I personally never understand when people say they learned a language just through watching television. They must have some other input or way of knowing what the words mean, for example, translating as you watch. I think a lot of people create the false illusion that you can just put the TV on and absorb a language. When in reality it actually takes a lot of work and effort. Another great video Zoe, thanks 👍🏻
I totally agree👍 It's more important to tell people to have a realistic vision and practical strategies rather than just telling them to watch series or shows.
I mainly learned english by watching english films. Studying grammar and vocabulary is important, watching films is the best way to get used to the language next to living in the country.
Here's what I'm doing with Russian now trying to go from B1 to B2. 1) I start a series, I watch 1-3 episodes right through with RU subtitles, extensive watching for pleasure. 2) I then download the subtitle transcripts and read through them intensively translating all unknown words which automatically get added to a flashcard list. 3) After each transcript I will watch that episode again until I'm up to date and then continue with another 1-3 episodes extensively. I often forget words but I do pick up many, I try to find a balance between studying as intensively as possible but not so much that I get bored. I want to get through the series as fast as I naturally want to as if it were in my own language.
If you read Ferdinand de Saussure, you will discover that by hearing a language very often, although at first it sounds like a continuous melody, in time you get to make distinctions in that language, to separate words or parts of words etc. So it's definitely useful to watch series in the language you want to learn - especially if they are subtitled - , precisely when you are a beginner, because at some point you learn how to recognise words. You also acquire thus a very important passive knowledge of the language, which will be useful when you will start concentrating on books and grammar. At that moment, you will have the impression that something feels "natural" or seems to be "already known", without you wouldn't know exactly where from. In my country, half of the population that watched subtitled Spanish telenovelas in their youth have a pretty decent level of Spanish now :)
I am learning both Dutch and French through multiple avenues and I found that watching TV shows and movies are one of the best tools for those who don’t have much time or energy to devote toward learning a new language. Most of my ‘study’ sessions occur in the evening after work. I found that I needed to start with Kids shows to obtain vocabulary and general structure and then I was able to graduate to more complicated shows, although I had to watch multiple movies and shows before I could watch more casually. Also, Disney+ is a great source for language learning since most of the movies are dubbed and subbed in multiple languages. I’m definitely far from fluency in both languages, but I’ll get there someday! Good luck everyone! Thanks Zoe for the nice video!
I have learned Hindi by watching Cartoons since I was 4 years and now I'm 13 and I can speak both Hindi and English fluently ☺😇 Now I'm trying to learn Korean !
In my humble opinion, watching vlogs is more efficient. And you do get better results if you listen, not watch. As our eyesight helps us a lot. With most of series its quite possible to understand whats going on even if you dont speak language a lot. I started watching a turkish series as i am studying turkish, and after 45 mins time it was like i just was enjoying myself. So I switched to a turkish guy who was making vlogs about supermarkets and trips, and that was great! Series may work if you do some tasks, like retelling what you've seen but do the most people do it. I doubt it.
I always thought I'm too lazy for learning from watching. I focus on the action, story and totally forget about writing down the notes or just new words. But at certain level I see some advantages like training pronunciation while watching with subtitles or simply get used to the sound of new language. Also lately I really enjoyed the feeling when I can finally watch some videos without subtitles and still understand a lot 😄
I mostly learned english through games and videos, but I did have some basic lessons when I was young. I also read and wrote a lot and later I spoke it a lot. I think it also depends on what languages you already know. If I were to be able to learn through movies with almost no lessons, it would probably have to be german, Norwegian or Swedish, since I already am Danish and speak English and Dutch.
I think there are people who CAN learn a language just by watching television but they are rare and gifted Same type of thing where Malcomb in the Middle can instantly calculate the square root of 675849 in his head. You get my point .
I have definitely found it useful to improve my Spanish by watching Spanish films or films dubbed into Spanish. I use this in addition to my language studies and I find it helps enormously as it adds another layer of comprehension, context, slang etc.
Yes, watching films and t.v. is an effective way to learn. It's to be done in conjunction with other things. You will passively learn things as well as actively notably pronunciation, stress rhythm, tone pitch, set phrases. Your goal is to totally saturate your brain with the target language so much so that you internalize it. You can and should listen to your target language while you sleep for this reason. Vocab reinforcement while sleeping works. Not active learning but passive immersion and acquisition can and do happen passively including while sleeping.
Thank you for the timely and helpful video! I've been trying to jump on the bandwagon of "learning" through media, but was quickly overwhelmed by how much I couldn't recognise and understand. Recently however, I mindlessly watched a Korean video with Korean subtitles and was able to make out several dialogues and subtitles! As you shared, the use of media as a resource should be appropriate to one's level ☺
i must say watching movies and tv series is a pretty fun way to learn a language , but i feel like that would be 100 percent only for english . i my self never really learned english from school almost 95% of my vocabularry came from movies as i am a really big movie enthusiast and tv series it is a really nice way to learn . but on it has its own down sides : firstly if you only rely on them it would take you a verry long time to become decent in that language for me it almost took 3 TO 4 years to have my level and secondly it won't really help on the grammar side so you just have to memorize how the verbs are written and how the structure of the phrase is put . over all i would say it's more of a compliment than a method of learning
Dear Zoe, we are dying for a video from you that will provide us with the minute details of learning French right from scratch. So, plz plz plz save us. Lots of love from Bangladesh.
I didn't learn languages by watching movies, but I started, for example with English, with simple phrases, downloading apps that will help me for the pronunciation, and apps where I could speak with natives, THEN I started to listen to podcasts, to TedX speeches, EVERYTIME I could...etc etc Nevermind, it's how I'm now fluent in English. My schedule is : -Learn Basics, most common verbs, common sentences, most used words...etc -Start communicating with natives. -Listen to podcasts/watch movies... And it's done. I am now learning Turkish, I am intermediate. And I am at the second step of my schedule. :) Since I am a French native, who's originally Moroccan, and speaks Arabic and English, also can speak a bit German and Japanese, I fell in love with languages. (You can't tell my schedule isn't working because I'm now writing a comment in English, as I wasn't knowing anything at English, so it obviously worked. But it might not work for everybody)
I love your videos. You always give me some motivation to learn more. I am currently struggling with integrating in my routine arabic and russian studying sessions. Thanks for the tips. XOXO from Mexico City.
the rhythm and stress is different but with fluent english and 100 very basic words which are not cognate to english you will wind up fluent. start by substituting le for the everywhere. learn to be, to have, to want (etre avoir vouloir) tense construction is much like english aller+verb going to+verb avoir+verb seriously they are all indo european and not that different from german so you can do it.
