# Can an average person learn a truly foreign language just by watching a native language TV station? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946 "2015-05-01T01:14:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/21 "2015-05-04T14:33:54Z")
Here’s [quotes from Rapace] ([http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=352930](http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=352930)) that mirror what she said on Graham Norton. She says the same thing in several other articles. [This article](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/9283256/Noomi-Rapace-interview-for-Ridley-Scotts-Prometheus.html) probably explains best why she didn’t learn English at home or in school: > [@](#): > > When Rapace was seven, all of them worked as extras on an Icelandic period film, In the Shadow of the Raven. 'It was like a Tristan and Isolde Viking story, and I loved it. We lived there, in tents, and I didn’t want to go home. I remember feeling, “I belong here”. From that point on, I knew I wanted to become an actress.’ > > Two years later, the family returned to Sweden to enrol Rapace in a Rudolf Steiner school. 'They didn’t want to put me in a normal school because I was so wild,’ she says. 'I grew up in nature. I was always out playing with the horses, building and creating things, and Steiner schools give you a bit more freedom. It was good for me, because it’s very creative, loose and playful. But I didn’t really learn that much. I didn’t have any books. I couldn’t read or write until I was quite old, and I didn’t learn any languages.’ > > By the time Rapace was 14, she wasn’t going to school much at all. I’m thinking she’s from one of those families that didn’t watch TV, so she missed the American Television boat. Then she was out of the country for 2 years as a child, and spotty in school attendance - which was a Waldorf school which doesn’t seem to focus on foreign language, if anything… She did eventually finish her high school degree and went to drama school but perhaps it was ok to get through that just speaking Swedish? Also wondering if she knew English but just wasn’t that good at it due to less exposure, and doing international press made it clear that her English wasn’t very robust, and she started studying to become firmly fluent. But it got out to the press that she “didn’t know English at all and then learned it quickly by watching BBC and CNN.” And she’s stuck to that story because it’s more fun than “I knew English but not well enough.” ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/22 "2015-05-05T02:12:23Z")
After almost 20 years of “HKTB Serials” (in Cantonese) playing almost every night in the bedroom I say “not gonna happen”. Unless there is a direct translation in subtitles, and someone to help you practice. There is simply not enough relationship between the spoken words and what is happening on the screen to decipher the meaning of individual words. Unless it is a sesame street or Dora the Explorer style show aimed specifically at teaching the language ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/23 "2015-05-05T02:59:40Z")
I had some basic Spanish in high school, and a couple months of employer-sponsored training the first time I lived in Mexico, but I really became fluent watching _Uga Uga_ (Brazilian dubbed into Spanish) over the course of its run in the early 2000s. Started with English subtitles, got used to the language, then switched to Spanish, and finally turning them off. And then living in Mexico three more times helped with the rest. ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/24 "2015-05-05T03:14:41Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Noomi Rapace, the star of the Swedish _Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ movie, was on _The Graham Norton Show_ last week and said this is how she learned English. She said when she did press for the movie (in 2009) she had no idea what everyone was saying to her, so she set out to learn English by watching a ton of TV. Hearing her speak now, you’d have thought it was a language she learned alongside Swedish. > > She said she also learned Icelandic when she lived in Iceland for just a few years as a youngster, so she might just have an affinity for language. It also helps that English and Swedish are related languages. Swedish is supposedly among one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn ([cite](http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty)), so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same in the other direction. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/25 "2015-05-05T06:51:07Z")
> [@CoastalMaineiac](#): > > It also helps that English and Swedish are related languages. Swedish is supposedly among one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn ([cite](http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty)), so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same in the other direction. According to this chart, Icelandic is much more difficult to learn (for English speakers) than all the other Scandinavian languages and on the same level as Khmer, Urdu, Persian and Tagalog. What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/26 "2015-05-05T07:22:09Z")
