Since I was very young, my mother strived to surround me with as much English as possible, and one of the things we used to do a lot of was watching TV in English. This improved my English tremendously over the years, so much that now, you can barely hear an accent when I speak. It didn’t matter whether I understood what I was watching or not at the beginning, we just had to do it.
If you want to learn a language at any age, this is one of the best exercises you can do. It’s so easy, it doesn’t require a lot of effort and it really helps! I did this to learn English and it has become a big part of our method at Learn with Adriana. It is one of the top recommendations for all our students.
Nowadays, there are plenty of resources on the internet like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney Plus, DVDs, or even YouTube. We can instantly replicate being in a foreign country for a few hours by doing this little exercise. And there is no limit to how often we do this! Here are some tips for all kinds of learners:
- If you’re a beginner or intermediate learner – the best thing you can do is to re-watch films or tv shows that you’ve already seen. This way, you won’t feel so lost, as you should know how the story goes, and you’ll be able to relate what you know to what you’re watching and listening to.
- If you’re an advanced learner – the best approach is to constantly watch new things to expand your vocabulary. Maybe keep a notepad next to you in case you want to write down things you might want to research later or ask your teacher.
- If you’re a parent at home who wants their child to learn a new language – you can make watching tv in that language part of the daily routine, for 20 to 30 minutes every day. My mother used to buy us our favorite Disney films in English, and we watched them for half an hour every day. Sometimes she would even get us sing-along series so we could sing with our favorite characters. This is a great exercise for kids! Back then, she had to order these from abroad, but in today’s wonderfully connected world, these materials are at your fingertips.
If you feel like you need subtitles put them on. It is best to always have subtitles in the language you’re listening to unless you’ve only just started your language adventures. Subtitles in the language you’re listening to will help you to learn whether there are words you thought were pronounced differently. If you put subtitles in your own language chances are, you’ll stop listening and your eyes will go on to read the subtitles because they’re what’s familiar to you. However, if you feel like you need to, feel free to do so and switch them in a few months after your listening has improved.
As you can see this is an easy thing we can all start doing today to improve our language skills. You can learn any language from the comfort of your couch. Start now, start today!