I learned English at school. To improve my English. i watch series and movies in English plus English subtitles. If i did not properly understand what they said i can read it. If i do not unterstand the meaning I will google it. It helped me alot with grammar and ingreesed my vocabluary. I do the same in urdu but with English sub.
Thank you so much. this is clear cut and I barely get that from videos about languages. I need guidance and structure because I haven’t studied in a while and i’m always working.
You’re always an inspiration 🎉❤🎉🎉 million thanks Zoe 😊 I’ve followed all your videos and it helped me a lot with German learning on my own, it’s amazing and your method for an adult is absolutely practical and super useful, love your content and send you a lot of love as well! ❤
1:30 Personally I watch movies for entertainment, and If I learn some phrases or expressions like I did watching Spanish series (La casa de papel, Elite, Vis à vis, Rebelde....) I do it subconsciously, so it's a part of immersing oneself in the language.
La Casa de Papel* (You should capitalise the first letters) Élite* (You forgot the tilde) Vis a vis* (There is no tilde. Don't confuse it with French vis-à-vis.)
I love how you mentioned quality studying, and the way you separate your time and energy into morning and night study sessions, your strategy is very logical and easy to accomplish, I can definitely see the consistent studying in this method will generate results and that's very motivating. You, yourself is a great example, seeing how much you have improved your English in one year's time, thank you for sharing your insights and being so inspirational!
Apart from what you are so clearly explaining here, I think one aspect should be emphasized: Watching movies and series can be effective as ONE activity among several. You won’t be able to learn a language through JUST movies and series, but they can be one interesting learning tool alongside others. (And yes, I imagine that some people will now start to protest by mentioning Krashen and his input theory. Sorry, I don’t buy it. If you are old enough to comment on youtube, you are very probably too old to “acquire a language like a child” by just listening. And even if it works for some people, it will not be a quick or effective method, whereas it will be great in combination.)
Thanks for this video in my situation i learned some basic English when i was at high school but after that i never tried to learn English anymore but i really liked watching English series and movies but i always watched them in my native language subtitles but i could hear them speaking English all the time and after years of watching like maybe 8 years i can understand 80 percent of watching movies and i can speak and write like this which i never practiced or anything and i know it's not perfect but yeah i kinda acquired the language i didn't study it and I'm like at intermediate level all i can say is that it is possible to learn a language just by watching movies and series even in your own native language subtitles but also takes time like takes so many years
I learned English just through basic education at primary and secondary school and later with films/series/programs. That was it. No bilingual school, no academies, no private tutoring. I just paid attention in every single English class and remembered everything. By the time I got a scholarship for a 2 weeks summer course in Bristol, even though English had been my second foreign language in Bachillerato (equivalent to Preparatory and Baccalaureate or Junior and Senior Year) I had a B2 level.
I think for those like me and are not study focused with book or flashcard learning, watching tv and moves, reading books, playing videogames set to target language are great ways to learn once your at around A2. I wouldnt have gotten to intermediate had I not given up the books and just dove in, bc if i dont like a way of learning i'm not going to learn anything by forcing msyelf. Trying to do book things and flashcards just made me dread spanish bc it felt like a chore, but engaging with thigns meant for native speakers and just having fun made me learn more. If I'm watching something in a language i dont speak or a game has original audio in a language i dont speak i set the subtitles and menus to spanish. Now my weakest spanish skill is speaking since i left spain and its harder to coordinate time to play online gaes with my friends there due to time difference, but that's fixable.
By the way @Zoe.languages you have great pronunciation. I have 1 recommendation that may help improve it a tiny bit: you are saying “collity” for the word quality. It’s correct pronunciation is closer to “cuh wah lity”. Not trying to be nit picky. We all understand you so it’s not a big deal but it can help improve your pronunciation that much more for words that have the “qu” letter combination in English
@@zoe.languages 以前您的发音不错，现在更好。Your grammar was always good, your pronunciation though clear and comprehensible was halting; now your speech flows smoothly and more beautifully, basically like a native speaker. Whatever you are doing to improve is working!
I don’t want to disparage anyone in the language, learning community, I like a lot of the people involved in motivating people to learn languages… But as someone who went from being a monolingual English speaker to being able to speak three languages in addition to English, I think it’s an intentional miscommunication, as a way of attracting attention, and sort of getting people on a kind of bandwagon. The key to the falsehood of learning languages through watching series is that it’s never all someone does to learn language… It’s just what they spend most of their time doing or they’re culling that material for common vocabulary, grammar, field, specific, Terminology, etc. It’s also one of the most indispensable ways to accomplish ear training for a specific language. But if you really look at the methodology of most of the people, saying they were the language by watching series on Netflix or wherever else, it’s never all they’re doing, it’s a component of a larger framework that usually involves a lot of hours with spaced, repetition, software, and some kind of grammar resource. The only people, for example, that I’ve heard tell me this who have successfully learned another language (in this case, English) were people that watched a lot of TV, but they forget that they also went to school where they spent a ton of time in contact with English, and it was necessary for daily living . But watching TV was never all they did either. Great video, it was absolutely spot on!
Hi, Zoe! Thank you for this video! I'm studying Levantine Arabic, and, as you know, it's not easy to find learner-friendly TV content. You mentioned watching Turkish TV with Syrian Arabic dubbing. Where did you watch this? And were there also subtitles in Syrian Arabic?
All language learning is about repetition and imitation. Imitation is a basic instinct skill of humans as a species. From experience, the earlier the individual starts learning several languages at once, the better the brain of that very individual retains information. Imitation is underrated because people have limiting beliefs and limited time to devote to learning new skills or languages. One needs to be as enthusiast as a baby or a child in exploring and learning new words, new concepts, new things. It is also better for someone to plan a language learning as a long run venture. To make it short, repetition, imitation and genuine motivation make it through the journey of polyglots.
