how to (actually) learn languages through TV & movies 📺

you watch TV all day anyways, so why not learn a language while you do it? from effectively using subtitles to actively imitating the characters, there are so many ways to make language learning with TV and movies interactive and FUN. fun fact: even if it's a show in my native language, i always watch with foreign subtitles! once you start, you can't stop, so let's visit a while and talk about one of my favorite topics 🌟 this video is long overdue!

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📚 My language learning resources and templates:

☕️ buy me a coffee (if you are so inclined!)
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💌 social media:

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🐥 twitter:

🎵 spotify w/ english, german, spanish, and portuguese playlists

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💌 about me: my name is Elysse, I'm 23 years old from the southern U.S. I've been learning languages for about 8 years, and I speak English (native), Spanish (C2), German (B2/C1), French (C1), Portuguese (B2), American Sign Language (advanced), and Turkish (A1). I'm interested in learning Farsi, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Georgian, and maybe Náhuatl as well :)

00:00 we all do it anyways, might as well learn another language
00:53 balance THESE skills
1:29 what should you watch? sitcoms? kid shows? reality TV?
3:00 that time you guys SNITCHED ON ME
3:22 more on reality TV
3:42 start with your native language + foreign subs
4:22 how to use subtitles EFFECTIVELY
4:39 watch without subtitles, then with subtitles
5:12 use double subtitles
5:17 use LingoPie's tools to get fluent
6:55 how to acquire new vocab through TV
7:45 the shadowing method (YASSS)
8:36 get familiar with the culture of a language!
9:22 how do you learn languages through TV?
9:30 subscribe (or else)

#polyglot #languagelearning #learngerman

[firstditcheffort]

For French (at least, Canadian French), there's a cooking show that we used to have that my dad would put on tv all the time. They spoke fast enough that I couldn't understand everything, but visually accompanied by the audio I was able to parse out what was going on and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to guess what they were making.

[CalThompson-ojkk]

I learned more from TV than I did in 8 semesters of high school and college language courses, and years of online learning.

I change countries and have to learn a new language for work virtually every year. So now I have a system where spend a few days studying the bare basics, then I move entirely to TV and movies.

I always watch the same movie or show 4 times.

1st viewing: Fluent language + Target subtitles.
It lets me understand the story, build context clues for later, and get eyes on vocab and sentence structure.

2nd viewing: Target language + Fluent subtitles.
It lets me hear the language and catch colloquial phrases that aren't meant to be taken literally (very important).

3rd viewing: Target language + Target subtitles.
It allows me to follow along and check myself when I miss something.

4th viewing: Target language - No subtitles.
Trial by fire. I have to try to remember everything I learned in the prior viewings, and practice recalling them instantly with no help. This step is weird because it feels like I'm wasting my time, but I've found it cuts my learning time down immensely vs always having subtitles.

I attempt this cycle with one show per week, and it usually takes me about two months until I find I can skip step 1 entirely. After month three I can skip step 2, and After month four I can just watch movies in my target language without subs and begin reading novels in the target language.

[lyon]

Hahaha I loved the fact that the Brazilians told the guy you had a crush on him 😂🇧🇷❤️

[yourLocalPopPunkFan]

another thing i like is watching regular youtube videos in portuguese, like vlogs, whats in my bag, organising my room. regular vlogs and things that i watch in english but in your target language can help

[elleryprescott]

I agree reality TV is a really good option because they’re not putting on weird voices or speaking in a forced way. Especially certain countries will have their actors speak in a really unnatural way…

[angietrif]

Been absolutely loving your content, it's been so inspiring to me as someone who has always wanted to improve and learn more languages but has always felt overwhelmed, too busy, distracted or unmotivated to do so! I am planning to do the lingoda sprint to get my French back to where it was in the past, and hope to use the extra credits gained if I win to learn Spanish! So excited to see your progress this year!

[arizona]

combining casually watching and rewatching shows with some kind of flashcard SRS system has been invaluable to me. I found some dubbed american sitcoms in my target language which I'd already watched in english and I noticed myself picking up words so quickly because I could easily guess what was being said based on the plot and the context

[amcselili]

I love watching movies/tv shows that are in a language that i don't understand, and has subtitles in English
Makes me pay attention if i actually wanna know what they're saying

[nasspeaks]

muchas gracias por tu contenido, como alguien que está aprendiendo español, voy a tener en cuenta estos consejos :)

[leon-rley]

i absolutely love your content, as a first-time learner it's been truly difficult because i still don't know how do i learn the best and get frustrated sometimes but when i watch your videos i feel inspired again, wishing you the best! ❤

[MTimWeaver]

For the longest time, I was a current events junkie. So I combined the idea of watching TV for language learning with current events, and would watch the news. In the beginning, I would watch one of the network national news broadcasts (yeah, I'm that old) and local news to get an idea of what was going on. Then I'd watch that days newscast on Telemundo or Univision. While not a 1:1 analog, there were enough stories that appeared on both that it helped me learn new vocab and practice my comprehension.

National news allowed me to learn ways to talk about big events, and the local news gave me exposure to different accents and speech patterns via the local field reporters. Best of all, it was free. Drawback, there were zero subtitles then, so I was a strong A2 before I did this.

I'm trying to do this with my current TL of Swedish, but being a weak A1, it's been rough going. There's a Swedish teacher who has a weekly "language walk" on Saturdays, where she goes around town and talks about things...what she's seeing, small grammar tips, etc....in easier Swedish. I find I can understand about 70% of what she says...until she gets excited and talks faster. LOL

[leoxx]

I’m so glad you’re posting so often:) you’ve inspired me so much with your videos and routine! Much love💙

[MakotoOPT]

Yoooo it must be Christmas because two elysse videos back to back!?!?

[lilacfields]

omggg the circle brazil!! i’ve been learning spanish but just watching that show made me wanna learn portuguese as well. love the way portugese sounds ☺️

[meliacogan]

Great ideas!! 💡 I usually start with the subs in my native language just to keep up with the plot and listen to the phonetics. When I am intermediate, I re-watch it with subs in the target language.

[Riseroseriot]

As someone who grew up in the Philippines and got 9.0 in the IELTS based solely learning from video games and watching TV this is the only way i truly know how to learn a language, I learned japanese the same way

[lingoben]

I love your content, Elysse. I'm going to Istanbul in April and I've been studying Turkish now for over 4 months. I'm excited to surprise my Turkish friends and make a video. I will definitely use your tips moving forward!

[Lulimpiavidrios]

Justo quiero volver a internarme con series alemanas y realmente entender lo que sea, alguito, no importa. De paso, amo tus videos, te sigo hace un montón ❤

[КириллЛасточкин-сь]

Yes here I agree together with you to be honest on 100% that's really the best topics for those who wanna learn to their target language in no times and at least somehow will do this hard way to successful results more easier. So good video as always looks so shiny.

[langsandbella]

I can't thank you enough for these learning languages videos 💜