What has been your experience learning languages with audiovisual content? 🎞 Have you had different experiences depending on the language? 🤨 When Lingopie contacted me for the sponsorship, I had never used it before and wanted to test it first. After testing it for Russian and French, I genuinely felt like it is a great platform, so I was really happy to introduce it to you guys in this video 😊 Lingopie is a great platform with lots of films, series and TV shows that are adapted for language learning, with different levels, many subtitle options and the possibility to practice new words. If you want to see it for yourself, try it out for free! Go check it out today and make sure to use my discount link: learn.lingopie.com/CouchPolyglot Using this link you will get a 55% discount in case you decide to get the annual plan 😄
Thank you for your response, it is most helpful. I am actually pretty good at pronunciation. My issue is understanding what I'm hearing. I will try watching each episode twice.
“El Foraster” has been helpful with catalan- especially when you use the catalan subtitles- because they have real conversations and use everyday phrases and expressions… and Quim Masferrer oftens asks, ”Que vol dir?”
Movies and series can do wonders. They've been instrumental for most of my languages. However, I think it has to be intentional. You have to pay attention and try to notice patterns, phrases etc. Every monolingual person I know here in Bulgaria has watched a good amount of content in English with subtitles - that's just how you get some movies. But since they are not intentional about it, they speak 0 English. So yeah... paying attention and not treating it simply as leisure time is important. Your tips are great, Laura! 😊
Si no t’hagues conegut on Netflix is what pulled me to learning Catalan. I watched it over and over to learn since I enjoy the series. Then I found you 😁 you’ve helped on your channel and now I understand more of what the series talks about. I never changed it to English and I kept the subtitles to Catalan to make my brain figure it out.
My experience: yes, it's possible to learn a language by just watching movies and series BUT for me this was true only when I had easy enough content available with double subtitles and I was able to strengthen, of course, just passive skills. Moreover, just watching a little took me nowhere...after watching tens or maybe more than a hundred hours I saw a clear change. I used Yabla, Lingopie and RUclips.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Films and TV shows can really be awesome and have helped me a lot too in language learning. I have been using RUclips a lot and will now be using Lingopie too, specially for Russian and French :)
It’s also interesting how the recipe for just watching is different in different languages. For example, I used to learn Norwegian by first watching hundreds of videos by Norsklärer Karense on RUclips and then I watched all seasons of a funny series called Side om side with single subtitles (Norwegian) on NRK app. Disclaimer: I understand pretty well Swedish so this route probably doesn’t function well for all. For Brazilian Portuguese I think the best available route for me would be first watch video series by Semantica and then continue with Lingopie.
@@MikkoDaFinlandia sounds awesome! :) I would try something similar if I would learn Portuguese, I think. It sounds fun and effective for such a similar language to the ones I already speak. Thanks btw for your messages on Patreon. It's been a lot lately, but I hope I can answer soon! :D
Concerning Italian, as a Spanish speaker, I think I have the same experience. In my case, I don't feel frustrated about watching Italian TV shows because I can spot the Italian sounds even though sometimes I may not understand quickly. For example, the Italian word "stirare" (to iron) is not equal to the Spanish word "estirar" (to stretch). Thanks for sharing this video because it is really useful for everyone.
