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"I learned English from watching..." | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5449 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes  Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 41 of 97 23 February 2010 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wish I could have learned Aramaic by watching the Passion of the Christ (although I did understand some Latin words).
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6126 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 42 of 97 23 February 2010 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm convinced that some people do learn this way, because I lived with one. I've met them online and I believe their stories. And those people who do just pick up language from media, every one, has been simply dumbfounded that the rest of us struggle with grammar, vocabulary, text books, and worst -- language classes. I really do think this is like sports or other competitive skills. Some people just have near-magical abilities.
My other pet theory is that English speakers will generally not pick up a case system by listening without at least some grammar study. That we're used to word order to determine parts of speech, and I think this is hard to let go of. Edited by cathrynm on 23 February 2010 at 11:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dee-Dee Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5422 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: Danish, French | Message 43 of 97 24 February 2010 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I really do think this is possible, although I think it would take quite a while to gain
fluency. It's actually a really good method, it can teach you the culture and slang and native accents of the actors without having to go to the country. I wish I was like my older sister, she knows 5 languages and two of them (Spanish and Italian) were learned fluently from doing nothing but watching TV and movies. Edited by Dee-Dee on 24 February 2010 at 1:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 44 of 97 24 February 2010 at 5:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Many people, including myself, are skeptical about learning a language just by watching television because they don't see how that is possible at an adult age. But many participants in this forum have examples of success stories. I would also like to add that, in my opinion, most people do not achieve very good results with so-called self-teaching methods. So how to explain why do some people "pick up" a language passively by watching tv while most people who study the language with a method don't get very far?
I won't debate here the question of the value of methods, but I think it's interesting to try to understand how someone could just pick up a language from television. There is probably a learning process that uses an analytical process of observation and deduction combined with the ability to easily mimic the actors. It reminds of the question of a "knack for languages". I've often been cited as someone who has a talent for languages. Frankly, I do not believe in this kind of talent. On the contrary, I think this so-called talent is more the result of an efficient learning system. Then maybe that's what a knack is. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 45 of 97 24 February 2010 at 11:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't anyone denies that it is possible for some people -- I simply argue that it's only possible for a minority and that you don't know in advance who the members of that minority are.
If you advise someone to try it, it's very likely that person will fail, so as strategies go it's pretty much worthless. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5449 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 46 of 97 24 February 2010 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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So if I want to learn a language from scratch from watching movies, should I watch them without or with subtitles? And do I need to watch many different movies in the language or the same one over and over again? And what happens if the movie contains more than one language? Edited by chucknorrisman on 24 February 2010 at 1:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 47 of 97 24 February 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps children can. Kids seem to pick up languages more readily than adults, and the little couch potatoes might watch TV so much that in an L2 it is bound to make an impact on them.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 48 of 97 24 February 2010 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||
There is no formula -- this is not a structured learning programming but just some random thing that some people can (or at least appear to be able to) do. It doesn't work for most people, it's reported differently by almost everyone who claims to have done it. So whatever you do, chances are it won't work. But don't let that put you off. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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