12 ms·

Language Learning with Netflix extension

458 points by davidzweig 7y ago

njacobs5074 7y ago
I agree with the author's assessment that having the kanji, the furigana, and the English is really helpful for learning. But I couldn't help but notice that the the software didn't romanize 困った correctly. It was "koma ta" when it really should have been "komatta". And I wish I didn't have to use Chrome :|
- roca 7y ago
  Request a Firefox version. It might not be hard to port.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - kick 7y ago
    Yeah, you can basically automate WebExtensions porting. There used to be a browser extension that did it for you.
cm2012 7y ago
Really cool tool. Honestly the catalogue sort alone on the site was useful for finding which shows on Netflix even have Korean subtitles.
serf 7y ago
What would be needed to make this off-line capable with supplied media? Just a bunch of well-formatted SRT subtitle files? Obviously some kind of lookup between languages too, but what i'm asking is : is this just a fancy srt/language api parser? I want to use this, but I don't use Netflix. It looks very cool.
- hiccuphippo 7y ago
  You could use the .ass format for fancy subtitles. Players like vlc, mpc, mpv support it. That would give you the subtitles in both languages plus the highlight of the words as they are spoken but clicking on the word to get a definition would need to be built into the player.
- asdko13roasi 7y ago
  Posted above as well but mpv user script that works offline: https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs
- davidzweig 7y ago
  Ognjen (guy I worked with to make this extension) previously made something similar for offline media (https://github.com/oaprograms/lingo-player https://github.com/oaprograms/lingo-player). It's neglected now though and probably suffered bitrot. We could use the code from our extension to support offline media.. but Chrome doesn't support MP4 playback IIRC. It's possible to make an Electron/NW.js app, but the vlc plugin isn't working with latest versions, last time we checked. Appreciate any info.
grizzles 7y ago
I asked for this on HN a few weeks back. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853163 I really hope it supports Hanyu Pinyin. So excited.
- Arwill 7y ago
  Just tried the extension, and it seems Pinyin is not supported. There is no "Transliteration" option, like there is for Japanese.
- lordfrikk 7y ago
  It's not really what you asked for, but subtitles that you download from websites like zimuku.com or zimuku.cn have dual language versions: separate English and Chinese flag means the ZIP file contains separate language subs, pirate flag means it has one set of subtitles containing both languages - super useful if your video player doesn't support displaying more than one set or you don't want subs at the top of the screen).
tluyben2 7y ago
Somewhat offtopic; I wish extensions would work on mobile browsers... I watch Netflix on iOS or streaming from iOS to chromecast. I see it is recently somewhat possible to run extensions on Android via a custom Chrome install. Does that work well?
- superasn 7y ago
  I use all chrome extensions via Kiwi browser on android. It's so sad that Google has deliberately disabled the support for it on their own browser (they don't want adblock maybe?) even though and independent dev has seamlessly enabled the same in his browser.
- beatgammit 7y ago
  You can also use Firefox for Android, which has extensions. Android Preview is much faster, but it doesn't have extension support yet.
- Mindwipe 7y ago
  > I watch Netflix on iOS or streaming from iOS to chromecast. If you streamed to a Chromecast it wouldn't work, as all the cast protocol sends from the iOS device is the URL of the stream and the authentication key. The Chromecast fetches any subs etc itself.
- davidzweig 7y ago
  For this extension, Netflix doesn't allow Chrome mobile or iOS browsers (I think) to use a browser-based player, but redirect you to their app. Netflix are probably looking at user-agent.
hrasyid 7y ago
I think having subtitles in your native language can hurt learning because it tends to be easier to just follow the subtitle than actually trying to understand the target language. You can't read both at the same time. But I agree that Netflix is a great resource for learning a foreign language. I went from zero to being able to understand a normal TV show in the target language in one year, mostly by watching children's videos in YouTube and Netflix. In my opinion, what's more important is (1) the ability to order/group videos by simplicity after filtering it by target language (even children shows vary a lot in difficulty and for learning it's very important to choose the right difficulty for you) and probably (2) the ability to slow down the playback speed like YouTube.
- verganileonardo 7y ago
  Which language did you learn?
  - hrasyid 7y ago
    Spanish
    - ta999999171 7y ago
      Most effective Netflix kids/otherwise shows for this, in your opinion? TIA
      - hombre_fatal 7y ago
        The shows that interest you. The ones you would actually watch. I imagine this rules out kids shows for most adults. It sure does for me. Also start reading books asap. I spent way too long watching dub+sub'ed Netflix in my target language. Wish I'd tried reading young-adult books sooner. If you're going to be pausing on every subtitle frame to read it, you might as well try books.
        hrasyid 7y ago
xwowsersx 7y ago
Wow, this is very cool!
godmode2019 7y ago
animelon.com was the first company I know of to do this sort of thing. They went through an accelerator where I was working working.
ouchjars 7y ago
Related tip if you won't/can't use this extension: Netflix shows normally have many more subtitles available than you get shown (and sometimes audio tracks). The selection you see depends on your interface language and locale. For example, I can't use Spanish subtitles for one show (https://i.imgur.com/BBWuuPs.png https://i.imgur.com/BBWuuPs.png) until I change my interface language to Spanish (https://i.imgur.com/bsyYJGR.png https://i.imgur.com/bsyYJGR.png).
- skrebbel 7y ago
