I have a browser extension for Netflix that allows me to see subtitles in my target language (currently french and Italian for me) and English is much smaller below this. This is brilliant because it allows me to push myself and extend my knowledge whilst also having a back up for comprehension if I do get too overwhelmed, however because it’s fainter I don’t find myself resorting to it automatically.
That sounds like a great tool Jasmine! Would you mind sharing which browser extension it is so that everyone can benefit? Thanks so much for your great comments always! 😄
I'm English learner. Even though I watch it with English subtitle, sometimes I don't understand. After I watched with Japanese and English subtitle, I watch it without subtitle. Then I've already learned many words I didn't know.
I'm currently studying Japanese but have been watching anime in Japanese with English subtitles for years, and it's interesting how as you say you can start to build up a repertoire of of vocabulary and certain uses of them. Like I have these moments when I read a ajapanese word in hiragana, I slowly read through the hiragana letter by letter souding it out, and then I find that this is actually a familiar word I've heard man times in anime and I use those dormant memories to kind of mimic how the word would be sounded out. So absolutely, watching a lot of content even with subtitles has benefits. Having said all that I was hoping to find something a bit more analytical in this video, like how many hours of content (approximately) did you watch, at what level were you, and how did watching content raw without subtitles expedite the process of internalising the language. Perhaps you could make a video going into this a bit more in depth?
I would say that you can tell intuitively. I love these polyglot videos but honestly the more I learn language the more I figure they are tools for experimentation and helping you to figure. This (and many other polyglot videos) are a case in point : two polyglots have completely opposite views. Why? Cos everyone is different and there's no right way. For the record I find using English waaaaaay better for learning. That's until I get so advanced I don't need subtitles at all.
I agree. Also I have a limit of how much active learning I can do in a day before reaching exhaustion. Watching contents with English subtitles allows me to keep immersing in my target language, even if possibly in a less efficient way
This video really resonates with me. What you said about watching a lot of French movies/shows early on is very similar to what I've done with Spanish. I really feel like it catapulted me into understanding much more and not having to search for words when I want to express something.
Thanks, Robin, for this video and for validating this style of consuming content! Yes, people tend to be quite negative about watching film content with subtitles, but I've always found it beneficial. In addition to the ways you mentioned, I think having the translation in front of me helps me listen for HOW the speakers choose to express that idea. I might predict that they will use a particular verb or set of words but then they use a different one, or I might discover another use of a common word that I already know in a phrase (like, "Oh! They use that word to say "once in a while".). If you're focused on just understanding (like when you watch with captions in the target language), you can't catch these things unless you're quite advanced in your listening skills and vocabulary. Also, we should keep in mind that captions in the target language is a luxury that many learners don't have very often. I am learning Levantine Arabic, and I'm lucky to find content with an English translation at all. And the captions (if they exist at all) are almost never in dialect. They are almost always in formal Arabic, not the Arabic actually spoken, so they don't match... TV series and movies with English subtitles is as good as it gets for me with few exceptions. But there is still a lot to be gained from watching and listening for words I know and listening for how ideas are expressed naturally in the language.
I put italian dubbing on a lot of the shows i watch with english subtitles as the italian ones dont match. i find it useful as when you get to more intermediate listening stage you can pick out the phrases and see what the english equivalent is. So for sure english subtitles are still very useful.
I’m doing this with Chinese but watching in Chinese subtitles. I use Plecco and Google translator’s camera function on my cell phone. So I’ll pause the video. Try to figure out the pinyin for the word and type it on Plecco. I check to make sure I have the correct character, then I write the character, Pinyin and Plecco definition on my note. I’ll use Google’s camera to get a gist of what’s being said. It is a little work, but that is the only way I will learn.
I like watching youtube videos for a lot of the reasons you say tv is hard to understand. People tend to speak much less perfectly and with more pauses. Of course, you still find people who vlog at 1000 words per minute, but there a much better chance of finding someone who is close to 60 words per minute.
