Blog

Guides on learning languages with YouTube — dual subtitles, vocabulary mining, and spaced repetition.

The Best Anki Alternative for Language Learning Depends on Which Part of Anki You Want Gone

Which Anki alternative fits depends on the part of Anki you want to drop: making cards by hand, the settings and add-ons, or the desktop-first interface — and if all you wanted was a better scheduler, Anki has had FSRS built in since version 23.10. Here's a table of replacements by type, with each example checked against its own site in October 2026, when staying with Anki is the better call, and how to keep Anki while getting rid of the card-making.

2026-10-05 • 8 min read

Language ReactorPricingChrome Extensions

Is Language Reactor Free? What the Free Plan Does, What Pro Costs, and the Free Alternatives

Mostly, yes: Language Reactor's bilingual subtitles, click-a-word dictionary and playback tools are free on YouTube, and free on Netflix with Netflix's own subtitles. Pro — US$5.95 a month, US$13.95 for three months or US$39.95 a year — is what lets you save words while you watch, highlights them everywhere and exports them to Anki. Here is the Free-vs-Pro line read off Language Reactor's own Pro page in October 2026, and the free alternatives sorted by what you actually need.

2026-10-05 • 8 min read

JapaneseComprehensible InputMethod

A Japanese Immersion Roadmap: How Many Hours Japanese Takes, and the Six Stages in Between

Japanese takes an English speaker thousands of hours: the US Foreign Service Institute budgets 88 weeks (2,200 class hours) for it, and Refold's immersion estimate for a language that distant is about 2,700 hours of total effort to functional fluency, double its figure for Spanish. Here's what each of those numbers measures, a six-stage roadmap from kana to speaking with rough hours for every stage, the parts only Japanese has (kana, kanji, reading), and the one thing hour-counting doesn't buy you.

2026-10-05 • 13 min read

YouTubeAnkiSpaced Repetition

How to Make Flashcards from YouTube Videos for Language Learning: By Hand, With a Toolchain, or in One Click

Making flashcards from a YouTube video comes down to four steps: get the video's subtitles in the language you're learning, pick the words or sentences worth keeping, save each one with its original sentence and a timestamp back to that moment, and review them on a spaced-repetition schedule. Here are the three ways to do it — by hand into Anki, with the free asbplayer + Yomitan toolchain, or in one click with LingoKeep — what makes a card worth keeping, and the limits of each.

2026-10-05 • 9 min read

MethodSpaced RepetitionComprehensible Input

What Is Sentence Mining? The Rules, a Worked Example From a Real Video, and When to Stop

Sentence mining means collecting whole sentences from things you watched or read and understood — each with exactly one piece you didn't know yet (i+1) — and turning them into flashcards you review on a spaced-repetition schedule. Here are the three rules that make it work, a complete example card from a real Spanish video, a sane daily number, the tools that do it, and the point where it stops paying off.

2026-10-05 • 10 min read

YouTubeChrome ExtensionsLanguage Learning

How to Get Dual Subtitles on YouTube: Two Languages at Once, Free (2026)

YouTube shows one subtitle track at a time — its auto-translate swaps the line for a translation instead of adding a second one — so seeing two languages at once takes a browser extension on a desktop browser. Here's why YouTube can't do it on its own, how to turn dual subtitles on in Chrome step by step, the free extensions that do it, what to check about the video's subtitles first, and what works on phones, Firefox and Safari.

2026-10-05 • 9 min read

SpanishComprehensible InputDreaming Spanish

Is Dreaming Spanish Free? What the Free Tier Really Includes, What Premium Costs, and Whether It Works

Most of Dreaming Spanish is free, and the free part is the main course rather than a sample: a 778-video YouTube channel plus a $0 account. Premium is $7.99 a month. Here is exactly what sits on each side of that line — read off their own pricing page in August 2026 — and an honest answer to the question underneath the question: should you pay?

2026-08-13 • 11 min read

AnkiSpaced RepetitionLanguage Learning

Anki for Language Learning: What It's Great At, and the One Place It Breaks

Anki is still the best spaced-repetition tool for language learners, and almost nobody quits because of the algorithm. They quit because of where the cards come from. Here's what Anki does well, the card types that actually work for languages, and how to fix the part that breaks.

2026-07-29 • 11 min read

SpanishComprehensible InputDreaming Spanish

The Dreaming Spanish Roadmap, Explained (2026): All 7 Levels, the Hour Numbers, and What They Don't Tell You

The Dreaming Spanish roadmap is seven levels and six hour milestones from 0 to 1,500 hours of input. Here's each level in the roadmap's own words, what each one actually feels like, when the method says to start speaking and reading, and the one thing hour-counting doesn't buy you.

2026-07-29 • 10 min read

JapaneseComprehensible InputLanguage Learning

Comprehensible Input for Japanese: Channels by Level (and the Subtitle Tracks We Actually Checked)

Japanese has a real comprehensible input ecosystem now — you can go from zero to native content on YouTube alone. Here's the channel map by level, why click-to-look-up is harder in Japanese than in any European language, and what we found when we checked which channels ship real subtitle tracks.

2026-07-23 • 10 min read

Spaced RepetitionFSRSMethod

FSRS Explained: How the Spaced Repetition Algorithm Actually Works

FSRS is the open-source algorithm that decides when you should review a flashcard so you remember it with the least possible effort. Here's how it models your memory with three numbers, why it replaced the 1987-era SM-2 formula, and how to actually use it — in Anki or anywhere else.

2026-07-23 • 10 min read

SpanishComprehensible InputLanguage Learning

Comprehensible Input for Spanish, Stage by Stage: What to Watch, When to Move Up, and How Long It Takes

Spanish has more comprehensible input than any other language, so finding videos isn't the hard part — knowing what to do with them at each stage is. Here's a plan for every stage from hour 0 to native content: what to watch, how to watch it, how to tell you're ready to move up, and how long each stage takes at 30 or 60 minutes a day.

2026-07-10 • 10 min read

ComparisonsLanguage LearningChrome Extensions

Language Reactor vs Trancy vs Migaku (2026): Which One Should You Actually Use?

We pulled the pricing pages, changelogs, and store reviews of the three big YouTube language-learning extensions and compared them honestly: free tiers, paywalls, review systems, and where each one falls down.

2026-07-10 • 14 min read

Language LearningComprehensible InputMethod

What Is Comprehensible Input? A Practical Guide for Self-Learners

Comprehensible input is language you can mostly understand from context — the raw material your brain uses to acquire a language. Here's what the theory actually says, how to apply it with real content, and the one thing input alone won't do for you.

2026-07-10 • 7 min read

AnnouncementsLanguage LearningYouTube

Introducing LingoKeep: Learn Languages Watching YouTube — and Actually Remember

A Chrome extension that turns YouTube into a language classroom — dual subtitles, a click-any-word dictionary, one-click flashcards, and free spaced-repetition review. The plan we published before launch, kept on the record.

2026-07-02 • 3 min read