Word Comprehension & Closed Captioning

[Mr Light]

I've always had a hard time understanding what people say on TV and occaisonally even in real life. It's not like I'm hard of hearing because I can hear distant sounds before my GF can, it's more comprehending the words being said. I keep the closed captioning on the TV at all times; sometimes I wonder if I rely on it too much and don't try to understand the words, but when I *DO* turn it off a lot of words end up being hard to understand. The main problem is if there's any kind of interfering sound at all, like someone talking in the room or running water or crinkling paper/plastic, I can't hear s***. Actually the main reason for the CC is because my GF tends to talk when the show is on

Does anyone else have a hard time understanding words like this? Do you put the closed captioning on your TV?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Since your hearing seems to be good, it sounds like you have some problems in speech pattern recognition. You heard the sounds, but your brain has difficulties in interpreting the meaning of the words, especially if there is some background noise that interfere with it.

Not to play the internet doctor, but you may read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_Processing_Disorder and maybe think about talking with your physician.

Hope that could help.

 

[Triskelion]

Scar tissue inhibiting vibration of the hammer, anvil & stirrup can muddy sound, especially around ambient noises. Back in the day they would replace these bones with a wire. No idea what they're up to these days. Bionics maybe?

 

[The Sneeze Police]

The spouse & I prefer closed caption or subtitles on our shows. We leave the cc on the TV and turn on subtitles on the occasional DVD for which cc doesn't translate. Neither of us is hard of hearing, either. Maybe the desire for cc brought and kept us together...who knows!

I looked at the interesting Wiki site, and I will readily admit that I am a visual learner...but I am not sure that either of us have the disorder. Many of our friends find cc distracting and we turn it off during the rare time a friend is watching some TV with us...I can't say we have many friends come over just to watch TV.

There is some entertainment value in catching the occasional typo, and catching that phrase in a movie that you don't understand.

 

[Lindley]

Honestly, I find myself straining more to read subtitles than to understand spoken words. And the subtitle people get things wrong with alarming frequency anyway.

Subtitles are fine when there's a segment of a show spoken in another language, but not in general I'd say.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I do fine with TV and such, unless it's in a crowded room or the sound quality is bad (like it was in one of my English classes, and then it wasn't just me demanding the captions). But at work I'm finding I have problems understanding what I hear--I'll think my boss said one thing but it turns out he said another. There are a LOT of background noises and he isn't a very patient man...so sometimes it can be quite embarrassing when I've had one of my mishearings.

As far as the actual acuity of my hearing, I think I'm fine--I can be very discriminating when it comes to music and other sounds.

 

[WillsBabe]

For years people have been writing into Points of View (BBC viewer feedback show here in the UK) complaining that the background music on drama makes understanding the actors difficult. For years I wondered what the hell they were talking about. In the last couple of years I've really started to notice that I find it difficult sometimes to hear the actors in drama when the background music becomes too loud or intrustive. It's another age thing.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yeah and music? I can basically make out the chorus and only the occasional word after that. It's been this way my entire life even as a kid. I remember how amazing it was when we got a TV with CC in high school, I could finally know how the alien names in SF shows were spelled!

 

[Hoser]

I like having it on. It helps my son learn to read more, and sometimes we have it on low so it helps to hear.
Plus it's hilarious, some of the words they put up in there. Case in point, we were watching the news, and they said 'And she heard a shot here'.
The anchorwoman's name was Angie Hedershot.

 

[Maestro]

Definitely watch with the CC or subs on. We watch a lot of British programming, so it makes the accents a little easier to understand (especially Torchwood's Eve Myles and any others with thicker Cymryan accents).

I have some minor damage from being a band director, and I find with the CC on, I can still hear and understand, but it keeps the background from getting too loud for everyone else's comfort. We all win.

 

[Warp Coil]

I can't stand watching CC because my eyes just stare at the words (which sometimes appear on-screen before or after they are spoken, and everything gets out of sync in my brain). I become fixated on the text and it distracts me from actually paying attention to the performances or really getting involved with what's happening.

