The Great as shown with Dualsub’s Arabic subtitles on top of Hulus’s standard English subtitles.
Photo: Hulu
While watching Narcos a few weeks ago, I learned two things: (1) To become a Colombian drug lord, you have to be willing to smuggle cocaine in almost anything, including airplane tires, and (2) I’ve pronounced it at least half of the time I know Spanish words incorrectly. I couldn’t tell the difference myself, of course. An app did it.
It didn’t surprise me that my level of Spanish was far from decent. Learning a new language was one of my hobbies when the pandemic broke out and of course, like most people, I turned to Duolingo. But his playful goals were boring. Aside from a few sentences, I quickly realized that I still didn’t speak Spanish. Fortunately, I came across a service that allows me to practice what I do for hours every day: watching movies and tv shows online.
The Language Reactor name is a great way to capitalize on a treasure trove of streaming catalogs to practice any new language you may be learning. It connects to the Netflix website through a Google Chrome extension and allows you to watch shows and movies with two sets of subtitles at the same time, one translated into the native language of the dialogue and the other translated into the language with which you are familiar. You can hover over a single word in the subtitles to understand its phonetic spelling, pronunciation, usage, and more. You also have the option to search through all of the new vocabulary you’ve read in an episode, broken down by Language Reactor grade level, and bookmark words or phrases for you to refer to later.
Language Reactor isn’t the only app of its kind. Another Chrome add-on called eJOY has an almost identical set of features, but is compatible with Amazon Prime Video, Coursera, Udemy, and TED in addition to Netflix and YouTube. A similar service, Mate Translate, shows you a two-caption layout on the Netflix desktop site in a number of browsers, including Safari and Mozilla Firefox, and allows you to access your saved words or lines from your iPhone. Another extension, Dualsub, offers bilingual subtitles and currently supports 23 services, including HBO Max, Hulu and Disney +, at different levels of support. Rakuten Viki, a streaming platform exclusively for Asian TV shows and films, has integrated these language learning functions into its user interface.
Tools like Language Reactor work best for someone who already has a preliminary understanding of the language as well as its grammar.
Research shows that watching just an hour of foreign TV shows and movies per day can help learners effectively immerse themselves in a new language. Thanks to their extensive global catalogs, streaming sites like Netflix have made this more accessible than ever, and these add-on apps allow you to take advantage of this to master the language you are learning.
Even more specific studies have already explored some of the benefits of these tools. In his research, Gilbert Dizon, Associate Professor at Himeji Dokkyo University in Japan, found that Language Reactor’s use of double subtitles improves vocabulary learning and listening skills in learners. Even if a person watches a foreign language television program and / or movie every day for at least a month, Dizon Geier said the “profits could be substantial”. Professor Antonie Alm of the University of Otago in New Zealand discovered similar results in her research, arguing that it is easier for language learners to immerse themselves in a foreign television series rather than a movie. Once you become familiar with the characters in the series, their vocabulary, and their accents, you will develop cognitive and emotional advantages that will better enable you to grasp the intricacies of the language.
At the same time, these apps are not a silver bullet. While adapting to foreign content is an interesting technique to improve your language skills, Suzanne Graham, professor of language and education at the University of Reading in the UK, says you will get more from it if you are already a bit advanced the language you are learning.
After trying them out myself, I came to the same conclusion. Tools like Language Reactor work best for someone who already has a preliminary understanding of the language as well as its grammar. Duolingo taught me the words, but watching foreign language programs helped me understand how to put them together and form sentences. For example, hearing the pronunciation in Duolingo’s robotic voice was remarkably different from the way the actors spoke on shows, and it took me a while to make out even basic words.
Seinfeld with the Language Reactor sidebar layout and Spanish subtitles.
Photo: Netflix
That was the motivation of Mate Translate with around 800,000 active users. The Ukrainian founders struggled to learn English as it is not taught well in their country and decided to develop an app that would allow people to bridge the gap between textbook knowledge and real language, co-founder Andrii Liakh told Vulture.
A 33-year-old developer who identifies only as “Max” created a Language Reactor-like platform called Language Learning With Netflix and YouTube after having similar experiences with German courses. He moved to Germany from the Middle East and turned to YouTube to refine his speech. The pandemic sparked a wave of downloads for Max and Liakh’s tools, and every time new foreign content, such as Squid Game, goes viral on Netflix, they said in emails with Vulture, they see a surge in users .
Graham also suggests that you turn off your first language subtitles entirely and, after a while, just start following the foreign language ones. If you don’t know any words, you can always look them up. This fosters a sense of self-efficacy and progress, she said. If learners believe they can be successful in a challenging activity, such as watching a foreign TV show, they are less likely to give up.
There are other ways to get the most out of language learning extensions. Netflix has secret categories that you can use to browse all of the shows and movies made in a particular language. And when you invest in a virtual private network (VPN) subscription to unlock country-specific content, you’ll have more opportunities to practice any language you learn.
According to Dizon, the fun factor is more important. “Many of the participants in my research noticed that watching authentic videos is much more interesting,” he said. Most foreign language courses don’t include watching something like Squid Game’s murderous robot doll as a homework assignment.
Not all of these translation apps are created equal. Some are free, some are paid, and one is a streaming service in itself.
The Expanse paired with the Italian option from eJOY.
Photo: Amazon Prime Video
Works with: Netflix, YouTube
Special features: A tool to save and review words for later, an on-site catalog of supported titles by service, a beta option from TurtleTV that provides users with automated content by language, a beta video upload version.
Languages: A range of options from Scottish Gaelic and Xhosa to Dutch and Simplified Chinese.
Costs: For free
Works with: Netflix, YouTube
Special features: Quick translation options for single words, double subtitling.
Languages: In the free version, those offered by Netflix or YouTube; machine translation into multiple languages for the paid version.
Costs: Free upgrade, $ 5 / month for more advanced features.
Works with: Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Coursera, Ted and others.
Special features: The ability to control speed, set and track goals, store vocabulary and define words through a full dictionary.
Languages: Lots of different quick translation options including Estonian, German, Urdu, French and Korean.
Costs: Free browser add-on with various other paid product options.
Works with: YouTube, Netflix, Peacock and many other websites with different levels of support.
Special features: Simple layout with a change between different theme options.
Languages: The subtitles available for a given service based on the menu data on the page plus 18 machine translated language options.
Costs: Free with paid options for developers.
Works with: Netflix
Special features: Allows you to click on words in subtitles for direct translation.
Languages: At least 103 are supported, according to the website.
Costs: Free browser extension; $ 4 / month for more advanced features like saving words for later.
Works with: Title on its own platform.
Special features: A full featured streaming service for mainly Asian TV and movies.
Languages: Varies by title (offerings of the service are often subtitled by a volunteer community).
Costs: $ 5 / month
When you subscribe to a service through our links, Vulture can earn an affiliate commission.
Comments are closed.