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"I learned English from watching..." | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6079 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes  5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 97 27 August 2008 at 1:29am | IP Logged | ||
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This seems to be a common thing that non-native speakers say. In particular I remember hearing some foreign celebrity claiming to have learned English from watching The Price is Right.
Is English just incredibly easy, are these people full of it, or are they leaving out major details? I mean, I watch Russian TV shows and movies pretty frequently, and although I pick up new things here and there, I have to improve the bulk of my vocabulary through actual learning resources. The general consensus in that old "Listen Only" thread was that it would take around 1000 hours of TV shows/movies before you'd know the language. Even people that get lots of English media subtitled into their language for several years (ie. the Dutch) don't actually know the language...it just helps them out when they do decide to learn it. What do you guys think? Has anyone here really gotten to fluency just from watching TV? (Either from a beginner level, or from a more advanced level) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6026 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 2 of 97 27 August 2008 at 2:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Watching (English) films and TV is a nice way to supplement your studies but it is not an efficient path to fluency in its own. You don't have the time to do any analysis while watching, so learning in this way is passive learning - just letting your brain absorb things.... That's good but it would take monstrous amounts of time if the language is not tackled from another angle too.
Furthermore, English is not so easy. I find French to be of equal difficulty if not easier. This might be due to some improvement in my learning habits or simply because the two languages are not so out of proportion in their respective levels difficulty. In my opinion the difficulty of a language can't be judged in any objective way - it all depends on the particular learner. English grammar (particularly the conjugation of verbs) is simpler, no arguing here. However, the vocabulary is a huge conglomerate of foreign loanwords. This results in many irregularities (in spelling, plural/singular etc.) that are exhibited in the most unexpected and brain-shattering fashion. There is some stuff in there that can't be described with grammar, simply because you have about ~5 different grammars that blend in one another. Edited by Sennin on 27 August 2008 at 2:32am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6003 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 3 of 97 27 August 2008 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Works does it. Learned English did I from Star Wars. Try it you must. No! There is no try -- do or do not!
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| Jimmymac Senior Member United Kingdom strange-lands.com/le Joined 6145 days ago 276 posts - 362 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 4 of 97 27 August 2008 at 6:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Meditate on this I will.
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| NJMaverick Newbie United States Joined 6147 days ago 34 posts - 36 votes Studies: English*, Portuguese | Message 5 of 97 27 August 2008 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||
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I recall seeing the actor Djimon Hounsou saying in several interviews that he learned English from watching the Discovery Channel. I now believe he was not giving the full story. In studying languages myself, I do not see how this is possible.
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| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6651 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 6 of 97 27 August 2008 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Anyone who claims to have learned English exclusively through watching The Price Is Right is exaggerating or has a very selective memory.
You might pick up some vocabularly that way, but it's not enough to enable you to really speak or understand the language. Sesame Street might be a good start at a very basic level, but I wouldn't want to limit myself to just that show. Where do reading and writing come in? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6003 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 97 29 August 2008 at 4:00am | IP Logged | ||
Practically everyone has a selective memory. I keep claiming I learned Spanish from Michel Thomas, selectively forgetting the degree course I'm currently following and the time spent in Spain, and that fact that I already knew some Italian and a fair bit of French. Plenty of people claim they learn languages from method X, selectively forgetting the four years of high school study they had completed before it. Many people claim to learn a language by L-R, massive input, immersion or such-and-such, selectively forgetting that they already knew a couple of structurally very similar languages. This is just normal human behaviour. Edited by Cainntear on 29 August 2008 at 4:01am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| armatura Triglot Newbie Armenia Joined 5984 days ago 17 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Russian, Armenian*, EnglishC1 Studies: German Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 97 29 August 2008 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I think learning a language only through listening/watching (without any background) is possible in 2 cases:
1. if you've been listening/watching since childhood (still children have to do their mother tongue lessons at school to become actually literate) 2. if you've been listening/watching not since childhood but (individually) long enough, still you have to spend some time with books to become literate. IMHO when people say they have learnt a language by listening/watching, they mean the main thing that helped them become fluent in that language is listening/watching, that's all. For not-so-logical languages as English "live" learning is a good, and IMHO the most valuable method. So if you've got some vocabulary/grammar background the sooner you start reading/listening/watching (as well as speaking a bit later), the better. If I'm able to understand English and communicate in English, it's mainly due to heavy watching and listening (after a period of massive reading). And, one more thing, the most of people are lazy and don't like to study, but in case of listening/watching (as well as reading) your main purpose is to enjoy, not to study, it's fun! So people tend to speak more about pleasant experiences and to forget the boring hours of doing special courses. Edited by armatura on 29 August 2008 at 5:55am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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