"I learned English from watching..." (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

"I learned English from watching..."
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

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tacoface
Newbie
United States
Joined 5384 days ago
2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: English*

Message 65 of 97

28 February 2010 at 2:10pm | IP Logged

Pyx wrote:

tacoface wrote:

I have been acquiring mandarin chinese by only watching
taiwanese tv shows. No subtitles,
just listening and watching. After 450 hours I am quite pleased at the progress I have
made. I am estimating my understanding of the words is around 20%. Sometimes I watch 4-
5
hours straight, sometimes I can miss weeks at a time due to being busy, but I never
forget a word I acquire, and all that happens is I continue acquiring new words when I
resume watching the shows.

What I would like to understand is why people on here voice such strident opinions on
this method when they have no idea how it works, and clearly have no intention of
trying
to understand how it works.

acquired as in "I can speak it now", acquired as in "I understand it now", acquired as
in "I have sort of an idea what's going on", or how 'acquired'?
450 hours seems awfully short to me.

Acquired as in I understand it
effortlessly in mandarin, with no translation through my native tongue. This method
seems to associate the sounds heard with a certain feeling that is put together by the
brain after numerous instance of hearing the word. The end result, it appears to me, is
native like fluency.

I cannot define "to", however I know, or more correctly I can feel when it is right to
use it in a sentence when I speak English. The same applies to the words I have
acquired so far by watching taiwanese tv shows.

I will only begin to speak when I feel comfortable enough too (my estimate is 2000
hours). By then I should have acquired majority of the words and how they are used,
which will make speaking a breeze.
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 67 of 97

28 February 2010 at 4:58pm | IP Logged

"I am estimating my understanding of the words is around 20%."

That presumably means you don't understand about 80%. A comprehension level rather like listening to a radio broadcast in your own language with very bad reception. People do not generally do that for hundreds of hours.
2 persons have 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 68 of 97

28 February 2010 at 5:15pm | IP Logged

KTHN wrote:

I have to disagree. I learned English through television, music etc. Yes, I took English
classes in school, it was compulsory so everybody did.

Then you cannot discount the possibility that the classes were vital to you learning.

All you can say is that the classes alone were not enough, and everyone here agrees that you need more that classes.

But would you have noticed the difference between tenses without some kind of explanation?
1 person has voted this message useful

KTHN
Diglot
Newbie
Netherlands
Joined 5734 days ago
4 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese

Message 69 of 97

28 February 2010 at 8:28pm | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

KTHN wrote:

I have to disagree. I learned English through
television, music etc. Yes, I took English
classes in school, it was compulsory so everybody did.

Then you cannot discount the possibility that the classes were vital to you learning.

All you can say is that the classes alone were not enough, and everyone here agrees
that you need more that classes.

But would you have noticed the difference between tenses without some kind of
explanation?

Actually, yes I did. When I was little I tried to talk in English a lot. I did use different
tenses, but in school I could not understand any tenses at all. Untill I was 15 or 16 I did
not know that there were any other tenses than the present and past, but I did use
them.

The only thing I learned in English class is how to write letters. Which is not a skill I use
often at all.

But I don't think we can agree on this in the end.
1 person has voted this message useful

jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6910 days ago
4250 posts - 5711 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
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Message 70 of 97

01 March 2010 at 12:34am | IP Logged

As much as I know that there are bad teachers (and educational systems, and students/learners), I find it a bit difficult to grasp when somebody says "I didn't learn ANYTHING during my English/French/Spanish/X classes". Not that KTHN said that.
1 person has voted this message useful

KTHN
Diglot
Newbie
Netherlands
Joined 5734 days ago
4 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: Dutch*, English
Studies: Japanese

Message 71 of 97

01 March 2010 at 12:51pm | IP Logged

jeff_lindqvist wrote:

As much as I know that there are bad teachers (and educational
systems, and students/learners), I find it a bit difficult to grasp when somebody says "I
didn't learn ANYTHING during my English/French/Spanish/X classes". Not that KTHN said
that.

I think that you have to learn how to write somewhere. Well, not exactly how to write, but
more how to spell out sounds. If you know how to read a text (i.e. how to make these
letters into the correct sound) I believe that you can learn everything else from
tv/music/books etc.
1 person has voted this message useful

tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5454 days ago
1349 posts - 2292 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

Message 72 of 97

01 March 2010 at 1:01pm | IP Logged

tacoface wrote:

Do you enjoy watching so much TV and not understanding very much?

1 person has voted this message useful

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