 

[Holdfast]

I've always had a hard time understanding what people say on TV and occaisonally even in real life. It's not like I'm hard of hearing because I can hear distant sounds before my GF can, it's more comprehending the words being said.

Stop running into doors and giving yourself brain damage.


Actually, I was in the supermarket earlier today and walked past a shelf stacker chatting to a couple of his friends and one of the girl's diction was so utterly degraded that I initially assumend she was speaking a foreign language.

 

[Starbreaker]

Anytime I watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent I turn on the CC because the "criminal" music is overbearing.

 

[Mr Light]

Unfortunately I agree that the captioning "spoils" what they're about to say and draws your eyes to it, which is why I wish I didn't need it That's why I usually turn it off for comedies so the punchline doesn't get ruined and mystery shows like LOST. Actually I find the TV's "black box in white text" is the worst offender, while DVDs "tiny white text" is much less noticeable and easier to ignore.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

Since your hearing seems to be good, it sounds like you have some problems in speech pattern recognition. You heard the sounds, but your brain has difficulties in interpreting the meaning of the words, especially if there is some background noise that interfere with it.

Not to play the internet doctor, but you may read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_Processing_Disorder and maybe think about talking with your physician.

Hope that could help.

Interesting - thanks for the link. I have that exact problem. I don't often have a problem with understanding stuff on TV (my problem occurs more often in places where there's a lot of background noise), but I do occasionally turn the CC on. I also turn it on and mute the TV during BSG, but that's because my bf and I are watching it together and I'm listening to the sound from his end - if we both have our sound on, it causes problems as Space and Sci-Fi aren't in synch with each other, and one station is usually about 30 seconds ahead of the other.

It's always amusing to try to watch a live sporting event with closed captioning. Particularly hockey, since the game moves so quickly.

 

[Amaris]

I like having it on. It helps my son learn to read more, and sometimes we have it on low so it helps to hear.
Plus it's hilarious, some of the words they put up in there. Case in point, we were watching the news, and they said 'And she heard a shot here'.
The anchorwoman's name was Angie Hedershot.

Yeah, I have the captions on all of my DVDs on, not by choice. This little dinky Durabrand DVD player refuses to turn them off. That being said, you don't realize how way off or shortened they make things in CC. For example, on my Simpsons DVD, when Lisa would say something like "You don't understand! My formative years are all I have to enjoy being a child!" it would read "You don't understand! This is my childhood!" or even just "You don't understand, Dad!"

Oh, and love the avatar.

J.

 

[JonathonWally]

TV I'm good with, it's crowded bars and parties and the such I have problems with sometimes. But I chalk that up to how deaf I've made myself over the years from all the concerts and shows I've been too.

Small price to pay to rock.

 

[MIB]

Interesting. I too found that I have had difficulty understanding people when there was alot of interfering noise. Now if it's a quiet room and the person in question got my attention first, it's no problem. However in cases like my last job in a busy and often noisy warehouse store, understanding the people around me became a more dodgy task.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I nearly always have subtitles on.

I had man ear infection as a child and as a result I ended up with a serioud speech defect and had to have speech therapy for many years. I gather that I might have a word recognition problem because I don't seem to have a problem hearing other sounds.

I had a terrible time learning other languages at school. I had no problem learning to read and write in another langiage but speaking or understanding the spoken language was ne'er on impossible for me.

I think I must also have a problem in certain ranges of hearing. I have little trouble understanding Robin Williams in his dramas but in his comedies when he tends to raise his pitch I find him hard to understand (such of in Mork and Mindy and in Good Morning Vietnam).

 

[trekkiedane]

Especially when I watch recent (last decade or so) US-American tv-series I have great trouble following the dialogue! -I think it's because they put excessive amounts of crappy music in them to hide the poor writing though…

But then it's rarely a problem as all such shows are subtitled in Danish.