I remember once meeting a
young man with a very foul mouth and an unusual American accent when he spoke
English. I asked him how he learned to speak English, and to my surprise
he said that he did nothing but watching American TV for the past several
years. He was tuned into everything. I suppose the strong use of
profanity was due in part to his subscription to the movie channels and the
unedited television that was a part of his repertoire. Whether he truly
learned to speak English by doing nothing more than watching TV could be
debated, but the fact he spoke it could not. Living in our modern age,
there is no question that television is a remarkable tool when trying to learn
to speak another language.
When I first started
learning Arabic, it used to drive my wife nuts that I had the television
constantly tuned to the Arabic channel. My favorite thing to watch was
the news. I would first watch one of the standard American channels and
get my first glimpse of the news. I would then try and watch the same
news on the selected Arabic channel. Like it or not, most of the news
around the world is pretty much the same. The difference is in the
particular slant another country may take towards the news. Knowing the
underlying story made it easier to understand what I was watching and I was
thereby able to understand with more facility the new vocabulary words that
would undoubtedly come my way. Another nice thing that often happened was
that the President or another high ranking American would address a particular
topic and his/her words would be translated by the Arabic channel that I was
watching. Having an English statement immediately translated into the
language you are studying is a great way to identify new terminology.
Watching TV is also
fun. Even though I’m into my 40s, I still enjoy a certain amount of
children’s programming. Cartoons can be fun. With three kids of my
own, our family is filled with various cartoons at any one time during the day.
I figure if we have to watch cartoons anyway, why not watch them in
French? There is certainly no reason why my children can’t profit from a
dose of another language just as much as I can. The benefit of most
entertainment television around the world is that most of it comes from the
United States or Canada. So chances are what you will be watching is a
simple translation of a North American production. Being more familiar
with the characters and plot line makes it much more easy understanding the language.
A frequent benefit of watching television in a foreign language is that you
will take a walk down memory lane. Many programs enjoyed by Americans are
only now due to syndication etc., being enjoyed overseas. Watch
programming in your favorite language and rediscover Baywatch, Dallas, or even
Charlie’s Angels.
Gaining access to another
countries television is easy. Check with your cable company.
Chances are for a few extra dollars you can watch programming in just about any
language you choose. If your cable company doesn’t offer any, consider
getting a satellite dish. Nowadays such a choice is much more economical
than it was in the past. In addition with modern technology, you can
easily record your favorite programming for leisurely review and practice on
your own terms and on your own time.
Yes it is possible to live
where obtaining such television programming is next to impossible. So
what do you do? The answer is simple. Buy a DVD! Most of the
DVDs now on the market have many additional features. The most common
feature is that they usually have either a subtitled or voiced-over version of
your favorite movie in French or Spanish. Most people skip right past the
choices of language and simply watch their favorite film in English?
Why? An excellent opportunity exists. Spice up your life and watch
the movie in French! Or if you have a family filled with not so
adventurous relatives, watch the movie in English with French subtitles.
I may not always enjoy watching a “chick flick” with my wife, but if I know
that I can watch it with French subtitles, at least I know that I’m exercising
my brain, while I’m enjoying time with my wife. Using the language
feature on most DVDs is a resource many people simply miss. When studying
a foreign language, it is a feature that is a must.
If you are brave, trying
watching DVDs from other countries. Some of the best movies made in
America came from ideas inspired from overseas. Remember “3 men and a
baby?” – this was a remake from a French film. What about the horror film
“The Ring?” – a remake of a Japanese film. Indeed many of our top films
are simply remakes of an overseas version. Even if you haven’t heard of
the film before, there are many resources that will help you to find a good
foreign film. Don’t be afraid to try out a film that appears good to
you. I admit I have purchased a number of loser films that were really
not that great. But for every lemon of a film, I found countless good
films that were well worth the time viewing them.
Television and DVD movies
are a great resource, but they are by all means not the only resource
available. Most any bookstore is going to sell “learn to speak” type CD
ROMs, cassette tapes, and other language learning materials. It is hard
to recommend any one type in particular because they all have their strong and
weak points. Best suggestion: experiment. Most of the items
available on the market are not that expensive and you’ll know very soon how
inspiring they are to your linguistic development. Some offer great
lessons on vocabulary, others are strong in grammar. Trying different
products will certainly help you to develop your abilities in different
areas. The most difficult obstacle you may cross is that unfortunate
problem though that most of these products are geared toward the
beginner. When you reach the intermediate to advance stage of your
language development, you’ll find it increasingly difficult to find a product
that will help you advance. Why are most products geared toward the beginner?
Quite frankly it is because most people trying to learn a language rarely make
it past the beginning stage. He or she will get excited about learning a
language only to give up after a few weeks of study. Don’t let this
happen to you. Learning a language is a lifetime experience. It
won’t be without its ups and downs, but it can be very rewarding if you keep
trucking along.
So what do you do if you
reach the intermediate stage and can’t find resources that lift you to the next
level? Try different products or dialects of the same language. It
never hurts to broaden your perspective. Such a feat is easy to undertake
with a language like Arabic because in addition to the Modern Standard Arabic,
you will find among others the Saudi dialect, the Egyptian dialect, the Iraqi
dialect and a dialect from just about every different Middle Eastern
country. It can become undaunting. You really need to keep a
positive attitude about it and realize that every time you study a different
dialect you are making it more likely that you will understand the person that
you may one day need to translate for. For a language like Spanish, it
too can be very different from region to region. Studying dialectal
differences can be fascinating. Just see how different Argentinean
Spanish and Mexican Spanish can be and you’ll soon discover that learning a
language is only the beginning.
With all this said, do not let this discourage you. Keep trying,
try new products. There are a number of computer products that offer
interactive software that will actually track your voice and let you know if
your pronunciation is correct. There are software products where you can
watch film clips and answer questions about the content. You name the
intervention it is likely to exist. You can even take classes on-line
with professors thousands of miles away who are available to give you
one-on-one tutoring. The resources are almost infinite. The key is
not finding the best tool to use to study a language, but finding the time to experiment
with the tools that exist. Once you find the product that you enjoy, then
it can really take you to that next level. Whatever you do, don’t give
up. If at first you don’t succeed in finding the television station, DVD
movie, CD ROM, workbook or other resource you enjoy, try, try and try again.
The most beautiful thing about learning a language is that the more you fail at
it, the better you become. So don’t give up!
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