Subtitles are a blessing, especially if your first language is spanish and you are learning english, 40 % of the english language shares similar words or roots
Great video. The ideal as you said is watching the film with the subtitles in the target language but whilst that is an option on Netflix it often isn't on other platforms. I'm learning Russian but if I only watched Russian films where I had access to Russian subtitles that wouldn't be many. I completely agree with you that even watching the film with subtitles in your native language is of benefit and the more I learn the more I consciously try and listen to and try and understand what the actors are saying, only glancing briefly down to the subtitles to fill in the gaps or get the gist of what's being said. And if you didn't do that, and there weren't subtitles in the target language, you'd then be left struggling with no subtitles at all, which isn't going to work for anyone except very advanced learners. Or you could simply not watch anything in that language and then the process of learning the language , especially if you don't live in that country, would become very sterile and dry. In summary, I totally agree!
I have finished a German Serie lately and because I was living in Turkey, there was no German Subtitle option for me. Therefore, even I finished a German Serie I thought it was useless since I had Turkish subtitles afterall. However, after seeing your video. You are right! I believe I have develop some ideas about German High Schools. It is definitely something that I would not know in case I have not seen this Serie. So, thank you. Now I at least more prone to see upsides of watching German Series wirh Turkish subtitles. However, I will try my best to find something German with German subtitles, for sure!
The notion that English subtitles is useless for language learning is total bullshit. I've learned preposterous amounts with English subtitles. He's totally right. I'd say that I learn even more than he applies. Goes to show. Enjoy language learning! That is the ONLY secret
In my experience, I think the usefulness for language learning depends on your grammar knowledge and how close the subs are to a literal translation. I know it's common for anime on Netflix to have US-localized subtitles -- still better than the 90s translations of Pokemon. As Robin identified, it is great for learning how a language is spoken. But, funnily, I remember using 'ore' for a little while after watching Naruto. hahaha Anyone learning French and watching Osmosis on Netflix?
I love this term! So much that this was actually at the core of what I wanted to center my PhD around back when I was trying to pursue that. I'll talk a lot more about it in coming videos! :)
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms please do! One of the best compliments I ever got on my Polish was when my cultural illiteracy was exposed. I was talking to a Polish guy, he quoted a movie, and was amazed that I hadn't seen it. I said 'hey, I'm not Polish, after all', and he was like 'oh I forgot!' :)
I become more better in English by watching movies,it makes the vocabulary vast ,grammar side not so much.. though, but useless is a very harsh thing to say
I felt so spoiled when I switched to learning Portuguese from Romanian, cause there's so much more portuguese subtitles for portuguese content than Romanian subtitles for Romanian content 🤣 The upside of this is that I am waaaaay better at listening in Romanian than in Portuguese. So I see the usefulness of subtitles on one hand, but my experience with Romanian has shown me the power of diving in head first and trying hard to understand and immerse 🤣
Heyyy @SilentJaguar68! That is a great point, I have also always found that although it can be really frustrating in the moment to not be able to find subtitles for movies/tv shows or a transcript in the case of a podcast, for example -- in the end it DOES end up making me a better listener! I think that it just takes a very meticulous approach and more will power/perseverance to actually make it through, but in the end it definitely makes you better 😄💪🏼
Ah, the route of perseverance and repetition... and more repetition. My favorite Danish programs does seem to be accessible I'm the US with Danish subtitles, so this week I'm on my sixth viewing of the same episode 🤣
I began to learn Turkish. And noiticed TV shows with original suibtitles and from movies I learned phonetics and I can form movies )scenes, hate, happiness, angry face) to knwo what they speak. But I don't know how to print subtitles from original movie,,,
They don't have any :D I am watching Thai and Chinese TV dramas :D My point was that I watch them in one language with sub in another one. None of them is my mother tongue.
@@majakodzoman4924 Oh ok, I also watch some series dubbed to other language and have subtitles in an other as well. I found one Croatian serie in our Netflix but its not very good one to be honest. I would like to watch some ex-yugo series in those languages. I have been watching some series and movies in internet without subs, but would be nice to see the spoken words as written at the same time.
When should you start watching movies and tv shows in the target language? Because I’ve tried to watch them from the beginning but it gets very boring because it’s hard for me to know what’s going on.