Thank you for that. Honestly, I am learning French with Miraculous ladybug. I really love this kids movie. İt is playing a sifnificant role in my learning process
Omg me too, I already finished the first three seasons and I can say I've learned really really a lot of vocabulary, the way they pronounce the words has helped me to get familiar with the language
@@naimzuluaga9338 True, it is a really great. And also, I am watching Miraculous ladybug in Spanish and English. Both of them. I have learned a lot different words with that
Thanks for sharing! You gave us another great presentation on a really useful topic. For any type of listening, I suggest the 80% rule. If you understand 80% or more, then you can learn additional words and phrases from watching a show. If you understand less than 80%, you are largely wasting your time because there is too much stress on your brain and there is too much to try to learn. The good news is you can choose easier material, and succeed that way. You can start with content prepared by language teachers (such as Couch Polyglot!), because many language teachers know how to speak clearly, repeating words, and using pauses. For example, I understand everything that Max says in the RUclips Channel "Russian with Max", even though he speaks fairly quickly sometimes, because he is a teacher who knows who to speak very clearly for foreigners. After you master material presented by Russian teachers at various levels, try watching the news. The news is great because the news readers are trained to speak clearly, and because news stories tend to have a "story arc" that lasts several days, so that you hear the same vocabulary over and over (you'll learn lots of words like hurricane, election, disaster, flood, business deal, negotiation, environment, etc.). Then try programs that have been dubbed from other languages - for example, the English language show "Hercule Poirot", in the French dubbed version, is spoken by French voice actors who speak very clearly. Yes, there is some slang, but even the slang is extremely clear. After all that, you are ready for series and movies - romantic comedies are usually easier than cop shows because cop shows have a lot of crime slang. I watched a whole season of a Russian cop/spy series, but I spent many hours rewinding and listening over and over again to various phrases. Also, Russian in general is much harder than German, which is harder than French, which is harder than Spanish. So you just have to expect slow progress with languages that are hard to learn such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian and Vietnamese. Couch Polyglot, you have learned a whole lot in a relatively few years about languages - it has taken me 50 years of language study to learn what I know about language study!
thanks a lot for sharing your perspective. Do you know about the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule? Your comment made me remember about it! To be honest, I also get frustrated if I do not understand like 80%. But I know that 60-70% can help too, I think it is just a matter of mindset. But everyone can choose how they enjoy it most or what makes most sense for them :)
Worked at a place where a co-worker had moved to the United States from the Philippines, and he learned English by constantly watching tv. Don’t remember his age when he moved to the US.
Yeah, I met a girl from Albania who had never formally learned Spanish but she watched many telenovelas and she could comunicate actually, that was interesting :D
There exist some educational movies or even movie series that feature simplified language that is getting more complicated step by step. I really enjoyed "French in Action", and also the "Vanzelfsprekend" course was one of the reasons I progressed in Dutch quickly at the beginning. Such movies usually place the main characters into real-life situations, yet the language is simplified and is adjusted by speed. And that's a great way to learn or improve your level. Watching real stuff makes sense if you have at least basic understanding of the spoken language and can derive words from the context. For me, the most helpful was to watch Sherlock Holmes movies. And not just dubbed, but the originals. Many cultures filmed their own Sherlock Holmes movies - there are countless British and American editions (my favorite are movies with Rathbone-Bruce btw), there is an Italian series (with Nando Gazzolo, two full movies about 3 hrs each), there is a German one (with Erich Schellow), and there is a Soviet one (with Livanov). Sherlock Holmes movies are especially great because you encounter most real-life situations, most words related to things you find at one's home, how people address one another, etc - all these in a particular language and specific to a particular culture, even if they are playing a "British" set.
I think for me it’s just a helpful element but i can’t rely on it so I have the main source to learn and the tv shows and the cartoons is just an experience for the language and to hear the native language especially if its strange for me “like the german language” Greetings for you from Iraq
I prefer to understand only the half than watching something boring. When I started with spanish I went through RTVE and, because there was no alternative, I was obliged to watch this only with Spanish subtitles or with no subtitles; which I think, kind of helped me. But as a real tool of learning a language it just is not efficiently enough. You had to go over and over again until you understand it. Reading a book is more efficient. But as a supplement? Why not. At least it is fun.
I get what you mean, if it is too boring you won't pay attention anyway and it will not be that effective. Maybe it is better to watch something more exciting and not understand it all!
I think it works, since a lot of my japanese knowledge comes from watching anime as a teen, but at the same time for me there's a huge barrier: being able to read the subtitles. I've tried to watch something with japanese subtitles, but because I don't know a lot of kanji and I read hiragana and katakana very slowly, I cannot understand half of them. Although it's still fun for me, this makes it more frustrating, because it feels like I'm not just learning one language, but many. Some apps for reading the newspaper, for example, is helpful for that, but it's so much more work than just sitting and watching TV xD Let's see how I do with Italian, in which at least I can understand the alphabet!
