List of Chrome extensions for watching Chinese dramas on Netflix, IQIYI, WeTV and YouTube (Suggestions welcome)

[mlescano]

Nowadays there's a LOT of options if you want to watch Chinese movies/TV shows with the purpose of learning Chinese.

 

Back in 2017, when I created this post, there was almost no watchable Chinese content on Netflix, and Chinese video services were slow outside of China. I remember some people in this forum looking for ways to find a text version of their favorite dramas' subtitles in order to use a popup dictionary, because at the time dramas often came only with burned-in or image-based subtitles. But how have times changed!  Nowadays Netflix keeps adding more and more Chinese dramas, including some pretty new ones. And if that's not fresh enough for you, you can go to the international versions of Iqiyi (iq.com) and WeTV (wetv.vip) to get your drama fix. All three sites include text-based subtitles in Chinese and several other languages, and now there's a bunch of browser extensions that take advantage of this for language learning. And if you get tired of all the drama, you can watch teacher Li's fantastic lectures on YouTube (with multilanguage subtitles) on pretty much any subject, from economy to science and health. So, let's cut to the chase. Each name links to the extension's page.

 

Common features of most extensions:

-Autopause after each subtitle

-Repeat subtitle line

-Hide main subtitles, translations or both, but show them with a keyboard shortcut

-Change video speed

-Export subtitles as text (so you can load them in Pleco)

 

Netflix Dual Subtitle by Niko:

As far as I know, this was the pioneer! It dates back to 2018, and it's the first extension I used seriously for learning Chinese, before LLN/LLY even existed. I used to have the Pro version back then and kept paying for it until the pandemic started. (It was $0.99/month) The developer is Japanese, and he's very responsive. I only stopped using it because sometimes it failed to load, and LLN/LLY is more feature-rich. Niko was a trailblazer, so his keyboard shortcuts are not the most intuitive. After LLN, other extensions seem to have adopted a variation of LLN's keyboard shortcuts. I must say, I was so attached to Niko's extension that at first I thought LLN was a clone.

 

Pros:

-It's very simple and basic.

-It's just $0.99. (Or used to be).

 

Cons:

-It's very simple and basic. It lacks subtitle export and other features.

-It's $0.99 and there's no free tier, but it will offer you a 3-day trial period.

 

LLN and LLY by Dioco:

 

Full names: Language Learning with Netflix and Language Learning with YouTube. First released in 2019, these now famous Chrome extensions for Netflix and YouTube are my favorite for language learning. The developers are David Wilkinson and Ognjen Apic and they've been featured in several articles on Lonely Planet, The Guardian, Wired and more. The extension is now used by more than a million people. I have the Pro version. Before LLN, Ognjen first created an offline video player called Lingo Player, which is no longer being developed.

 

Pros:

-You can save words and create flashcards with both screenshots and sound. This feature alone will save a lot of time in flashcard creation. (It's a Pro feature. $4.95/month)

-The flashcards it creates are Cloze deletion cards. Ideal for active recall of words.

-Can generate a machine translation in case the show you're watching doesn't have a human translation (Pro feature).

-They're the most stable extensions I've tried.

 

Cons:

-The "word highlight" feature that is supposed to help you identify frequent words... Is kinda not there. I checked it with Spanish and it even has some non-words in the database.

-You can't copy-paste anything unless you open the subtitles/saved words panel

-The Chinese word segmentation is often not correct, so the popup dictionary often gives you definitions of non-words. It's better to keep the popup dictionary off and instead use Zhongwen, or even better, export the full text of the episode and follow along with Pleco reader.

-You can't make a custom selection to create flashcards. This, paired with the wrong segmentation issue, means you'll have to do manual corrections to the flashcards it creates.

-Right now it only uses TTS for the audio in the flashcards. They're supposed to soon add original audio, tough.

-Not available for any other streaming services.

 

GlotDojo by eJoy English:

GlotDojo's strong point is that it supports many different streaming sites, including Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, IQIYI and WeTV. I'm using the free version. The developer is eJoy English, a Vietnamese company that has been around at least since 2017 and mainly offers English language instruction. They have another Chrome extension for English learners called eJoy English, which is a lot more popular than GlotDojo.

 

Pros:

-Supports IQIYI and WeTV, which makes this extension a must for Chinese language learners.

-A LOT more customizable than LLN/LLY. Choose subtitle size, color, delay in ms, etc.

-Load your own subtitles. Useful if you want to help a friend who doesn't speak one of the languages already offered by the streaming service.

-Press Alt+C to copy a subtitle line. If you have a Mac and an iOS device with Pleco, this means you can copy-paste the line to Pleco.

-Machine translation.

 

Cons:

-Settings can be confusing. It has what you want, but it's not obvious where to find it.

-No Anki export. Ejoy English says they're working on their own Anki-style app, though.

-No attempt at word segmentation. It only recognizes individual characters, making the pop-up dictionary useless. Turn it off and use Zhongwen instead, or download the full text of the episode and follow along with Pleco.

