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Learning a language by watching TV? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| robertkm Newbie United States Joined 5524 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 113 of 134 01 October 2009 at 12:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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I really think that it is incredibly useful to watch foreign TV to learn any language as it helps you to understand
spoken words far better than reading. Besides that, you won't hear academic language in some shows and it will help you when you try to understand any person that speaks that language. you know, people usually don't speak as in the classroom... Kind regards! Robert 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5524 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes  Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 114 of 134 01 October 2009 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have to agree with those who say that it is possible when the language is somewhat close enough, even if you have no previous or parallel exposure to it.
I have learned all my Finnish first from TV, and afterwards from books and magazines. Granted, Estonian and Finnish are related, but the similarity is usually way overrated, a native speaker of one of these languages with no previous knowledge can't understand really anything more complex than "let's go" or "that'll be twenty euros" even though grammar and sentence structure is largely the same. It definitely is not the same as going between Norwegian and Danish or even Swedish. However, seems to me that one key point in TV-method has to be the subtitles. Wathcing TV in foreign language when you have no exposure to written form, is more like glorified listening. I used to watch both native Finnish TV-programmes and foreign movies, which where, thankfully, subtitled. Not all countries do subtitling, most larger ones prefer dubbing, it seems. The other thing, as with every other method, is that you have to be interested in the content, not the packaging. Watching TV just to learn the language may work for some, but it wouldn't for me. I need to be interested in the subject itself. It worked for me when I was young boy, I wanted to watch Knight Rider or McGyver so badly that it didn't matter at all that the show itself was in English and subtitles in Finnish and I didn't know either. I just glued myself to the screen anyway with no concious effort to learn the languages. And then there were BBC nature documentaries which were only available via Finnish TV so I just had to watch them, not for the language but for the content. Nowadays, being grownup and all, I find that method ineffective for myself not because I don't believe in it, but because there is less stuff that would draw me in like it once did and make me absorb anything about the language in order to squeeze out every little drop of information about what's going on on the screen. That's a problem, not the TV itself. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6100 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 115 of 134 01 October 2009 at 12:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry for the off-topic:
I agree on the TV/spoken part, but in front of a written text I'd say it's quite understandable. I wonder if Finnish is more difficult to understand for Estonians than the other way round.
Luckily I downloaded an adapted-for-learners-with-transcripts soap opera in my target language. I can't wait! ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5524 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 116 of 134 01 October 2009 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have no idea. Doubt it though. Heck, even basic words like mother, sun or telephone are different. Written language may indeed look deceptively similar and there are quite a many false friends waiting to trip you over and trample all over you :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6100 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 117 of 134 01 October 2009 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know! I have written extensively on HTLAL about my surprise at the religiosity of Estonians in Tallinn. (if you don't get it I'll explain...) Estonian sounds kind of a funny, old dialect. Many Estonian words and false friends sound like medieval Finnish words (or modern words in their old meaning). I don't get this kind of feeling in any romance language - Swiss Italian is 99 if not 100 % Italian, Spanish et co. are just different languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rggg Heptaglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6316 days ago 373 posts - 426 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Malay Studies: Romanian, Catalan, Greek, German, Swedish | Message 118 of 134 04 October 2009 at 5:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sorry if I'm interrupting ... going back to the original question:
I don't know if someone can be really capable of learning a language just by watching TV, but I definitely say that watching TV in the target language should be taken as part of any language learning strategy, at least for intermediate learners who don't get to practice the target language very often. I did it mostly with Italian and Portuguese and it really helped me pick new vocabulary, expressions and specially with pronunciation, rhythm and intonation. Nowadays I would like to watch TV in German and Indonesian, but sadly I don't have access to TV channels in those languages .... so thanks God for the internet. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dagojr Groupie United States Joined 5580 days ago 56 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 119 of 134 06 October 2009 at 8:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have a quick question regarding using movies with subtitles.
Is it better for the subtitles to be in your target language or in your native language? In my situation specifically, I am a native English speaker and learning Russian. I'm wondering if I should primarily try to find DVDs with English or Russian subtitles. Edited by dagojr on 06 October 2009 at 8:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6900 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 120 of 134 06 October 2009 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Target subtitles are particularly useful because you can attach what you hear with what you see (similar to listening to a target language audio-book and reading the text in the same language). But that depends on how much you understand. Only you can judge what feels OK and not. For me, it only works in the languages I studied in school.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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