Live data from Hacker News

Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

matetranslate.com

31–40 of 112 posts

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#31
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just always have subs on. There are shows which are downright unwatchable without subs (e.g. True Detective). I'm not a native speaker, but I'm fluent.

I ripped the bandaid off at an early age, actively trying to avoid subtitles. At some point it just becomes distracting where you're looking at them when you wouldn't need to.

The way I sometimes do it is by opening a transcript (springfieldspringfield.co.uk is a good website for those) in another tab. When I don't get something, I switch tabs and I search (via ctrl+f) for the last thing I've understood. This process is intentionally cumbersome to discourage me from doing that very often.

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#33
post #19

It would be cool (but super niche) to have a "wait, what was that" button in Netflix. Skip back 10s, enable subs. Would be great when you're trying not to use the subtitles, but sometimes get a bit outpaced. Edit: maybe not so niche! Someone build a WebExtension!

One of the best features of PotPlayer [0] (available only on Windows, sadly) is that it supports jumping to previous/next subtitle points. Combined with its auto subtitle search feature, it's extremely useful for a nonnative speaker like me to jump back and read an unintelligible section of a movie, or skip a boring section by watching only the parts with dialogue. I wish there were a similar alternative for Linux. T…

Mpv [0] has this as well (plus many more possibilities (including scripting/plugins)).

[0]: https://mpv.io/manual/master/

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#34

One benefit of using a VPN was that Netflix provided shows with far more subtitle options in regions outside the USA. I never understood why if the subtitles existed for a particular language that they wouldn't be present in the USA version of Netflix. For example, now that you can't use a VPN with Netflix I haven't been able to access German subtitles from the USA. Is there a way around this?

I have been saying this forever, i have no clue why all subtitles are not available. When I was in italy all of my favorite shows had italian subtitles, now im back in the US, they disappeared.

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#35

It would be cool (but super niche) to have a "wait, what was that" button in Netflix. Skip back 10s, enable subs. Would be great when you're trying not to use the subtitles, but sometimes get a bit outpaced. Edit: maybe not so niche! Someone build a WebExtension!

I just always have subs on. There are shows which are downright unwatchable without subs (e.g. True Detective). I'm not a native speaker, but I'm fluent.

It does detract you from the scenes a bit though, so I prefer to keep them off if I can

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#37

Nice & useful. I just wish this worked for Youtube videos,too. Currently I am using Copyfish to grab text from images/videos: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/copyfish-%F0%9F%90... Copyfish works well, but since it is a generic solution for copying text from embedded subtitles/images, it is not optimized for language learning.

We're planning on supporting Youtube in the same way as Netflix now. Within a month or so.

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#38

https://languagelearningwithnetflix.com is a similar tool. Allows side-by-side subtitles in two languages. It also lets you skip back one whole sentence at a time to re-hear a line. I used it to start trying to hear and parse Japanese (only about a month in of learning, so brand new, and just hearing the words and sounds of the language is still tricky).

It's also amazing. However, Mate is less intrusive in your Netflix experience. It's still the same-looking subtitle which you can just translate and save for learning now. Also, an option to export saved vocab as a CSV or to a vocabulary learning app Reji may come in handy.

Re: Mate: Netflix browser extension for learning words via subtitles

#40
post #4

I could see there being use for something similar to this targeted towards children for expanding their vocabulary. Similarly, how neat would it be to have a program that does this for object in video, and testing the viewer on the name of the object? Perhaps to avoid error as a result of imperfections in the neural net, it would require 2 parties, the learners and the teachers. The teachers would go through a video…

@ language learning: I wish there was a way to watch movies in various vocabulary difficulty levels. Would be awesome for learning. Makes me wonder whether there are fan-dubs with different wordings.

Kindle has this in eBooks, for English and Chinese. There's 3 or 4 difficulty levels. I'm just hoping they'll add more languages. (Or that there will be a free software solution...)
Post reply on HN