My native language is Serbian. I was born and raised in Serbia. As a kid I watched Hollywood movies (with subtitles) and listened to music in English. When we started learning English at school in 5th grade it took me a bit to figure out how to read and after that it was smooth sailing. The teacher actually asked my dad if we ever lived in the US or if I had English classes before. Now as an adult I am learning a few languages and still the best way for me is through listening and reading but now I have to incorporate some grammar and a lot of exercises as well. Nailing the accent takes me a bit longer as well. As a kid I wasn't learning English, I was watching movies and listening to music. I also had a lot more free time.
I personally learned english through watching movies and series since I was young, but i’ve never intentionally watched them to learn the language i just picked it up with time
I don't recommend using the dubbing and the translated subtitles at the same time ever, because they are made with different rules in mind (dubbing has to match mouth movements, for example, and subtitles don't, but subtitles have less room to work with than dubbing generally), so the translations used for the dub and the subs will rarely match completely. Stick to one or the other. When you use subtitles in the same language as the original, they are made to match the original audio as closely as possible.
Subtitles are more for translations and captions are for what is actually being said, so if you have German audio, the German captions will match but not the subtitles. Captions are usually indicated with a (CC), so look for that if you can!
as a starter to mid level I wouldnt recommenned this at all. Go READ stories (kids stories) /books. only on high level watch movies with subtitles of target language and repeat the subtitles out loud! this way I learned german, english, french and now I am working on my korean. afterwards japanese. and then in the end finally Chinease (as the endboss) and if you know english its way easier to learn german. because english is a simplified version of german in the end. its a derivative of german. an easier version. its Angel(sächs)isch = english. they have way simplified conjugation and no der, die, das and the other problems which come by having der, die , das. english got only die = the. e.g. die lampe = the lamp
My english is not good. I watch movies and videos on youtube. Since 3weeks. But every day 3hours learning😅. y también español. pero todavía muy poco. Poco poco😅😅😅
I like that you got right to the point Zoe. So yes I'm an A2 so I began watching films- Nettlix is great to use subtitles in OTHER LANGUAGES- it's worth the money.
I find reading subtitles is ok on a ' second pass' through a film, when I hae picked up the gist, but there are still many points of uncertainty. That also helps with recognizing the rhythm and pronunciation, which I then immediately vocalise under my breath, because that helps me to internalise and then eventually use the language I have just been exposed to. I also find that subtitles help even if they are translations into my own language (English), because then I can 'back translate' into the source language of the film ('oh, so that's how they say it!')
I am ashamed to admit I actually did learn most of my english from anime subtitles. Since 99% of the comments don't believe I actually did, maybe you will understand once I explain how. I was a kid, started watching anime in my native language (not english) at around the age of 13. I started watching so much anime, I indeed felt like wasting most of my time. To make myself feel better about wasting so much time, I decided to watch it with english subtitles and japanese dub. I went from school worst passing grade to the topgrade in my school at around age 15 in half a year. The reason y'all don't believe it, is because it doesn't work for you. It is possible when you have the mindset of learning instead of passively watching things. Even when I watched anime, I paused multiple times to google the words to understand them better. Also I strongly believe the power of youth (and being less distracted by things you will encounter as an adult such as work, or rent and such). When you are young, you pay more attention to things you do because they hold more significance. One big factor as well was that my native language is german. It is basically english. So that's another factor. And probably me being multilingual (vietnamese heritage). Everything accounted, you can say it was indeed very easy for me to learn english.
i believe you bro. i saw a huge improvement in my english after i watched anime in english subtitles and i also read manga in english now. they helped me a lot
Subtitles for Arabic would be awesome if they matched the dialogue. Unfortunately most times the subtitles are in the formal language while the actors are speaking informally.
من خیلی خوشحال میشم که میبینم ویدیوهای شما زیرنویس فارسی دارد و من هم میتوانم از دانش شما استفاده کنم.امیدوارم به درجهای از تسلط در زبان فارسی برسید که بتونید از خواندن و فهم اشعار فارسی لذت ببرید♥️
watching youtube videos & tv shows helped me the most when i was learning english. when i was younger i couldn’t care less about english classes, but consuming content online & attending classes (even though i scrolled on my phone the whole time haha), helped me to become more fluent. sadly, i never learnt grammar, so even though my level is C1 (i just finished academic english course at uni), i struggle with basic grammar. now i’m trying to learn german and i’m starting to practise my grammar from the very beginning & studying vocabulary in context. however, even though i’ve been trying to learn german for years, it just never sticks to me. a few days ago i started to binge a new netflix show and decided to watch it in german with english subtitles (ik many people say that it’s a bad way to study languages and that it’s not helpful). hooowever, now i’m starting to recognize some words and after a whole day of binge watching the tv show, sooo many german words sound in my brain. i think that tv shows are a great way to expose yourself to a new language and it just makes studying vocabulary and grammar much simpler.
I want to learn english too, but ı don’t know where to start. I don’t know which one will be grammar listening reading speaking writing first. Do you have any advice for me?
Learning Spanish for almost 3 years. And it all depends. Watching something dubbed into Spanish is easy for me but that accent isn't natural as it's almost too clear, kinda like a news caster in English. Watching something from a native country for me is better but what's better for me is youtubers in your target language. I tend to not use subtitles also unless I really need to, probably is 10% of the time.
Have you met someone who always bragging about not studying but keep getting good score at school? Those guys who only bragging just learn language by watching movies/anime/drama are same with them. They want to regarded as genius. What they dont tell you is that they also look up for grammar, expression that they dont understand and some of them also do flashcard review. There is nothing wrong or shame if you learning language by STUDYING, even by yourself. Another claim that I also hear from language learner is that they always watch movie when they was kid, so if it works for them in english, it must be working for them for other languages too. I think most of us underestimate how much we have spent learning English at school. I was corrected thousand times at school, before I can speak properly. Maybe the case is not same with everyone, but I think most of us, are able to speak english because we learn at school when we young.
this techique is really fun and doable, but only with rewatching the same movie or tv episode over and over again, and learning each word the first like 10 watches
I just want to point out that reading is the best way to improve your language. Watching videos with subtitles is like listening while you follow along with a book except there are visual cues if you watch the actors and listen to their tone of voice. When you are first starting reading in a foreign language you do the same things Zoe describes for beginners in this video. Ditto for intermediate and advanced. Beginners need to spend a LOT of time translating and should have the script to accompany native speaker pronunciation.
