[hrasyid]

I think having subtitles in your native language can hurt learning because it tends to be easier to just follow the subtitle than actually trying to understand the target language. You can't read both at the same time.

But I agree that Netflix is a great resource for learning a foreign language. I went from zero to being able to understand a normal TV show in the target language in one year, mostly by watching children's videos in YouTube and Netflix. In my opinion, what's more important is (1) the ability to order/group videos by simplicity after filtering it by target language (even children shows vary a lot in difficulty and for learning it's very important to choose the right difficulty for you) and probably (2) the ability to slow down the playback speed like YouTube.

[silisili]

I agree. That said, my wife subtitles every movie which normally I don't care about, except the subtitles are -wrong-. I don't know why they do that, it seems rather innocent, but drives me crazy as an English speaker. It's usually something not even so consequential..off the top of my head like replacing 'Time for dinner' with 'Time for supper'. Not an exact example, but it's usually along these lines.

[leokennis]

It was said in a major Dutch newspaper last year that Netflix seriously underpays/over pressures the translators:

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/06/07/ondertitelaars-voelen-z...

Basically in “the good old days” translating/subtitling was a serious job for serious money. But it has been turned into almost a “work from home, gig economy Mechanical Turk” thing.

And the quality obviously suffers.

[ta999999171]

I won't even try the shows whose trailers have the problem stated in this thread.

It's blatantly obvious 3 seconds in. Very unprofessional.

[dilap]

That drives me crazy too! Some shows are pretty faithful, but others are way off. The otherwise-wonderful Cuatro Estaciones en la Habana is especially bad -- it replaces all the local Cuban slang w/ standard Spanish, e.g., they'll subtitle imbécil when the dialog is comemierda. Why would you do that?!

Also strongly agree w/ GP; in my experience, you've got to hide the english to learn anything. Otherwise your brain isn't working in the target language.

[sk0g]

Are the shows you're watching dubbed?

Was recently watching How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), which is a German show originally, and the subtitles were off in a similar way. Drove me nuts!

I ended up switching the audio language to German and watching it with English subtitles, was a miles better experience for me.

[axaxs]

Nope, original English shows. What's frustrating is that my wife uses subtitles for learning how words are spelled, but the words spoken aren't the same as the ones written!

[cpdt]

From what I've heard, when dubbing shows they normally adapt the translations for the dub to fit better with the character's mouth movements and to make it more 'idiomatic' in the target language, but the subtitles keep the literal translation. It would be interesting to learn why, I find it drives me crazy as well.

[BasDirks]

Semi-synced dubs are an early example of uncanny valley

[arkitaip]

This has been an issue with Netflix for years. It's almost as if the translators of movie or TV series don't have access to the videos themselves because every other sentence is slightly wrong.

[remarkEon]

Just tried it out with a German show I watch. I think the issue is that the native language subtitles (English for me) can have subtly different literal translations than what might be on the screen in the original language. So while the English subtitles can convey the same meaning, the word-for-word translation is going to be off. This is fine, really, and any language learner is probably already aware of this.

Otherwise, the implementation looks great. Easy, simple to use and intuitive controls. The running list of subtitles on the right is nice. To your point about playback speed, maybe it's just me but I like the challenge of trying to keep up with the foreign language and it helps with developing my listening skills (I also really don't want to watch children's shows). I think the ability to toggle the Auto-pause more or less solves this problem, at least for me. Would still like a Firefox extension though. This will be the only instance in which I use Chrome.

Edit: Hmm reading the other comments here, maybe this is actually a problem with the translation itself? If non-native speakers are noticing instances where it's off it seems there might be a quality control issue.

[scipio_oregonus]

Been using this extension for a bit now. Turn on machine translations. The default translations are translating the meaning but not word by word. The machine translations are the latter. Which is way better for learning, which is why I assume it's a premium feature.

[gield]

I respectfully disagree, based on anecdotes. The Dutch-speaking part of Belgium subtitles everything, except for shows meant for kids <8 years old. The French-speaking part on the other hand dubs everything, even interviews in the news. Guess which part of country sucks at speaking English.

[hrasyid]

My point is you need to watch the target language audio with no subtitle in your language.

If the choice is English-audio + Dutch-subtitle vs French-audio only, then of course there is no advantage to the second group. Try restricting the French-speaking kids to watch shows with English audio only.

[verganileonardo]

Which language did you learn?

[hrasyid]

Spanish

[ta999999171]

Most effective Netflix kids/otherwise shows for this, in your opinion? TIA

[hombre_fatal]

The shows that interest you. The ones you would actually watch.

I imagine this rules out kids shows for most adults. It sure does for me.

Also start reading books asap. I spent way too long watching dub+sub'ed Netflix in my target language. Wish I'd tried reading young-adult books sooner. If you're going to be pausing on every subtitle frame to read it, you might as well try books.

[hrasyid]

>> I imagine this rules out kids shows for most adults.

Not necessarily. Maybe if you understand everything, they become boring, but to me watching an interesting enough show where you understand 50%-80% of the dialog and try to understand the rest by context is kind of fun.

[hrasyid]

It depends on your level. I'm a big fan of Peppa Pig, because I think it's funny/entertaining enough for adults who understand >50% of what's being said. But before you reach that level, you need to watch something simpler. I'd suggest "Superbeginner" and "Beginner" videos in a YouTube channel called Dreaming Spanish