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Learning a language by watching TV? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| brumblebee Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6766 days ago 206 posts - 212 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 17 of 134 04 June 2006 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have neighbors from Sweden who moved here when their daughter, Josefin, was 2. Josefin's mom said that Josefin learned English just by watching tv, but now she has forgotten how to speak Swedish!
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| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7025 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 134 04 June 2006 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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My personal experience with tv is that I learned German and English for 90% or more from tv. German though is quite simular to Dutch so it's not wonder perhaps that I could understand German when I was around 6 years old (watching German Sesame street).
At primary school I have had a few basic English lessons but that would have been less than what I know of Spanish today. So when I got Sky Channel (British) I couldn't understand it. But I kept watching and after some time (months I think) I simply could understand it well. So simply by watching tv I could after a while understand what I at first could not understand. But Spanish? Somehow I don't think it would work with this language since it's quite different, also when it comes to grammar. English and German have some simularities with Dutch. But who knows what would happen if I would watch the Spanish Brady Bunch and Mr. Ed every day :) Sad enough I only have 1 Spanish channel and it's quite boring. I think that is important: that you watch something you like so you are very motivated to watch every day and pay close attention during watching the episodes. Learning is often easier/better when the activity is fun, when emotions are involved. Anyway, even if you don't learn everything, tv will increase your comprehension skills a lot and once you are fluent it's a great way of learning all the finer details of a language (e.g. slang). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Thuan Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6921 days ago 133 posts - 156 votes Speaks: Vietnamese, German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 19 of 134 04 June 2006 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that you can only learn a language by watching TV if that language is not too difficult from the languages that you know. Most of my friends have been watching Japanese movies for years, but none of them speaks any Japanese. It wasn't until I began my Japanese studies that I was finally able to pick up words and grammar from Japanese TV.
A Russian friend of mine told me that he had learnt most of his German by DALLAS. A Korean friend of mine told me that her Korean friend learnt Japanese by watching Japanese TV dramas with Korean subs. And I believe that this is possible. Korean and Japanese Grammar aren't that different. This probably works like a 'live' Assimil course. I just finished the TV drama 'Rondo'. It's a Japanese show with some Korean actors, so you have a lot of Korean dialogues with Japanese subtitles. I actually picked up some Korean expressions, which never happened to me before. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Taiko Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6760 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 20 of 134 05 June 2006 at 7:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I met a Japanese woman in China who had been studying Mandarin for 3 years (2 years in Japan and 1 in China). My Chinese friends used to tell me her Mandarin was fluent and also accentless so I asked how she had learnt it, she replied that she watched programs like the news, soap operas & films in Mandarin for 4-5 hours per night to supplement the work she did in reading and writing. Her English was also fautless although she spoke with a slight American accent :-) Apparently she used the same method to learn English.
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6759 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 21 of 134 05 June 2006 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm quite positive language-learning (unless it's a very similar dialect,
maybe) is impossible through passive TV-watching. You might learn to understand the odd word or phrase, but that's about it. However, television is a powerful tool for mimicry. If you repeat and mimic what people on TV say, you can really perfect your pronunciation and delivery. I read not too long ago at the NihongoJouzu blog about a Chinese woman (the blogger's colleague) who perfected her Japanese that way and is always mistaken for a native speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7025 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 134 05 June 2006 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder: how much do Dutch and English have in common?
I mean, I learned English from watching tv mostly. Then an English speaker must be able to do the same by watching Dutch tv. Are English and Dutch really that close to each other? Or maybe watching a lot of English movies with Dutch subtitles is also effective in the long run? On the other hand, then my parents should speak it now too and they don't. Maybe it has also to do with HOW you watch tv? Maybe you also have to pay close attention and need to WANT to understand? But I'm very curious how much Dutch and English resemble. Because if they don't from a scientific point of view, then one could learn other languages as well if you watch enough and correctly. Edited by tuffy on 05 June 2006 at 2:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frisco Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6847 days ago 380 posts - 398 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Italian, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 23 of 134 05 June 2006 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||
As far as basic grammar and vocabulary go, quite a bit. I don't think the sounds are too different, either. I remember watching something on TV recently and being puzzled because I thought I was listening to English, but I wasn't really understanding it. A few moments later I realized it was Dutch. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pentatonic Senior Member United States Joined 7238 days ago 221 posts - 245 votes | Message 24 of 134 05 June 2006 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't really know, but the times I have flown to europe via KLM and seen the Dutch movies or shows on the plane, the language has always struck me as sort a combination of German and English. Recently I saw an email in Dutch from a colleague and was able to easily understand the meaning by just by forgetting the spelling and concentrating on what the sound might be and the word order. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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