@@CouchPolyglot T'animo a intentar-ho! No és gens fàcil, però aprendre a llegir i entendre els kanjis, junt amb les relacions que es formen entre ells, és d'allò més divertit i interessant! No només aprens una llengua, sinó tota una altra forma de veure el món. És un llarg camí, però val la pena caminar-lo 👏
I got to a B2 level in English or a little bit higher, and I want to learn another language now, and have already started learning German, but I have some doubts about whether this can affect my level of English or not. I want to hear your thoughts since you had a similar experience. My native language is Arabic as well, if that helps
Well, it can alway affect a bit I guess. For instance, when I started learning Swedish, my Russian got slightly worse. But it is not like I forgot everything. I think you need to make sure you still practice both languages at least weekly, then you will be fine :) You might mix them up at the beginning, but it will get better over time if you keep using them both. Hope this helps!
A question. I am learning Spanish and just subscribed to lingopie. To get the most out of learning through tv, should I just watch it or should I pause and repeat what they say? Which would be more effective? Please any input would be helpful. How do you do it exactly?
it depends on your level, but I would recommend watching it twice: once to get the general idea of the episode and the second time to mark the words you want to practice later. I never recommend "marking all the words you don't know" cause if there are a lot, it might be unrealistic to remember them all, it is better to "select" the ones that make most sense for you to remember. If your focus is on pronounciation, repeating after you listen to something can help you for sure. That is just my two cents, hope it helps :)
I don’t think you can exclusively learn through TV. However once you have a basic knowledge of a language, watching TV in its original version does help. To prove are Holland and Portugal which are supposedly the two countries in Europe with the best knowledge of English and that is only explained by the fact that both countries watch TV shows in their original language.
Exactly, starting from 0 in a language with just TV will be complicated, specially if it is a language that is very different from the ones you already speak
Hello Laura, you are a very nice person and all your videos are pretty useful and pleasant, indeed. However, we do have completely different methods for learning languages. I am a grammar jeek, I love studying grammar and morphology and comparing them in all the different tongues I have studied so far. I could never ever learn Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and French without learning all the subtleties and nuances of every single language in terms of morphology: pronouns, verb tenses, sentence structure, use of the auxiliaries and so forth. For instance, Italian and Spanish syntax is rather different in my humble opinion, despite the similarity of the two languages. Obviously, listening and reading are also essential. Nonetheless, I can't help but use a very good textbook with plenty of grammar and vocab exercises to do. Audivisual content is also paramount in learning process, that's why I am an active user of lots of RUclips videos, for instance.
Good for you, go for it :). There is no right and wrong, really. I love the fact that there are many ways to learn and each of us has to find out what is more fun and adapts better to their life. It would be super boring if there was only "the way" to learn :D
Using subtitles is paramount in language learning. In my country all foreign films, series, etc. are played in the original language, with subtitles in Greek. That's why Greek kids get used to hearing English and eventually learn how to speak it at a decent level, contrary to what happens in Spain, where all foreign material is dubbed. Subtitles may be in the language you are learning, in a language that you know very well (not necessarily your native language) or both. In languages which are hard when it comes to listening comprehension (e.g. English), it may be useful to read subtitles in the language itself. If your level is not high enough to understand the dialogues, or if you can't easily read the script, then subtitles in the same language are not very useful. In such case, subtitles in a familiar language are inevitable. The problem is that if you are learning a minor language (such as my native language) it is not easy to find subtitled material, since video creators mainly target the local audience. Mandarin Chinese is a special case. There is a lot of material with Chinese subtitles available. A layman would think that they do it for viewers with hearing problems, but this is not the case. Chinese is spoken in many different accents and people from other areas may not understand everything someone says, while the characters are the same everywhere, at least in mainland China. This also helps foreign learners because, believe it or not, once you learn the written characters it is easier to recognize them than the spoken word. The ideal is, of course, to watch material with subtitles in both English and Chinese.
haha, as if... my first contact with portuguese was over 20 years ago. did the babylon challenge with a colleague, she would understand italian, no prob, but her european portuguese was just grvrprtski to me🤐. hasn't changed much since then, i watch easy portuguese and leo's channel and do portuguese for spanish speakers on duolingo, but still😨. don't really understand why - french has a weird pronunciation as well, but it was sooo easy to understand once i started treating it as an italian "dialect" and just learned the differences💪. no se, andra tutto bene
that is interesting!! Sometimes our heads do not act logically somehow hehe, I mix Swedish with Russian, for instance. Pero hai raggione, andra tutto bene :)
@@CouchPolyglot ich find das sogar ziemlich logisch - schwedisch ist von deinen sprachen russisch am nächsten. "ich" z.b. klingt fast gleich und ganz anders als in norwegisch. und lazybrain pickt immer das naechstbeste 🤷♂️. muss halt nur nicht immer stimmen.
