I've also tried lots of methods. In the end, here is what is working best for me now:
language reactor coupled with a netflix subscription. I also use pleco as a language dictiory and occasionally watch a youtube video or a read a web page to clarify grammar points that I'm not able to understand just by example.
I'm studying mandarin, so I have language reactor configured to show the dialog in 3 forms: the pinyin, the chinese characters (simplified chinese), and the english translation.
I use it in a couple of modes:
For a while I go line-by-line where it pauses after each person speaks and I use the mouse cursor to hover over any new words I want to learn to get the definition and the sound. In this mode, I'm actively trying to increase my vocabulary. This is similar to the benefits you mentioned from reading, but language reactor makes it trivial looking up new vocabulary words.
Then, when I get tired, I switch to the mode where it doesn't pause on each line, and I try to hear as many of the words from the subtitles as they flash by. When there are some pauses in the dialog, I can also read ahead from the sidebar, so I'll know what the actors will say ahead of time and can mentally prepare more.
When I'm trying to practice reading the characters, I turn off the pinyin for characters I "should" know.
I prefer watching tv shows to movies, because a long-running tv show will use more of the same vocabulary, so there's more repetition.
One of the most substantial advantages of this method of study is I can do it for a long time. When I started, I mostly studied vocabulary via traditional methods (digital flash cards, etc) and I found my brain got tired after about an hour (I'd even get sleepy). Since this method is more pleasurable, I can easily study for 3-4 hours at a time even... And since I'm just replacing time I would watch normal tv, I don't lose a lot of time for other things.
I've used extensions like Toucan before, which basically changes a few words of any article you're browsing on a website, but never came across Language Reactor, and this seems like a fun tool! I primarily watch films on MUBI, but got myself a Netflix subscription just because of French tv shows. Might just give this extension a try. I'm surprised it works, Netflix being so guarded against piracy, I can't even take screenshots.
Agreed with TV series having words with repetitive qualities, also I feel like Tv shows use more colloquial and applicable language compared to cinema. More trendy and street-friendly words. Great for slang words too.
When you watch Netflix, which language it's set by default for you? English or Mandarin? Do you hover over unknown Mandarin words and find out the English translation?
I have it show both the pinyin, the chinese characters, and the english (3 separate lines). Yes, I hover over unknown words to learn them.
There's a few features missing that I wish it had: 1) sometimes it groups characters wrong and I can't ungroup them, so then I have to manually use pleco to look them up and 2) it doesn't allow you to look up individual characters in words to find the "sub meanings" (again pleco fills this gap). The first problem is really a "mandarin-only" issue and people's names cause most of the problems (sometimes it thinks part of a person's name is instead of part of an adjacent word).
Yeah I think it is a Mandarin only issue, is it because of how the language merges words/characters into one? I can do all of the things you mentioned with French, look up individual words, and check their sub-meanings, as well as the root of the verb.
Yes, its not a problem for languages with word breaks. It's not a big problem even for mandarin, but it occasionally makes mistakes. I just wish it had a way for us to override when it does.
I tried Toucan briefly, but I don't recall it being very useful for me. But I'm a super fan of language reactor now. I feel it has really dramatically speeded up my learning rate, especially when it comes to how people really use the words, something that I found lacking in many other tools.
Gotta admit I'm halfway there! I've seen a few episodes since last night and the flexibility it offers! Like during the play, you can hover over the word, video playback immediately stops lets you see the meaning and when you move the cursor away it resumes! It's so good it makes you want to reward the developers lol!
A monthly subscription is like $5 or less, if I recall correctly. And it is well worth it, in my opinion, since it lets you track the words you know/don't know well. I forget the exact benefits, but I know I find it useful for the price.
Huh, this extension is letting me screenshot Netflix now! Dang!
Many thanks, man!
Good to know, but I've never tried to screenshot with it, so didn't know that was an issue.
On a related note, I get a side button beside the subtitle that allows me to copy/paste them, but I don't see that button on your screenshot. I use this to copy off dialog that I want to research more later.
Oh, I had to delve into setting and customize things a bit, I now have that one click subtitle copy button too as well as two layers of translations, one by humans and the oher by machine. And the change can often be huge! This is very helpful indeed.
Yeah, one of the things I find most interesting is the translators, at least for chinese, often translate the native chinese idioms to ones that are more familiar to the reader than the native saying. It's very annoying to me because you lose a lot of "flavor" of the show when they do that. In the beginning, having the machine translation helped a lot for that.
It was also useful to get a better match to actual word order when a line of dialog was split across several subtitles. Nowadays I've improved to the point that I don't use the machine translation much anymore though. But there's a bunch of useful settings in that dialog, expecially related to when you're studying characters vs pinyin in mandarin.
I also sometimes use it to slow down the speed at which people talk on shows when I'm listening to them. For example, slowing down speed to .875 or even .75 is tolerable.
Also, if you purchase the for-pay subscription (it's cheap, highly recommended), you can mark words you know and/or learning. I find this very helpful when scanning the dialog along the side to see words I need to lookup or refresh my memory on what they mean.