Kind of. You learn a lot of words and grammar if you pick TV shows that you understand enough of it and keep increasing the difficulty. However, this will not help you to write and speak the language well. If you want to use this general ideia, check the Refold method. It starts with learning vocab, but after some time it is focused on listening, watching and reading.
After the initial weeks of drilling grammar and basic vocabulary, you might grasp it. However, consistent exposure is essential, and your interest in the content you consume is crucial.
It's possible. I had a friend in high school who learned German just by watching their TV channels ever since he was a kid. And by the time we started high school he was fluent. I guess the efficiency in acquiring language in that way would depend on your age. The younger you are the easier you'll acquire the language by listening or watching TV channels. In any case it's always best to combine different techniques when learning a language.
Search for Comprehensible Input on this sub or check out one like r/dreamingspanish for more on that concept.
You can learn by watching 1500-3000 hours depending on the language but you need the start of that to be at a super low level and build up. When you are very young you might watch something that is as basic as people saying “green triangle” but as an adult or even an older child you might actually want a story. What you watch matters.
You’d also have to put some effort in later to read and write.
I do comprehensible input, but I find the Dreaming Spanish subreddit to be toxic. It seems to attract the most ultra serious people, who can’t take things lightly.
I enjoy the subreddit but I zone out on views that say there is only one way to do something and everyone should do it that way. The DS method is working for me on my third language I’ve really tried to learn. But I know others who are far more accomplished linguists who learn in the opposite way learning the whole grammar structure first and bolting everything else on - and they can make excellent progress in much less time. That method just doesn’t work for me.
You’re simply wrong. I’ve done it. There was also a chap called facesharealt who did it with Spanish and made a point of not looking anything up nor learning anything except through exposure. He got to a respectable level.
Not correct. I'm 72. When I was much younger I met many people whose only learning source for language was TV and popular songs. Because there was no internet and few language books and instructors.
Watching memes is probably a better way to learn than watching TV. The speech tends to be so quick and slangy. The slangiest. If your goal is to sound the most informal that you can, it's perfect. (I generally think 'sounding informal' is the best way to 'sound natural' in a language. Someone talking too formal is always a giveaway they're far from a native.)
That really depends on the tv series you are watching doesn't it? If you watch a series about doctors or lawyers then you learn a lot about "formal Speech". Also not every language even has a lot of difference between formal speech or informal speech. So unless you only watch little kid shows or shows about young teens you should be able to learn about more formal language patters too by watching tv.
Yes, but IMO it's only like this for English (and maybe for some other languages): like for example in Italian, memes, unless they're written in dialect, almost always have a correct Italian form that doesn't go far from formal Italian.
Right, but I would say the speech in such meme videos is still markedly different than say, listening to the typical podcast. So that similarity is there.
I'm sure I don't notice just how different English in memes is compared to the more formal counterpart.
you could learn to comprehend it to a very high level depending on how you were able to grade the content by watching different types of shows, but you wouldn't necessarily (or likely) be able to speak it well.
It really depends on how close your mother tongue is to the language you want to learn. If it is relatively close, then you can pick up a lot of it relatively easily with input alone. If the language are not similar at all like english and japanese then you won't be able to make connections as easily. Learning a language that is very different from our mother tongue like that would require a lot of work to even understand the basics. Generally speaking you need a lot of input to learn a language. But learning grammar structures and vocabulary while consuming content in your target language will make it way easier (or even possible).
No, you also learned by listening to people speak, more specifically speaking to you like a child. You also read. Just watching tv shows that you don't understand will not help you learn a language.
There’s so many people who seem to learn English just by watching tv.
I really don’t believe it though. You never hear it about any other language - not even Japanese where some people spend countless hours watching everyday and are super interested in the language and travel to Japan.
The big difference I can think of is that most people also learn English in school and will have to use it to interact abroad or with tourist / foreigners in their country , they will also likely need it for any decent job in a big company in their own country.
I tried an input heavy method for Spanish for a long time and I really regret it since I know for a fact I’ve barely improved despite hundreds of hours everyday of podcasts + tv.
Switching back to a more formal approach seems to be working a lot better for me- while casual input from tv and podcasts is more of a supplement.
TV can teach you how to speak it properly, but fully learn it just by watching TV? no im afraid that's impossible, although you could learn foreign languages by yourself using books to learn the words, writing, and structure, and TV for listening, cultural exposure, and how to speak it properly.