@@CouchPolyglot a propos - just listened to "....todo va a estar bien...". "tutto andra bene" war der spruch als covid angefangen hat. und wir haben gesehen wie das ausgegangen ist... so, if i say tutto andra bene ist das mehr son mantra an das ich nicht wirklich glaube🙈
didn't work for me - at least not from scratch and with "normal", non educational content. tried this approach with turkish and failed. or maybe it might work but you'd have to spend a lot of hours in front of the tv. so other methods might be more effective. but after reaching a2-b1, i.e. beginning to understand normal conversations, it does help to improve your skills. e.g. i understand "spanish" quite well, but some dialects/accents are beyond "comprehensible" for me. so i watch content specifically to get used to these accents💪
Это правда, сейчас я могу использовать сериалы для русского, потому что у меня уровень B1 более или менее, но когда у меня был уровень A1, смотреть сериалы было бы бесполезно
What has been your experience learning languages with audiovisual content? 🎞 Have you had different experiences depending on the language? 🤨
When Lingopie contacted me for the sponsorship, I had never used it before and wanted to test it first. After testing it for Russian and French, I genuinely felt like it is a great platform, so I was really happy to introduce it to you guys in this video 😊
Lingopie is a great platform with lots of films, series and TV shows that are adapted for language learning, with different levels, many subtitle options and the possibility to practice new words. If you want to see it for yourself, try it out for free! Go check it out today and make sure to use my discount link:
learn.lingopie.com/CouchPolyglot
Using this link you will get a 55% discount in case you decide to get the annual plan 😄
Thank you for your response, it is most helpful. I am actually pretty good at pronunciation. My issue is understanding what I'm hearing. I will try watching each episode twice.
“El Foraster” has been helpful with catalan- especially when you use the catalan subtitles- because they have real conversations and use everyday phrases and expressions… and Quim Masferrer oftens asks, ”Que vol dir?”
Sí, va molt bé! I és una manera divertida d'aprendre :)
Movies and series can do wonders. They've been instrumental for most of my languages. However, I think it has to be intentional. You have to pay attention and try to notice patterns, phrases etc. Every monolingual person I know here in Bulgaria has watched a good amount of content in English with subtitles - that's just how you get some movies. But since they are not intentional about it, they speak 0 English. So yeah... paying attention and not treating it simply as leisure time is important.
Your tips are great, Laura! 😊
Thanks for sharing your experience, Stefani :)
Si no t’hagues conegut on Netflix is what pulled me to learning Catalan. I watched it over and over to learn since I enjoy the series. Then I found you 😁 you’ve helped on your channel and now I understand more of what the series talks about. I never changed it to English and I kept the subtitles to Catalan to make my brain figure it out.
That is wonderful, I am happy I was able to help you :)
Great to Know! Thanks for the good review and advices !
Thanks and glad you liked it 😊
English is my native language and Memento was hard for me too haha
hehehe good to know! :)
My experience: yes, it's possible to learn a language by just watching movies and series BUT for me this was true only when I had easy enough content available with double subtitles and I was able to strengthen, of course, just passive skills. Moreover, just watching a little took me nowhere...after watching tens or maybe more than a hundred hours I saw a clear change. I used Yabla, Lingopie and RUclips.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Films and TV shows can really be awesome and have helped me a lot too in language learning. I have been using RUclips a lot and will now be using Lingopie too, specially for Russian and French :)
It’s also interesting how the recipe for just watching is different in different languages. For example, I used to learn Norwegian by first watching hundreds of videos by Norsklärer Karense on RUclips and then I watched all seasons of a funny series called Side om side with single subtitles (Norwegian) on NRK app. Disclaimer: I understand pretty well Swedish so this route probably doesn’t function well for all. For Brazilian Portuguese I think the best available route for me would be first watch video series by Semantica and then continue with Lingopie.