  I still can't get my head around how user hostile they made this. I mean, why? I understand showing the most likely languages on top, but why hide content that's available? I have bilingual kids (Dutch and Danish, living in NL) and the amount of setup we have to do each week to get and keep Danish audio for cartoons on Netflix is pretty nuts.
  - nitrogen 7y ago
    Not sure, but maybe the subtitle tracks have different licensing?
    - thecatspaw 7y ago
      Wouldnt they need to check this based on location, and not on user interface language though?
      - falcor84 7y ago
        Shouldn't they just ask the user what their preferred languages are?
      - skrebbel 7y ago
        What makes you think everybody in a particular place speaks a particular language?
      - toastal 7y ago
        Please don't do this. I can manage to read enough to do certain workflows, but I get so frustrated when Google presumptuously shows me dates according to the Buddhist calendar just because my IP is in Thailand. If my browser is reporting 'en-US' as the locale, the when available I expect to get that.
vaskebjorn 7y ago
Also check out the lingq exporter [1] which works with Youtube as well. Does something similar but also allows you to keep an inventory of your current vocabulary on the lingq platform. I'm a huge fan. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lingq-importer/eaanhanppiifopiabnfmhjbikjmeeale?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lingq-importer/eaa...
- personlurking 7y ago
  I looked into Lingq, watched a few short videos on it, and saw an interview with the founder, but I'm still not sure I get it. The site is mainly a text-based vocabulary acquisition tool, right?
  - vaskebjorn 7y ago
    Yes it is very far from intuitive (as a developer I can tell when uis are designed solely by developers). The way I think of it is this: you do all of your foreign language reading through the app. Lingq keeps track of which words you have seen: when a new one comes up it's highlighted in blue, when you define the word (mostly automatic) it turns yellow. Once you mark a word as known it is no longer highlighted. There are SRS features built in, but I ignore them and just add words to anki when I feel like I need to. If you love reading it's a really great way to get language exposure. Since looking up word definitions only requires a tap or click it enables you to read above your level (like reading with training wheels on). And just seeing a word over and over again in different contexts is a much better way to learn than hammering away at flash cards. The import from netflix/youtube stuff as I mentioned is great as well. I also upload all of my own material (mostly ebooks) and ignore a lot of stuff they have there.
MaxwellM 7y ago
Ef yes! Been looking for this, can't wait to try it.
androng 7y ago
Watch in a foreign language with foreign audio to increase your listening comprehension in the foreign language. Only watch in your native language/subtitles if you want to comprehend the plot more. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927148/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927148/
- rgossiaux 7y ago
  Well, the linked study suggests watching with foreign audio and foreign language subtitles, not merely with foreign audio alone.
- darkwater 7y ago
  Watch in your native language only if you don't care about acting at all.
- shmat 7y ago
  My experience as a language learner (French) supports the study. When I use English (native language) subtitles, my listening doesn't improve at all. However, my improvement with or without French subtitles depends on my level of comprehension. If I can understand most of the show without subtitles (~60% or more) I improve faster without subtitles. If I understand half or less, I improve with the subtitles. I guess this is evidence for Stephen Krashen's theory of comprehensible input.
- tvanantwerp 7y ago
  I've been wanting to learn Chinese, but I'm not sure Chinese subtitles would help that much compared to if I were learning a European language. Maybe if the subtitles were in pinyin, but I don't know if that would even be an option for a lot of media.
  - rahimnathwani 7y ago
    Watching Chinese TV shows with Chinese subtitles definitely helped me a lot, not only because the subtitles gave me a second chance to get what I missed (which is the same with other languages), but also because I could learn characters for those words I could already recognise in speech.
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mhdhn 7y ago
A: this is fantastic. B: why don't all streaming services simply have a by-language option? It's kind of a guaranteed "long tail" for any audio or audio-video presentation: people who want hear language X language spoken.
- cptwunderlich 7y ago
  You can search for a language on Netflix though, e.g., search for "Italian" and it will show several tags next to "Explore titles related to", like "Italian-languae Movies & TV".
imjustsaying 7y ago
In practice, the foreign subtitles do not line up with the foreign words as well as the native subtitles line up with the native words. It took me years to figure out why this was. In a conversation I had with someone who knew the business, the new language subtitles don't line up with the new language audio because the new language subtitles are translated from the original language subtitles, not the new language audio. Why? This saves a step from someone having to rewatch the final new language dialogue and transcribe the new language as it is exactly spoken. That step can be skipped and the new language subtitles can still be translated from the original language subtitles, although they will be quite off much of the time.
- crucialfelix 7y ago
  This can reveal some interesting insights into how the film was made. I often notice extra lines that got edited out to make the scene more concise. Sometimes the director changes a whole shot.
- 2rsf 7y ago
  But why are the original language subtitles not accurate ? and I am referring even to "simple" local TV series that didn't undergo several rounds of editing. As part of my Swedish learning I watch a lot of Swedish shows with Swedish subtitles, there are always discrepancies