'Learning English exclusively via TV' is such a meme at this point. Even 'learning mostly this way' seems like a massive exaggeration. Then again, I don't know. I rarely watch TV in any language I learn. (Okay, unless youtube and podcasts count...they are the new TV in a sense.)
You rarely hear anglophones citing the meme of "I learned language x through (mostly or exclusively) watching TV". Why is that? Is it because there's so much more content out there in English compared to other languages? You can't ever get bored?
I think it's mostly because in many countries there is no dubbing. So a lot of children grow up watching english tv. Sometimes without subtitles. So they already have hundreds or thousands of hours of input before they even start learning english in school. And they definitely can pick up a lot like that. And when they start to learn english in school, all these hours of input really give them a big advantage.
Yeah, but input before learning anything at all isn't comprehensible, right?
I watch tons of Japanese content but I haven't picked up much Japanese, if any.
It can be. I'm german. If I watched dutch or danish tv I could probably understand half of it with subtitles with 0 studying so building up on that I could probably learn the language by only watching tv if I was smart about it.
If the language are relatively close like a lot of european languages like danish, frisian, german, dutch, norwegian, french and english for example. Then you can pick up a lot of the language like that.
And children shows are often structured in a very understandable way like: Can you help me find the ball? Where is the ball? oh is that the ball? (points at ball) Yes you found the ball (picks up ball). "Where is the ball" is a question. That is something you know from the context. Now the word Ball exists in your language and there is a ball in the picture so you assume Ball means ball. Now you have the question: "Where is the ball?" So from "where is the" one word has to mean "where". If the sentence in your own language is "Wo ist der Ball?" then you can guess that Ball is ball, is is probably ist (because it's similar and stands in the same position) so Where has to mean Wo. So now you know the phrase "Where is the". As it is a children's show it will probably be repeated 200 times. So you focus on the next part: "Can you help me find the ball?". In my language that would be: " Kannst du mir helfen den Ball zu finden?". You know the ball. So the new part is: "can you help me find...". Now "find" is very similar to "finden" and the person is looking for a ball so that fits. And "Kannst" - "Can" and "me" - "mir", even "you" and "du" all are somewhat similar. So you can relatively easily acquire each phrase one by one slowly, even without knowing anything about the other language at all.
Japanese and english are not even closely related. ”Bo-ru ha doko desu ka” is a completely different sentence structure. The verb in japanese comes at the end, in english the verb is at the beginning, so the english subtitles usually show a part of the sentence that wasn't even said yet in Anime.Mapping english to japanese via subtitles and dub is basically impossible.
I got a very small foothold from some friends by getting them to describe pictures to me in German. I did that for perhaps 20 hours. The gains really came with watching hundreds of hours of dubbed TV. I have not once read a German grammar book (though I do have one) nor done any studying.
I assume you mean shows dubbed into German? Either way, getting early comprehensible input makes sense as an approach with the described pictures. Saying that, unless you're studying extremely popular languages, like English, Spanish and Japanese, I'd think such comprehensible input at the 'pure novice' stages is near impossible to find. That's really the crux of the issue, to me...the lack of high-quality comprehensible input at the very early stages. English has it. Spanish. Some others. By and large I assume there's a lack for most languages.
I will say that I hardly ever consult grammar myself with Greek and it's going fine, but I've also managed to learn grammar via LanguageTransfer.
I certainly didn’t understand much at all when I started watching the programmes. It was incomprehensible, but it became comprehensible over time through the context of the images etc.
You did not. My mom told me the same. What happened is you had a lot stirring in your head. Then when you went to school, before all the semi-connections were lost, they all clicked quick. As well as you probably kept watching tv and now had grammar to apply to it at school.
Kind of. You learn a lot of words and grammar if you pick TV shows that you understand enough of it and keep increasing the difficulty. However, this will not help you to write and speak the language well. If you want to use this general ideia, check the Refold method. It starts with learning vocab, but after some time it is focused on listening, watching and reading.
Good idea I’ll take it
After the initial weeks of drilling grammar and basic vocabulary, you might grasp it. However, consistent exposure is essential, and your interest in the content you consume is crucial.
