Hi, my name is Ramses and I’m an addict. Hi Ramses! Addicted? To what? Well, watching television (the horror!). I mean, I watch television… a lot. I do it while I’m commuting, brushing my teeth, dressing myself, still half asleep… like… always. And until some years ago I was convinced it was a waste of time.
Still, I was watching television… a lot. All kind of stupid talk shows, movies (I still have a box of DVDs in English, which is just HUGE), series, reality shows, EVERYTHING. My mother always asked me why I was watching all this stuff, and if I didn’t get bored (she isn’t asking this anymore because the knows watching more television will make her son better at Spanish (and Mandarin!), love you mom!). Well, I didn’t, I just mindlessly watched television for thousands of hours. Now, if only I did that in Spanish. Hm…
Yes, people tell you that watching television is bad, that it’s a waste of time, that you shouldn’t do it. But at the same time they’re doing exactly the same. How do I know that? Well, if you see the numbers there’s no other possibility than that everyone’s watching television like crazy. The avarage American watched around 142 hours of television a month in 2008. No doubt that this number is way higher this year. But 142 / 30 = 4.7 hours PER DAY! That a huge f*ck*ng amount of trash going to your brain. I it only were in Spanish. Hm…
You see, you probably want to learn Spanish and do watch some things in Spanish. But did you do away all television watching in English (and/or your native language)? In English watching ~5 hours of television is just sick, in Spanish it means you’ll end up fluent! Heck, I’d even say: DO. IT. MORE!
Yes, make that 4.7 a nice round 5, or 6 or even an 8! It’s up to you, but do it in Spanish. It’s simply the right thing to do.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally agree if you have an intermediate/advanced level but watching TV when you are a complete beginner can quickly become very boring and unmotivating, don’t you think so?
Well, I can’t quite follow a part of your argument. You’re implying: people say that watching television is bad, people do it themselves => so it’s not bad.
Well, people do a lot of stuff that’s bad for them because people 1) can’t control themselves 2) don’t have any authority on what’s bad or not anyway.
Personally, I rather not watch lots of any TV. I am pretty confident there are other ways of learning Spanish instead of consuming lots of trash content (i.e. “Lost” rocks). Watch just the shows you like and get the off the Internet so that you don’t have to watch commercials as well.
Julien; especially as a beginner you should watch television in your target language (without subtitles!). I did it with Spanish and now I’m doing it with Mandarin. Next to reading it’s the fastest way to gain vocabulary and an understanding of the grammar.
lyzazel; where do I say you should watch things you don’t like? So far I know having fun is my mantra. The thing is that people think that watching lots of things they like is still a waste of time. But in Spanish it isn’t, because you learn from it.
Many learners don’t watch enough TV in their target language although it’s a known fact that it works really well. And you think Lost is trash? Maybe that’s your opinion, but I happen to like it. On the other hand I don’t like telenovelas, but that doesn’t mean I bash them or the people that like to watch them.
You concentrate on many languages at once and use textbooks to learn bits of each language. I happen to like learning a language to fluency and therefore I use tools that enable me to do this.
“Next to reading it’s the fastest way to gain vocabulary and an understanding of the grammar.”
Why not just stick to reading then if it’s faster?
wow, 142hrs per month? i have to try really hard to watch more german TV, but i still have trouble getting to 70. It works great, though. I’m trying to cram every free moment with german content, so it’s nice to have a pile of star trek: deep space 9 DVDs with german dubbed audio. I think i learn more from reading though, especially reading while listening to the audiobook.
Thanks for your answer Ramses. Anyway, which pleasure can you have watching Chinese TV now without understanding anything? How do you manage to overcome the boredom and the frustration?
doviende: you shouldn’t bet on one horse, but do different things. Every form of input is important.
Jullien; actually, I do. I’m lucky that I’m a fan of comedy, and often you can understand the situation in a comedy without understanding a word of what they’re saying.
Sorry to ask another question Ramses, but I am still wondering how could you learn a language when you don’t understand a single word of the tv programs ! Do you expect a kind of linguistic miracle after hundred of hours watching it ?:-)
It’s like a kid learning a language. You see things happening and hear people speak. After some hours you understand one word, then two, then a phrase, etc. You should read about the “TV Method”.
It’s nothing like a kid learning a language. Kids don’t learn languages from TV. They learn from their parents and peers. Kids pay special attention to their parents’ voices. Parents formulate their speech in a special way to facilitate understanding. They repeat things, they rephrase them, they reward understanding. The level of difficulty in normal TV is far, far too high for beginners to be of any practical use.
