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Language Learning with Netflix extension

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Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#111

Post by davidzweig »

dharmon wrote: post #104
imjustsaying wrote: post #39

In practice, the foreign subtitles do not line up with the foreign words as well as the native subtitles line up with the native words. It took me years to figure out why this was. In a conversation I had with someone who knew the business, the new language subtitles don't line up with the new language audio because the new language subtitles are translated from the original language subtitles, not the new language a…

For a language learner, shows where they match up are gold! If anyone is studying Spanish, the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars have audio that exactly matches the subtitles (Start Wars: La Guerra de los Clones). Good show with a good mix of action / dialogue that I learned of Spanish a lot while watching.

For Netflix shows, take a look here: http://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/catalogue.html

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#112

Post by davidzweig »

pen2l wrote: post #96

An observation: in netflix, when you choose a foreign lang for the audio track as well as subtitles... they don't match. By this I mean, let's saying you're watching Orange is the New black... and choose French audio and French subtitles. You would expect the subtitles to be correspond with what you're hearing.... they don't!! Kind of absurd and annoying. This is true across all shows it turns out.

You might find this helpful: http://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/catalogue.html

"Netflix usually has good subtitles for the original language of a title, that match the audio track. Subtitles often don't match the audio for dubbed audio.

The catalogue lists titles by their original language. It allows you to find French films, to study French, and German films to study German etc. By using one of the listed titles, you should have good subtitles that match the audio."

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#113

Post by robbya »

imjustsaying wrote: post #39

In practice, the foreign subtitles do not line up with the foreign words as well as the native subtitles line up with the native words. It took me years to figure out why this was. In a conversation I had with someone who knew the business, the new language subtitles don't line up with the new language audio because the new language subtitles are translated from the original language subtitles, not the new language a…

FWIW subtitles for the original language will also sometimes vary from the original audio as well. I tend to re-watch shows on low volume with subtitles on so I've caught this a number of times, but it's fairly rare.

Usually I've seen the subtitles shorten the words in the audio. "You must come with me now" -> "Come now" or similar. I've been assuming it's to help the reader keep up with some quick exchanges.

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#114

Post by knolax »

Be warned that one of the worst ways to learn a language is through translations. Most translations leave out a bunch of information because between connotation, denotation, and grammatical correctness you can really choose one or two of the above. That's in addition to the fact that most translations are either produced by machines with no understanding of the content or even of the complete grammar of the target/source languages, or mechanical turk style low wage laborers with tight deadlines and questionable knowledge of either languagr.

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#115

Post by robbya »

skrebbel wrote: post #48
imjustsaying wrote: post #39

In practice, the foreign subtitles do not line up with the foreign words as well as the native subtitles line up with the native words. It took me years to figure out why this was. In a conversation I had with someone who knew the business, the new language subtitles don't line up with the new language audio because the new language subtitles are translated from the original language subtitles, not the new language a…

There's practical reason too. Translations made for overdubbing are designed to roughly take the same amount of time to say, and ideally to carry the punch in the same part of the sentence (so it fits with when the actor makes the corresponding funny face). This is not always trivial, to the point that sometimes translators change the meaning entirely (especially with eg comedy - entire jokes are reinvented because t…

> just put a different joke in

I wonder how often you get a different joke on the translated audio and yet another different joke in translated sub titles. Kind of wild.

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#116

Post by davidzweig »

z_open wrote: post #42

This is nice, but all I really want is the ability to nicely see both English and German subtitles simultaneously. This is overkill for me and requires me to use chrome. Is anyone aware of a better solution for me?

Creator here.. there's netflixmultisubs extension which is more minimal, which we also maintain now. There used to be releases for firefox, but we haven't been publishing them, just becuase we're not familiar with the process and lack time. LLN can be used in a minimal, non-instrusive way however, and has a pretty good algorithm for aligning the start and finish times of different subs tracks. netflixmultisubs shows the two tracks with their independant timings.

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#117

Post by mclehman »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #80
skrebbel wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't get my head around how user hostile they made this. I mean, why? I understand showing the most likely languages on top, but why hide content that's available? I have bilingual kids (Dutch and Danish, living in NL) and the amount of setup we have to do each week to get and keep Danish audio for cartoons on Netflix is pretty nuts.

I don’t think it is malicious - many people are overwhelmed when presented with more then a few choices, they are catering to that crowd.

I could see this as a reason to keep "you might also like ____" lists short, but for languages/subtitles I'm going to seek out one of the four languages that's even slightly useful for me to switch to.

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#118

Post by davidzweig »

aplaice wrote: post #101
z_open wrote: post #42

This is nice, but all I really want is the ability to nicely see both English and German subtitles simultaneously. This is overkill for me and requires me to use chrome. Is anyone aware of a better solution for me?

I second the mpv-based solution, as suggested by st1ck. If you prefer vlc, it now (as of the beta 4.0.0)[0] also supports dual/secondary subtitles. Making it work seems a bit fiddly: first you need to turn them on (under Tools > Preferences > Subtitles/OSD > Dual Subtitles (at the very bottom) > Align — change to anything but unset, and possibly also adjust offset). Then, when playing a video, to select them for that…

NflxMultiSubs is still working. I wrote a patch to fix it, and took over maintence on Chrome.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nflxmultisubs-netf...

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#119

Post by davidzweig »

serf wrote: post #7

What would be needed to make this off-line capable with supplied media? Just a bunch of well-formatted SRT subtitle files? Obviously some kind of lookup between languages too, but what i'm asking is : is this just a fancy srt/language api parser? I want to use this, but I don't use Netflix. It looks very cool.

Ognjen (guy I worked with to make this extension) previously made something similar for offline media (https://github.com/oaprograms/lingo-player). It's neglected now though and probably suffered bitrot.

We could use the code from our extension to support offline media.. but Chrome doesn't support MP4 playback IIRC. It's possible to make an Electron/NW.js app, but the vlc plugin isn't working with latest versions, last time we checked. Appreciate any info.

Re: Language Learning with Netflix extension

#120

Post by officemonkey »

My biggest problem with understanding french is being able to comprehend it at speed. I'm much better understanding song lyrics (because they're often sung much slower than speech.)

I just tried this with "A Very Secret Service" and It's immediately easier to understand what is being said. I can see this becoming a very useful tool for me.

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