Comments on learn a language or two: The TV "method" or how I learned Italian

I think you're pretty amazing.^^ I'm Italian and I...

2009-12-09T06:58:29.248-08:00

I think you're pretty amazing.^^ I'm Italian and I believe my mothertongue is one of the most difficult languages in the whole world!

I think the reason more adults don't learn languag...

2009-09-04T11:37:38.862-07:00

I think the reason more adults don't learn languages this way is because when they aren't understanding something or they think it all going in one ear and out the other they will stop. They don't realize that their brain is actually assimilating the language even if they aren't consciously understanding things yet.

all my tv channels are 100% in english... but than...

2009-06-28T21:57:12.512-07:00

all my tv channels are 100% in english... but thank you, internet + local video shop with lots of foreign movies!

Hi Alex I believe speaking would have reinforced ...

2009-06-27T20:14:31.314-07:00

Hi Alex

I believe speaking would have reinforced things. I did not follow a method. Heck, I was five. I did not know what's a noun. Speaking would have likely made me more comfortable with using the language. I remember singing along to some songs but that was it. Beyond my university courses I did not have to deal with Italians in my daily life. A major in Italian meant that half of all my university courses were all language and literature related and obviously in Italian.

I did forget to mention that I used Italian professionally during three years dealing mostly with corporate issues. On the active side I occasionally had to make phone calls and write emails. My first phone call was an interesting experience. My heart was racing. Silly but true. After a few phone calls I was chatting along with a mild sense of dread.

My second job involved mostly reading Italian financial documents on a very sporadic basis.

In 7th grade I met someone who had also learned some Italian this way. He also knew a Japanese theme song by heart. This amazed me (hey this was in the 80's). This guy is interesting also because he came from Australia and according to his English teacher in fourth grade he was practically bilingual. This might have been an exaggeration but in any case by 7th grade he was pretty bad in English although he still had some rare flashes of greatness. In 8th grade he was a total disaster.

The question is: Do you think your speaking fluenc...

2009-06-27T18:36:21.641-07:00

The question is: Do you think your speaking fluency would have been higher or lower if you had started speaking earlier in your TV watching days?

Also, I think you must be missing something out because you have given an analysis of your spoken level but not mentioned speaking the language.