Thanks Ramses. I followed your advice and checked this TV method. So far it seems to be only an experiment. Some bloggers tried (many gave up) or are still trying it but as far as I know no one had yet reached fluency by using this method from the beginning.
Again, I don’t recommend you only do the TV method, but do spend many hpurs on watching television in your target language.
I’ll write a more lengthy post about how watching TV helped me.
Thak you very much for your posts.It is very helpful.We are weiting this post!
IMHO you’re better off doing LINQ in the beginning, and start watching TV when you can actually get the gist. Doing it earlier can’t hurt of course, but there faster ways to learn. Have you heard of input +1?
Of course I’ve heard of i + 1. But again; look at the TV Method.
This post is based on my own experience. Many people talk about learning languages without being fluent in another, so they have never experienced learning one from scratch. I watched Spanish TV almost from day one and it helped me a great deal.
This is the last time I’m going to say it (I think most people are too lazy to read the comments?): watching television shouldn’t be your only way of ’studying’!!!
All right, got it. For the record I’m fluent in 2 foreign languages.
“Of course I’ve heard of i + 1″….
…but you don’t believe it, do you? It’s supposed to be COMPREHENSIBLE input. Sit a beginner in front of Spanish TV and all he will hear is gibberish. If he can make out anything at all, it will take him a long, long time to even get to a level that would take you an hour to reach with a book.
From your comments before, Ramses, it appears you have previously studied Spanish using other methods so maybe _that_ is the reason you were able to get to a level to appreciate Spanish TV rather than by the apparently magical TV Method? You didn’t actually learn Spanish yourself using the TV Method from scratch, did you?
You got one thing right and that’s intensity. Don’t you think if you had read Spanish for 4 hours a day instead of watching TV, you’d be fluent even quicker? Maybe a lot quicker.
I guess if you’re going to watch TV anyway, AND if you are an intermediate to advanced learner then that is fine (but you’re probably better off listening to talk radio), but for a beginner it’s almost a complete waste of time. Almost because you could still pick up good pronunciation with some of that listening. I’m saying this from personal experience but then maybe I’m just too stupid to learn Spanish from TV.
Wow mate, three comments so far from you and ALL are negative!
Of course I believe in comprehensible input, and yes, I actually did do the TV Method from scratch but didn’t limit myself to only watching TV. But I dare to say that I learned most from watching TV combined with SOME learning, but that were just a few books.
And a modern kid DOES learn a lot from television. I’m a living example as I learned English at a young age by watching unsubtitled cartoons day after day, week after week.
You say that you’d be faster fluent in another language if you’d only read. But how is you listening comprehension after that? Can you produce correct sounds after it? No way! Listening is VERY important to learn vocab, grammar, etc. Combine this with watching television and you’re good. Why is watching television so good? Of course you won’t understand a thing in the beginning, but you get visual clues just like a kid gets. Combine this with reading and sentence, and you’re even better off.
I’m not saying you should neglect reading and speaking, but I see that serious televion watching isn’t common among language learners. And that’s weird, as listening is just one of the most important skills if you ask me.
“You say that you’d be faster fluent in another language if you’d only read. But how is you listening comprehension after that? Can you produce correct sounds after it?”
There’s a solution to that:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6366&PN=0&TPN=1
More negative feedback…
“Why is watching television so good? Of course you won’t understand a thing in the beginning,…”
Just what I was saying – it’s not *comprehensible* input so it is next to useless. And by comprehensible I mean the audio, not the visuals. You need to know some vocabulary first (hint: try reading) and the material has to be pitched so that MOST of it is understandable. And for TV that doesn’t include most standard broadcast material (we’re talking about beginners here).
“… but you get visual clues just like a kid gets.”
Well that could be a problem, not an advantage. If you can understand with only visual clues, why should your brain bother trying to decode the sound? If you want to learn mainly by listening I’d bet that talk radio is more efficient input (but still too difficult for beginners). At least you don’t have the overhead of all that visual processing your brain is doing with TV.
I do agree with you that listening is very important, particularly for pronunciation as you say, but it is far easier to pick up vocabulary and grammar through reading rather than by listening, so if you’re smart I’d concentrate on that. But do both.
It seems a wonderful idea – just watch some entertaining TV and absorb all that language effortlessly. Unfortunately, unless you have years to spare and unlimited patience, it’s just another language fad like the Listen-Read method mentioned by lingvoj below.
