One simple trick to master any language

When I was in school, I struggled with the many languages I had to study. Although I knew how to read and write the script, I hardly understood what I was reading - let alone being able to string together anything that made sense. Not surprisingly, I hated the language subjects - except English ie.

It was only later in life I figured the one surefire way to learn any language - and all I can do now is wish I could go back to school and make short work of all those seemingly unsurmountable assignments.

So, what's this trick? Just watch the TV news in the language you're trying to learn, every single day for 2 to 3 months. And that's all you'll need to do.

When I share this with others, most people instinctively react that it won't be enough. They suggest maybe one has to supplement it with books and audio tapes - and probably even a tutor. It can't be as simple as listening to gibberish all day - how do we find out what the words mean and more importantly, how do we know where one word ends and the next begins? And what about grammar?

But each one of us - as a child - learnt at least one language by listening to it all day , whether we understood it or not. And that's our mother tongue. We didn't need phrasebooks, audio tapes or crash courses for that. We listened to all of it - trying to understand and grasp it through the context. We used and practiced what little we knew and used that to understand some more and then some more.

When we become adults however, we lose faith in the process. The need to control the learning process takes over. We need to have specific starting points, we need to make tangible progress, we start tracking how much time and effort we are putting in. And frustration - and the possibility of abandoning the task - is never far away.

By doing away with starting points, any externally imposed tests tracking arbitrary progress, and even an expectation of mastering the language in a given time - this trick ensures that we start concentrating on the language and listening to it.

At first it seems like a steady stream of gibberish. Then some words start standing out. They become familiar though  one might still now know what they mean. Then the context provides a clue. And then you deduce what the adjacent words mean - not getting it right all the time. But if you do made a mistake, soon enough you'll figure out. Soon you'll also develop an ear for the language, ensuring you understand the way words can and cannot fit together.

The trick also works with listening to the language in any form - in a language movie or TV soaps for eg.

But TV news gives you a ready and constantly changing context that you already know (broadly, at least) from the newspapers and from people around you. This makes the assimilation of words and meaning double quick. And in the course of a couple of months - you're very likely to hear everything you need to get started.

If you can't find a TV news channel for the language you're seeking to learn, you can try searching the web for an Internet radio station that carries news in the language. The two problems with radio are that it's easy to get distracted and lose focus on what you're listening (especially when you can't understand anything.) Secondly, the lack of images does make it a bit more difficult to figure out the context.

[This post is a part of a blog project compiling tips and tricks.]

Comments

[Adam]

Brilliant idea.

[HairySwede]

I agree that Tv is incredibly helpful when learning a new language. I even wrote in my blog about how TV in Sweden was really helping me pick up on all kinds of slang and even helping me be a better reader and writer of Swedish, this was because of the subtitles, but the benefits of watching TV in a different language are really impressive.

[Daniel Mejia]

For years everybody asked me why or how I became so "good" in english languague (it seems that in Latin America most people have a hard time learning it) and my only answer is that when I was a child I learned english that way, watching TV. The trick I think is that this way you really learn to think in the languague you´re trying to learn, otherwise you only keep thinking in your mother tongue and translating it.

[Susan Flemming]

That's an excellent tip. Earlier in our marriage, my husband and I were posted to Germany for four years. One of the ways that I picked up enough of the language to get by when travelling and shopping was by watching German TV. Of course, that was almost 20 years ago now and I've forgotten most of it.

[Geoff Foster]

Some years ago, an academic colleague from Poland came to our Australian university with his wife and young daughter (about 5, as I remember).

When her mum chided her about spending too much time in front of the tv, the child said, through gritted teeth "but I HAVE to learn this stupid language!"

(A bit off-topic; another child, Belgian or Swiss I think, when asked how she got on during her second day at nursery school here, said "Oh fine, but they're still speaking that funny language!")

[Tartrazina]

Eenadu here i come ;-)

[GnomeyNewt]

Thanks for the tip. You are so right HairySwede, that when I've tried to learn French and Japanese I am just translating it but not truely grasping the language. Will try this tip out to see if I can make any headway. I bet at the least it will help with my listening skills, as they are what lacks the most!

[preeti]

hey will try to implement this but i bet you should have the base ready .. you cant simply try with totally out-of-the-blue language, m i right?

[Living in Japan]

The presenter probably doesn't mean to do it, but this is presented as a classic oversimplification. No, watching news is not all that you need. News often uses very proper, dry, and even quite stiff language to relay the information it has for you. Not only that, but certain kinds of language aren't used on the news. For example, you will likely never or almost never hear language like this, 'Hey what's up? I was thinking maybe we could grab a burger before class.'
I know this as a fact because I can read novels, magazines, scientific journals, and grammar books in Japanese, and can listen to talk about some of those things, but the hardest thing for me is still the day to day small talk, the daily conversations I have with my friends at church and elsewhere.

Don't buy this oversimplification. You need much more. But he is very right about one thing: you must expose yourself to the language CONSTANTLY. 15-20 minutes a day won't do for the majority of people. Look for hours every day. Replace your current activities with ones in the language you want to learn. Make it more than just a part of your life, make it your life!

For example, I go to an all Japanese church with all Japanese services. All of my friends at the church with one exception are Japanese speakers. I watch Japanese movies, listen to Japanese radio, use the Japanese wikipedia, play Japanese video games (RPGs are best, high textual content), read about Japanese grammar using Japanese books, read my Bible in Japanese, pray in Japanese, and often think in Japanese. Do this with your language, and you'll be good to go; just make sure you're supplementing it with good language resources (books that use a minimal of English and focus on communication, not exercises or drills).

[blaiq]

I agree with 'Living in Japan' that listening to TV news to master a language is a simplication. The alternative he suggests - to be immersed 24 hours in the language - while being much more effective, is also more daunting and time-consuming.

By all means, immerse yourself in the language - the process I have described works much better in that case (and indeed is the heart of the mother tongue example I mention.) But like most langauge students, if you have only 20-30 minutes to devote in a day - my suggestion would be to watch the TV news.

True, the nitty gritties of conversation are not exactly abundant in TV news - but nowadays TV news has shed much of its dry demeanour. Studio anchors breezily chatting with reporters is the custom rather than the exception. TV news is often augmented with interviews and convesrations which give more opportunities to learn the informal language.

Finally, as 'Living in Japan' points out, no matter how much you listen to TV, there will be words you will encounter that will be new. But as I mention in the post, the human brain is smart enough to deduce what words mean from the context - if only we trust it and let it do just that.

[Melanie]

I believe it's quite difficult to teach language watching TV news. It is from my own experience. The tempo of the speech is too fast for those who don't know the language well.

[blaiq]

Melanie, the trick here is to persist listening to the news over a long period of time even when you don't understand anything. As your ears get attuned to the language you'll slowly start discerning word and word forms and slowly piecing together what it all means - made easier because you already have a rough idea what the news is (from your natural language sources.)

The hard part is having faith in the process and sticking through with it despite the frustration in the beginning and thereafter. All of us are too conditioned with the idea of an external entity administering us lessons and directions - and of making tangible and substantial progress for every hour spent.

The process I recommend is of letting go of such expectations and letting your ear for the language develop all by itself. After all, all of us as children learnt our primary language thru the process I describe (not listening to the news per se - but listening to the language without knowing what the words mean.)

In fact, I think you should persist rather than give up. And you'll in all likeliood have a different story to narrate.