This video is so useful for me and every learner language. I'm learning English. Thank you. I want to write much words in comment, but I can't because my english is little. Thank you a lot miss Zoe👍👍
I mean I grew up in the Philippines and learned English by watching and playing videogames and I got 9.0 in my IELTS so I think it works but I don't think it works for everyone
Hello Zoe and friends! I know this question is of a topic different to what is presented here - but to some extent there may be a connection as it all relates t interest and what you find engaging in a language. Especially Zoe, i admire your focus and dilligence when it comes to your studies! How do you let go of a language without the guilt? how do you literally say 'goodbye' to a language and not struggle to feel badly? it's been very difficult and i'd really like your thoughts on this and/or others too
Thank you so much for your awesome lesson. I like watching movies or series with learning. It is not stressful in any situation. I was watching a movie when l saw the grammar structure but l did not use vocabulary and expression. I will try it. It was tips great.
I think as a beginner you can still learn things such as intonation and try to hear new words by hearing them several times and looking them up. I srill watch movies in my target language with both TL subs and English subs. this has more to do with absorbing how pwoplw speak naturally and try to catch some words here and there. I think we can learn by enough exposure however you still need to know enough words to obly be using movies as learning material (aprox early B1 in my opinion.) I am currently using Busuu and watching alot of movies for learning French
This was such a helpful video! Do you think you could do how to read in another language? Just in terms of leasure reading, how to learn new works through sentence context, etc
yes naam bali ja I listen to many songs in arabic turkic uighur siberia urali africa Tibet india many languages and if you love it you can get the modd and love I would love to hear you sing
Hi! I'm gonna be 24 y/o next year and plan to take second degree in German or Spanish language because my local university offer double degree for exchange students. But my parents are reluctant to let me continue study because currently just start working at a bank. I don't think I can survive working at the bank and kinda overwhelmed for me even though i just joined it for around two months. I'm not good with talking with my parents, but i don't want to feel regret not doing something I want in future.
People always tell me that they learned x language by watching tv. Let me tell you, that does NOT work for me. I had to really get down and study. Then I had to have an immersion experience. But tv?! Nope lol. It’s way more helpful once I was at an A2 or b1 level just to hear the language since I’m no longer in the country. That said lingopie is the exception but because it’s tv but with the educational aspect. Not just Netflix to watch Netflix
I've watched anime for 10 years now, and I usually understand what the characters are saying without subtitles, but I still don't understand all of it. So if I watch so much anime it would be a shame to not understand Japonese. Like, I learned english from video games and from sitting on computer all day, and my english is somewere at a B2 level.
Another tool I'd recommend is Language Reactor! It's similar to LingoPie and Reverso subtitle translations. Also, a strategy I found helpful is to gather all a list of words used in a series, identify the 80% most used words used throughout the series and/or an episode, learn them via flash cards, and then watch an episode with only subtitles in the target language relying on context for understanding the rest. I'm not too fond of rewatching movies/episodes so this maximizes what I can passively learn from an episode
I'm in the intermediate level but I still make mistakes and i can't speak it fluently, i wanna get the C level but i couldn't make any progress, and I'm wondering is one year enough to be advanced and fluent?
I personally never understand when people say they learned a language just through watching television. They must have some other input or way of knowing what the words mean, for example, translating as you watch. I think a lot of people create the false illusion that you can just put the TV on and absorb a language. When in reality it actually takes a lot of work and effort. Another great video Zoe, thanks 👍🏻
I totally agree👍 It's more important to tell people to have a realistic vision and practical strategies rather than just telling them to watch series or shows.
They say it to seem smart. A little bit pathetic.
@@zoe.languages Hi I want ask you do you maybe be i Poland or you know somebody from Poland ?
It did play an important role in my learning of English but I can't dismiss the years of high school and uni with English classes.
@@piotrra8811 Hi, I live in Poland now.
I mainly learned english by watching english films. Studying grammar and vocabulary is important, watching films is the best way to get used to the language next to living in the country.
👍
are films good for a beginner?
agreed
You're right but , in this way you should spand a lot of time watching films
@@mohammedmajed7852 yes
Here's what I'm doing with Russian now trying to go from B1 to B2.
1) I start a series, I watch 1-3 episodes right through with RU subtitles, extensive watching for pleasure.
2) I then download the subtitle transcripts and read through them intensively translating all unknown words which automatically get added to a flashcard list.
3) After each transcript I will watch that episode again until I'm up to date and then continue with another 1-3 episodes extensively.
I often forget words but I do pick up many, I try to find a balance between studying as intensively as possible but not so much that I get bored. I want to get through the series as fast as I naturally want to as if it were in my own language.
Have you tried mnemonics for remembering words or putting them in context instead of isolating them?
Do you have a precise app that you use? I’ve heard of Lingo pie, but I am wondering what you use
If you read Ferdinand de Saussure, you will discover that by hearing a language very often, although at first it sounds like a continuous melody, in time you get to make distinctions in that language, to separate words or parts of words etc. So it's definitely useful to watch series in the language you want to learn - especially if they are subtitled - , precisely when you are a beginner, because at some point you learn how to recognise words. You also acquire thus a very important passive knowledge of the language, which will be useful when you will start concentrating on books and grammar. At that moment, you will have the impression that something feels "natural" or seems to be "already known", without you wouldn't know exactly where from. In my country, half of the population that watched subtitled Spanish telenovelas in their youth have a pretty decent level of Spanish now :)
I disagree, it all sound like baby gibberish. And there is no logical explanation as to why the language is structured or spoken the way it is.
@@brandon9638 you should have some structured learning, of course.
@@LisaSoulLevelHealing That doesn't make much difference.
I am learning both Dutch and French through multiple avenues and I found that watching TV shows and movies are one of the best tools for those who don’t have much time or energy to devote toward learning a new language. Most of my ‘study’ sessions occur in the evening after work. I found that I needed to start with Kids shows to obtain vocabulary and general structure and then I was able to graduate to more complicated shows, although I had to watch multiple movies and shows before I could watch more casually. Also, Disney+ is a great source for language learning since most of the movies are dubbed and subbed in multiple languages. I’m definitely far from fluency in both languages, but I’ll get there someday! Good luck everyone! Thanks Zoe for the nice video!
