The ONLY 4 TV Shows That Will Make You Fluent

@lenamafalda says:

I have got so many thoughts to share over this topic!

1) I thank Trinity Blood for introducing me to Buck Tick’s “Dress” which I really love. Even though my Japanese got rusty over the years of studying hiatus, I still remember the chorus lyrics and what most words in it mean! I’ll start studying Japanese again together with watching anime.

2) Even though I’ve been studying Korean for some time, I would struggle finding enjoyable content to watch and practise on, apart from BTS shows, because the majority of K-Dramas are in the romance genre and I’m not into this. After a long search I found some non-romance K-Dramas to watch. I will also search for more reality shows in Korean, since I’ve noticed they entail a lot of visual cues for emphasis that makes practice somewhat easier. I can pinpoint episode 5 of Run Jin as an example of this.

Thank you so much for sharing your ideas on this!
You gave me inspiration to search for more content to practise and on more languages.

@MaxHohenstaufen says:

Before I even start watching this I’ll just say: Back in 1998 I had 0 english skills and english class as a foreign language was completely gibberish to me. The regular class with meta-language was useless because I did not even understand much of my own native lang grammar, so trying to teach english by comparison was totally futile. But in 1998 we set up cable TV and I started watching american sitcoms with subtitles. Seinfeld, married with children, the nanny, that one with Tony Danza (where, I still remember, I learned the word “why”), 3rd rock from the sun, that 70’s show and, most importantly, *friends* . If I speak english now, it’s all on those old shows. Of course much more came later, but I went from knowing 0% english to 60-70% in about a year just by catching up with Kramer and Chandler’s antics.

EDIT: after watching it, yes, I agree with the principle and the importance of repetition. Much of what I learned is due to that. Sony entertainment Tv and Wrner would show new episodes once every week and reruns of older ones ALL DAY LONG. And as a teen I’d watch or at least listen to much of it. And thanks to that, I can still finish most of friends’ punchlines before the characters say them and i know most of all the lines even after over 20 years, during which I spent many without ever wathcing a single episode again. The thought process that goes behind it is beautiful. Every little detail is deeply engraved. I only watched the office recently, but I already know the quirks of them characters voices like the palm of my hand, because I’m so well trained in it.

@lynnsee730 says:

My secret weapon for Italian is the soap, Un Posto al sole. After somewhat less than three years, the stages have been, 1. No clue, can’t get a word, but she is evidently mad at him for some reason; 2. Can pick out a few words; 3. Can follow plot with some holes; 4. Understand most of it; 5. Understand virtually everything including analyzing grammar as it goes by. I usually watch each episode twice, once with subtitles in Italian and once without, but the order varies. I also take scenes and copy the subtitles (correcting them when the subtitles are inaccurate) in column. 1, translate in column 2, make any notes (a new word, a grammar point) in column 3, then several days later cover all but the English column and retranslate into Italian. PS. In the early stages I enjoyed Olly’s short story books and the 30 day grammar topic books.