Like most of you, I used to watch a lot of japanese shows (anime, movies etc...) with english or french subtitles.
It did anything but improve my japanese skills (I must admit that my english got better though).
So lately, I tried to do it the other way around and watch american shows (Heroes...) with japanese subs.
I think it improved my reading comprehension and speed, and allowed me to pick up some vocabulary.

Did anyone ever try this technique ?

Tried it before. Another member recommended it. Interesting. Problem was I'm actually interested in few of the shows that have Japanese subs.

Theres a few movie packs floating around on torrent sites which are American movies in English with Japanese subtitles. It was a bit...meh... to me. They're out there though if you wanna find them.

Spending a lot of time learning a foreign language, but instead of consuming the products of the newly opened culture you just watch Full House again...

(=fail)

All of the Disney movies have subbed and dubbed versions in Japanese, but I don't know where you could acquire such a video (amazon.jp?)

Jarvik7 Wrote:Spending a lot of time learning a foreign language, but instead of consuming the products of the newly opened culture you just watch HOUSE again...

(=fail)

Yes

I'm tired of Jdramas. Seriously

Watching Japanese shows with Japanese subtitles would seem to be more effective.

ocircle Wrote:All of the Disney movies have subbed and dubbed versions in Japanese, but I don't know where you could acquire such a video (amazon.jp?)

This Youtube user put Japanese subtitles on Japanese dubbed Disney movie song clips.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Marii26#p/u

Although I didn't watch them much, I did enjoy the Pixar movies dubbed in Japanese with Japanese subtitles. Thing is, since the subtitles don't match up with the dubbing, it gets distracting. Still, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc are enjoyable in Japanese with subtitles.

I still watch J-Dramas more.

If you watch non-JP stuff with JP subs, you lose one of the best things about the input: Native-ness. Translated things are bad enough, but written instead of spoken makes it that much worse.

You also don't know how good the translation was, or how native-sounding it was.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Spending a lot of time learning a foreign language, but instead of consuming the products of the newly opened culture you just watch Full House again...

(=fail)

Well it helps me practice both languages. It's a bit like what Khatz is doing (i.e.: using japanese as a base language to learn chinese).