If I get bored I will mimic the scenes for a while before turning it off. That said, in my experience, I like to focus on listening to words/syllables if it is still beyond me. Some people have curated Spotify playlists in various languages, too.
You should start watching them before you actually learn the target language. In the beginning you can only watch series for children. All other input is not comprehensible.You can also watch children's songs and nursery rhymes.
Don't torture yourself! Enjoy things. Your brain will inform you of the right moment. Just switch between English subtitles, target language subtitles and nothing and see how it goes. Trust your own feelings. Remember you can always start a film or program with something more difficult (ie no subs ) and then switch if find boring or two challenging.
What I really want is to get the English translation of each line/sentence in about a one-second blast (this is possible: th-cam.com/video/z1gzhBPJ7Kk/w-d-xo.html), the gist of which is understood almost before the character is even speaking. It seems to me that that way I can't be *distracted* by the English, plus I think it would work better when the actual line has the word order very different from English. VTT subtitle files, at least, are capable enough of formatting that it should be possible to generate them in this style programmatically from the existing conventional VTT file. I intend to get on this, but right now I'm just doing Spanish, so it's not urgently needed.
I have a browser extension for Netflix that allows me to see subtitles in my target language (currently french and Italian for me) and English is much smaller below this. This is brilliant because it allows me to push myself and extend my knowledge whilst also having a back up for comprehension if I do get too overwhelmed, however because it’s fainter I don’t find myself resorting to it automatically.
That sounds like a great tool Jasmine! Would you mind sharing which browser extension it is so that everyone can benefit? Thanks so much for your great comments always! 😄
Is it this? Omg it has Turkish! Have to try it!!!! www.theverge.com/2019/2/12/18220289/language-learning-netflix-chrome-extension-two-subtitles
There's a popup dictionary also built in!
It works great! You can highlight words. You can make it pause at the end of each sentence to compare languages!! Thank you!
@Jasmine May thank you!
You can watch the movie twice, once in your target language subtitles, and once with your native language subtitles.
Great point, thanks for commenting 😄
I'm English learner. Even though I watch it with English subtitle, sometimes I don't understand. After I watched with Japanese and English subtitle, I watch it without subtitle. Then I've already learned many words I didn't know.
Yes, i have tried this method couple of times and it seems to be working well for me till far.
I'm sooooo happy about the Netflix extension!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!
I'm currently studying Japanese but have been watching anime in Japanese with English subtitles for years, and it's interesting how as you say you can start to build up a repertoire of of vocabulary and certain uses of them. Like I have these moments when I read a ajapanese word in hiragana, I slowly read through the hiragana letter by letter souding it out, and then I find that this is actually a familiar word I've heard man times in anime and I use those dormant memories to kind of mimic how the word would be sounded out. So absolutely, watching a lot of content even with subtitles has benefits.
Having said all that I was hoping to find something a bit more analytical in this video, like how many hours of content (approximately) did you watch, at what level were you, and how did watching content raw without subtitles expedite the process of internalising the language. Perhaps you could make a video going into this a bit more in depth?
I would say that you can tell intuitively. I love these polyglot videos but honestly the more I learn language the more I figure they are tools for experimentation and helping you to figure. This (and many other polyglot videos) are a case in point : two polyglots have completely opposite views.
Why? Cos everyone is different and there's no right way.
For the record I find using English waaaaaay better for learning. That's until I get so advanced I don't need subtitles at all.
I agree. Also I have a limit of how much active learning I can do in a day before reaching exhaustion. Watching contents with English subtitles allows me to keep immersing in my target language, even if possibly in a less efficient way
This video really resonates with me. What you said about watching a lot of French movies/shows early on is very similar to what I've done with Spanish. I really feel like it catapulted me into understanding much more and not having to search for words when I want to express something.