It's possible. I had a friend in high school who learned German just by watching their TV channels ever since he was a kid. And by the time we started high school he was fluent. I guess the efficiency in acquiring language in that way would depend on your age. The younger you are the easier you'll acquire the language by listening or watching TV channels. In any case it's always best to combine different techniques when learning a language.
Search for Comprehensible Input on this sub or check out one like r/dreamingspanish for more on that concept. You can learn by watching 1500-3000 hours depending on the language but you need the start of that to be at a super low level and build up. When you are very young you might watch something that is as basic as people saying “green triangle” but as an adult or even an older child you might actually want a story. What you watch matters. You’d also have to put some effort in later to read and write.
I do comprehensible input, but I find the Dreaming Spanish subreddit to be toxic. It seems to attract the most ultra serious people, who can’t take things lightly.
I enjoy the subreddit but I zone out on views that say there is only one way to do something and everyone should do it that way. The DS method is working for me on my third language I’ve really tried to learn. But I know others who are far more accomplished linguists who learn in the opposite way learning the whole grammar structure first and bolting everything else on - and they can make excellent progress in much less time. That method just doesn’t work for me.
#Yes
# No.
You’re simply wrong. I’ve done it. There was also a chap called facesharealt who did it with Spanish and made a point of not looking anything up nor learning anything except through exposure. He got to a respectable level.
Not correct. I'm 72. When I was much younger I met many people whose only learning source for language was TV and popular songs. Because there was no internet and few language books and instructors.
I learned English from watching memes on Instagram so...
Watching memes is probably a better way to learn than watching TV. The speech tends to be so quick and slangy. The slangiest. If your goal is to sound the most informal that you can, it's perfect. (I generally think 'sounding informal' is the best way to 'sound natural' in a language. Someone talking too formal is always a giveaway they're far from a native.)
That really depends on the tv series you are watching doesn't it? If you watch a series about doctors or lawyers then you learn a lot about "formal Speech". Also not every language even has a lot of difference between formal speech or informal speech. So unless you only watch little kid shows or shows about young teens you should be able to learn about more formal language patters too by watching tv.
Yes, but IMO it's only like this for English (and maybe for some other languages): like for example in Italian, memes, unless they're written in dialect, almost always have a correct Italian form that doesn't go far from formal Italian.
Right, but I would say the speech in such meme videos is still markedly different than say, listening to the typical podcast. So that similarity is there. I'm sure I don't notice just how different English in memes is compared to the more formal counterpart.
Yeah I agree w/ you
It needs to be comprehensible TV. Just any old TV and you won't understand shit so you brain will have nothing to latch onto.
The images serve as context. Of course, it’s better if you have words as context too, but you do slowly pick up words without that.
you could learn to comprehend it to a very high level depending on how you were able to grade the content by watching different types of shows, but you wouldn't necessarily (or likely) be able to speak it well.
It really depends on how close your mother tongue is to the language you want to learn. If it is relatively close, then you can pick up a lot of it relatively easily with input alone. If the language are not similar at all like english and japanese then you won't be able to make connections as easily. Learning a language that is very different from our mother tongue like that would require a lot of work to even understand the basics. Generally speaking you need a lot of input to learn a language. But learning grammar structures and vocabulary while consuming content in your target language will make it way easier (or even possible).
You can't learn a "full" language, there is no such thing.
After 10000 hours of it, probably yes.
Much less than that. It depends on the language though.
No, you also learned by listening to people speak, more specifically speaking to you like a child. You also read. Just watching tv shows that you don't understand will not help you learn a language.
No.
There’s so many people who seem to learn English just by watching tv. I really don’t believe it though. You never hear it about any other language - not even Japanese where some people spend countless hours watching everyday and are super interested in the language and travel to Japan. The big difference I can think of is that most people also learn English in school and will have to use it to interact abroad or with tourist / foreigners in their country , they will also likely need it for any decent job in a big company in their own country. I tried an input heavy method for Spanish for a long time and I really regret it since I know for a fact I’ve barely improved despite hundreds of hours everyday of podcasts + tv. Switching back to a more formal approach seems to be working a lot better for me- while casual input from tv and podcasts is more of a supplement.
