Language Reactor and an hours tracker: using both on Netflix and YouTube

Language Reactor is the extension many learners already use on Netflix and YouTube: dual subtitles, a pop-up dictionary, saved words. What it is not is a log of how much you have listened. If you follow a comprehensible input approach, where the measure of progress is hours heard, you need that number from somewhere else, and the easiest place is a second extension that runs quietly beside it.

The short answer. Keep Language Reactor for understanding what you watch. Add Serval to count it. The two do different jobs and do not get in each other’s way: Language Reactor works on the subtitles, Serval reads the time from the video player and identifies the language from the audio, so it counts the same whether you have one subtitle track, two or none.

What each one does

	Language Reactor	Serval
Dual subtitles, dictionary, saved words	Yes	No
Counts your listening hours	No	Yes
Tells which language a video is in	From the subtitle track you choose	By listening to the audio, on your computer
Leaves out ads, pauses and seeks	Not applicable	Yes
Leaves out time in a language you speak	Not applicable	Yes
Sites	Netflix, YouTube and others	YouTube, Netflix, Twitch and six more
Price	Free, with a paid tier	Free, no account

Setting them up together

1. Keep Language Reactor as it is.
2. Install Serval and, on its first screen, choose the languages you already speak. Everything else counts, so you never have to say what you are learning.
3. Watch with Language Reactor as usual. Open Serval’s panel when you want to see the day’s total; otherwise there is nothing to do.

A few things worth knowing:

• Pausing to look up words does not count. Serval counts playback, so the minutes you spend in Language Reactor’s dictionary with the video stopped are left out. That is by design: the number is time spent listening, not time spent studying.
• Replaying a line counts as listening. Language Reactor’s repeat-the-line button plays a few seconds again, and hearing them again is listening, so those seconds count. The jump back itself adds nothing.
• Subtitles in English do not change the label. If you watch a Spanish show with English subtitles, it is still Spanish audio, and it counts.

Is listening with subtitles still input?

Yes, though it is a different kind of hour. With translated subtitles your eyes do a lot of the work, so an hour with English subtitles builds listening more slowly than an hour without. Many learners start with both tracks on, move to target-language subtitles, and then turn them off as they get stronger. A count that keeps rising across all three stages helps you see that the change is happening. There is more on how that number is made, and on the other trackers, in immersion trackers compared.