  - elcomet 7y ago
    Isn't it because subtitles are typed in live? So they have to skip words in order to convey the meaning in time.
  - diffeomorphism 7y ago
    If there is a script for the movie subtitles will often be identical to the script even if the actors deviated from it. Much simpler and quicker to do than having somebody transcribe everything that was actually said and then having someone watch everything again to make sure it was transcribed correctly.
- 7y ago
z_open 7y ago
This is nice, but all I really want is the ability to nicely see both English and German subtitles simultaneously. This is overkill for me and requires me to use chrome. Is anyone aware of a better solution for me?
- st1ck 7y ago
  mpv --sid=auto --secondary-sid=auto --sub-pos=95 --slang de,en movie.mkv Same works for youtube URLs. If it doesn't work, changing "de,en" to "en,de" may help.
  - asdko13roasi 7y ago
    mpv is so great. It was an immense downgrade to start watching movies on my ps4 with media player, netflix, plex etc. They(mostly media player) have issues on the very basics like pausing and playing video, subtitles, continue watching etc. With a computer running mpv and plugged into the TV everything just works and I can trivially fix common issues like subtitle/audio sync with my phone as the remote. On-topic: mpv seems to have a similar language learning extension to OP https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs
    - pgz 7y ago
      I've made my own mpv extension for Japanese subtitle analysis too. It can also create Anki cards automatically (with screenshot and audio). Having a scriptable media player is really something else.
- aplaice 7y ago
  I second the mpv-based solution, as suggested by st1ck. If you prefer vlc, it now (as of the beta 4.0.0)[0] also supports dual/secondary subtitles. Making it work seems a bit fiddly: first you need to turn them on (under Tools > Preferences > Subtitles/OSD > Dual Subtitles (at the very bottom) > Align — change to anything but unset, and possibly also adjust offset). Then, when playing a video, to select them for that video, you need to "Toggle secondary subtitle control" with Ctrl+Shift+V (this means that the normal subtitle control shortcuts like "v", "Alt+v" etc. now apply to the secondary subtitles) and press "v" the right number of times to switch to the subtitles that you want. (Obviously vlc and mpv will only work for DRM-free videos, e.g. from youtube or a DVD.) If you were asking specifically about Netflix subtitles, there used to be an open source NflxMultiSubs extension[1] for both Firefox and Chromium, but it was broken by Netflix introducing changes to its video player and discontinued. There is an active, open-source dual-captions[2] extension, but it's for Chrome only. (However, since it's open source adapting it it for Firefox should be straightforward.) Finally, as an alternative approach, you could try a Firefox addon which allows loading arbitrary subtitles in the SRT format to netflix,[3] and which might perhaps allow you to have both netflix's subtitles and your own SRT ones at the same time. [0] https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/NEWS#L30 https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/NEWS#L30 [1] https://github.com/dannvix/NflxMultiSubs/ https://github.com/dannvix/NflxMultiSubs/ [2] https://github.com/mikesteele/dual-captions https://github.com/mikesteele/dual-captions [3] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/netflix-srt-subs/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/netflix-srt-s...
hellofunk 7y ago
> When you’re starting out learning a language, sometimes you can’t quite catch what people are saying. They’re too fast, or they use words/grammar you’re unfamiliar with. Being able to see the subtitles and hear the dialogue and see the translation all at once is a dream come true. I’ve tried this but the subtitles often use different wording than what is spoken (when both are in same language) so it doesn’t work out well in practice. Maybe depends on the language.
akavel 7y ago
Can anyone recommend any movies and/or series for a complete beginner learning Chinese from duolingo? I mean, ideally probably aimed at literally early primary school kids... some animated series, or Tom Sawyer -alike, or a drama about a lost puppy is what I brace for... even better if on youtube than Netflix, but the latter is also acceptable...
- jonatron 7y ago
  Try "Where are we going? Dad" on YouTube. Also HelloChinese is much better than Duolingo in my opinion.
wodenokoto 7y ago
I see this littered all over the comments: Subtitles are not transcripts. They don't match word for word, mainly due to space and time constraints. A lot of amateur subtitlers time the subtitle with the time of the spoken word, making them almost unreadable. Long text that pop up for a short time does not help convey meaning. You want a short text, that anticipates what is being said. The reader of the subtitle is after all watching a movie, and might have their eyes elsewhere - They are not reading karaoke lyrics!
finneganscat 7y ago
My girlfriend has dyslexia and subtitles are a problem for her to read quickly. She would love an extension similar to this that “auto-dubs” by having a synthesized voice that reads the subtitle content and overlays this slightly louder than the original audio. Any ideas if something similar exists?
Grue3 7y ago
I can see several problems with this. 1. Japanese subtitles are completely different from what is said in Japanese dub. Subtitles are optimized for readability and use completely different phrasing, or even terms (for example dub says クイーン ("queen"), sub says 女王 ("jo-oh")). 2. Japanese subtitles and English subtitles are also different, because many lines have to be completely rephrased in order to express them in a (very linguistically distant) language. 3. The furigana (pronounciation hints) in these screenshots is not correct. "困った" is "komatta" not "koma ta". "妻は" is "tsuma wa" not "tsuma ha". If only they used ichi.moe's engine... (disclosure: I'm the author of ichi.moe).
- yorwba 7y ago