@@MikkoDaFinlandia sounds awesome! :)
I would try something similar if I would learn Portuguese, I think. It sounds fun and effective for such a similar language to the ones I already speak.
Thanks btw for your messages on Patreon. It's been a lot lately, but I hope I can answer soon! :D
Concerning Italian, as a Spanish speaker, I think I have the same experience. In my case, I don't feel frustrated about watching Italian TV shows because I can spot the Italian sounds even though sometimes I may not understand quickly. For example, the Italian word "stirare" (to iron) is not equal to the Spanish word "estirar" (to stretch). Thanks for sharing this video because it is really useful for everyone.
Awesome, thanks! I am glad you liked it :)
Thank you for that. Honestly, I am learning French with Miraculous ladybug. I really love this kids movie. İt is playing a sifnificant role in my learning process
Omg me too, I already finished the first three seasons and I can say I've learned really really a lot of vocabulary, the way they pronounce the words has helped me to get familiar with the language
@@naimzuluaga9338 True, it is a really great. And also, I am watching Miraculous ladybug in Spanish and English. Both of them. I have learned a lot different words with that
That is interesting, thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for sharing! You gave us another great presentation on a really useful topic. For any type of listening, I suggest the 80% rule. If you understand 80% or more, then you can learn additional words and phrases from watching a show. If you understand less than 80%, you are largely wasting your time because there is too much stress on your brain and there is too much to try to learn. The good news is you can choose easier material, and succeed that way. You can start with content prepared by language teachers (such as Couch Polyglot!), because many language teachers know how to speak clearly, repeating words, and using pauses. For example, I understand everything that Max says in the RUclips Channel "Russian with Max", even though he speaks fairly quickly sometimes, because he is a teacher who knows who to speak very clearly for foreigners. After you master material presented by Russian teachers at various levels, try watching the news. The news is great because the news readers are trained to speak clearly, and because news stories tend to have a "story arc" that lasts several days, so that you hear the same vocabulary over and over (you'll learn lots of words like hurricane, election, disaster, flood, business deal, negotiation, environment, etc.). Then try programs that have been dubbed from other languages - for example, the English language show "Hercule Poirot", in the French dubbed version, is spoken by French voice actors who speak very clearly. Yes, there is some slang, but even the slang is extremely clear. After all that, you are ready for series and movies - romantic comedies are usually easier than cop shows because cop shows have a lot of crime slang. I watched a whole season of a Russian cop/spy series, but I spent many hours rewinding and listening over and over again to various phrases. Also, Russian in general is much harder than German, which is harder than French, which is harder than Spanish. So you just have to expect slow progress with languages that are hard to learn such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian and Vietnamese. Couch Polyglot, you have learned a whole lot in a relatively few years about languages - it has taken me 50 years of language study to learn what I know about language study!
thanks a lot for sharing your perspective. Do you know about the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule? Your comment made me remember about it!
To be honest, I also get frustrated if I do not understand like 80%. But I know that 60-70% can help too, I think it is just a matter of mindset. But everyone can choose how they enjoy it most or what makes most sense for them :)
Worked at a place where a co-worker had moved to the United States from the Philippines, and he learned English by constantly watching tv. Don’t remember his age when he moved to the US.
Yeah, I met a girl from Albania who had never formally learned Spanish but she watched many telenovelas and she could comunicate actually, that was interesting :D
There exist some educational movies or even movie series that feature simplified language that is getting more complicated step by step. I really enjoyed "French in Action", and also the "Vanzelfsprekend" course was one of the reasons I progressed in Dutch quickly at the beginning. Such movies usually place the main characters into real-life situations, yet the language is simplified and is adjusted by speed. And that's a great way to learn or improve your level.
Watching real stuff makes sense if you have at least basic understanding of the spoken language and can derive words from the context. For me, the most helpful was to watch Sherlock Holmes movies. And not just dubbed, but the originals. Many cultures filmed their own Sherlock Holmes movies - there are countless British and American editions (my favorite are movies with Rathbone-Bruce btw), there is an Italian series (with Nando Gazzolo, two full movies about 3 hrs each), there is a German one (with Erich Schellow), and there is a Soviet one (with Livanov).