Thank you for sharing ! Disney+ is absolutely a good idea! 👍
Veel geluk met het studeren 🤓
I have learned Hindi by watching Cartoons since I was 4 years and now I'm 13 and I can speak both Hindi and English fluently ☺😇 Now I'm trying to learn Korean !
In my humble opinion, watching vlogs is more efficient. And you do get better results if you listen, not watch. As our eyesight helps us a lot. With most of series its quite possible to understand whats going on even if you dont speak language a lot. I started watching a turkish series as i am studying turkish, and after 45 mins time it was like i just was enjoying myself. So I switched to a turkish guy who was making vlogs about supermarkets and trips, and that was great! Series may work if you do some tasks, like retelling what you've seen but do the most people do it. I doubt it.
I always thought I'm too lazy for learning from watching. I focus on the action, story and totally forget about writing down the notes or just new words. But at certain level I see some advantages like training pronunciation while watching with subtitles or simply get used to the sound of new language. Also lately I really enjoyed the feeling when I can finally watch some videos without subtitles and still understand a lot 😄
I mostly learned english through games and videos, but I did have some basic lessons when I was young. I also read and wrote a lot and later I spoke it a lot.
I think it also depends on what languages you already know. If I were to be able to learn through movies with almost no lessons, it would probably have to be german, Norwegian or Swedish, since I already am Danish and speak English and Dutch.
I think there are people who CAN learn a language just by watching television but they are rare and gifted Same type of thing where Malcomb in the Middle can instantly calculate the square root of 675849 in his head. You get my point .
I have definitely found it useful to improve my Spanish by watching Spanish films or films dubbed into Spanish. I use this in addition to my language studies and I find it helps enormously as it adds another layer of comprehension, context, slang etc.
You always have a way of dropping something that's relevant to where I'm at in my language journey.
Great as always
Yes, watching films and t.v. is an effective way to learn. It's to be done in conjunction with other things. You will passively learn things as well as actively notably pronunciation, stress rhythm, tone pitch, set phrases.
Your goal is to totally saturate your brain with the target language so much so that you internalize it. You can and should listen to your target language while you sleep for this reason. Vocab reinforcement while sleeping works. Not active learning but passive immersion and acquisition can and do happen passively including while sleeping.
Thank you for the timely and helpful video! I've been trying to jump on the bandwagon of "learning" through media, but was quickly overwhelmed by how much I couldn't recognise and understand. Recently however, I mindlessly watched a Korean video with Korean subtitles and was able to make out several dialogues and subtitles! As you shared, the use of media as a resource should be appropriate to one's level ☺
Yes, the point is how to use these series as learning resources in a realistic and effective way.
That was really useful. I used to do this to practice the pronunciation. But now I have to focus deeply and challenge myself. Thank you ❤️
i must say watching movies and tv series is a pretty fun way to learn a language , but i feel like that would be 100 percent only for english .
i my self never really learned english from school almost 95% of my vocabularry came from movies as i am a really big movie enthusiast and tv series
it is a really nice way to learn . but on it has its own down sides : firstly if you only rely on them it would take you a verry long time to become decent in that language for me it almost took 3 TO 4 years to have my level
and secondly it won't really help on the grammar side so you just have to memorize how the verbs are written and how the structure of the phrase is put .
over all i would say it's more of a compliment than a method of learning
this is exactly why it is important to combine the two kinds of resource to cover different skills
Dear Zoe, we are dying for a video from you that will provide us with the minute details of learning French right from scratch. So, plz plz plz save us. Lots of love from Bangladesh.
In the schedule 😉
Can’t wait for it zoe!!!!
Off-topic here, but the turtleneck, the earrings, the ponytail, the pelitos, GIRL, you are so beautiful!!
انتي فعلا جاوبتي علي كل الاسئله اللي انا كنت عايزة اعرفها شكرا ليكي زوي 🫶🏻
I didn't learn languages by watching movies, but I started, for example with English, with simple phrases, downloading apps that will help me for the pronunciation, and apps where I could speak with natives, THEN I started to listen to podcasts, to TedX speeches, EVERYTIME I could...etc etc
Nevermind, it's how I'm now fluent in English. My schedule is :
-Learn Basics, most common verbs, common sentences, most used words...etc
-Start communicating with natives.
-Listen to podcasts/watch movies...
And it's done.
I am now learning Turkish, I am intermediate. And I am at the second step of my schedule. :) Since I am a French native, who's originally Moroccan, and speaks Arabic and English, also can speak a bit German and Japanese, I fell in love with languages.
(You can't tell my schedule isn't working because I'm now writing a comment in English, as I wasn't knowing anything at English, so it obviously worked. But it might not work for everybody)
Thank you for sharing your experience with us 👍
@@zoe.languages And thank you for responding to my comment, it's a honor💞
I love your videos. You always give me some motivation to learn more. I am currently struggling with integrating in my routine arabic and russian studying sessions. Thanks for the tips. XOXO from Mexico City.
I am learning French with Miraculous ladybug. İt is hard to learn but I will do it no matter what happens. Thank you for this video, Zoe ❤️❤️❤️
Pour moi, l'Allemand est plus difficile, probablement vu que j'ai appris le Français depuis l'école primaire 😅😅😅
Keep going!
the rhythm and stress is different but with fluent english and 100 very basic words which are not cognate to english you will wind up fluent. start by substituting le for the everywhere. learn to be, to have, to want (etre avoir vouloir) tense construction is much like english aller+verb going to+verb avoir+verb seriously they are all indo european and not that different from german so you can do it.
I learned English at school. To improve my English. i watch series and movies in English plus English subtitles. If i did not properly understand what they said i can read it. If i do not unterstand the meaning I will google it.
It helped me alot with grammar and ingreesed my vocabluary.
I do the same in urdu but with English sub.
I do the same 👍
Thank you so much. this is clear cut and I barely get that from videos about languages. I need guidance and structure because I haven’t studied in a while and i’m always working.
شكرا لك يا زوي.
انا أتابع فيديوهاتك من المانيا.
