TV and language learning (Music, Movies, TV & Radio) Language Learning Forum

TV and language learning
Tags: Foreign Languages \| TV
Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio

Julie
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Message 1 of 7

09 August 2012 at 6:55pm | IP Logged

Copied & pasted from the temporary forum.

I wrote this post for my learning log but that I thought it could actually make an interesting separate thread. Forgive me being so self-centered in my writing and share your experience concerning TV in the context of language learning (if you watch any TV at all).

TV is quite important in my language learning. I guess I would have stopped paying for my cable TV a long time ago it it didn't offer channels in multiple languages. Still, I miss half a year of watching TV in Switzerland, where I had access to so many Swiss, German, Austrian, French and other channels...

I have 7 German channels: Vox, Sat 1, Pro 7, RTL, RTL 2, Kabel 1, DW-TV (which in its European edition has recently switched to broadcasting in English mostly). Unfortunately, I don't have Arte or any other public channels. I mostly watch news, documentaries, some entertainment (not always of good quality, I admit), movies (but I rarely follow any TV guides so I never know when there something interesting is broadcast). I started watching German TV about 7 years ago if I remember correctly, and watched e.g. DSDS (German talent show). Not very ambitious, to put it mildly, but it was something that I could enjoy even when I couldn't understand a lot. It also helped that many phrases and expressions were repeated over and over again.

English is not a problem: since I switched from analogue to digital TV, there is an option to switch the audio to English on many channels.

With other languages, it's not that good. M6 in French is no longer available on my cable TV, and I have TV5 Monde only. I like watching documentaries, and I can definitely recommend "Thalassa" and "Des racines & des ailes" (both quite easy and interesting). "C'est pas sorcier" is quite interesting, too (educational magazine of a somewhat annoying convention but with tons of interesting facts, vocabulary and easy explanations). I also watch the Swiss news, out of sentiment I guess ;). For some programmes, you can toggle on subtitles (in French or in other languages).
I've just found a great list of TV5Monde programmes, including recommended minimum CEFR levels of French:
http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/enseigner-apprendre-francais/rubr ique-1-Les_programmes_de_la_chaine.htm

In Spanish, I have TVE. So far, I've watched some random snippets of news and other programmes mostly. I like "Espanoles en el mundo" very much - it's about Spanish people living in various countries all over the world (well, the title is pretty self-explanatory as you can see :)).

Recently I've decided to go back to Russian and watch at least a little bit of Russian TV. I remember how I enjoyed watching "24" in Russian 8 years ago or so (it's not the kind of TV series where characters talk a lot ;)). I have Rossiya24 and RTR Planeta on my cable TV. At the moment, I enjoy watching news on Rossiya24: listening a bit and reading all kinds of captions (some of them disappear very fast, though!). Captions are very good as they are short and repetitive, so I learn to recognize words as the whole. While reading and listening, I keep discovering words I learned a long time ago. I didn't know they're still in some remote part of my mind ;)

I also have Euronews which is a truly multilingual channel (you can choose audio in one of 11 languages!). The best thing about it is that you can e.g. watch news in one of your stronger languages, and than if you're lucky you may stumble on the same material and watch it in your weaker language.

Obviously, many programs can be watched on-line (sometimes even for free, which is the case of e.g. Deutsche Welle) - so no need to despair if we don't have TV or foreign-language channels. I like watching TV, though, because it's easy to turn on whenever I feel like a little bit of French, Spanish etc. and I can watch it in the background and tune in when there is something truly interesting (which doesn't work for me with videos played on my computer).

Unfortunately, I don't have any Dutch channels.

If you can recommend any interesting programs on either of the channels I have the access to, let me know!
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Julie
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Message 2 of 7

09 August 2012 at 6:56pm | IP Logged

dandt wrote:

I'm not sure what you have access to, or much to contribute, but to say how jealous I am! In Australia, I have access to SBS and they air things in different languages, but mainly news (often at strange hours) and occasionally movies in other languages. Some weeks, there will be multiple films in my TL (french) but then there can be weeks where there is nothing other than the news that can help me. To my knowledge, there are a few channels available at a cost, but very little. My grandparents have an Italian channel, but they had to have a satellite installed specifically for that channel alone! IT's massive! I believe there would be similar things available for other languages. There is a world movies channel available as well, although I suspect there would be the issue of having a limited selection. I would consider getting this channel later on in my language learning, but only if I also had the ability to record on my tv.

One TV resource I did (sort of) use recently was the Olympics. It was great to hear the french, work out what it meant and then hear the English translation to test myself. It was pretty nice, although I suspect I worked out what they said through context 80% of the time!

Solfrid Cristina wrote:

I envy you! I have only Norwegian and Swedish channels, in which 90-95% of the programmes are in English. I always feel in heaven when I am in Brussels, and get TV in 6-7 languages in the hotel.

I get DVDs instead, where it is possible to set the language and the subtitles to pretty much any language, but it definitely is not like having a channel in your target language.

In the Autumn we get to chose two foreign language channels for the first time, and one will be Russian, but I have not decided for the second one yet. Perhaps German?

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Julie
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Message 3 of 7

09 August 2012 at 6:57pm | IP Logged

I didn't realize I was that lucky... Switzerland was my Brussels, so to say. But there is something I envy you: in Poland, many channels broadcast English movies and shows with voice-over in Polish. I hate that!

