Learning Languages With Netflix Has Just Become So Much Easier

Many language learners are watching movies to improve their listening comprehension and pick up new words. Some like to just immerse themselves in the foreign language with foreign subtitles, others watch it with foreign audio and subtitles in their native languages, but no matter how you’ve been doing it, learning German (or any language for that matter) with Netflix has just become a lot easier thanks to this ingenious free Chrome Extension.

The extension is called Language Learning with Netflix and it allows you watch movies with two different subtitles simultaneously and get instant translations when hovering over words! There are a number of other features, but its’s these two that are at the heart of this extension.

How does it work?

First of all, head to the Chrome Web Store to download and install the extension. Then open Netflix in your browser and open a movie. You’ll be greeted by a screen asking for your native language:

For the sake of this example, I’m using “English”. Once you’ve selected your language, click “ok” and you can start watching the movie. You’ll notice immediately that the layout has changed. The Chrome Extension shows you a sidebar on the right with all of the subtitles neatly separated into digestible phrases. Now you can change the subtitle language (as you’d usually do) by clicking on the Netflix subtitle icon. For the sake of this example, I’m using German:

As you can see we now get two different lines of subtitles, with my target language (German) on top and my native language (English) below. When you now hover over words, you get a little popup bubble with the translation. No need to open a new tab or type words into a dictionary. It’s seamless and nearly perfect.

You can also click on the subtitle phrases in the sidebar to get additional information, usage examples, text-to-speech (pronunciation) and switch dictionaries:

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can do a lot more with this extension. Here’s just a quick overview of additional features:

automatically pause playback after each phrase (disabled by default)
print out all the subtitles of the movie with side-by side translation (great for review or using in class)
powerful keyboard shortcuts (S or arrow down for repeat, toggle auto-pause with q, etc.)
change playback speed (not perfect, but very workable)
use your own custom dictionaries for lookup (For example, paste “https://www.dict.cc/?s=” in there to get dictionary results from dict.cc or any other dictionary)
save or “favorite” subtitle phrases to your private dictionary (pro feature, haven’t tested it yet)

In short if you’re a language learner and avid Netflix watcher, this extension is a game-changer. Have you tried it yet? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

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