وأيضا أتعلم اللغة المانية.
You’re always an inspiration 🎉❤🎉🎉 million thanks Zoe 😊 I’ve followed all your videos and it helped me a lot with German learning on my own, it’s amazing and your method for an adult is absolutely practical and super useful, love your content and send you a lot of love as well! ❤
I am so glad ☺️
1:30 Personally I watch movies for entertainment, and If I learn some phrases or expressions like I did watching Spanish series (La casa de papel, Elite, Vis à vis, Rebelde....) I do it subconsciously, so it's a part of immersing oneself in the language.
La Casa de Papel* (You should capitalise the first letters)
Élite* (You forgot the tilde)
Vis a vis* (There is no tilde. Don't confuse it with French vis-à-vis.)
Hope you enjoy 😉
exactly. passive learning works.
I love how you mentioned quality studying, and the way you separate your time and energy into morning and night study sessions, your strategy is very logical and easy to accomplish, I can definitely see the consistent studying in this method will generate results and that's very motivating. You, yourself is a great example, seeing how much you have improved your English in one year's time, thank you for sharing your insights and being so inspirational!
Apart from what you are so clearly explaining here, I think one aspect should be emphasized: Watching movies and series can be effective as ONE activity among several. You won’t be able to learn a language through JUST movies and series, but they can be one interesting learning tool alongside others.
(And yes, I imagine that some people will now start to protest by mentioning Krashen and his input theory. Sorry, I don’t buy it. If you are old enough to comment on youtube, you are very probably too old to “acquire a language like a child” by just listening. And even if it works for some people, it will not be a quick or effective method, whereas it will be great in combination.)
thank you my dear zoe ❤
ممنونم زویی جون ❤
اتشكر منك محبوبي زويي ❤
wow interesting, I'll try to do it to improve my English since I speak Spanish, thank you so much!! ✨
Thanks for this video in my situation i learned some basic English when i was at high school but after that i never tried to learn English anymore but i really liked watching English series and movies but i always watched them in my native language subtitles but i could hear them speaking English all the time and after years of watching like maybe 8 years i can understand 80 percent of watching movies and i can speak and write like this which i never practiced or anything and i know it's not perfect but yeah i kinda acquired the language i didn't study it and I'm like at intermediate level all i can say is that it is possible to learn a language just by watching movies and series even in your own native language subtitles but also takes time like takes so many years
It’s useful to learn to identify the rhythm and word demarcations. Our brains tune in quite quickly. Before that, it’s just mush.
I learned English just through basic education at primary and secondary school and later with films/series/programs.
That was it.
No bilingual school, no academies, no private tutoring.
I just paid attention in every single English class and remembered everything.
By the time I got a scholarship for a 2 weeks summer course in Bristol, even though English had been my second foreign language in Bachillerato (equivalent to Preparatory and Baccalaureate or Junior and Senior Year) I had a B2 level.
I think for those like me and are not study focused with book or flashcard learning, watching tv and moves, reading books, playing videogames set to target language are great ways to learn once your at around A2. I wouldnt have gotten to intermediate had I not given up the books and just dove in, bc if i dont like a way of learning i'm not going to learn anything by forcing msyelf. Trying to do book things and flashcards just made me dread spanish bc it felt like a chore, but engaging with thigns meant for native speakers and just having fun made me learn more. If I'm watching something in a language i dont speak or a game has original audio in a language i dont speak i set the subtitles and menus to spanish. Now my weakest spanish skill is speaking since i left spain and its harder to coordinate time to play online gaes with my friends there due to time difference, but that's fixable.
By the way @Zoe.languages you have great pronunciation. I have 1 recommendation that may help improve it a tiny bit: you are saying “collity” for the word quality. It’s correct pronunciation is closer to “cuh wah lity”.
Not trying to be nit picky. We all understand you so it’s not a big deal but it can help improve your pronunciation that much more for words that have the “qu” letter combination in English
Got this video on my YT recs just as I finished watching Wednesday in German. RUclips algorithm never ceases to amaze me.
😂😂😂😂 wow
老师的英语发成为硬更好的！
Your English pronunciation has improved! 恭喜恭喜
谢谢，慢慢进步吧！
@@zoe.languages 以前您的发音不错，现在更好。Your grammar was always good, your pronunciation though clear and comprehensible was halting; now your speech flows smoothly and more beautifully, basically like a native speaker. Whatever you are doing to improve is working!
Discipline and perseverance and immersion.
I don’t want to disparage anyone in the language, learning community, I like a lot of the people involved in motivating people to learn languages… But as someone who went from being a monolingual English speaker to being able to speak three languages in addition to English, I think it’s an intentional miscommunication, as a way of attracting attention, and sort of getting people on a kind of bandwagon.
The key to the falsehood of learning languages through watching series is that it’s never all someone does to learn language… It’s just what they spend most of their time doing or they’re culling that material for common vocabulary, grammar, field, specific, Terminology, etc.
It’s also one of the most indispensable ways to accomplish ear training for a specific language. But if you really look at the methodology of most of the people, saying they were the language by watching series on Netflix or wherever else, it’s never all they’re doing, it’s a component of a larger framework that usually involves a lot of hours with spaced, repetition, software, and some kind of grammar resource.
The only people, for example, that I’ve heard tell me this who have successfully learned another language (in this case, English) were people that watched a lot of TV, but they forget that they also went to school where they spent a ton of time in contact with English, and it was necessary for daily living . But watching TV was never all they did either. Great video, it was absolutely spot on!
Hi, Zoe! Thank you for this video! I'm studying Levantine Arabic, and, as you know, it's not easy to find learner-friendly TV content. You mentioned watching Turkish TV with Syrian Arabic dubbing. Where did you watch this? And were there also subtitles in Syrian Arabic?
All language learning is about repetition and imitation. Imitation is a basic instinct skill of humans as a species. From experience, the earlier the individual starts learning several languages at once, the better the brain of that very individual retains information. Imitation is underrated because people have limiting beliefs and limited time to devote to learning new skills or languages. One needs to be as enthusiast as a baby or a child in exploring and learning new words, new concepts, new things. It is also better for someone to plan a language learning as a long run venture. To make it short, repetition, imitation and genuine motivation make it through the journey of polyglots.
