Do you want to learn a language
by watching TV,
but there's something in your way,
there's some sort of obstacle
that you can't get past.
In this video, I'm going to address
six of the most common problems
language learners face
when trying to watch
TV in their target language,
how to solve them,
as well as some resources
that could be really,
really beneficial to you.
If you're new here. Hi, my name is Jamie.
I'm a language coach.
And my job is to help online
language learners be really intentional
about their language learning
so they know what to do
to achieve their individual goals.
So if you want more
content about language learning
and actionable no-BS
tips to make your language
learning strategy better,
more effective and more enjoyable.
Make sure you subscribe and hit the bell
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The first tip that I have for language
learners is if you don't genuinely enjoy
watching it, don't bother.
I personally made this mistake
for so many years
because as a Spanish language learner,
everybody tells you to watch telenovelas.
I hate telenovelas.
I think they're really boring
and I think they're annoying.
There's too much drama.
I can't watch them because I hate them.
Now, if you enjoy watching telenovelas,
that's great,
because they're very simple plots.
There's a lot going on,
but it's really easy
for beginner comprehension.
But if you don't enjoy it,
that is not going to do anything for you
because you're going to hate watching it.
You don't enjoy watching it,
then you're not going to watch it.
Simple.
A lot of people also say to watch
children's shows in your target language
because they have, again,
very simple grammatical structures,
very simple plot
lines, very easy to follow
because they're geared towards children.
The problem is they can
also be really boring.
I mean, children's
shows are meant for children to follow.
A lot of Adults aren't
going to enjoy them.
So if you don't enjoy them again,
what's the point?
There are so many options out there
for you to watch TV, watch movies,
things like that
on the Internet that you don't have
to corner yourself into a genre
that you don't enjoy.
Just because somebody else enjoys
watching them, just because
a polyglot enjoys
watching them, doesn't
mean that you should be
watching shows that
you don't like to watch.
Number two: take advantage of subtitles.
No. Subtitles
are not cheating.
Even if they're in your native language,
they're not cheating.
Is it cheating when
a blind student uses
Braille to read in school?
No.
They need Braille to understand
what's going on.
That doesn't make it
any different for them.
It's just what they need
is the same kind of concept
with subtitles.
If you need subtitles to understand
what's going on, use them.
They're a useful tool
and they are not cheating.
If you want to stick
to YouTube and Netflix.
Language Reactor
has some great Chrome extensions
that you can use,
I have whole videos on that.
But they're free Chrome extensions
that you can use to pull subtitles
right out of the videos
that you're watching in your target
language, your native language,
whatever works for you.
Especially if you're on Netflix,
Netflix's original shows,
original movies.
They have it dubbed and translated
into several different languages
to make it accessible
to many different people.
And so the language reactor chrome
extension can really help you
to take advantage of those subtitles.
And if Netflix and YouTube
don't work for you,
there are plenty of other resources.
I have a video showing
you different resources
for that link below.
In the description,
I go through things
like Lingopie, FluentU.
There's all sorts of options.
Check that video out.
Generally speaking, though,
if you're using subtitles,
should you use English subtitles?
Should you use the target
language subtitles?
Well, it depends
completely on your level.
If you can't understand the language
at all, using your native language
subtitles is completely valid.
If you can't understand everything,
you can watch it
and use subtitles in your native language
to understand that there's
nothing wrong with that.
It's up to you to decide
how much you want
to push yourself to understand
the target language,
what your current level is.
If you want to push yourself
a little bit more,
and if you are at a skill level
where you can push yourself
a little bit more,
I would recommend
getting rid of the English subtitles.
But again, it's a case by case
basis, what you're able to do,
how hard you have to work to understand
what's happening.
Because if you have to work yourself
so hard that you're tiring yourself out,
you're not enjoying it,
put on English subtitles, it's fine.
You'll get there eventually.
The third obstacle
that's really, really common
with language learners
is that the media is too fast,
that native speakers
speak too fast,
they can't really understand
what's going on,
or language learners
find that there's accents
and they're not familiar
with certain vocabulary,
certain phrases that
they're not familiar with
because they're used more colloquially
by the native speakers.
And it's not really something
that you're going to find
in a vocab list or a textbook
or things like that.
Well, it is good to get in the habit
of making your way up to native speed.
If you can't understand anything,
it is perfectly valid to slow it down
and build yourself up to that speed.
Again, if you're using Netflix
or YouTube, language
reactor has a function
where you can slow down the audio.
And there's also a function
where you can make it stop
after every piece of dialog
as you're building
your listening comprehension.
This is a perfectly valid
way to watch shows.
You can slow it down
as much as you need
to feel free to pause it, slow it down,
read the subtitles,
really get a handle on what's going on in
making sure that you're
really understanding it
no matter how long it takes.
If you're finding yourself
having to slow down a lot or pause a lot,
that's fine in those cases.
A twenty five minute
episode is a long time.
Feel free to break it up
into five minute chunks.
Make sure that you understand.
Five minutes at a time. Stand up.
Take a break. Stretch.
Eat a snack. Decompress.
Let your brain relax a little bit.
Then go back in and watch
another five minutes.
Slow it down as much as you need.
There are no rules.
Eventually, as you do that
consistently, over time,
you'll be able to watch that full.
Twenty five minutes.
You'll be able to watch it
without pausing it,
without slowing it down.
You just have to make your way there.