  The way the "koma" is placed above 困っ makes me suspect they first tokenize the text, get furigana for each segment (most tokenizers have this built-in) and then derive the romaji without correctly handling the sokuon っ when it appears just before a segmentation boundary. Usually it's represented in the romanization by doubling the following consonant, but of course that doesn't work if there's no following consonant because each token is treated as a separate string. They do get it right for "erikku" where there's no segmentation boundary.
  - gryson 7y ago
    That makes sense. Hopefully it can be fixed, since geminates are one of the most difficult features of Japanese pronunciation for native English speakers to master. Erasing it from the orthography intended to aid beginners certainly doesn't help.
  - LinguaBrowse 7y ago
    If they're having troubles with correct romaji transliteration (and even if not, to be honest), I don't see why they don't just transliterate it in furigana then. The source data of Tokeniser dictionaries such as NAIST JDIC isn't even in romaji, so if they are using a proper tokeniser, then they're actually doing an extra step and throwing away data to transform it into romaji form.
    - 7y ago
gozzoo 7y ago
As a strange coincidence youtube recomended me this [1] just after opening the article: [1] Alexandra Stepien - Netflix and chilll like a boss: How to learn languages the lazy way - PG 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5d9JS_fE6E&t=1220s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5d9JS_fE6E&t=1220s
davidzweig 7y ago
Hi. Creator here. If someone from Netflix is reading this, we'd like to be in contact (email in profile). Hell, here's my 15 minutes. I'd be interested in a job with electronics/software/mech engineering (ideally all three) in the US/EU/Australia (I can work in these countries). Some info about me on this post from earlier in the year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18809704 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18809704
- oaprograms 7y ago
  The other LLN creator here. I am looking for someone to correspond with or hang out with (in Europe), to conduct amateur inquiries into alternative approaches to AI algorithms (and perhaps discussing unusual interests such as lifespan extension and futurism). ognjen.apic@gmail.com
- glaive123 7y ago
  Great work on this extension. Thank you both!
- Qahlel 7y ago
  Hi there. Would you mind forking this extension to Firefox as well, please?
- senorsmile 7y ago
  Your extension is great. Thank you! I've used it for a while. It makes something that I used to do, i.e. watching foreign language content on Netflix to advance a language, much easier. I only wish something this amazing were available for more services (or maybe Netflix needs to just license every show and movie ever made?!?!?).
walterkrankheit 7y ago
I guess this is most useful if you don't live in the country you want to learn the language for. Native English speaker living in Germany here who speaks fluent German, but still lives most of his life in English. Movies are a good way to keep up language practice, but there's no way I'd want to dub "Marriage Story" or whatever in German. There are plenty of German films on Netflix which I can simply watch with CC German subs, if needed. At any rate, it's still a cool idea, particularly if you lived in, say, Spain, but wanted to see German subtitles.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
yuvalbar84 7y ago
This is just amazing. Thank you!
pen2l 7y ago
An observation: in netflix, when you choose a foreign lang for the audio track as well as subtitles... they don't match. By this I mean, let's saying you're watching Orange is the New black... and choose French audio and French subtitles. You would expect the subtitles to be correspond with what you're hearing.... they don't!! Kind of absurd and annoying. This is true across all shows it turns out.
- 1maginary 7y ago
  You discover this early on when picking up a language. It's so pervasive and so annoying for language learners but I can understand why it happens. If you're learning a language, CC are p much the way to go
- davidzweig 7y ago
  You might find this helpful: http://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/catalogue.html http://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/catalogue.html "Netflix usually has good subtitles for the original language of a title, that match the audio track. Subtitles often don't match the audio for dubbed audio. The catalogue lists titles by their original language. It allows you to find French films, to study French, and German films to study German etc. By using one of the listed titles, you should have good subtitles that match the audio."
- ramblerman 7y ago
  This can be an advantage when your level is just a bit higher. Since you hear the words and see a similar way of saying it at the same time. This (in my experience) is usually enough context to parse the audio. The net result is then that your brain gained 2 pieces of input at rate of 1.
knolax 7y ago
Be warned that one of the worst ways to learn a language is through translations. Most translations leave out a bunch of information because between connotation, denotation, and grammatical correctness you can really choose one or two of the above. That's in addition to the fact that most translations are either produced by machines with no understanding of the content or even of the complete grammar of the target/source languages, or mechanical turk style low wage laborers with tight deadlines and questionable knowledge of either languagr.
officemonkey 7y ago
My biggest problem with understanding french is being able to comprehend it at speed. I'm much better understanding song lyrics (because they're often sung much slower than speech.) I just tried this with "A Very Secret Service" and It's immediately easier to understand what is being said. I can see this becoming a very useful tool for me.
Eliezer 7y ago
I've wanted this literally for two decades. Thank you to the creators for finally making it.
therealdrag0 7y ago
There's a similar product for YouTube videos called www.fluentu.com. I used it for French and thought it was great.

