learning by watching tv

Hello!

I hear many people say that you can learn English or any language by just watching tv in that language...is this really possible? How can you understand verb tenses, grammar, and new words just by hearing the language without any context or knowing what anything means?

Did anyone hear learn englisch that way here?

I reckon you might be able to pick up some stuff that way. If there are subtitles. But I watch a good deal of korean and japanese movies and tv with subs and I still know hardly anything.

Maybe it would be easier to pick up if it was a language in the same group as the language your native to. So maybe if I watched a load of dutch stuff I'd pick up some dutch.

I have a friend from Bosnia, who grew up in the US. She's always watched stuff in Spanish and..BOOM! She speaks spanish fluently. I dunno how that happened, but it did. She does have some exposure to hispanic people in high school, tho, so that must have helped a great deal. All I know is that she went straight to Spanish 5 in our school without attending previous Spanish classes. I thought that was amazing.

Your friend must have just studied in secrecy when you didn't see her. There's no such thing as someone going BOOM and speaking a language. Sorry, better luck next time.

God, I hope thats the case. :D

Im trying to prove she's not super smart. LOL

I have a friend from Finland who said that watching American TV shows with Finnish subtitles was the biggest contributing factor to her fluency.

-I have a friend from Bosnia, who grew up in the US. She's always watched stuff in Spanish-

It sounds logical. in Bosnia, Mexican and Colombian soap operas have more viewers than American tv shows.

Stanji,

"I reckon you might be able to pick up some stuff that way. If there are subtitles. But I watch a good deal of korean and japanese movies and tv with subs and I still know hardly anything.

Maybe it would be easier to pick up if it was a language in the same group as the language your native to. So maybe if I watched a load of dutch stuff I'd pick up some dutch."

Maybe you should try turning the subtitles off and accepting the content on TV as sound without meaning.

Maybe she's been watching them all her life, with a little supllementary learning on the side (talking to natives, reading websites) etc, That seems conceivable.

Watching news on a TV is very helpful because we can listen to them if how the way they deliver they speak and pronounce the words.

Learning a language from scratch with no explanations and rules, just like you did with your native language, is possible only if you are very young. Some researchers showed it is not possible to learn like a child when you are not a child anymore. I guess you have to be under 6, but I am not sure, I don't remember.
So no, you can't learn that way. The best method for adults are based on studying grammar, learning the sounds, lots of practice... all using your native language (or another language you know) as a starting point.