watch something, then in the middle turn on the subtitles and learn that I was misunderstanding the name of someone/something.
Even if I hear it correctly the spelling may be different and can give better context and cultural flavor.
Simply adding a delay to ensure the sentence doesn't appear after it is spoken would fix this. It's something that unavoidably happens with Saturday Night Live's transcript, for example, and I prefer it for comedy.
I used to live in Denmark but never understood Danish, spoken or written, very well (at all).
In movie theaters, they'd show English language films with Danish subtitles and, often, I'd miss a comic piece of dialog because the subtitles let the audience in on the joke before I could hear it spoken, and then the audience laughter would drown out any chance I had of hearing the joke.