458 points by davidzweig 7y ago

I agree with the author's assessment that having the kanji, the furigana, and the English is really helpful for learning. But I couldn't help but notice that the the software didn't romanize 困った correctly. It was "koma ta" when it really should have been "komatta". And I wish I didn't have to use Chrome :|

roca 7y ago
Request a Firefox version. It might not be hard to port.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- kick 7y ago
  Yeah, you can basically automate WebExtensions porting. There used to be a browser extension that did it for you.

cm2012 7y ago

Really cool tool. Honestly the catalogue sort alone on the site was useful for finding which shows on Netflix even have Korean subtitles.

serf 7y ago

What would be needed to make this off-line capable with supplied media? Just a bunch of well-formatted SRT subtitle files? Obviously some kind of lookup between languages too, but what i'm asking is : is this just a fancy srt/language api parser? I want to use this, but I don't use Netflix. It looks very cool.

hiccuphippo 7y ago
You could use the .ass format for fancy subtitles. Players like vlc, mpc, mpv support it. That would give you the subtitles in both languages plus the highlight of the words as they are spoken but clicking on the word to get a definition would need to be built into the player.
asdko13roasi 7y ago
Posted above as well but mpv user script that works offline: https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs
davidzweig 7y ago
Ognjen (guy I worked with to make this extension) previously made something similar for offline media (https://github.com/oaprograms/lingo-player https://github.com/oaprograms/lingo-player). It's neglected now though and probably suffered bitrot. We could use the code from our extension to support offline media.. but Chrome doesn't support MP4 playback IIRC. It's possible to make an Electron/NW.js app, but the vlc plugin isn't working with latest versions, last time we checked. Appreciate any info.

grizzles 7y ago

I asked for this on HN a few weeks back. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853163 I really hope it supports Hanyu Pinyin. So excited.

Arwill 7y ago
Just tried the extension, and it seems Pinyin is not supported. There is no "Transliteration" option, like there is for Japanese.
lordfrikk 7y ago
It's not really what you asked for, but subtitles that you download from websites like zimuku.com or zimuku.cn have dual language versions: separate English and Chinese flag means the ZIP file contains separate language subs, pirate flag means it has one set of subtitles containing both languages - super useful if your video player doesn't support displaying more than one set or you don't want subs at the top of the screen).

tluyben2 7y ago

Somewhat offtopic; I wish extensions would work on mobile browsers... I watch Netflix on iOS or streaming from iOS to chromecast. I see it is recently somewhat possible to run extensions on Android via a custom Chrome install. Does that work well?

superasn 7y ago
I use all chrome extensions via Kiwi browser on android. It's so sad that Google has deliberately disabled the support for it on their own browser (they don't want adblock maybe?) even though and independent dev has seamlessly enabled the same in his browser.
beatgammit 7y ago
You can also use Firefox for Android, which has extensions. Android Preview is much faster, but it doesn't have extension support yet.
Mindwipe 7y ago
> I watch Netflix on iOS or streaming from iOS to chromecast. If you streamed to a Chromecast it wouldn't work, as all the cast protocol sends from the iOS device is the URL of the stream and the authentication key. The Chromecast fetches any subs etc itself.
davidzweig 7y ago
For this extension, Netflix doesn't allow Chrome mobile or iOS browsers (I think) to use a browser-based player, but redirect you to their app. Netflix are probably looking at user-agent.

hrasyid 7y ago

I think having subtitles in your native language can hurt learning because it tends to be easier to just follow the subtitle than actually trying to understand the target language. You can't read both at the same time. But I agree that Netflix is a great resource for learning a foreign language. I went from zero to being able to understand a normal TV show in the target language in one year, mostly by watching children's videos in YouTube and Netflix. In my opinion, what's more important is (1) the ability to order/group videos by simplicity after filtering it by target language (even children shows vary a lot in difficulty and for learning it's very important to choose the right difficulty for you) and probably (2) the ability to slow down the playback speed like YouTube.

verganileonardo 7y ago
Which language did you learn?
- hrasyid 7y ago
  Spanish
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    Most effective Netflix kids/otherwise shows for this, in your opinion? TIA
    - hombre_fatal 7y ago
      The shows that interest you. The ones you would actually watch. I imagine this rules out kids shows for most adults. It sure does for me. Also start reading books asap. I spent way too long watching dub+sub'ed Netflix in my target language. Wish I'd tried reading young-adult books sooner. If you're going to be pausing on every subtitle frame to read it, you might as well try books.
      - hrasyid 7y ago

xwowsersx 7y ago

Wow, this is very cool!

godmode2019 7y ago

animelon.com was the first company I know of to do this sort of thing. They went through an accelerator where I was working working.

ouchjars 7y ago

Related tip if you won't/can't use this extension: Netflix shows normally have many more subtitles available than you get shown (and sometimes audio tracks). The selection you see depends on your interface language and locale. For example, I can't use Spanish subtitles for one show (https://i.imgur.com/BBWuuPs.png https://i.imgur.com/BBWuuPs.png) until I change my interface language to Spanish (https://i.imgur.com/bsyYJGR.png https://i.imgur.com/bsyYJGR.png).

