listening to music in a foreign language really helps you to improve your conversation skills by imitating the sound of words you hear. also helps you to while memorizing the words when you listen to a nice song many times. when you level up learning a language it's a nice idea to watch movies or series without subtitles that really helps you master this language and get t o know a wide range of vocabulary.
One of my friends is a Korean language lecturer at a university, and one of her approaches to engaging her students in classes is using K-Pop / Korean food / other elements of Korean culture to enrich the language-learning process.
There is some value in picking up language based on your interests, and using movies/songs might actually help with things that are more conversationally useful.
Anyway, my French teacher years ago showed us this funny video about language lessons. We are taught formulaic sentences to learn sentence structures, which is a useful exercise in learning a language, but sometimes, it's not super useful in conversation. It's pretty funny!
No remembro how to say eleven.
Learning Italian every day!
It has work for my kids, like I keep the radio tuned to the Spanish stations and my kids will be singing all the songs even they like the Spanish songs over the English ones. They can pronounce super good Spanish words, and the little one will even roll the r when talking in English.
-Ari-
Watching movies in your target language is very useful, but only if done properly. There are two ways you can approach any material for self-teaching. You can follow it passively, or engage actively. For example watching a whole movie in one breath for the benefit of learning and understanding your new language more, is not going to be so useful, as we tend to slip into unconscious receptivity. It's very beneficial to split the film into segments of around 10 self-contained minutes let's say, and focus on each segment as much as you need. You can be a full beginner, or an advanced learner, but you need to devote time to it as much as you authentically need. Paying attention to one segment of 10 minutes, where you hear every word, look at the body language and every movement that goes along with certain phrases and messages, listen to every sentence as well as noticing the colloquial verbal and nonverbal communication, is active listening FOR THE PURPOSE of learning the language and way more useful, even if you get to analyze only 2 segments of the film that day, than playing the whole film and getting lost in the story. Choosing a movie you like, of a genre you like, is also relevant, as this active listening approach can be a bit boring and quickly draining if you don't at least enjoy the movie. Although at the same time, since you focus on learning and acquiring new words/sentences, any film and situations are beneficial to explore and learn the language from. So, pick the (right) film for you, equip yourself with its subtitles if you want to, divide it into segments and start your investigation. Note down at least 10-20 new words and 10 sentences from this segment, repeat them, mimic the body language and pronunciation, and you will never forget them, I assure you. Seeing the film one time is also not very beneficial when studying it and the language used. You need to review it and really have remember everything new.
Same techniques with any material. A song, an article, a book, I find it way more useful when I approach one segment thoroughly and actively, than when I go through the whole quickly and/or superficially.
What do you think about this? How do you approach watching a film for the benefit of learning a language? Do you use subtitles, or you prefer no subtitles from the very beginning?
Great topic!
Listening to podcasts are also a great way to improve both your listening and vocab. I've listened to some and I found it really helpful.
@Mai makes some very thoughtful observations about intentional learning. You want the process to be enjoyable, but if you want to advance beyond the A levels, using intentional learning in combination with your hobbies, be it music or movies is a very efficient way.
I personally write down new vocabulary, and review the new vocabulary I learn from time to time.
meifeng wrote:I personally write down new vocabulary, and review the new vocabulary I learn from time to time.
Some guys specifically use movies and music to learn new words, they coined it as Sub2SRS.
http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Subs2srs_decks
I believe watching cartoons/series with subtitles is an amazing thing at the beginning. One soaks up new vocabulary and develops listening skills. I used to watch Peppa Pig in German, when I started learning the language. At first I had to watch a video three times just to get an idea. But then it was going better and better :)
