Why you should watch Israeli TV-Shows on Netflix with subtitles

Speedreading is something all children in Scandinavia do. The first time you watch TV in Sweden you will immediately recognize why – everything is subtitled and broadcasted in original language. Even most Swedish language movies are subtitled, or can be digitally enhanced with subtitles for the hearing impaired.

As I have blogged about earlier, this is a game-changer for Swedish children, we learn to read faster at a higher comprehension and have a better start in life. Not just because we learn English fluently from hearing it every day, but mainly because of our enhanced reading skills.

This is a fact, as many studies also have shown to be true. Furthermore, the PISA Study, conducted every few years by the OECD, shows that Scandinavian children (Sweden, Finland) are always amongst the top performers!

Speedreading is something everyone can learn

Speedreading is not a skill in itself. Rather it is a mean to an end. Speedreading has to be done correctly. First of all, we need to understand how to do it. When you read a sentence, you want to understand the gist of it. The meaning is hidden behind the words. What Scandinavian children learn at an early stage, is to read in groups of words. We call this chunking for meaning.

“On – the – roof”

Instead of reading this little part of a sentence word-by-word, you should look at it as a block of words, as one unit. This is what children learn by watching subtitles in television for many years in Scandinavian countries quite naturally. Of course there are other bad habits you have taken up on, while learning how to read in school, like regressions or speaking your minds voice (subvocalizing) while reading. All of these bad habits can be put off by training.

Train speedreading (chunking) by reading subtitles on TV

A great way to do this is to chunk subtitles on TV. That’s why we recommend Netflix series with English subtitles such as these Israeli productions. You can also train yourself in chunking by adding the subtitles to any movie you watch from a DVD. It also works with same language subtitling. Especially for children and youths, this is a good way to get ahead in literacy.

Further training without subtitles

You can also train yourself by visiting one of our BrainRead classroom courses or buy the BrainRead book, which includes online exercises that stimulates your chunking behavior. We can promise you positive results, if you follow the exercises in the book diligently. The enclosed reading tests delivers proof of your progress, as you move forward with the program.

Develop good reading habits

Utilizing your brains capacity for thinking, it is quite possible to double or even triple your reading speed at a higher level of comprehension using the right techniques. What it comes down to is breaking the old bad habits and develop new good ones.