skrebbel 7y ago
I still can't get my head around how user hostile they made this. I mean, why? I understand showing the most likely languages on top, but why hide content that's available? I have bilingual kids (Dutch and Danish, living in NL) and the amount of setup we have to do each week to get and keep Danish audio for cartoons on Netflix is pretty nuts.
- nitrogen 7y ago
  Not sure, but maybe the subtitle tracks have different licensing?
  - thecatspaw 7y ago
    Wouldnt they need to check this based on location, and not on user interface language though?
    - falcor84 7y ago
      Shouldn't they just ask the user what their preferred languages are?
    - skrebbel 7y ago
      What makes you think everybody in a particular place speaks a particular language?
    - toastal 7y ago
      Please don't do this. I can manage to read enough to do certain workflows, but I get so frustrated when Google presumptuously shows me dates according to the Buddhist calendar just because my IP is in Thailand. If my browser is reporting 'en-US' as the locale, the when available I expect to get that.

vaskebjorn 7y ago

Also check out the lingq exporter [1] which works with Youtube as well. Does something similar but also allows you to keep an inventory of your current vocabulary on the lingq platform. I'm a huge fan. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lingq-importer/eaanhanppiifopiabnfmhjbikjmeeale?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lingq-importer/eaa...

personlurking 7y ago
I looked into Lingq, watched a few short videos on it, and saw an interview with the founder, but I'm still not sure I get it. The site is mainly a text-based vocabulary acquisition tool, right?
- vaskebjorn 7y ago
  Yes it is very far from intuitive (as a developer I can tell when uis are designed solely by developers). The way I think of it is this: you do all of your foreign language reading through the app. Lingq keeps track of which words you have seen: when a new one comes up it's highlighted in blue, when you define the word (mostly automatic) it turns yellow. Once you mark a word as known it is no longer highlighted. There are SRS features built in, but I ignore them and just add words to anki when I feel like I need to. If you love reading it's a really great way to get language exposure. Since looking up word definitions only requires a tap or click it enables you to read above your level (like reading with training wheels on). And just seeing a word over and over again in different contexts is a much better way to learn than hammering away at flash cards. The import from netflix/youtube stuff as I mentioned is great as well. I also upload all of my own material (mostly ebooks) and ignore a lot of stuff they have there.

MaxwellM 7y ago

Ef yes! Been looking for this, can't wait to try it.

androng 7y ago

Watch in a foreign language with foreign audio to increase your listening comprehension in the foreign language. Only watch in your native language/subtitles if you want to comprehend the plot more. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927148/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927148/

rgossiaux 7y ago
Well, the linked study suggests watching with foreign audio and foreign language subtitles, not merely with foreign audio alone.
darkwater 7y ago
Watch in your native language only if you don't care about acting at all.
shmat 7y ago
My experience as a language learner (French) supports the study. When I use English (native language) subtitles, my listening doesn't improve at all. However, my improvement with or without French subtitles depends on my level of comprehension. If I can understand most of the show without subtitles (~60% or more) I improve faster without subtitles. If I understand half or less, I improve with the subtitles. I guess this is evidence for Stephen Krashen's theory of comprehensible input.
tvanantwerp 7y ago
I've been wanting to learn Chinese, but I'm not sure Chinese subtitles would help that much compared to if I were learning a European language. Maybe if the subtitles were in pinyin, but I don't know if that would even be an option for a lot of media.
- rahimnathwani 7y ago
  Watching Chinese TV shows with Chinese subtitles definitely helped me a lot, not only because the subtitles gave me a second chance to get what I missed (which is the same with other languages), but also because I could learn characters for those words I could already recognise in speech.

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mhdhn 7y ago

A: this is fantastic. B: why don't all streaming services simply have a by-language option? It's kind of a guaranteed "long tail" for any audio or audio-video presentation: people who want hear language X language spoken.

cptwunderlich 7y ago
You can search for a language on Netflix though, e.g., search for "Italian" and it will show several tags next to "Explore titles related to", like "Italian-languae Movies & TV".

imjustsaying 7y ago

In practice, the foreign subtitles do not line up with the foreign words as well as the native subtitles line up with the native words. It took me years to figure out why this was. In a conversation I had with someone who knew the business, the new language subtitles don't line up with the new language audio because the new language subtitles are translated from the original language subtitles, not the new language audio. Why? This saves a step from someone having to rewatch the final new language dialogue and transcribe the new language as it is exactly spoken. That step can be skipped and the new language subtitles can still be translated from the original language subtitles, although they will be quite off much of the time.

