Five tools do most of the work at the start. Here is how to set up each one.

In your first months, most of what you watch goes over your head. That's normal. The tools are what turn a show you half follow into a show you learn from. Each one does a single job, and each job has a free pick that works for almost every language.

The way I put it: pay attention to where your hand goes. When you get stuck, do you reach for English subtitles, a translator, a dictionary? Whatever you rely on tells you where you are, and the next tool up is your next step. The "Leads to" column is that path.

This is the tool to set up first, because it makes everything else easier. An immersion helper sits on top of Netflix, YouTube and websites. It shows subtitles in your language, lets you click any word to see what it means, and saves the words you want to keep. At the beginner stage, it's the difference between noise and something you can follow.

Best free pick: Language Reactor, a Chrome extension with dual subtitles, a popup dictionary and playback controls on Netflix and YouTube. The core is free and works for almost any language. The paid option: Migaku, a browser extension and phone app that turns a word you click into a flashcard with the audio and the sentence it came from. It's a subscription (monthly, yearly or lifetime) and supports Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Vietnamese and English.

My strategy: watch what you already like. Don't look up everything. Make it a game: about 10 lookups a session, only the words that catch your ear. Ten a day for seven days beats seventy in one day and burning out. Where it leads: English subtitles, then both on screen, then subtitles in your language only, with the helper there for the odd word.

Spaced repetition shows you each card just before you'd forget it. A few minutes a day keeps the words you meet in shows from slipping away. For a beginner, it's also how you get your first 1,000 words, the ones that make easy content start to make sense.

Best free pick: Anki, free on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android (AnkiDroid) and the web, with free sync. On iPhone and iPad it's AnkiMobile, a one-time $24.99. Its shared decks give you a ready-made core deck to start. The paid option: Migaku Memory, which makes cards from the words you save in Migaku, with native audio.

My strategy: review every day, even ten minutes. Reviews come first, new cards second. Once the core deck is going, add words from what you actually watch, not random lists. Where it leads: from a pre-made deck to cards you make from your own shows.

A translator gives you an answer. A dictionary shows you how the word is really used. That's why it comes before the translator: a little more effort, and you learn the word instead of borrowing a meaning. The best ones for learners show example sentences in your language.

Best free picks by language: Korean: Naver Dictionary, then KRDict for simple Korean definitions. Japanese: Jisho, with kanji search and example sentences, then Weblio. Mandarin: Pleco, a free app for iPhone and Android with handwriting lookup (add-ons such as the camera reader are paid), and MDBG on desktop. Cantonese: Words.hk, then Pleco. Spanish: SpanishDict (free, with an optional Premium), then the RAE. French and Italian: WordReference, then Larousse or Treccani. German: DWDS, then LEO. Portuguese: Priberam, then WordReference. Vietnamese: Wiktionary, then VDict.

My strategy: read the example sentences, not just the English. Where it leads: from reaching for the translator first, to the dictionary first, to definitions written in your language.

A translator is the tool most beginners lean on hardest, and the one to need less of. It's good for one thing: checking a whole sentence you half understood. Used for every word, it trains you to wait for English instead of listening to the person.

Best free picks: Papago for Korean, Naver's translator built for it. For Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and English, DeepL has a free version, with Google Translate as the backup (its camera mode is handy for signs and menus). For Cantonese and Vietnamese, Google Translate.

My strategy: check the meaning of a sentence, then read it again in your language. Don't use it to write what you want to say. Where it leads: from needing it often to needing it rarely.

Grammar helps most when you've already met the pattern a few times in real content. So skim the early units to meet the basics, then treat the guide as a reference: when something keeps blocking you, look it up, then go straight back to the show. I call it grammar "when you feel the itch".

Best picks by language: Korean: How to Study Korean (free lessons), then Talk To Me In Korean (one lesson free, subscriptions from $7.12 a month billed yearly). Japanese: Migaku Grammar, then Tae Kim's Guide (free), plus Migaku's Pitch Trainer for pitch accent. Mandarin: the Chinese Grammar Wiki, sorted by level, plus Migaku's Tone Trainer. Spanish and French: Kwiziq, then SpanishDict Grammar or Lawless French. German: DW Learn German, then Grimm Grammar. Italian: One World Italiano. Portuguese: Practice Portuguese. Cantonese: CantoneseClass101.

When you start to understand a lot, the same slot holds the tools for using the language: italki for short conversation sessions with a tutor (you pay per lesson and each teacher sets the price; featured teachers started at $7 a lesson when I checked), HelloTalk for texting and voice notes with native speakers (free, with an optional VIP membership), and LangCorrect, where native speakers correct a few sentences you write, free. Where it leads: from studying patterns, to noticing them, to just understanding.

The five tools are for learning. There's a second kind of toolkit: the apps people in the country actually use to get around, eat and talk. My idea is that your tool library should grow into theirs, so that when you travel you already have the apps on your phone.

The tip that makes this immersion: install them now and switch them to your target language before you go. Reading restaurant reviews on Naver Map or Tabelog is reading practice before you even land. Switching your phone itself to your language is the same idea, every day.

Here is the kit for Korea, Japan and China. Some notes: Google Maps still can't give turn-by-turn walking directions in Korea, which is why Naver Map is the one to get. Welcome Suica Mobile is iPhone only. Tabelog is mostly in Japanese, and that's the point.

Nobody keeps the same toolkit for long. Every "Leads to" above is a swap: one tool you lean on less, one you start using. You don't need to plan them. When a tool starts to feel like a crutch, that's the sign to try the next one for a week.

The end point isn't using no tools. Native speakers use subtitles, dictionaries and maps too. The standard is using the tools they use, in their language. The free listening games are a small step in that direction for numbers, times and colours, which beginners hear constantly and rarely catch.

I make Immersed and I wrote this guide, so you should know where money could change hands. In Immersed's own Toolkit, the Migaku and italki links are affiliate links: if you sign up or book through them, Immersed may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Signing up for Migaku through Immersed's link also gets you an extra month of Migaku free and 30 days of Immersed Pro.

I worked at Migaku. That's part of why Migaku sits first on the helper card for the languages it supports, so weigh that. Language Reactor is listed beside it because its free version does the main job well, and for languages Migaku doesn't cover it's the pick.

The links on this page are plain links to each tool's own site, not affiliate links. Prices are what each tool's site or app store listing showed on October 24, 2026, in US dollars, and they change.

Immersed is a language immersion tracker and planner. It turns immersion into something you can see, plan and keep: a free plan built from your answers, a daily timeline for the shows, podcasts and books you learn from, and reports of your hours.

The free blueprint (no account, just your name and email) includes a five-card Toolkit in this order: Immersion Helper, Flashcards, Dictionary, Translator, Grammar. The picks are hand-chosen for 11 languages: Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Vietnamese and English. Other languages get Language Reactor, Anki and tools found for that language. Each card says how to use the tool at your level, and you can swipe for the alternatives.

With Immersed Pro ($60 a year with a free week first, or $9.99 a month), the Toolkit page keeps your tools in one place, with a catalogue of more, pins and your own custom tools, next to the listening games. When you press play on a session, you pick one of nine activities, such as Active Subtitles or SRS, so your reports show what your hours were made of, not just how many there were. Build your free blueprint to get your five.