Curious about learning from Television, movies
Hello,
I've heard that many people say that they learned languages through Tv. Later I heard that just passive listening isn't going to do anything. Right now I have a decent vocabulary but I don't know slang, and most spoken spanish is far to fast for me. I started watching some telenovelas and can generally make out the point of what is being said without the individual words ( I can get maybe 25%) of words spoken. Has anyone had experience with this?
Does your brain fill in the gaps or is it better to stop and try to learn each word you don't know?
4 Answers
I believe it's always good and helps to watch TV/Movies. Though I would treat it as an immersion assistant, not a key form of learning. As you're learning from lessons like the ones they have on this website, you'll start to notice things and understand more hearing it the "wild" in a movie. Either way your brain will slowly be becoming more accustomed to more spanish. Then one day with practice and learning you'll finish a movie and think, "Hey! I actually understood that and enjoyed the movie!". All that to say, yes, listening does do something. I say this from the experience, not theory.
From personal experience, watching movies and television programs can be an excellent way to develop an ear for a given language, but you are correct about one thing, passive listening isn't going to do anything. To make the most of this experience, you must be engaged in what you are doing. If you are not enjoying, or at least marginally interested in what is going on on the screen, you are likely to experience very limited results. To avoid fatigue, it can be helpful early on to break up longer movies or programs into shorter, more palatable chunks. As you begin to develop a better ear for the language, these chunks can grow progressively longer and longer. The best advice I can give you, though, is to make sure that you are limiting yourself to genres that capture your attention. The more engrossed you are in the program, the less likely you are to feel a sense of fatigue and the more you will benefit.
That being said, a more holistic approach that interweaves progressively more complicated forms of each of the four pillars of communication (reading, writing, speaking, listening) will probably result in more rapid results than simply watching tv/movies alone.
The best way is with DVD movies that can be watched in Spanish and English.
First in Spanish with English sub titles. You can enjoy the move and glance at the sub titles as you need to but don't read them focus on the movie. Keep in mind that the translations are not word for word so pause and break out the dictionary as needed.
Next, if you struggled, did not understand, or were focused on the English sub titles. Watch the movie in English with Spanish sub titles. Since you have already seen the movie you can focus on the sub titles and again pause when necessary.
Lastly, watch it again in Spanish with Spanish sub titles. This will help because you will hear one way to phrase it and see another. It does not always match. Also, you can now focus only on the language.
I have watched many movies like this stretching it over two to three days. Now, I just watch in Spanish but still use Spanish sub titles. However, I can't watch a Marvel flick only once so I watch them in English too. It is a more active approach than just watching something you are not really understanding.
It helps a lot if you watch the same film or episode several times. Suddenly speech starts to slow down..I agree with Andreknue, watch a bit of a film, or a programme, then watch that bit again, before moving on.