crucialfelix 7y ago
This can reveal some interesting insights into how the film was made. I often notice extra lines that got edited out to make the scene more concise. Sometimes the director changes a whole shot.
2rsf 7y ago
But why are the original language subtitles not accurate ? and I am referring even to "simple" local TV series that didn't undergo several rounds of editing. As part of my Swedish learning I watch a lot of Swedish shows with Swedish subtitles, there are always discrepancies
- elcomet 7y ago
  Isn't it because subtitles are typed in live? So they have to skip words in order to convey the meaning in time.
- diffeomorphism 7y ago
  If there is a script for the movie subtitles will often be identical to the script even if the actors deviated from it. Much simpler and quicker to do than having somebody transcribe everything that was actually said and then having someone watch everything again to make sure it was transcribed correctly.
7y ago

z_open 7y ago

This is nice, but all I really want is the ability to nicely see both English and German subtitles simultaneously. This is overkill for me and requires me to use chrome. Is anyone aware of a better solution for me?

st1ck 7y ago
mpv --sid=auto --secondary-sid=auto --sub-pos=95 --slang de,en movie.mkv Same works for youtube URLs. If it doesn't work, changing "de,en" to "en,de" may help.
- asdko13roasi 7y ago
  mpv is so great. It was an immense downgrade to start watching movies on my ps4 with media player, netflix, plex etc. They(mostly media player) have issues on the very basics like pausing and playing video, subtitles, continue watching etc. With a computer running mpv and plugged into the TV everything just works and I can trivially fix common issues like subtitle/audio sync with my phone as the remote. On-topic: mpv seems to have a similar language learning extension to OP https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs https://github.com/oltodosel/interSubs
  - pgz 7y ago
    I've made my own mpv extension for Japanese subtitle analysis too. It can also create Anki cards automatically (with screenshot and audio). Having a scriptable media player is really something else.
aplaice 7y ago
I second the mpv-based solution, as suggested by st1ck. If you prefer vlc, it now (as of the beta 4.0.0)[0] also supports dual/secondary subtitles. Making it work seems a bit fiddly: first you need to turn them on (under Tools > Preferences > Subtitles/OSD > Dual Subtitles (at the very bottom) > Align — change to anything but unset, and possibly also adjust offset). Then, when playing a video, to select them for that video, you need to "Toggle secondary subtitle control" with Ctrl+Shift+V (this means that the normal subtitle control shortcuts like "v", "Alt+v" etc. now apply to the secondary subtitles) and press "v" the right number of times to switch to the subtitles that you want. (Obviously vlc and mpv will only work for DRM-free videos, e.g. from youtube or a DVD.) If you were asking specifically about Netflix subtitles, there used to be an open source NflxMultiSubs extension[1] for both Firefox and Chromium, but it was broken by Netflix introducing changes to its video player and discontinued. There is an active, open-source dual-captions[2] extension, but it's for Chrome only. (However, since it's open source adapting it it for Firefox should be straightforward.) Finally, as an alternative approach, you could try a Firefox addon which allows loading arbitrary subtitles in the SRT format to netflix,[3] and which might perhaps allow you to have both netflix's subtitles and your own SRT ones at the same time. [0] https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/NEWS#L30 https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/NEWS#L30 [1] https://github.com/dannvix/NflxMultiSubs/ https://github.com/dannvix/NflxMultiSubs/ [2] https://github.com/mikesteele/dual-captions https://github.com/mikesteele/dual-captions [3] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/netflix-srt-subs/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/netflix-srt-s...

hellofunk 7y ago

> When you’re starting out learning a language, sometimes you can’t quite catch what people are saying. They’re too fast, or they use words/grammar you’re unfamiliar with. Being able to see the subtitles and hear the dialogue and see the translation all at once is a dream come true. I’ve tried this but the subtitles often use different wording than what is spoken (when both are in same language) so it doesn’t work out well in practice. Maybe depends on the language.

akavel 7y ago

Can anyone recommend any movies and/or series for a complete beginner learning Chinese from duolingo? I mean, ideally probably aimed at literally early primary school kids... some animated series, or Tom Sawyer -alike, or a drama about a lost puppy is what I brace for... even better if on youtube than Netflix, but the latter is also acceptable...

jonatron 7y ago
Try "Where are we going? Dad" on YouTube. Also HelloChinese is much better than Duolingo in my opinion.

wodenokoto 7y ago

I see this littered all over the comments: Subtitles are not transcripts. They don't match word for word, mainly due to space and time constraints. A lot of amateur subtitlers time the subtitle with the time of the spoken word, making them almost unreadable. Long text that pop up for a short time does not help convey meaning. You want a short text, that anticipates what is being said. The reader of the subtitle is after all watching a movie, and might have their eyes elsewhere - They are not reading karaoke lyrics!

finneganscat 7y ago

My girlfriend has dyslexia and subtitles are a problem for her to read quickly. She would love an extension similar to this that “auto-dubs” by having a synthesized voice that reads the subtitle content and overlays this slightly louder than the original audio. Any ideas if something similar exists?

