Watching movies with Audio Description

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Does anyone use this?

I too caught on to using Netflix recently and found this great feature. I thought it would be annoying at first but it´s actually really pleasant. The narrating voice fills the space between dialogues, usually with relatively simple language describing each scene. It becomes more like an audio book, with visuals.

Audio description along with CC subtitles really maximises language exposure when watching movies. I don´t know how widely available this is for other movies. Right now I´m watching “Erased” (僕だけがいない街) with audio description and it´s really nice.

I´m sure some language learners have discovered this already. Just wanted to share this tip anyways.

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Absolutely! AD tracks may take a bit of getting used to, but they really are a great tool for language learners. I discovered them on accident a few years ago watching German series on their official app, and I thought it was the neatest thing. A couple of years later, when Netflix expanded into Europe, AD tracks became a more common thing. Netflix is still the only one that’s making them available in the US though.

(The only reason why I hesitate to be too vocally enthusiastic about them is that they are actually meant as an aid for sight impaired people, and here we are putting it to a different use that relies very specifically on being able to see things. But then again, perhaps the fact that the AD tracks can have multiple uses makes them a more desired feature, so everyone can benefit from them. I don’t know.)

But yes, I totally use them all the time.

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Matt vs. Japan talk about it
Netflix + Audio Descriptions: The Ultimate Immersion - YouTube

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Yes! I use the AD when it’s available. When it’s not, I invent my own description and note in English the names of things for which I dont know the word in my target language.

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Netflix doesn’t work here in Iraq. i don’t know there is a lot we miss . may be because Iraq still under the supervision of UN and may be there is some restriction on the internet because of this, Even when i wanted to join this site there is ambiguity about how to use paypal card

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I wrote about audio description a while back as at the time no one seemed to have really pointed out its potential as a source of comprehensible input for language acquisition: Audio description of TV and movies: a great source of comprehensible input for language learners – Beyond Language Learning

I recently watched a Thai series on Netflix with audio description on. The series had a lot of dialogue already but I found with the audio description I got a lot of different language, describing things like physical movements and actions, that I wouldn’t have gotten from the dialogue.

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