Learn Chinese from YouTube
Pick a video you would watch anyway. Then take it one line at a time.
We make Mandarin The Wild.
Find videos with captions
In YouTube’s search, filter for videos with subtitles. Then open the video and check that it has a Chinese caption track. YouTube: find videos with captions.
On a computer, the CC button turns captions on, and the settings menu lets you choose the track. A translated track helps with the idea; the Chinese track is the one to learn from. YouTube: caption settings on a computer.
Automatic captions are a draft. YouTube itself says they can be wrong because of accents, noise or fast speech, so check a line that looks odd against what you hear. YouTube: automatic captions.
Replay one line
Open the video’s transcript and click a line to jump straight to it. Listen, read the line, then listen again. YouTube: view a video transcript.
Look up words in their line
A word can mean different things in different sentences, so look it up in the line it was said in. With Mandarin The Wild in Chrome or Edge, point at a word in the caption and its card shows the meaning in that line, its pinyin, its parts and its sound.
这个视频有中文字幕。
subtitles; captions
On a phone, paste the line into the reader. For stories written at your level, with recordings, open the Library.
Keep a few words
Don’t save every word you don’t know. Keep the ones you want to use, with the line they came from, and review them later. Mandarin The Wild keeps them in your Backpack and brings them back in Review. See the extension.
Language Reactor is another option for video: it shows two subtitle tracks at once on YouTube and Netflix. Compare the two. Language Reactor: Chrome Web Store listing.
Questions
Does every YouTube video have Chinese captions?
No. Use the subtitles filter in search, then check the tracks on the video itself.
Are automatic Chinese captions right?
Often, not always. YouTube warns they can be wrong; check a strange line against the sound.
Can I jump back to one line?
Yes. Open the transcript and click the line.
Sources
Checked on 7 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.