Speaking of learning Sorbian with modern methods, one core idea revolves around "comprehensible input" (Input Hypothesis): The brain needs to be immersed in vast amounts of material to unconsciously internalize linguistic rules. This means diving deep and engaging with the target language as much as possible—reading, listening, or watching.
When it comes to video content, Lower Sorbian media offerings are scarce. However, there is one monthly TV program broadcast in Lower Sorbian: Łužyca. For learners, though, it has a major flaw: It is subtitled in German, and the subtitles cannot be turned off.
Gabriel Wyner explains the issue as follows:
DVDs of movies and TV shows often come with subtitles in English or your target language. Don't use them. The problem with subtitles is that reading is easier than listening. We learn with our eyes more than our ears, and so when subtitles are present, we don't improve at listening. A film with English subtitles is basically an English storybook with some foreign language background noise. It's useless for our needs. Sure, you might hear a couple hours of French or Spanish, but you aren't actually listening to the dialogues; you're just reading the story.
The Workaround
Of course, you could hold your hand or a piece of cardboard in front of the screen. But there’s a more elegant solution:
- Download the latest episode via MediathekViewWeb.
- Open the file in VLC.
- Go to View > Video Effects (Cmd+E/Mac) or Tools > Effects and Filters (Ctrl+E/Windows).
- Crop the bottom 200 pixels of the HD version ("Crop").
The fact that this workaround is necessary highlights the real issue: For decades, technical standards have existed to toggle subtitle tracks on and off. It’s baffling that the little available audiovisual material in Lower Sorbian is cluttered with burned-in text.
Language Hierarchy at Work
But it’s not just the technical implementation that frustrates me—it’s the entire concept of subtitling. Here, German is the norm, placed above Sorbian, which doesn’t reflect well on a program that is explicitly Lower Sorbian. German-speaking contributors go without subtitles, while non-German interview guests are subtitled only in German. This leaves anyone who doesn’t understand German excluded.
The fact that a Lower Sorbian program forces its own target audience to read German could be seen as a sharp example of institutional belittlement: Even in your own media, you must submit to German.
Photo by Marshal Yung Translated with assistance of the LLM Mistral.