If there are words or phrases
that you don't understand,
feel free to make note of them
and learn them and, you know,
tie them to that context
of whatever it is
that you're watching,
which, by the way, is a really excellent
way of picking up new vocabulary.
If you need to take a long time,
that's fine. Do what you need to do.
Think about it as if you want
to learn to ride a unicycle.
If you can't even ride a tricycle yet,
you've got to start there.
There's nothing wrong with starting out,
riding a tricycle,
making your way up to riding a bicycle
and then riding a unicycle.
Just because you're riding a tricycle
doesn't mean you're not eventually going
to get up to a unicycle.
Same thing with watching TV shows.
Just because you're slowing it down
and watching very small
chunks at a time now
doesn't mean you won't eventually
get to the point
where you can watch it
at a leisurely pace,
just watching it normally.
And if you want to go
for a little extra credit,
I would suggest working
on your pronunciation.
I have a whole video on pronunciation
link below in the description
on how improving your own pronunciation
will actually help with this.
Do you like to watch shows
and movies, YouTube videos,
whatever in your target language?
What do you like to watch?
Let me know in the comments.
My next to be patient with yourself.
Patience is so, so, so important.
A lot of new language
learners will go into watching a movie
in their target language
that they would be able to understand
in their native language,
like an adult level,
just normal show, normal movie.
And then they get frustrated
when they can't understand it
because they expect to be able
to jump right into media and watch it.
It is not the same,
not even close,
and it does not mean anything about you.
It's literally just
a different skill level than you are at.
It's going to take some work
to get yourself up to that
level, and that's OK.
I mean, think of it like a child.
A five year old isn't
going to be able to understand
or be interested in an adult movie
like a movie for adults.
They're just not going to be able
to understand the language
and are not going to be able
to understand a lot of the words
just because it's above
their comprehension level.
Same thing with when you're starting
to learn a new language,
you got to dumb it down a little bit.
Another thing that I found
when watching movies
or TVs in a foreign language
is to give yourself
a minute to understand
and get used to the language
that they're using.
I found when I watched TV shows
and I've watched movies
that it takes me a minute
to get used to the specific
sort of language that they're using.
So if I'm watching a show
that has like 10 episodes
in the first season,
the first two episodes
are generally really,
really hard for me,
just because I have to get used to how
those particular characters
speak and the particular
language that they used after
those first couple episodes.
It's much easier to get going.
I don't have to get used
to their specific way of speaking
because everybody speaks differently.
You just have to get used to it.
Be patient with yourself.
With that,
you'll start to learn
that different people use different
phrases, they use
different sentence structures.
And once you get past
those first couple of episodes,
it gets much, much easier
because your brain has picked up on
which person is speaking
based on how they're talking.
So if you feel like
you should really understand
something a lot better,
just take a moment and allow your brain
to get used to
how they're speaking the language.
Number five
is to not worry about
understanding every single word or phrase
you come across.
Now, depending on your individual goals,
in your language,
you can save these words
or phrases for later,
which, by the way, language
reactor is excellent at.
Or you can just look them up briefly
if they're really important.
Part of the context, the situation,
a sentence for you to understand
what's going on.
If they're not particularly important,
don't worry about it.
If you just want to understand
the show, understand the movie basically,
and just enjoy it for the purpose
of enjoying the language
and enjoying the plot,
enjoying the show,
enjoying the characters.
Go for it.
There's nothing wrong with that.
And yes, even if you don't understand
every little thing.
Watching a show just for the plot
will still help your language.
You're still immersing yourself
in the language.
Even if you don't understand everything,
you're still building
your comprehension skills.
You're still building
your listening skills.
So if those individual phrases and words
aren't that important to you, it's fine.
Don't worry about it.
If they are important,
you go and look them up,
add them to whatever.
method you're using to learn vocabulary,
and the sixth tip
is arguably the most important tip.
There is no right way to do this.
There are so many
different approaches for
this based on your goals,
your skill level,
your interests,
what time you have, your patience,
all sorts of things.
You can't do it wrong.
So don't put too
much pressure on yourself.
This stuff is available
so that you can enjoy the process
of language learning.
So make sure that you're
actually enjoying it
and not freaking out, stressing out over
whether or not you're doing it correctly.
Even if you're watching a show
that you don't understand
and you're watching it
with native subtitles.
It's still helpful.
It'll still benefit you,
even if it's just
exposing yourself
to the culture by the clothes
that they wear or what they do
or how they respond
to certain situations,
even if you don't feel like
you're learning a whole lot.
Honestly, it's more important
to enjoy the language
than it is to actively learn anything,
which sounds counterintuitive,
but I promise you,
there is nothing worse
than forcing yourself
to learn something
by doing something
that you don't actually enjoy doing
seriously as a language coach.
Not only has my experience
proven that true,
but my experience with all of my clients.
It's like bulletproof fact.
If you don't enjoy it.
Don't do it.
No strategy, no approach
to learning a language with TV or movies
is better or worse
than any other strategy.
In this video,
I've mentioned a lot of how,
you know, your approach to doing this
depends on all sorts of things.
If you want to learn more about
how to know what your goals are,
what how to know what you want to do.
Click the link below in the description
for my free training,
which will guide you step by step
through my framework,
which I use to help
clients understand this about themselves
and help to make better decisions
for their language learning strategy
based on all those factors.
If you like this video,
I suggest this one
all about how to use resources
like Netflix, YouTube
and even Spotify
to work on your listening comprehension.
Other than that, have a wonderful day
and I will see you next time.