 

 

Language Learning with Netflix and YouTube by App For Language

Not to be confused with Language Learning with Netflix by Dioco. As far as I know, this was first released in 2020. According to the website, they're from Germany, but, strangely, the mother language defaults to Korean when you install it for the first time. The name, UI, settings page and keyboard shortcuts all draw a lot of "inspiration" from LLN. Totally not a LLN clone. Since LLN has proved so successful, it's only to be expected that we'll see more extensions like this in the future.

 

Pros:

-It has LLN features, look and feel.

-You can upload subtitles.

-Seems to be very actively developed.

 

Cons:

-Not as stable as LLN.

-Segmentation seems to be even worse than LLN. It puts a space between "words", so you can't even use Zhongwen properly.

 

-----------------------

 

Of course, there are other extensions with similar features, but these four seem to be the most complete from the point of view of a language learner. As you might have guessed, I'm currently using a combination of LLN for Netflix and YouTube, and GlotDojo for IQIYI and WeTV. If there's any other extension you're currently using, I'll be glad to add it to this list!

 

[Jan Finster]

Thanks a lot. 

I have not checked your suggestions yet, but honorable mentions should include: ChineseZerotoHero.

 

e.g. https://www.zerotohero.ca/en/zh/youtube/view/-Kk_u_qV8BQ/?t=100

 

It is not an app, but the great thing about their site is that you can click anywhere on the subtitle and the video will jump to that line. This lets you click again and again and loop a certain phrase if you want to.

 

 

BTW, Netflix in Germany is not very rich in Chinese content. Are you guys using VPN for Taiwan or Singapore or the like to get access to Chinese content?

[mlescano]

1 hour ago, Jan Finster said:

Netflix in Germany is not very rich in Chinese content. Are you guys using VPN for Taiwan or Singapore or the like to get access to Chinese content?

Well, I'm in Ecuador and here Netflix has more than 60 Shows/Movies I'd consider watching. There are more, but they're crime/horror/fantasy and I wouldn't watch them. I have selected 27 shows and they're on my list. They should keep me busy for years to come.

 

You can also try IQIYI and WeTV! The content tends to be fresher on those sites.

 

BTW, thanks for the Zerotohero recommendation! It seems perfect for those who can't (or don't want to) install Chrome extensions.

[wibr]

@Jan Finster Almost all of the shows I list here with Netflix as a source were available on Netflix in Germany when I added them. Most of them are probably still  available now, so you get around 100 shows or movies.

[carlo]

One thing I didn't see in the excellent summary above (might have missed it) is that the pro version of LLN lets you watch dubbed films and series in any of the available languages, so you could watch Mandarin versions of non-Chinese shows. However one issue I found when I did the free trial was that the subtitles often don't match the dubbing (because typically these are done by different people so they're two different translations of the same source).

[mlescano]

5 hours ago, wibr said:

Almost all of the shows I list here with Netflix as a source

Thanks, Pinzi! I see you went through a lot of trouble to help fellow students!

 

1 hour ago, carlo said:

pro version of LLN lets you watch dubbed films and series in any of the available language

"Matching subtitles for dubbed shows" is on their to-do list. But right now, Fuller House has almost exact subtitles.

[Jan Finster]

13 hours ago, wibr said:

Almost all of the shows I list here with Netflix as a source were available on Netflix in Germany when I added them. Most of them are probably still  available now, so you get around 100 shows or movies.

Mind blown! Really??? Why do I never see any shows in my feed??? I actually created a new profile in Chinese (language) a while ago and yes, I did find some Chinese content,  but mostly Chinese translated titles of Hollywood movies ? So, are you searching for them via the search function using latin alphabet?

[mlescano]

Here you go:

https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/100375

 

Or just search for "Chinese" while using Netflix in English.

[wibr]

Yeah it takes some digging. I've also switched my interface to Chinese, although I am not sure if that actually changed the results.

 

First you can just search for China/Taiwan/Chinese/Chinese Drama etc. Then there is an audio search which is quite useful, you can search for Mandarin audio or subtitles: https://www.netflix.com/browse/audio . Many of them are dubbed, obviously, but the title and actors can give a good indication if Chinese is the original language. The recommendation algorithm can also be useful, occasionally.

[艾墨本]

Can any of these export the hard coded subtitles from the whole episode?

[mlescano]

7 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

Can any of these export the hard coded subtitles from the whole episode?

Hi, 艾墨本。Unfortunately, no. If the show has hard-coded subtitles these extensions can't use them. Thankfully, nowadays all new Chinese shows I've found on Netflix, IQIYI and WeTV have soft, text-based subtitles. However, new shows with hard-coded subs are still being released on YouTube. Let's just hope those companies see the light and leave hard-coded subs in the past.

[kanumo]

On 6/19/2021 at 9:15 PM, Jan Finster said:

On 6/19/2021 at 7:51 AM, wibr said:

 

Mind blown! Really??? Why do I never see any shows in my feed??? I actually created a new profile in Chinese (language) a while ago and yes, I did find some Chinese content,  but mostly Chinese translated titles of Hollywood movies ? So, are you searching for them via the search function using latin alphabet?

I switched the system settings within Netflix to chinese and a whole new world opened ?