Welcome !
I am currently preparing a smart phone application for foreign languages-study, especially for listening skills.
In my case, as a foreigner, I am also always going through hard time to learn english, and I always want a magic which unfailingly and esasily raise my english skill.
Now I am making the magic for listening practice by myself……
I hope my application can be a small help for anyone who is learning new language at present and wants to improve listening skill.
Thank you !
ListeningDrill 
Hi insubae, I just discovered your program for iPhone. I use an iPad, but it still works OK (except that the subtitle text is a little small). I think it’s a great program for learning a foreign language.
I use it to study foreign movies. I rip the original language subtitles and convert them to and .srt file using Subtitle Edit (it’s free). i also rip the movie itself and then convert it to MP3 (using Audacity, also free). It’s quite a lot of work, but it’s worth it.
I find that I have to listen to a sentence about 3 times to really hear it properly. I also have to study the text itself separately, using a dictionary and sometimes asking a teacher how to translate a sentence and to explain the language usage (or slang). It’s an excellent way to learn to hear and understand a language.
I have some suggestions / feature requests:
1. Please make an iPad version. It would be great if your app could also support MP4 movie files, maybe integrating with a movie-playing app such as CineXPlayer… or even connecting to the PC/Mac using Air Video… I’d love to be able to watch the scene over and over again, and see the subtitles underneath. This isn’t so important, though. Listening to the audio track while reading the subtitles is probably OK.
2. Please have an option to change the font size of the subtitle text. It’s a bit too small, especially when dealing with Thai or Japanese or Chinese characters, which need to be a lot bigger.
3. Maybe have an option to display another subtitle text (e.g. the English/Spanish/French translation of the original subtitles).
4. I don’t really understand clearly what the “subtitles” timing selection is for. I think to play an extra x.x seconds before and after each subtitle phrase, right? If that’s the case then intervals of 0.5 sec is too big. It’s usually just necessary to play 0.1 or 0.2 seconds before and after each subtitle. Maybe this feature could be extended to play the previous phrase plus the next phrase, or something. I think it works fine just left at 0.0 sec.
5. I don’t really understand the start and end frame repeat feature. Could you write a short user manual?
6. The online translation is useful, but quite complicated… lots of selecting and copying and pasting… and then the original text can’t be seen completely (if it’s more than one lien) and the translation is too big. The original text should be in large font and the translation should be in small font. Once you’ve set up the translation language, the whole process should be automatic (behind the scenes)… select the subtitle, tap on translate and the translation should be displayed just under the subtitle text. That would be a cool & ergonomic design feature. 🙂
You could combine (3) and (6) so that there are 3 lines/sections for each subtitle:
– 1. the original subtitle
– 2. the secondary subtitle (if it exists and has been selected)
– 3. the google automated translation
I’m happy to recommend your product to my students. I’m the owner of Rapid Language Learning I teach people strategies for learning foreign languages (e.g. http://www.learnthaionline.com). I’m also working on an online course for Hebrew and Chinese, and I currently help foreigners to settle in Thailand so that they can retire or just live a better quality life (see http://www.abetterlifeThailand.com).
Wishing you all the best,
Gary
Here’s summary.
1. Works that I started and would be complete in a couple of weeks
1) Option to change the font size of the subtitle text.
2) Option to display another subtitle text
2. Works that I will do someday, but do not have specific time plan at the moment.
1) iPAD support
3. Works that I need some more time to conclude to do or not…
1) Adding support of video files(MP4)
4. The meaning of “subtitles” timing selection.
It is an offset to be added to each subtitile’s showing time.
It will add offset on time which is defined in sutitle file to represents start of each subtitle and end of each subtitle.
So, if it is set at +2.0, each subtitle will start 2 seconds late than it is originally specified in the sutitle file.
and if it is set at -2.0, each subtitle will start and end 2 seconds earlier than it is designated in the file.
I added this feature since I thought time information in subtitle file could be shifted somewhat according to circumstances ,
and adding offset might be a liitle help.
5. The meaning of frame repeat
Each subtile has serial number in head, If you set “Start frame repeat” on subtitle 10, and set “End frame repeat” on subtitle 25 for example,
It will continuously play audio from subtitle 10 to subtitle 25 until you clear the repeat setting.
Once both “Start frame repeat” and “End frame repeat” are set, the repeat icon on top left side will change to a button you can click.
By clicking the button, you will have an option to clear the current repeat setting.
And, I had sent more deatils by email.
Thank you for your advice.