Watch and Learn: Study a language while watching Netflix

About

This tool helps you use Netflix to study English, or Spanish, or French or any other language.

Steps to get started:

1. Once installed, open up your favourite foreign-language show on Netflix.
2. When the show starts, you should see a sidebar appear on the right (if not, refresh the page).
3. Click the switch to “on” to enable the extension
4. The sidebar will load a vocabulary preview - a list of words and phrases that will be useful to know as you watch.
5. Once you have finished previewing vocabulary, you can hide the sidebar by clicking chevron (») at the top.
6. As the show plays, you can hover your mouse over any subtitle and the show will pause while you choose which word or phrase you need explaining. You get definitions, examples, a pronunciation guide and questions to check your understanding.
7. Most important step: give me your feedback, please! I want this tool to be useful. And I can only do that if I know where it needs to improve. Thanks!

TIP: The extension adds its own subtitles so if you see two sets of subtitles, then turn off the standard Netflix ones.


FAQ
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*Question*
Do you have Finnish? Swedish? German? Swahili? etc etc etc

*Answer*
The extension should work with all of the most popular languages. If you find that your desired language is not working correctly, then let us know and we will look into adding it!

And if you are looking for Finnish, here is a screen recording of that language in action: https://res.cloudinary.com/dzyczavob/video/upload/v1724681773/samples/Screen_Recording_2024-08-26_at_15.12.59.mp4

*Question*
I can see two sets of subtitles and my eyes are hurting.

*Answer*
Ok, that isn't a question but I get what you mean. Make sure you have the original Netflix subtitles turned off. The extension will add an overlay of clickable subtitles and if you have the original subtitles showing as well then it can get confusing.

*Question*
But... Netflix already has subtitles in a variety of languages. Also, why would I watch Netflix in Chrome when I've got a big screen? When I watch series and films in languages other than English I like to set the audio to French and then use the subtitles to help me with whatever I can't catch from the audio. I don't really see what this extension would bring to the table?

*Answer*
The extension aims to augment the subtitle experience with definitions, explanations, and exercises to help you learn while watching. Maybe you'd find the dual subtitle feature useful? For example, here's a screen recording of Lupin with dual subtitles:

https://res.cloudinary.com/dzyczavob/video/upload/v1724706492/samples/Screen_Recording_2024-08-26_at_22.05.55.mp4

There is a trade off between watching video to learn a language and watching for entertainment. This extension hopes to reduce the friction if you want to access a detailed language reference while simultaneously enjoying the show. You can cable your laptop up to a big screen if you want more of a cinema experience :) but we can't get away from needing a browser extension to inject these features into the Netflix platform.

In the backlog there is a task to investigate Kodi, Jellyfin and other open source TV operating systems to try and bring these features to the bigger screen but for now we need to focus on getting the simpler stuff right.