Thanks, Robin, for this video and for validating this style of consuming content! Yes, people tend to be quite negative about watching film content with subtitles, but I've always found it beneficial. In addition to the ways you mentioned, I think having the translation in front of me helps me listen for HOW the speakers choose to express that idea. I might predict that they will use a particular verb or set of words but then they use a different one, or I might discover another use of a common word that I already know in a phrase (like, "Oh! They use that word to say "once in a while".). If you're focused on just understanding (like when you watch with captions in the target language), you can't catch these things unless you're quite advanced in your listening skills and vocabulary. Also, we should keep in mind that captions in the target language is a luxury that many learners don't have very often. I am learning Levantine Arabic, and I'm lucky to find content with an English translation at all. And the captions (if they exist at all) are almost never in dialect. They are almost always in formal Arabic, not the Arabic actually spoken, so they don't match... TV series and movies with English subtitles is as good as it gets for me with few exceptions. But there is still a lot to be gained from watching and listening for words I know and listening for how ideas are expressed naturally in the language.
I put italian dubbing on a lot of the shows i watch with english subtitles as the italian ones dont match. i find it useful as when you get to more intermediate listening stage you can pick out the phrases and see what the english equivalent is. So for sure english subtitles are still very useful.
Excelent video! It helped me a lot! Thank you for all the content you provide! Love your channel!
I’m doing this with Chinese but watching in Chinese subtitles. I use Plecco and Google translator’s camera function on my cell phone. So I’ll pause the video. Try to figure out the pinyin for the word and type it on Plecco. I check to make sure I have the correct character, then I write the character, Pinyin and Plecco definition on my note. I’ll use Google’s camera to get a gist of what’s being said. It is a little work, but that is the only way I will learn.
I like watching youtube videos for a lot of the reasons you say tv is hard to understand. People tend to speak much less perfectly and with more pauses. Of course, you still find people who vlog at 1000 words per minute, but there a much better chance of finding someone who is close to 60 words per minute.
Subtitles are a blessing, especially if your first language is spanish and you are learning english, 40 % of the english language shares similar words or roots
This resonated with my own experience very much, subbed and a bell. Merry X-mas
Sorry, I was just unable to keep listening after you "shrugged with your face" in French! Aha! That is so true! :D
Great video. The ideal as you said is watching the film with the subtitles in the target language but whilst that is an option on Netflix it often isn't on other platforms. I'm learning Russian but if I only watched Russian films where I had access to Russian subtitles that wouldn't be many. I completely agree with you that even watching the film with subtitles in your native language is of benefit and the more I learn the more I consciously try and listen to and try and understand what the actors are saying, only glancing briefly down to the subtitles to fill in the gaps or get the gist of what's being said. And if you didn't do that, and there weren't subtitles in the target language, you'd then be left struggling with no subtitles at all, which isn't going to work for anyone except very advanced learners. Or you could simply not watch anything in that language and then the process of learning the language , especially if you don't live in that country, would become very sterile and dry. In summary, I totally agree!
I have finished a German Serie lately and because I was living in Turkey, there was no German Subtitle option for me. Therefore, even I finished a German Serie I thought it was useless since I had Turkish subtitles afterall. However, after seeing your video. You are right! I believe I have develop some ideas about German High Schools. It is definitely something that I would not know in case I have not seen this Serie. So, thank you. Now I at least more prone to see upsides of watching German Series wirh Turkish subtitles. However, I will try my best to find something German with German subtitles, for sure!
There is no such word as "serie"
The notion that English subtitles is useless for language learning is total bullshit.
I've learned preposterous amounts with English subtitles. He's totally right. I'd say that I learn even more than he applies.
Goes to show.
Enjoy language learning! That is the ONLY secret
In my experience, I think the usefulness for language learning depends on your grammar knowledge and how close the subs are to a literal translation. I know it's common for anime on Netflix to have US-localized subtitles -- still better than the 90s translations of Pokemon. As Robin identified, it is great for learning how a language is spoken. But, funnily, I remember using 'ore' for a little while after watching Naruto. hahaha
Anyone learning French and watching Osmosis on Netflix?