Some positive feedback… I quite like the Spanish Word of the Day posts. So you do read after all
Ramses: you have misunderstood me.
I adore Lost.
Thank you Ramses! You are doing a great job .A lot of people are looking for this kind of great site but sure could find it!I have a few questions:1 about TV and movies-actors use the language that consistes many difficult phrases slang .How you can 1)remember them understand them.2)use them-make these phrases yours?2)is a radio better than TV?3)I need to take IELTS academic 7,5 could you recommend a way to achieve it…4)after i have finished watch movie I feel like i have wast my time-my head is empty probably to remmember film we sould watch it 10 or even more times?
Regards,Andy
Slang is good, it means you’re learning a living language! To remember it you can pick out some phrases and enter them into you SRS. But trust me; the more television you watch, the better this colloquial language will stick and make sense.
1) What do you mean? Use these phrases yourself? Well, yes, but don’t force it. It’s quite difficult for a beginner to use a certain expression correctly, so you might want to keep yourself to ‘neutral language’ in the beginning.
2) In the beginning, yes. Because you get visual clues which make the input more comprehensible. Many people don’t get this I think, but it’s how I learn English and Spanish and how I’m currently learning Mandarin. Later on listening radio is a nice way to improve your listening comprehension when you have no television near, but I’d spend most time watching TV.
Another way to improve you listening is by listening music in your target language. I know that helped me a lot as well.
3) Ugh, I hate tests and actually don’t prepare myself for them. When I have a test in college I read over the grammar points in the book we use (Gente by Difusión). For vocab, general grammar and expression I rely on my Spanish level and always pass.
4) You won’t learn Spanish with one movie
. I almost never rewatch series or movies (Toy Story is the only exception; I can’t get enough of it!) and I’m doing fine. So if you want to watch the movie again; do it. If not; watch another movie. It’s not that you want to memorize the movie/episode, you only (should) want to enjoy it and get input.
@day_cart
It’s really easy to make something comprehensible. Visuals are a great help and you’ll be amazed how much the brain picks up even though you mostly rely on visuals. I get the feeling you never even tried watching large amounts of television in your target language as a beginner, so how can you react on this while sounding like an expert (to me it looks like you want to sound like an expert at least)?
I wrote this post after my own experiences watching TV. I’m not saying you should only watch television or that it’s the holy grail. I say that beginners don’t do it enough. And if someone is a raw beginner and doesn’t understand a thing, there’s always dubbed materials which helped me to start watching real stuff instead of dry books (‘real’ books are waaaay too difficult in the beginning and will frustrate the avarage learner more) or text books.
That’s the last thing I say about this, unless someone comes with something that hasn’t been mentioned yet in the post or comments.
I think the tv method is a very good way to learn your target language, along with reading and a little grammer its the best..!! its helping me with my spanish anyway. Its ok learning the grammer and the verbs from the books and then thinking “Yeah i know 200 – 300 verbs and all the pronouns and prepostions” Then comes the shock you get switching on the tv and understanding more or less nothing..!! thats what will happen. They are talking with the same grammer you have learned from the books but because its coming at you at 100 mile an hour its very hard to understand, but the more that you listen the more you seem to understand, its working for me..!!
p.s
I remember when we first bought sky tv in the uk years ago, i used to flick through most of the german channels and watch some things, i was not interested or even thinking on learning any of it.. but to this day 15 years later i remember all the days in the week and the numbers in german with a few phrases, no books no learning, just listening. The tv/radio method is very good..
Rames you inspire me to learn my own language properly, Its funny the amount of times you had to repeat what you mean yet people consistantly do not listen to what you are sayin. I do not understand how someone can say listening to the radio is better than watching TV either. Everyone should know body language is so powerful, as humans when we speak we use our hands,gestures different face expression, by watching TV the learner is able to add the language to the body expressions and get used to how fast they speak. I have come across many spanish learners and when it comes to speaking there pronounciation is poor and they can barely understand what is being said to them at normal pace, but give them a few excerises on paper they can do it.
keep up the good work rames
Thanks for the compliment, Joaquin. I guess body language is more important in Spanish than in other languages, it’s a pity that many people don’t realize that.
I love the L-R method, but I still have two things against it:
1) It can soon feel like studying, coausing you to stop. Of course, this is something personal and for the people that want to ’study’ in a natural way, the L-R method is a perfect fit.
2) It’s hard to find good materials. I once tried to make my own parallel texts, but this just takes so much time that I rather watch television and read a good book before bedtime.
Absolutely right!!!
You have a lot of patience with some writers here.