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.
because a long-running tv show will use more of the same vocabulary
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.