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Comment by the_duke | Hacker News Reader

For me, watching TV shows with subtitles is an excellent way to learn a language, once you are beyond the basics.

I would watch the show with subtitles; when I didn't understand something, I would pause, look up the phrase/words, write them down for future repetition and continue.

A technology solution for this is awesome.

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I'm doing the opposite. I'm trying to learn Spanish so I'm currently rewatching Game of Thrones in Spanish, with English subtitles (delayed by 2 seconds). I first try to understand what's being said and if I don't then I glance down for assistance.

The subtitle delay is clever, I'll have to remember that. Although personally I would probably use subtitles in the target language (and use a dictionary if there's something I don't understand).

Sure, I do that as well. I guess it depends on your method of learning and/or current level. The downside to staring at subtitles in my mind is that you: a) miss the acting (just keeping your left hemisphere glued to the text and trying to decipher it) b) miss actually _hearing_ the language, which even if you don't even understand a word is useful since it will introduce you to the overall "sound" of it as well as a lot of repeating phrases

If you're learning how to read/write the language subtitles in that language seems like a great option. If you're starting out, it helps a lot to hear the language.

This approach is a bit tricky in Netflix, because they typically use different translations for the audio track and the subtitles. It can be more distracting than helpful. And kind of kills the "go back 10 seconds and temporarily turn on subtitles" technique that others have mentioned.

Maybe sync subtitles with a mobile device.

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