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"I learned English from watching..."

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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chelovek
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5847 days ago

413 posts - 461 votes 
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 1 of 97
27 August 2008 at 1:29am | IP Logged 
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
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 Message 2 of 97
27 August 2008 at 2:24am | IP Logged 
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

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Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 5771 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 
Works does it. Learned English did I from Star Wars. Try it you must. No! There is no try -- do or do not!
18 persons have voted this message useful



Jimmymac
Senior Member
United Kingdom
strange-lands.com/le
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Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French

 
 Message 4 of 97
27 August 2008 at 6:11am | IP Logged 
Meditate on this I will.
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NJMaverick
Newbie
United States
Joined 5915 days ago

34 posts - 36 votes
Studies: English*, Portuguese

 
 Message 5 of 97
27 August 2008 at 10:34am | IP Logged 
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
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823 posts - 987 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 6 of 97
27 August 2008 at 1:43pm | IP Logged 
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?
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Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
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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 
SamD wrote:
Anyone who claims to have learned English exclusively through watching The Price Is Right is exaggerating or has a very selective memory.

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

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armatura
Triglot
Newbie
Armenia
Joined 5752 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 
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



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