Learn a language through Netflix? No, not exactly.

Learn a language through Netflix? No, not exactly.

As recently as 4 years ago, Netflix had amassed 167.1 million subscribers, not to mention all those using their friends’ accounts. And Netflix estimates that most users view content for an average of 2 hours per day.

So, imagine if all this time was spent on learning a language!

Amazingly, it is claimed the two can now be combined. Did you know that many people are now turning to Netflix to try and combine active viewing with language learning?

We all know that watching and listening to people talk in a language you are learning helps to build your awareness of pronunciation, understand meanings, interact with the gestures and also experience contexts.

After all, that’s the way we learned as toddlers, by being immersed in the language used around us.

So, appreciating and absorbing another language through non-English TV and film is a great way to build your knowledge of that language.

Another option is to watch a program in your mother tongue but to add subtitles in the language you wish to experience. This helps you see the situations involved and appreciate how the words being used relate to the target language words you see on screen.

Tools are now available to assist in learning a language through Netflix. The Chrome extension ‘LLN’ [Language Learning with Netflix] works with Netflix content “making studying languages with films/series more effective and enjoyable”, according to the 2 American creators. The plug-in, which is not an app, allows you to watch Netflix in the web browser Chrome, while displaying subtitles and translations of each line. You are able to halt the action and to click on the subtitle and replay or save word detail, and it even has a pop-up dictionary which breaks down each word.

As of May 2020, over 1,000,000 users had downloaded the necessary software, according to the Chrome Web Store, to add the subtitles in up to 20 languages. Maximum 2 different languages can be displayed in subtitles per Netflix broadcast.

But learn a language through Netflix … really?

Not really in fact, but you can pause the action, click on items in the subtitles, hear the word or look at the dictionary pop-up that appears on your screen. And replay some of the pronunciation to break down some of the phrases.

But it is all very stop-start, purely screen-based, and needs a certain type of brain to put all the pieces together. You have no way of knowing the principles involved as to how to build the language.

Simply put, you are only able to check out the phrases being viewed.

“A more accurate description would be to say this is useful language support through Netflix”, Graeme McLeish, Director of SEL Business Languages, said.

To become skilled in and properly get to know a language, you need to be able to express what YOU want to say and to do more than just watch films with subtitles, which by definition is passive only. That is because you need to apply and build on the knowledge gained as well as interact with other humans in multiple scenarios. Which allows you to practice regularly and improve, especially in speaking and listening together and, importantly, comprehending the replies.

Certainly, people are not able to learn a language through Netflix alone, but it is well suited to gaining further contextual knowledge of the target language. So, we wouldn’t recommend you drop the face-to-face lessons just yet.

Here at SELBL, tailored to individual client needs, we transfer languages into other languages for commercial communications, via learning, translating or interpreting. Our team work in over 60 languages. Get in touch to discuss your commercial language needs.