Exactly 👍👍👍
My native language is Serbian. I was born and raised in Serbia. As a kid I watched Hollywood movies (with subtitles) and listened to music in English. When we started learning English at school in 5th grade it took me a bit to figure out how to read and after that it was smooth sailing. The teacher actually asked my dad if we ever lived in the US or if I had English classes before.
Now as an adult I am learning a few languages and still the best way for me is through listening and reading but now I have to incorporate some grammar and a lot of exercises as well. Nailing the accent takes me a bit longer as well.
As a kid I wasn't learning English, I was watching movies and listening to music. I also had a lot more free time.
Thank you for sharing ☺️
I personally learned english through watching movies and series since I was young, but i’ve never intentionally watched them to learn the language i just picked it up with time
Same
I don't recommend using the dubbing and the translated subtitles at the same time ever, because they are made with different rules in mind (dubbing has to match mouth movements, for example, and subtitles don't, but subtitles have less room to work with than dubbing generally), so the translations used for the dub and the subs will rarely match completely. Stick to one or the other. When you use subtitles in the same language as the original, they are made to match the original audio as closely as possible.
Subtitles are more for translations and captions are for what is actually being said, so if you have German audio, the German captions will match but not the subtitles. Captions are usually indicated with a (CC), so look for that if you can!
as a starter to mid level I wouldnt recommenned this at all. Go READ stories (kids stories) /books.
only on high level watch movies with subtitles of target language and repeat the subtitles out loud!
this way I learned german, english, french and now I am working on my korean. afterwards japanese. and then in the end finally Chinease (as the endboss)
and if you know english its way easier to learn german. because english is a simplified version of german in the end. its a derivative of german. an easier version. its Angel(sächs)isch = english.
they have way simplified conjugation and no der, die, das and the other problems which come by having der, die , das. english got only die = the. e.g. die lampe = the lamp
My english is not good. I watch movies and videos on youtube. Since 3weeks. But every day 3hours learning😅.
y también español. pero todavía muy poco.
Poco poco😅😅😅
I like that you got right to the point Zoe. So yes I'm an A2 so I began watching films- Nettlix is great to use subtitles in OTHER LANGUAGES- it's worth the money.
I find reading subtitles is ok on a ' second pass' through a film, when I hae picked up the gist, but there are still many points of uncertainty. That also helps with recognizing the rhythm and pronunciation, which I then immediately vocalise under my breath, because that helps me to internalise and then eventually use the language I have just been exposed to.
I also find that subtitles help even if they are translations into my own language (English), because then I can 'back translate' into the source language of the film ('oh, so that's how they say it!')
I am ashamed to admit I actually did learn most of my english from anime subtitles. Since 99% of the comments don't believe I actually did, maybe you will understand once I explain how.
I was a kid, started watching anime in my native language (not english) at around the age of 13. I started watching so much anime, I indeed felt like wasting most of my time.
To make myself feel better about wasting so much time, I decided to watch it with english subtitles and japanese dub. I went from school worst passing grade to the topgrade in my school at around age 15 in half a year.
The reason y'all don't believe it, is because it doesn't work for you. It is possible when you have the mindset of learning instead of passively watching things. Even when I watched anime, I paused multiple times to google the words to understand them better. Also I strongly believe the power of youth (and being less distracted by things you will encounter as an adult such as work, or rent and such). When you are young, you pay more attention to things you do because they hold more significance.
One big factor as well was that my native language is german. It is basically english. So that's another factor. And probably me being multilingual (vietnamese heritage). Everything accounted, you can say it was indeed very easy for me to learn english.
i believe you bro. i saw a huge improvement in my english after i watched anime in english subtitles and i also read manga in english now. they helped me a lot
Subtitles for Arabic would be awesome if they matched the dialogue. Unfortunately most times the subtitles are in the formal language while the actors are speaking informally.
من خیلی خوشحال میشم که میبینم ویدیوهای شما زیرنویس فارسی دارد و من هم میتوانم از دانش شما استفاده کنم.امیدوارم به درجهای از تسلط در زبان فارسی برسید که بتونید از خواندن و فهم اشعار فارسی لذت ببرید♥️
watching youtube videos & tv shows helped me the most when i was learning english. when i was younger i couldn’t care less about english classes, but consuming content online & attending classes (even though i scrolled on my phone the whole time haha), helped me to become more fluent. sadly, i never learnt grammar, so even though my level is C1 (i just finished academic english course at uni), i struggle with basic grammar. now i’m trying to learn german and i’m starting to practise my grammar from the very beginning & studying vocabulary in context. however, even though i’ve been trying to learn german for years, it just never sticks to me. a few days ago i started to binge a new netflix show and decided to watch it in german with english subtitles (ik many people say that it’s a bad way to study languages and that it’s not helpful). hooowever, now i’m starting to recognize some words and after a whole day of binge watching the tv show, sooo many german words sound in my brain. i think that tv shows are a great way to expose yourself to a new language and it just makes studying vocabulary and grammar much simpler.
I want to learn english too, but ı don’t know where to start. I don’t know which one will be grammar listening reading speaking writing first. Do you have any advice for me?
Learning Spanish for almost 3 years.
And it all depends. Watching something dubbed into Spanish is easy for me but that accent isn't natural as it's almost too clear, kinda like a news caster in English. Watching something from a native country for me is better but what's better for me is youtubers in your target language. I tend to not use subtitles also unless I really need to, probably is 10% of the time.
Have you met someone who always bragging about not studying but keep getting good score at school? Those guys who only bragging just learn language by watching movies/anime/drama are same with them. They want to regarded as genius. What they dont tell you is that they also look up for grammar, expression that they dont understand and some of them also do flashcard review. There is nothing wrong or shame if you learning language by STUDYING, even by yourself.
Another claim that I also hear from language learner is that they always watch movie when they was kid, so if it works for them in english, it must be working for them for other languages too. I think most of us underestimate how much we have spent learning English at school. I was corrected thousand times at school, before I can speak properly. Maybe the case is not same with everyone, but I think most of us, are able to speak english because we learn at school when we young.
this techique is really fun and doable, but only with rewatching the same movie or tv episode over and over again, and learning each word the first like 10 watches
I did learn thai by the series but it took me almost 7 years. Even after 7 years i dont really understand 100% but maybe just 50%-60%
I just want to point out that reading is the best way to improve your language.
