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"I learned English from watching..."

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
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Kotatko
Newbie
United States
Joined 5067 days ago

16 posts - 23 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: French, Russian, Czech

 
 Message 89 of 97
15 May 2010 at 8:44pm | IP Logged 
My Romanian friend claims to have learned most of her English from watching movies throughout her life and her English is almost flawless. Perhaps it is because she started watching these movies when she was a girl. She has had a few passive English lessons, but I was the first native speaker that she has ever met. Immersion is not enough. I have lived in Prague for over 4 years and still am at a beginner level of Czech. I never really started to comprehend things until I started studying it; having a Czech boyfriend has not really helped too much either. I still think self-study and language courses are the key to success.
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rjtrudel
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6587 days ago

36 posts - 56 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 90 of 97
23 August 2010 at 2:41am | IP Logged 

s_allard wrote:
I'm a
strong believer in the repetitive use of excerpts with closed-captioning where that is available. Note that this
is
not the same as subtitles of films. Closed-captioning in North America is the actual transcription (admittedly
not
always very accurate) of the spoken words.

That is the same thing as subtitles, as that's what we call closed-captioning in most of the rest of the world.
Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (closed captions) are never an exact transcription because most
people can't read subtitles as fast as they can hear while simultaneously trying to follow the action. On top
of that, as soon as you lose tone of voice you introduce ambiguity, so sentences that work perfectly well on
the soundtrack need to be completely rewritten for the subtitles.
William Camden wrote:
Oswald's Russian was apparently quite good, especially considering that he had
done badly in a formal exam only months before. He explained his relatively good Russian as resulting from
listening to Radio Moscow. There is however speculation that Oswald received intensive Russian-language
training at some point that year, perhaps from an intelligence agency.

Hmmm... If Oswald had had intensive formal training, he would have done well in a formal exam. If Oswald
had learned informally, that would explain the poor exam performance but reasonable conversational
proficiency.

Exams tend to test language knowledge rather than ability, after all...[/QUOTE]
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rjtrudel
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6587 days ago

36 posts - 56 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 91 of 97
23 August 2010 at 2:49am | IP Logged 
Quoting doesnt work so well on an ipad. Sorry........


"That is the same thing as subtitles, as that's what we call closed-captioning in most of the rest of the world.
Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (closed captions) are never an exact transcription because most
people can't read subtitles as fast as they can hear while simultaneously trying to follow the action. On top
of that, as soon as you lose tone of voice you introduce ambiguity, so sentences that work perfectly well on
the soundtrack need to be completely rewritten for the subtitles."

I think you are wrong. 99% of the cc i have watched in the US replicates exactly what is said. Subtitles on
movies do not. Maybe its different in the US but i leave cc on all the time and it DOES match. The only
caveat is live programming. Here the captioner has to keep up with the speaking and loses some words
here and there. However, when i watch a rerun of a live show, almost always the error have been
corrected. I watch hbo latino all the time and their closed captioning in Spanish matches what they dub
close to 100% . Same movie on dvd, the subtitles do not match.
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Keith
Diglot
Moderator
JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6537 days ago

526 posts - 536 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Mandarin
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 92 of 97
23 August 2010 at 1:22pm | IP Logged 
Let me add a little to help clear up a point.

Closed Captioning is not the same thing as Subtitles. Closed Captioning is for the hearing impaired. With that in mind, closed captioning includes words for sounds or sound effects, such as "raspberry." These things can't be heard by the hearing impaired but may be important to understand what is going on in the story. I haven't watched closed captioning in a long time so I can't give any other examples, but I would guess if the character on screen is hearing gunfire, the closed captioning will say something like <*gunfire*>. I don't recall how the sound effects are enclosed.

Subtitles are not for the hearing impaired so audible sounds are not included in subtitles. Subtitles are usually a cheap alternative to dubbing and so therefor are not in the same language as the original audio. However, I do know that China has subtitles on the majority of its TV programming, so the subtitles are actually in the same language as the original most of the time, which is Mandarin. But I believe it also helps Chinese people who don't speak standard Mandarin. I think it is also a good way to promote and maintain literacy of a script that uses thousands of different characters.

I hope that everyone will be able to understand the difference between Subtitles and Closed Captioning now.
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justberta
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5345 days ago

140 posts - 170 votes 
Speaks: English, Norwegian*
Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian

 
 Message 93 of 97
09 December 2010 at 10:13pm | IP Logged 
I wouldn't be learning language 6 right now if it weren't for endless hours and days in
my teens watching Dawson Leery and his Creek...
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koba
Heptaglot
Senior Member
AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5628 days ago

118 posts - 201 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French

 
 Message 94 of 97
11 December 2010 at 1:27am | IP Logged 
Well, I don't believe one can learn a language watching a single show, that's a bit
exaggerated, but if you do an immersion and combine a lot of material (Music, Movies,
TV Shows, etc) you can definitely develop your communication skills and it does feel
more natural this way than learning through books, at least from my experience.

I've learned most of my English having fun, so, translating songs to my native
language, rewatching movies with subtitles and other kinds of shows. I did that for 4
years and after that I could speak it pretty fluent. I didn't use any books, all I had
were online dictionaries and some people who I used to write to, and I picked up a lot
of grammar that way.

Nowadays English is no problem at all for me, I don't even have to think to speak it,
it just flows like it's my native language, even though I might commit mistakes
sometimes, I'm alright with that.
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justberta
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5345 days ago

140 posts - 170 votes 
Speaks: English, Norwegian*
Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian

 
 Message 95 of 97
11 December 2010 at 1:54am | IP Logged 
Of course I also translated endless songs, read books, listened to other TV channels,
websurfing, chatting. Same here I don't have to think to speak it. I can't say the same
for my native language anymore however...
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Deji
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5200 days ago

116 posts - 182 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Hindi, Bengali

 
 Message 96 of 97
15 December 2010 at 7:22am | IP Logged 
KTHN wrote:
chelovek wrote:
[QUOTE=jez] I'm Dutch and I have Dutch as my native language
and I actually reached an advanced level in English around the age of 12. All because of
the English language media that I was subjected to every single day.

So yeah, I'd have to say it's true, but only for younger people. Like how it gets more
difficult for people to learn a new language after a certain age.


I don't think that's true at all. I lived in the Netherlands teaching English, and althuogh
kids were exposed to tons of subtitled English media, they still were FAR from fluent
in English. Those that didn't have English lessons couldn't understand or speak it at all,
and those that were taking lessons still weren't proficient.


So saying that you learned from television is not a lie. It really isn't. It could feasibly
happen.


Interest has something to do with it, esp for kids.

But it is slow and frustrating without a good bit of vocab.

On the other hand, you could listen to a TL show instead of reading all these posts! (And writing your own!)


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