Learn words from YouTube videos

YouTube is full of videos in Mandarin, Japanese and Spanish: vlogs, cooking, games, news, shows made for learners. With the asbplayer browser extension, you can save any line from a video’s subtitles straight into Flashfriend, with a clip of it being said. Each word keeps the moment you heard it.

This guide covers what’s different on YouTube. If you haven’t connected asbplayer to Flashfriend yet, do that first: it takes about five minutes, once. See Mine with asbplayer.

What you need

• A computer with Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
• The asbplayer extension, from asbplayer’s website, connected to Flashfriend.
• A YouTube video with subtitles in the language you’re learning. Subtitles written by the creator are best; automatic ones often have mistakes.
• Flashfriend Pro.

Finding videos with subtitles

On YouTube, search in the language you’re learning, then open Filters and choose Subtitles/CC. That only shows videos with subtitles. Pick one at a level where you follow most of what’s said. Slower vlogs and videos made for learners are a good start.

Load the subtitles

1. Open the video on its normal YouTube watch page.
2. asbplayer picks up the video’s subtitles. If it doesn’t, press Ctrl+Shift+F to open its subtitle track dialog, and choose the track in your language.
3. Play the video. asbplayer shows the subtitles over it, and lists them in its side panel.

If the subtitles still don’t appear, refresh the YouTube page and try again.

Save a word

1. When you hear a word you want, pause, and find its line in asbplayer’s subtitle list.
2. Click the card icon next to the line. asbplayer can also save the current line with a keyboard shortcut; you’ll find it in its settings under Keyboard shortcuts.
3. Type the word into Word, and click Export.

The word is now in your Flashfriend Inbox, with the line it came from, a link back to the video, and a play button for the clip. When you’re ready, make its card like any other.

If you look words up with Yomitan as you watch, add the word with Yomitan first, then click Update Last Card in asbplayer to add the line and clip to it.

See what you know as you watch

asbplayer can colour each word in the subtitles by how well you know it in Flashfriend, so new words stand out. The asbplayer guide has the steps.

Tips

• Save fewer words than you think. Five to ten a day is plenty. Pick words you’d like to say yourself.
• Rewatch. A video you’ve mined is great listening practice a week later, when the words are familiar.
• Mix in the most common words. Flashfriend’s own list brings you the most useful words anyway; mining adds the ones from the videos you actually watch. See sentence mining.