Sherlock Holmes movies are especially great because you encounter most real-life situations, most words related to things you find at one's home, how people address one another, etc - all these in a particular language and specific to a particular culture, even if they are playing a "British" set.
Yeah, some audiovisual materials are better than others depending on the level or language too
Memento was complicated for native English speakers too. :)
hehehe good to know!
I think for me it’s just a helpful element but i can’t rely on it
so I have the main source to learn and the tv shows and the cartoons is just an experience for the language and to hear the native language especially if its strange for me “like the german language”
Greetings for you from Iraq
that is a great approach too, just focus on what helps you most and use TV shows as a complement :)
Greetings from Germany! :D
I prefer to understand only the half than watching something boring. When I started with spanish I went through RTVE and, because there was no alternative, I was obliged to watch this only with Spanish subtitles or with no subtitles; which I think, kind of helped me. But as a real tool of learning a language it just is not efficiently enough. You had to go over and over again until you understand it. Reading a book is more efficient. But as a supplement? Why not. At least it is fun.
I get what you mean, if it is too boring you won't pay attention anyway and it will not be that effective. Maybe it is better to watch something more exciting and not understand it all!
@@CouchPolyglot Exactly! If you interestet in something you really want to understand it. If not, you just don't care.
I think it works, since a lot of my japanese knowledge comes from watching anime as a teen, but at the same time for me there's a huge barrier: being able to read the subtitles. I've tried to watch something with japanese subtitles, but because I don't know a lot of kanji and I read hiragana and katakana very slowly, I cannot understand half of them. Although it's still fun for me, this makes it more frustrating, because it feels like I'm not just learning one language, but many. Some apps for reading the newspaper, for example, is helpful for that, but it's so much more work than just sitting and watching TV xD
Let's see how I do with Italian, in which at least I can understand the alphabet!
Glad to know it also helps for Japanese too, I want to learn it one day, but I am also too lazy :D
@@CouchPolyglot T'animo a intentar-ho! No és gens fàcil, però aprendre a llegir i entendre els kanjis, junt amb les relacions que es formen entre ells, és d'allò més divertit i interessant! No només aprens una llengua, sinó tota una altra forma de veure el món. És un llarg camí, però val la pena caminar-lo 👏
I got to a B2 level in English or a little bit higher, and I want to learn another language now, and have already started learning German, but I have some doubts about whether this can affect my level of English or not. I want to hear your thoughts since you had a similar experience. My native language is Arabic as well, if that helps
Well, it can alway affect a bit I guess. For instance, when I started learning Swedish, my Russian got slightly worse. But it is not like I forgot everything. I think you need to make sure you still practice both languages at least weekly, then you will be fine :)
You might mix them up at the beginning, but it will get better over time if you keep using them both. Hope this helps!
A question. I am learning Spanish and just subscribed to lingopie. To get the most out of learning through tv, should I just watch it or should I pause and repeat what they say? Which would be more effective? Please any input would be helpful. How do you do it exactly?
it depends on your level, but I would recommend watching it twice: once to get the general idea of the episode and the second time to mark the words you want to practice later. I never recommend "marking all the words you don't know" cause if there are a lot, it might be unrealistic to remember them all, it is better to "select" the ones that make most sense for you to remember. If your focus is on pronounciation, repeating after you listen to something can help you for sure. That is just my two cents, hope it helps :)
I don’t think you can exclusively learn through TV. However once you have a basic knowledge of a language, watching TV in its original version does help. To prove are Holland and Portugal which are supposedly the two countries in Europe with the best knowledge of English and that is only explained by the fact that both countries watch TV shows in their original language.
Exactly, starting from 0 in a language with just TV will be complicated, specially if it is a language that is very different from the ones you already speak
Hello Laura, you are a very nice person and all your videos are pretty useful and pleasant, indeed. However, we do have completely different methods for learning languages. I am a grammar jeek, I love studying grammar and morphology and comparing them in all the different tongues I have studied so far. I could never ever learn Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and French without learning all the subtleties and nuances of every single language in terms of morphology: pronouns, verb tenses, sentence structure, use of the auxiliaries and so forth. For instance, Italian and Spanish syntax is rather different in my humble opinion, despite the similarity of the two languages. Obviously, listening and reading are also essential. Nonetheless, I can't help but use a very good textbook with plenty of grammar and vocab exercises to do. Audivisual content is also paramount in learning process, that's why I am an active user of lots of RUclips videos, for instance.
