Foreign-language films and series expose you to real dialogue. While watching Netflix, note useful words and expressions, then manually turn them into Deckumi flashcards. The workflow is watching, selecting, creating cards and recalling, so a single encounter can become continued practice.
How to combine language learning with Netflix and Deckumi
The combination of listening and speaking is one of the most effective methods of learning a new language. It has been proven that both listening and speaking are most difficult for foreign language speakers. This is because, among other things, language acquisition can be made more difficult by a foreign accent or different cultural backgrounds. What’s more, most people are visual learners – they pay much more attention to non-verbal communication and catch only 7% of content from speech. All these aspects make listening a very complicated process. Furthermore, linguists believe that only the development of both receptive (e.g. listening comprehension) and productive (e.g. ability to speak) skills together can bring a fully satisfactory result.
When you have some interesting material at your fingertips, your desire to understand the text you are working with automatically increases. Learning a language while watching Netflix’s best-selling productions is an ideal way to spend your free time constructively. Understanding the dialogues spoken by your favourite characters is therefore not a grind, but becomes rewarding and makes an evening with Netflix more than just entertainment, it also begins to help you acquire new skills. An additional advantage of learning with Netflix is the fact that we are dealing with living language, not its literary or textbook form. As you know, both words and phrases like to fall in one ear and out the other, so it’s worthwhile equipping yourself with the tools that will help you learn effectively. The combination of Deckumi and Netflix to learn English is a great way of consolidating the newly learned vocabulary.
Learning by repetition
Create your own flashcard set in Deckumi and turn new words, meanings and example sentences into questions and answers. Keep one main target on the front and preserve the necessary context in the answer.
If, while watching a series, you find a word you do not know or you hear an interesting phrase you want to remember, you can of course stop the playback and write down the thing you heard a moment ago. For example, if you want to learn English, you can add a word in your own language as a question that will be answered by a word translated into the language you are learning. Of course, as you progress, you can broaden your vocabulary and gradually increase the level of difficulty.
For pronunciation, listen to the original dialogue, pause and imitate it. Write the sentence in a Deckumi flashcard, try saying it during review and check it against the original recording or a reliable dictionary. You supply the card rating yourself; it does not replace pronunciation feedback.
Note a few useful expressions while watching, then return to Deckumi to organize and review them. Cards currently remain in the browser where they were created and are isolated by signed-in user. Return to the same browser and account to find them; do not assume they have synchronized to another device.
Plug-in for language learning from Netflix
The original article mentioned a Chrome extension called Language Learning with Netflix for working with subtitles. With or without an external subtitle tool, pause when you encounter a useful expression, check its spelling, meaning and context, then enter it manually in Deckumi. Select expressions you want to learn rather than turning an entire episode into cards.
The plug-in is constructed in such a way that it can be tailored to your skill level. If you are just beginning to learn a language, you can reduce the number of more advanced words, whereas if you already have the basics, you can immediately jump to a higher level and work on more difficult words or grammar constructions. This makes the level of vocabulary fully customized and appropriate to the level of your skills.
What is the key to choosing a series from Netflix to learn English?
First of all, choose productions that suit your language abilities. At the beginning you should watch series with original subtitles – in the language you want to learn. Make your choice, following the 3 main aspects:
- Something simple to learn – it’s better to start with easy-to-read series with a simple plot and vocabulary suited to your language level, so you don’t get discouraged by complicated, incomprehensible content too quickly,
- Something we have already seen – focusing on a series we have already seen will make it much easier to acquire vocabulary, due to the fact we already know the context,
- Something that suits our preferences – of course, it is important to choose from among productions that actually match our area of interest. There’s no point in bothering with something that doesn’t interest us, because it won’t bring us good results.
Selection of Netflix language learning series
English language learning
As there are a lot of series in English, we present a subjective classification here:
a) based on accent:
British series
- Black Mirror
- The End of the F***ing World
- Requiem
- Bodyguard
- Downton Abbey
- Peaky Blinders
- The Crown
- Peep Show
- Game of Thrones
- Sherlock
American series
- Friends
- Breaking Bad
- Mad Men
- The Wire
- Suits
- New Girl
- Dexter
- Russian Doll
- Ozark
- The Big Bang Theory
b) based on a specific area of interest:
- House of Cards – political vocabulary,
- Sunderland ‘Til I Die – sports-related vocabulary,
- Dr House – medical vocabulary,
- Grey’s Anatomy – medical vocabulary,
- Suits – legal slang,
- Mindhunter – criminal slang,
- Stranger Things – science fiction,
- Black Mirror – new technologies.
c) by gender and age:
ladies’ night
- Girls
- Desperate Housewives
- Orange Is the New Black
- Sex and the City
- Grace and Frankie
- Gossip Girl
- Glow
men’s favourites
- Dexter
- Vikings
- Daredevil
- The Spy
- Peaky Blinders
- Banshee
- Mad Men
for youngsters
- Skins
- 13 Reasons Why – a large amount of up-to-date vocabulary
- The End of the F***ing World – a lot of youth slang
- Stranger Things – includes a lot of basic vocabulary, related to emotions, science fiction or science, and of course a lot of youth slang
- One Tree Hill
- Suburgatory
Other languages
Series for learning German
- Dark
- Parfum
- How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)
- Dogs of Berlin
- Babylon Berlin
Series for learning Spanish
- Élite
- Narcos
- La Casa de Papel
Series for learning French
- Dix pour cent
- Plan Cœur
- Marseille
- Au service de la France
Series for learning Russian
- Luchshe, chem lyudi
- Khozhdenie po mukam
- Nyukhach
Series for learning Italian
- Suburra
- Baby
- Rocco
- stand-ups: Francesco de Carlo i Edoardo Ferrario.
Series for learning Chinese
- Ice Fantasy
- Meteor Garden
- Yanxi Palace: Princess Adventures
What other platforms to choose besides Netflix
If you have not found anything for yourself on Netflix despite such an extensive selection, or if you already know the above titles and like this form of learning, you can use other platforms that work similarly – HBO GO, NC+, Comedy Central or YouTube.
If you want to learn English, try the Olive Green course, which is based on an interactive action movie. It is divided into 60 scenes, 6,400 exercises and covers as many as 5 levels – from Beginner A1, through Intermediate to Advanced C1, which increase with the story’s evolution. You can start learning at any time. After watching each episode, you will do a series of exercises to develop a wide range of competencies, including listening comprehension, vocabulary and grammar. The course has been well received around the world. It is worth checking if learning with a movie will also work for you.
Manually turning language from Netflix into Deckumi flashcards gives you concrete material for later practice. Understand the scene while watching, recall before checking during review and try using the expression in a new sentence. A small, regular practice is more useful than collecting material you never revisit.