The day was Saturday. 2nd April, 2022. The beginning of the weekend, and I had the crisp weekend edition of Business Standard on my table. It was through adman and media entrepreneur Sandeep Goyal’s article ‘Same Language Subtitling as a driver of literacy’ in his weekly column – Yes, But… that I was introduced to this simple yet interesting concept to promote literacy in India at scale through reading.
The brainchild of Dr. Brij Kothari, founder of PlanetRead and lead at Pondicherry-based BIRD project, Same Language Subtitling or SLS in its abbreviated form entails creation of subtitles and closed captions in the same language as that of the original audio in the entertainment content. If it is a movie in English or a web series in Hindi, the videos need to have subtitles in English and Hindi respectively.
Back in March this year, Dr. Kothari had posted on LinkedIn that India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) mandated that all applications for film certification will need to submit, "the same language subtitles, same language audio description, or same language closed captions... and any other accessibility features as may be notified... by the Central Government."
While SLS has been leveraged for media access among the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) across many countries, the objective of implementing it in India by the BIRD project is for inculcating a daily and lifelong reading practice among people, particularly among young girls and women in rural areas.
The evolution of subtitles
Back in the era of silent films filmmakers came up with this concept called intertitles. They're like little frames of text that pop up during the movie to let the viewers know what the characters are saying or what's going on. Imagine you are watching a Charlie Chaplin movie and there are no dialogues but you find the intertitles in between the scenes telling you what exactly is happening. It's like reading a comic book but on the big screen!
Moving on to the era of Talkies, when cinema had audible dialogues. The intertitles didn't disappear completely. Instead, they found a new role of translating movie dialogue into different languages for global audiences. This was the earliest form of the subtitles we know and experience today.
Over the years, subtitles have become superheroes of accessibility! For people who are hard of hearing, subtitles (in the same language as the original audio) are like a lifeline, helping them follow the dialogues and understand the storyline more meaningfully than just connect the dots through visual imagery. With closed captioning, even sounds like music or footsteps are textually conveyed on screen, giving them a more wholesome cinematic experience.
With advanced speech to text technology, subtitles can be generated during live video broadcasts such as a sporting event in real-time!
How Same Language Subtitling aids in Language Learning
At Glibzter, we see the implementation of Same Language Subtitling to be a game changer in the space of language learning.
While we are currently focused on helping users like you improve communication skills in English through vocabulary acquisition and contextual practice, SLS can help us in diversifying this offering into learning other Indian regional languages.
In our earlier blog we delved into three reasons why learning English from video subtitles is effective. There are certain key insights from Dr. Brij Kothari that reinforce our reasons:
- People like to read what they hear. With closed captions, you can also see textual descriptions of sounds, music and emotion.
- Encouraging learning through video content the viewers find interesting can improve their language skills. A reason why the sitcom FRIENDS is such a hit among non-native speakers of the English language.
- SLS as a solution combines entertainment content on accessible mediums, integrating subtitles and the viewers’ passion for that content.
- Reading activity will not require additional time and effort as it automatically takes place while watching the video content.
Learn English from Video Subtitles on OTT Video platforms
India has 481 million OTT users and 102 million paid subscriptions (Source:Ormax Report 2023). With an estimated 462 million YouTube users, India has more YouTube users than any other country. Netflix on the other hand has around 6.5 million subscribers in India, as per a report by analysts at AllianceBernstein in October 2023. (Source:Moneycontrol.com).
With Glibzter Immersive, a browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge and available as a web application for use on laptops and desktops, we are helping our users like you to hone communication skills in English through vocabulary building.
How?
- Glibzter Immersive is a digital tool that presents you automatically curated sets of words and phrases for you to practice acquired from the video content you stream from Netflix and YouTube.
- AI-powered contextual practice for better retention of word and phrase usage.
- Word power quantification: Get to know the words and phrases acquired and practiced by day, week, month, year and till date.
So go ahead and give Glibzter Immersive a try and let us have our feedback on the following:
- What pain point of yours does it still not address?
- What media channels should we include going forward? (OTT Video platforms and news platforms)
- What features would you like to see in it?
- At what price point would you find value in it?
To end this blog, let me borrow Dr. Kothari’s quote – “Passion plus SLS is the solution”. Let’s just add Glibzter Immersive to it and make it a wholesome solution that meets the objectives of literacy through reading and communication skills enhancement through vocabulary building.
Article credits: Mint Lounge – Aisiri Amin | The Better India – Aruna Raghuram | Business Standard – Sandeep Goyal