Good for you, go for it :). There is no right and wrong, really. I love the fact that there are many ways to learn and each of us has to find out what is more fun and adapts better to their life. It would be super boring if there was only "the way" to learn :D
Using subtitles is paramount in language learning. In my country all foreign films, series, etc. are played in the original language, with subtitles in Greek. That's why Greek kids get used to hearing English and eventually learn how to speak it at a decent level, contrary to what happens in Spain, where all foreign material is dubbed.
Subtitles may be in the language you are learning, in a language that you know very well (not necessarily your native language) or both. In languages which are hard when it comes to listening comprehension (e.g. English), it may be useful to read subtitles in the language itself. If your level is not high enough to understand the dialogues, or if you can't easily read the script, then subtitles in the same language are not very useful. In such case, subtitles in a familiar language are inevitable.
The problem is that if you are learning a minor language (such as my native language) it is not easy to find subtitled material, since video creators mainly target the local audience.
Mandarin Chinese is a special case. There is a lot of material with Chinese subtitles available. A layman would think that they do it for viewers with hearing problems, but this is not the case. Chinese is spoken in many different accents and people from other areas may not understand everything someone says, while the characters are the same everywhere, at least in mainland China. This also helps foreign learners because, believe it or not, once you learn the written characters it is easier to recognize them than the spoken word. The ideal is, of course, to watch material with subtitles in both English and Chinese.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. It was super intereting to learn about Chinese subtitles. Thanks! :)
I've watched Aquí no hay quien viva more times than I care to admit. ^^
hehehe we all have one series like that
haha, as if... my first contact with portuguese was over 20 years ago. did the babylon challenge with a colleague, she would understand italian, no prob, but her european portuguese was just grvrprtski to me🤐. hasn't changed much since then, i watch easy portuguese and leo's channel and do portuguese for spanish speakers on duolingo, but still😨. don't really understand why - french has a weird pronunciation as well, but it was sooo easy to understand once i started treating it as an italian "dialect" and just learned the differences💪. no se, andra tutto bene
that is interesting!! Sometimes our heads do not act logically somehow hehe, I mix Swedish with Russian, for instance. Pero hai raggione, andra tutto bene :)
@@CouchPolyglot ich find das sogar ziemlich logisch - schwedisch ist von deinen sprachen russisch am nächsten. "ich" z.b. klingt fast gleich und ganz anders als in norwegisch. und lazybrain pickt immer das naechstbeste 🤷♂️. muss halt nur nicht immer stimmen.
@@CouchPolyglot a propos - just listened to "....todo va a estar bien...". "tutto andra bene" war der spruch als covid angefangen hat. und wir haben gesehen wie das ausgegangen ist... so, if i say tutto andra bene ist das mehr son mantra an das ich nicht wirklich glaube🙈
@@thomasfleck6552 oh nein, ok hehehe. Dann lieber auslassen :D
@@CouchPolyglot 😁no se, schadet nicht, aber vielleicht nützts??
Ma chérie... it's one of the best way
yes!
Yes. That’s how I learnt German.
Awesome, I watched a lot in German too!
didn't work for me - at least not from scratch and with "normal", non educational content. tried this approach with turkish and failed. or maybe it might work but you'd have to spend a lot of hours in front of the tv. so other methods might be more effective. but after reaching a2-b1, i.e. beginning to understand normal conversations, it does help to improve your skills. e.g. i understand "spanish" quite well, but some dialects/accents are beyond "comprehensible" for me. so i watch content specifically to get used to these accents💪
I think this helps when you have like an A1-A2 level or when it is a very similar language. I think I could use it for Portuguese, for instance :)
Нет, если нет базы из грамматики и словарного запаса.
Это правда, сейчас я могу использовать сериалы для русского, потому что у меня уровень B1 более или менее, но когда у меня был уровень A1, смотреть сериалы было бы бесполезно