I am surprised though that so many programmes on Norwegian and Swedish channels are in English: what about Scandinavian productions? And what about public TV?
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Julie
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Message 4 of 7

09 August 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged

Tractor wrote:

Scandinavian productions are of course made in the local language. Solfrid Cristina exaggerates when she says that 90-95 % of the programmes are in English. Most of the non-Scandinavian productions are in English though, probably around 99 %. Public broadcasters must follow certain rules, and I believe a certain percentage of national productions is one of them.

Solfrid Cristina wrote:

Maybe I only feel that way because everything I like to watch apart from the new is in English :-)

Avid Learner wrote:

I get the international Deutsche Welle, and I must consider myself lucky to get anything at all in German, I guess. I was even amazed at the quality of the channel, I was fearing it would be a little like those local community channels with very little means that I'd seen.

I've found a few shows I can find interesting, but I would prefer to have more variety. I love watching sports among other things, but I won't get that on Deutsche Welle. :( I could probably pay for a variety of Spanish channels, but German... :(

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Julie
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Message 5 of 7

09 August 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged

Which DW edition do you have? I hate the last reprogramming of the European edition: before, the languages alternated every hour (1 hour German, 1 hour English). Now most of the programmes are in English which is not the case of some other editions of Deutsche Welle. I don't like the new website either (can't find anything) but maybe I'm just a creature of habit.
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Julie
Heptaglot
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Speaks: Polish*, English^B2, German^C2, Spanish^B2, Dutch, Swedish, French

Message 6 of 7

09 August 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged

lapislazuli wrote:

I don't have cable or satellite TV, because I actually don't want it. I am more of a radio-person then a TV-person I think. I get a few Austrian programs and for some weird reason I also get ARTE. But I hardly ever watch any of it. When I still lived with my parents we got RAIUNO (italian), TV5 (french) and BBC-Europe, and some other news and sports channels in English I think.

These days I either get DVDs (my nearby library is specialized on movies so they have quite some choice), sometimes I buy them when there is something that I really 'need' to have, and that I cannot obtain any other way (which is actually often the case with foreign movies, especially the not so famous ones) And of course there is the internet ....

I just prefer to see things when I have the time and feel like watching something, and not having to watch the interesting things at the time they are aired, but actually when I have the time and muse to watch them.

montmorency wrote:

Julie wrote:

Not all "progress" is an improvement, sadly. Or not all "improvements" actually make things better.

Cortical wrote:

I don't know if people here know this website, so I'll just post it. It might help someone: http://delicast.com/

I use it to watch Spanish TV (mostly TN24 from Argentina to get used to the accent as I plan to go there in about 2 years time)

I also think that watching news/films/shows/series in your TL helps a lot. I used to be terrible in English until I started reading and watching the news (20min a day) in English, and later I pretty much attained fluency by racing through 18 seasons of Star Trek. Unfortunately the Spanish speaking world doesn't seem to produce much science fiction, which is kind of my favorite when it comes to TV.

dbag wrote:

Another good show on tve is "Destino Espana", about people who have moved to Spain, and also Buscamundos, which is an interesting travel show.

Thanks for the link above. I need to get some good practice in with the Argentine accent.

London2012 wrote:

Thanks for those links and tips.

A website with a comprehensive list of Spanish language TV can be found here: http://howlearnspanish.com/2010/08/list-of-best-sites-to-wat ch-spanish-tv/

What I particularly like about that list is the amount of countries included: Honduras, Cuba, Peru, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Guatamala, Nicaragua and so on, not only the usual ones like Mexico or Spain. And for Cortical and dbag, there's a good number of Argentine channels.

dandt wrote:

Seeing as people are talking about TV shows and what not, can anyone recommend any French shows that are actually recorded in french? I mean, I know I can watch dubs and subs easily enough, but it'd be awesome to watch a show for the first time in a new language. I always trust recommendations over random picks from wikipedia!

mooby wrote:

I don't have a TV, but I regularly watch recorded shows from Poland on my computer via ipla. I never usually watch chat shows, but I do watch 'O mała czarna' because I can practise my listening on a wide range of topics. Other shows sometimes have a lot of action but not enough speaking. With all these recorded shows, I can pause and replay.

Serpent wrote:

Avid Learner wrote:

I love watching sports among other things, but I won't get that on Deutsche Welle. :( I could probably pay for a variety of Spanish channels, but German... :(

It's pretty easy to watch sports online. That's the main kind of "TV" in my learning. rojadirecta.es is great, but the German streams get killed all the time :( If you don't mind paying, you should be able to find a site where you could pay per match.

sillygoose1 wrote:

dandt wrote:

Engrenages, Paris Enquetes Criminelles, Tout le monde en parle, Braquo, Fortier, Scene de Menage, Les Invincibles, La Bicyclette Bleue, Trois Couleurs: Bleau-Blanc-Rouge, Esprits Criminels

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viedums
Hexaglot
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Thailand
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Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French
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Message 7 of 7

06 October 2012 at 6:19am | IP Logged

About Deutsche Welle: yes, the Asian service has also abandoned the old format of 1 hour English – 1 hour German, but now it’s mostly in German. They occasionally have English, but it’s very unpredictable, at least at the time I tend to watch. Unfortunately the new German content is IMO not very interesting – cooking shows, political chat shows, the equivalent of Antiques Roadshow… the chat shows occasionally have famous people like Helmut Schmidt on. Generally TV 5 – Monde has better stuff, though.

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