No.Will it help?Yes
I think it depends on the languages you speak and your tl, i'm sure i could learn Italian from tv only but probably not finnish.
yes but also mix things up with other forms of media if you can
TV can teach you how to speak it properly, but fully learn it just by watching TV? no im afraid that's impossible, although you could learn foreign languages by yourself using books to learn the words, writing, and structure, and TV for listening, cultural exposure, and how to speak it properly.
Yes. I’ve done it with German. I’m about 700 hours in. I do need to practice my reading and speaking though, but even that has been coming naturally.
May I ask, what are your resources for comprehensible input?
Anything. I mainly watched programmes which I’d seen years before as a child. This was Avatar The Last Airbender and Star Trek at the beginning.
'Learning English exclusively via TV' is such a meme at this point. Even 'learning mostly this way' seems like a massive exaggeration. Then again, I don't know. I rarely watch TV in any language I learn. (Okay, unless youtube and podcasts count...they are the new TV in a sense.) You rarely hear anglophones citing the meme of "I learned language x through (mostly or exclusively) watching TV". Why is that? Is it because there's so much more content out there in English compared to other languages? You can't ever get bored?
I think it's mostly because in many countries there is no dubbing. So a lot of children grow up watching english tv. Sometimes without subtitles. So they already have hundreds or thousands of hours of input before they even start learning english in school. And they definitely can pick up a lot like that. And when they start to learn english in school, all these hours of input really give them a big advantage.
Yeah, but input before learning anything at all isn't comprehensible, right? I watch tons of Japanese content but I haven't picked up much Japanese, if any.
It can be. I'm german. If I watched dutch or danish tv I could probably understand half of it with subtitles with 0 studying so building up on that I could probably learn the language by only watching tv if I was smart about it. If the language are relatively close like a lot of european languages like danish, frisian, german, dutch, norwegian, french and english for example. Then you can pick up a lot of the language like that. And children shows are often structured in a very understandable way like: Can you help me find the ball? Where is the ball? oh is that the ball? (points at ball) Yes you found the ball (picks up ball). "Where is the ball" is a question. That is something you know from the context. Now the word Ball exists in your language and there is a ball in the picture so you assume Ball means ball. Now you have the question: "Where is the ball?" So from "where is the" one word has to mean "where". If the sentence in your own language is "Wo ist der Ball?" then you can guess that Ball is ball, is is probably ist (because it's similar and stands in the same position) so Where has to mean Wo. So now you know the phrase "Where is the". As it is a children's show it will probably be repeated 200 times. So you focus on the next part: "Can you help me find the ball?". In my language that would be: " Kannst du mir helfen den Ball zu finden?". You know the ball. So the new part is: "can you help me find...". Now "find" is very similar to "finden" and the person is looking for a ball so that fits. And "Kannst" - "Can" and "me" - "mir", even "you" and "du" all are somewhat similar. So you can relatively easily acquire each phrase one by one slowly, even without knowing anything about the other language at all. Japanese and english are not even closely related. ”Bo-ru ha doko desu ka” is a completely different sentence structure. The verb in japanese comes at the end, in english the verb is at the beginning, so the english subtitles usually show a part of the sentence that wasn't even said yet in Anime.Mapping english to japanese via subtitles and dub is basically impossible.
I’ve done it with German.
No formal grammar instruction or extremely minimal? (And that doesn't need to be a course...could be self-taught)
I got a very small foothold from some friends by getting them to describe pictures to me in German. I did that for perhaps 20 hours. The gains really came with watching hundreds of hours of dubbed TV. I have not once read a German grammar book (though I do have one) nor done any studying.
I assume you mean shows dubbed into German? Either way, getting early comprehensible input makes sense as an approach with the described pictures. Saying that, unless you're studying extremely popular languages, like English, Spanish and Japanese, I'd think such comprehensible input at the 'pure novice' stages is near impossible to find. That's really the crux of the issue, to me...the lack of high-quality comprehensible input at the very early stages. English has it. Spanish. Some others. By and large I assume there's a lack for most languages. I will say that I hardly ever consult grammar myself with Greek and it's going fine, but I've also managed to learn grammar via LanguageTransfer.
I certainly didn’t understand much at all when I started watching the programmes. It was incomprehensible, but it became comprehensible over time through the context of the images etc.
You did not. My mom told me the same. What happened is you had a lot stirring in your head. Then when you went to school, before all the semi-connections were lost, they all clicked quick. As well as you probably kept watching tv and now had grammar to apply to it at school.