Watching videos with subtitles is like listening while you follow along with a book except there are visual cues if you watch the actors and listen to their tone of voice.
When you are first starting reading in a foreign language you do the same things Zoe describes for beginners in this video. Ditto for intermediate and advanced.
Beginners need to spend a LOT of time translating and should have the script to accompany native speaker pronunciation.
This video is so useful for me and every learner language. I'm learning English. Thank you. I want to write much words in comment, but I can't because my english is little. Thank you a lot miss Zoe👍👍
Keep it up
It certainly works for some who have reached a good point of their language learning journey 👍🏻
Yes, true
6:11 though you speak english 🇬🇧 better than me but i know this word 😎
It's dissapointing to only see 8 languages on Lingopie. Hopefully they will add more soon. Thanks for the helpful video Zoe.
I mean I grew up in the Philippines and learned English by watching and playing videogames and I got 9.0 in my IELTS so I think it works but I don't think it works for everyone
Thank you for your guidance. That's what I was looking for.
Hello Zoe and friends! I know this question is of a topic different to what is presented here - but to some extent there may be a connection as it all relates t interest and what you find engaging in a language.
Especially Zoe, i admire your focus and dilligence when it comes to your studies!
How do you let go of a language without the guilt? how do you literally say 'goodbye' to a language and not struggle to feel badly? it's been very difficult and i'd really like your thoughts on this and/or others too
It us very helpful. When you listen to them your brain starts becoming acoustomed to it.
Yes my cousins learnt English because of tv show and movies so it is possible and they were children at the time!
Thank you so much for your awesome lesson. I like watching
movies or series with learning.
It is not stressful in any situation.
I was watching a movie when l saw the grammar structure but l did not use vocabulary and expression.
I will try it. It was tips great.
Teşekkürler Zoe deneyimlerini bizimle paylaştığın için ❤
I think as a beginner you can still learn things such as intonation and try to hear new words by hearing them several times and looking them up. I srill watch movies in my target language with both TL subs and English subs. this has more to do with absorbing how pwoplw speak naturally and try to catch some words here and there. I think we can learn by enough exposure however you still need to know enough words to obly be using movies as learning material (aprox early B1 in my opinion.) I am currently using Busuu and watching alot of movies for learning French
yeah active learning reinforces the passive portion by looking things up you make this much more effective.
The black clothes with the pink lightning gives a cool vibe.
حسب ما فهمت للمبتدئين يجب أن تضع الترجمه في اللغة التي تتحدث بها و في اللغة اللتي تريد ان تتعلمها
بالضبط
Out of curiosity how would you rank the languages you feel comfortable in?
Are you more comfortable with French than English? Etc
This was such a helpful video! Do you think you could do how to read in another language? Just in terms of leasure reading, how to learn new works through sentence context, etc
عملي روتين عن تعلم اللغات 💜💜
You are the best! Thank you Zoe❤
Thanks Zoe
yes naam bali ja I listen to many songs in arabic turkic uighur siberia urali africa Tibet india many languages and if you love it you can get the modd and love I would love to hear you sing
That's true. I tried watching something in French with the French dub and subtitles and they do not match at all.
Начал с твоих видео погружаться в английский язык, у тебя очень приятный голос!Спасибо за твои видео
smotri virginia beowulf. otlichno dlya vas.
@@QuizmasterLaw спасибобя оценил)
Hi! I'm gonna be 24 y/o next year and plan to take second degree in German or Spanish language because my local university offer double degree for exchange students. But my parents are reluctant to let me continue study because currently just start working at a bank.
I don't think I can survive working at the bank and kinda overwhelmed for me even though i just joined it for around two months. I'm not good with talking with my parents, but i don't want to feel regret not doing something I want in future.
Thank you very much for your video.
In my case for learn chinese language I see the news in the morning too.
It only make me familiar with sentences and pronunciation. I can mimic the natives. It the most important support resources for me including RUclips.
No not by watching movies. The best way to learn English is listen to podcasts or read your books.
BTW, your hair soooo pretty in this video. I can't stop watching it swinging around when you move 😆🤭
People always tell me that they learned x language by watching tv. Let me tell you, that does NOT work for me. I had to really get down and study. Then I had to have an immersion experience. But tv?! Nope lol. It’s way more helpful once I was at an A2 or b1 level just to hear the language since I’m no longer in the country. That said lingopie is the exception but because it’s tv but with the educational aspect. Not just Netflix to watch Netflix
Ich kann jedem empfehlen die Serie Stromberg zu schauen 💪
I'm feeling really lazy now. I've been spending too much time learning on apps and not enough with original content recently.
Thank you very much for your job
Duolingo has been helpful for me and it’s fun
Thank you for this video!! ❤️💯
You're so welcome!
No creo en el input comprensible cuando no conoces nada de un idioma el input funciona cuando ya conoce un poco el idioma.
Deine Haare sehen hier sooo schön aus! Mag den hair style total!😍
Danke 😁
I've watched anime for 10 years now, and I usually understand what the characters are saying without subtitles, but I still don't understand all of it. So if I watch so much anime it would be a shame to not understand Japonese. Like, I learned english from video games and from sitting on computer all day, and my english is somewere at a B2 level.
I said that I learned English to watching series but I also say that I translated every single sentence 😂
Another tool I'd recommend is Language Reactor! It's similar to LingoPie and Reverso subtitle translations. Also, a strategy I found helpful is to gather all a list of words used in a series, identify the 80% most used words used throughout the series and/or an episode, learn them via flash cards, and then watch an episode with only subtitles in the target language relying on context for understanding the rest. I'm not too fond of rewatching movies/episodes so this maximizes what I can passively learn from an episode
Thank you for sharing
Do you watch the series and learn the words? How do you get the words before watching?
I'm in the intermediate level but I still make mistakes and i can't speak it fluently, i wanna get the C level but i couldn't make any progress, and I'm wondering is one year enough to be advanced and fluent?
احببت فديوهات❤
شكرا ☺️
خیلی عالی هستی❤امیدوارم همیشه موفق باشی
I like yours content 👍 please make tips & trick how to learn language more than easy