Grue3 7y ago

I can see several problems with this. 1. Japanese subtitles are completely different from what is said in Japanese dub. Subtitles are optimized for readability and use completely different phrasing, or even terms (for example dub says クイーン ("queen"), sub says 女王 ("jo-oh")). 2. Japanese subtitles and English subtitles are also different, because many lines have to be completely rephrased in order to express them in a (very linguistically distant) language. 3. The furigana (pronounciation hints) in these screenshots is not correct. "困った" is "komatta" not "koma ta". "妻は" is "tsuma wa" not "tsuma ha". If only they used ichi.moe's engine... (disclosure: I'm the author of ichi.moe).

yorwba 7y ago
The way the "koma" is placed above 困っ makes me suspect they first tokenize the text, get furigana for each segment (most tokenizers have this built-in) and then derive the romaji without correctly handling the sokuon っ when it appears just before a segmentation boundary. Usually it's represented in the romanization by doubling the following consonant, but of course that doesn't work if there's no following consonant because each token is treated as a separate string. They do get it right for "erikku" where there's no segmentation boundary.
- gryson 7y ago
  That makes sense. Hopefully it can be fixed, since geminates are one of the most difficult features of Japanese pronunciation for native English speakers to master. Erasing it from the orthography intended to aid beginners certainly doesn't help.
- LinguaBrowse 7y ago
  If they're having troubles with correct romaji transliteration (and even if not, to be honest), I don't see why they don't just transliterate it in furigana then. The source data of Tokeniser dictionaries such as NAIST JDIC isn't even in romaji, so if they are using a proper tokeniser, then they're actually doing an extra step and throwing away data to transform it into romaji form.
  - 7y ago

gozzoo 7y ago

As a strange coincidence youtube recomended me this [1] just after opening the article: [1] Alexandra Stepien - Netflix and chilll like a boss: How to learn languages the lazy way - PG 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5d9JS_fE6E&t=1220s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5d9JS_fE6E&t=1220s

davidzweig 7y ago

Hi. Creator here. If someone from Netflix is reading this, we'd like to be in contact (email in profile). Hell, here's my 15 minutes. I'd be interested in a job with electronics/software/mech engineering (ideally all three) in the US/EU/Australia (I can work in these countries). Some info about me on this post from earlier in the year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18809704 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18809704

oaprograms 7y ago
The other LLN creator here. I am looking for someone to correspond with or hang out with (in Europe), to conduct amateur inquiries into alternative approaches to AI algorithms (and perhaps discussing unusual interests such as lifespan extension and futurism). ognjen.apic@gmail.com
glaive123 7y ago
Great work on this extension. Thank you both!
Qahlel 7y ago
Hi there. Would you mind forking this extension to Firefox as well, please?
senorsmile 7y ago
Your extension is great. Thank you! I've used it for a while. It makes something that I used to do, i.e. watching foreign language content on Netflix to advance a language, much easier. I only wish something this amazing were available for more services (or maybe Netflix needs to just license every show and movie ever made?!?!?).

walterkrankheit 7y ago

I guess this is most useful if you don't live in the country you want to learn the language for. Native English speaker living in Germany here who speaks fluent German, but still lives most of his life in English. Movies are a good way to keep up language practice, but there's no way I'd want to dub "Marriage Story" or whatever in German. There are plenty of German films on Netflix which I can simply watch with CC German subs, if needed. At any rate, it's still a cool idea, particularly if you lived in, say, Spain, but wanted to see German subtitles.

deleted 7y ago
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yuvalbar84 7y ago

This is just amazing. Thank you!

pen2l 7y ago

An observation: in netflix, when you choose a foreign lang for the audio track as well as subtitles... they don't match. By this I mean, let's saying you're watching Orange is the New black... and choose French audio and French subtitles. You would expect the subtitles to be correspond with what you're hearing.... they don't!! Kind of absurd and annoying. This is true across all shows it turns out.

1maginary 7y ago
You discover this early on when picking up a language. It's so pervasive and so annoying for language learners but I can understand why it happens. If you're learning a language, CC are p much the way to go
davidzweig 7y ago
You might find this helpful: http://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/catalogue.html http://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/catalogue.html "Netflix usually has good subtitles for the original language of a title, that match the audio track. Subtitles often don't match the audio for dubbed audio. The catalogue lists titles by their original language. It allows you to find French films, to study French, and German films to study German etc. By using one of the listed titles, you should have good subtitles that match the audio."
ramblerman 7y ago
This can be an advantage when your level is just a bit higher. Since you hear the words and see a similar way of saying it at the same time. This (in my experience) is usually enough context to parse the audio. The net result is then that your brain gained 2 pieces of input at rate of 1.

knolax 7y ago

Be warned that one of the worst ways to learn a language is through translations. Most translations leave out a bunch of information because between connotation, denotation, and grammatical correctness you can really choose one or two of the above. That's in addition to the fact that most translations are either produced by machines with no understanding of the content or even of the complete grammar of the target/source languages, or mechanical turk style low wage laborers with tight deadlines and questionable knowledge of either languagr.

officemonkey 7y ago

My biggest problem with understanding french is being able to comprehend it at speed. I'm much better understanding song lyrics (because they're often sung much slower than speech.) I just tried this with "A Very Secret Service" and It's immediately easier to understand what is being said. I can see this becoming a very useful tool for me.

Eliezer 7y ago

I've wanted this literally for two decades. Thank you to the creators for finally making it.

therealdrag0 7y ago

There's a similar product for YouTube videos called www.fluentu.com. I used it for French and thought it was great.