Cultural literacy!! That's what it is, thank you, I had no idea what to call it :)
I love this term! So much that this was actually at the core of what I wanted to center my PhD around back when I was trying to pursue that. I'll talk a lot more about it in coming videos! :)
@@RobinMacPhersonFilms please do! One of the best compliments I ever got on my Polish was when my cultural illiteracy was exposed. I was talking to a Polish guy, he quoted a movie, and was amazed that I hadn't seen it. I said 'hey, I'm not Polish, after all', and he was like 'oh I forgot!' :)
Love the thumbnail 😂 “está en inglés”
Wait can i learn to speak Korean without subtitles ? Because i don't know single Korean word
Well said
I become more better in English by watching movies,it makes the vocabulary vast ,grammar side not so much.. though, but useless is a very harsh thing to say
I felt so spoiled when I switched to learning Portuguese from Romanian, cause there's so much more portuguese subtitles for portuguese content than Romanian subtitles for Romanian content 🤣
The upside of this is that I am waaaaay better at listening in Romanian than in Portuguese. So I see the usefulness of subtitles on one hand, but my experience with Romanian has shown me the power of diving in head first and trying hard to understand and immerse 🤣
Heyyy @SilentJaguar68! That is a great point, I have also always found that although it can be really frustrating in the moment to not be able to find subtitles for movies/tv shows or a transcript in the case of a podcast, for example -- in the end it DOES end up making me a better listener! I think that it just takes a very meticulous approach and more will power/perseverance to actually make it through, but in the end it definitely makes you better 😄💪🏼
Ah, the route of perseverance and repetition... and more repetition. My favorite Danish programs does seem to be accessible I'm the US with Danish subtitles, so this week I'm on my sixth viewing of the same episode 🤣
I'm almost near to become a hyper polyglot i just need to learn 1 more language.
Hi Robin! I'm coding a social network for language learners!
I began to learn Turkish. And noiticed TV shows with original suibtitles and from movies I learned phonetics and I can form movies )scenes, hate, happiness, angry face) to knwo what they speak. But I don't know how to print subtitles from original movie,,,
Well.. it is a great thing to be Croatian. Netflix in any target language + subtitles in English or that same language ❤
Unfortunately Netflix doesn't have much Croatian or Serbian movies or series at least not in my country.
They don't have any :D I am watching Thai and Chinese TV dramas :D My point was that I watch them in one language with sub in another one. None of them is my mother tongue.
@@majakodzoman4924 Oh ok, I also watch some series dubbed to other language and have subtitles in an other as well. I found one Croatian serie in our Netflix but its not very good one to be honest. I would like to watch some ex-yugo series in those languages. I have been watching some series and movies in internet without subs, but would be nice to see the spoken words as written at the same time.
"shrug with your face" lol
When should you start watching movies and tv shows in the target language? Because I’ve tried to watch them from the beginning but it gets very boring because it’s hard for me to know what’s going on.
If I get bored I will mimic the scenes for a while before turning it off. That said, in my experience, I like to focus on listening to words/syllables if it is still beyond me.
Some people have curated Spotify playlists in various languages, too.
You should start watching them before you actually learn the target language. In the beginning you can only watch series for children. All other input is not comprehensible.You can also watch children's songs and nursery rhymes.
Try to watch things you've already seen in English. Netflix originals are great for this because they usually have several languages to choose from.
Don't torture yourself! Enjoy things. Your brain will inform you of the right moment. Just switch between English subtitles, target language subtitles and nothing and see how it goes. Trust your own feelings.
Remember you can always start a film or program with something more difficult (ie no subs ) and then switch if find boring or two challenging.
Podcast
What I really want is to get the English translation of each line/sentence in about a one-second blast (this is possible: th-cam.com/video/z1gzhBPJ7Kk/w-d-xo.html), the gist of which is understood almost before the character is even speaking. It seems to me that that way I can't be *distracted* by the English, plus I think it would work better when the actual line has the word order very different from English.
VTT subtitle files, at least, are capable enough of formatting that it should be possible to generate them in this style programmatically from the existing conventional VTT file.
I intend to get on this, but right now I'm just doing Spanish, so it's not urgently needed.
I'm going to have to learn to shrug with my face to get my French to the next level
That’s exactly correct 👍🏼 Bon courage !
New subbie
first comment? haha eyy
woot woooooot haha 🎉
Stop talking about coffee
Never stop talking about coffee!