Most of you actually don't get it, so I will try to explain it without this marketing-ish language which I used on the landing page - obviously not very well.
Consider you already know English well enough to consume your favorite shows in the language. We all do this to maintain our knowledge, improve our understanding or pronunciation by listening, or just to hear the show in its original language.
Imagine you hear words and expressions, even full, shorter sentences which you don't understand. It doesn't really matter, because you understand the story as a whole, but you obviously miss an opportunity to learn new words. This is the moment when you can pick up your phone and press the bookmark icon next to the subtitle line, to get back to it later. That was scenario (use-case) A.
Or, you might not understand longer sentences, even complete dialogues for a few seconds. This is when you can use the app to see the translations for that actual part of the movie. That was scenario (use-case) B.
The app promises that it "helps you understand your show better and allows you to quickly save expressions you want to remember". It don't want you to learn a new language. Actually, it assumes that you know the language well enough to watch a movie in it.
It wants to help you to learn new words. Do you know why you don't learn new words easily after you reach a specific knowledge level? Because there are less and less of them, and you don't hear them again and again, and you don't recall them. This is how you learn new words in school when you start a foreign language.
So I started to build this app for myself to be able to grab new words out of kontext (do you see what I did here?), and re-read them later again until I finally learn them.
I've been doing this on a Note file on my iPhone. While watching movies, I took down notes about sentences, words or even expressions I didn't really fully understand (even though not grokking those didn't really compromise my understanding of the plot).
I've used it with an episode of "This is Us" (to Arabic, which I'm currently studying) and it works perfectly well.
Suggestions:
1. Please make it possible to review the original and the translation side by side (i.e. an "overview" button).
2. Also, don't block the UI when pausing. I.e. make it possible to scroll back & forth.
3. Allow controlling speed.
* I know it's suppose to be synchronized with what's playing at the same time, but it's needed when you can't read fast enough. Might need to provide a way to catch-up and jump to the current position automatically (keeping running time while in paused mode) .
4. Maybe consider allowing a users to submit (quality) translations (could be hosted elsewhere, if there's a legal problem). Lot's of really good stuff is not always available online (or not easily discoverable).
For example, was trying to watch "L'insult" (Lebanese) for which I know there are couple of (horrible) translations online, but Kontext was not able to find them.
5. Allow downloading a single merged file (original language + transaltion), if possible, for local viewing by users who download their own shows/movies.
Great job! Looking forward to see how it progresses.
Translation review is available in e-mail which we send out at the end of the movie. It's just temporary however, there will be an in-app solution for that.
I will consider your suggestions, thank you for them!
I learned spoken english by purely watching english movies & tv shows, initially with subtitles & re-watching again until I hear & understand all dialogues, & later other movies without subs.
Later, I started working with some British co-workers & socializing also, & developed a British accent. I am Indian/Punjabi by birth & hav spent most of my life in India only.
Thank you! I have to do serious improvements on the landing page, so I will also check its language to be beginner-friendly. Or I don't know, maybe I should even translate it...
Comments
Most of you actually don't get it, so I will try to explain it without this marketing-ish language which I used on the landing page - obviously not very well.
Consider you already know English well enough to consume your favorite shows in the language. We all do this to maintain our knowledge, improve our understanding or pronunciation by listening, or just to hear the show in its original language.
Imagine you hear words and expressions, even full, shorter sentences which you don't understand. It doesn't really matter, because you understand the story as a whole, but you obviously miss an opportunity to learn new words. This is the moment when you can pick up your phone and press the bookmark icon next to the subtitle line, to get back to it later. That was scenario (use-case) A.
Or, you might not understand longer sentences, even complete dialogues for a few seconds. This is when you can use the app to see the translations for that actual part of the movie. That was scenario (use-case) B.
The app promises that it "helps you understand your show better and allows you to quickly save expressions you want to remember". It don't want you to learn a new language. Actually, it assumes that you know the language well enough to watch a movie in it.
It wants to help you to learn new words. Do you know why you don't learn new words easily after you reach a specific knowledge level? Because there are less and less of them, and you don't hear them again and again, and you don't recall them. This is how you learn new words in school when you start a foreign language.
So I started to build this app for myself to be able to grab new words out of kontext (do you see what I did here?), and re-read them later again until I finally learn them.
I'm not a native English speaker.
I've been doing this on a Note file on my iPhone. While watching movies, I took down notes about sentences, words or even expressions I didn't really fully understand (even though not grokking those didn't really compromise my understanding of the plot).
This is absolutely valuable. Well done.
Thank you! From now on, please you my app (or try it at least), and let me how can I improve it.
will do - how can I get your email?
It's in my profile now, thanks.
What a wonderful idea!
I've used it with an episode of "This is Us" (to Arabic, which I'm currently studying) and it works perfectly well.
Suggestions:
1. Please make it possible to review the original and the translation side by side (i.e. an "overview" button).
2. Also, don't block the UI when pausing. I.e. make it possible to scroll back & forth.
3. Allow controlling speed.
* I know it's suppose to be synchronized with what's playing at the same time, but it's needed when you can't read fast enough. Might need to provide a way to catch-up and jump to the current position automatically (keeping running time while in paused mode) .
4. Maybe consider allowing a users to submit (quality) translations (could be hosted elsewhere, if there's a legal problem). Lot's of really good stuff is not always available online (or not easily discoverable).
For example, was trying to watch "L'insult" (Lebanese) for which I know there are couple of (horrible) translations online, but Kontext was not able to find them.
5. Allow downloading a single merged file (original language + transaltion), if possible, for local viewing by users who download their own shows/movies.
Great job! Looking forward to see how it progresses.
Thanks, happy to hear that!
Translation review is available in e-mail which we send out at the end of the movie. It's just temporary however, there will be an in-app solution for that.
I will consider your suggestions, thank you for them!
I thought most of it made sense. However:
Open the translation
If you don't mind the distraction, you can also check the translation of the current subtitle line while you are watching the movie.
I would shorten that. For starters, take out the intro phrase "if you don't mind the distraction." It's an unnecessary distraction.
My mother says she learned English by watching TV. She had less of an accent than most German immigrants I knew growing up.
I think this is a great idea.
I learned spoken english by purely watching english movies & tv shows, initially with subtitles & re-watching again until I hear & understand all dialogues, & later other movies without subs.
Later, I started working with some British co-workers & socializing also, & developed a British accent. I am Indian/Punjabi by birth & hav spent most of my life in India only.
Thank you! I have to do serious improvements on the landing page, so I will also check its language to be beginner-friendly. Or I don't know, maybe I should even translate it...