Relying on any one technique to learn a language can be very slow, but I think conceivably you could reach a good level of proficiency just watching TV. So many times when I’m trying to explain some grammar point to my (Chinese) girlfriend, she’ll say “Oh like when \”, so it was clearly a big part of her learning. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Noomi Rapace, the star of the Swedish _Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ movie, was on _The Graham Norton Show_ last week and said this is how she learned English. She said when she did press for the movie (in 2009) she had no idea what everyone was saying to her, so she set out to learn English by watching a ton of TV. Hearing her speak now, you’d have thought it was a language she learned alongside Swedish. Perhaps she was exaggerating about how poor her English was previously. I was in Sweden for 2 months and didn’t meet anyone under the age of 40 that didn’t speak English _fluently_. anecdote: I remember buying something at a petrol (gas) station, and chatting with the teller. When I told him I was British, he apologized for his poor English, and said I must have noticed just now how he clumsily used the word “merge” when he meant _converge_. That’s the level we’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/27 "2015-05-05T07:39:38Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Perhaps she was exaggerating about how poor her English was previously. I was in Sweden for 2 months and didn’t meet anyone under the age of 40 that didn’t speak English _fluently_. I could introduce you to a few… but it’s also true that I have two superusers about whom everybody else keeps saying “their English is very poor” and I keep saying “no it’s not, he doesn’t always know the right word but he knows how to explain what word he needs!” One of those two is the best communicator of all the superusers :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/28 "2015-05-05T09:42:26Z")
I agree that language acquisition is complex. After many years in Switzerland, I now can speak and read french pretty well – level C1. But my oral comprehension is way behind. The way I would break it down is Oral spoken – 8/10 Oral comprehension – 5/10 (but see below) Reading – 9/10 Writing – probably 8/10 though I very seldom need to do it. If I am in a conversation with someone, and I am _controlling_ the content and direction of the conversation, then my comprehension is about 7/10. But conversely, if someone says something to me out of the blue, I understand more like 4/10. I can watch entire TV shows in french with my daughters, and if I am not listening closely, I will pick up almost nothing. I just don’t seem to be able to catch spoken french passively, even after all these years. It is very frustrating. But if I am watching a french film with the hearing-impaired (french) subtitles on, I get 90%. It’s very odd… So I for one doubt that I could pick up a language just from TV. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/29 "2015-05-05T11:14:36Z")
Every expat I’ve ever known has enthusiastic fantasies of binge watching television in order to gain proficiency. Inevitably, they find their hopes dashed rather quickly and the ones who do gain proficiency do it via concerted, systematic effort while the ones who expect it to come naturally either return home or stay in a hermetically sealed English bubble the entire time. The problem is that watching television in a foreign language is not fun, it’s intensely cognitively draining. You inevitably resort to just reading the subtitles or going back to english language sources of entertainment. I think it’s easier going the other way though. Non-English speakers seem to have far more success learning English from television because there’s far more high quality English content out there that’s enjoyable to consume. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/30 "2015-05-05T11:31:11Z")
Research shows that children cannot pick up a second language from television or recorded audio, either. Which surprises me, a lot, but I guess that’s why we do research. [The effects of television on speech development: Does it interfere?](http://www.parentingscience.com/effects-of-television-on-children-learning-speech.html) ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/31 "2015-05-05T15:28:09Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > According to this chart, Icelandic is much more difficult to learn (for English speakers) than all the other Scandinavian languages and on the same level as Khmer, Urdu, Persian and Tagalog. What’s up with that? Icelandic has not changed much from Old Norse over the years. It retains its four noun cases (nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive), three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and strong and weak nouns of different classes, all of which have different declensions, which you must keep straight. English does something similar to this with pronouns (e.g.: he, him, his), but not with other nouns. As an example, the Icelandic word for _cat_. [köttur - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/k%C3%B6ttur#Declension) ---
**Author:** ![Aquilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@Aquilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquilla)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/32 "2015-05-05T20:50:01Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > If you already have some knowledge of the language, you will probably get better by watching TV. > > If you have no prior knowledge of the target language, but you are watching TV with subtitles in your own language, there is a good chance you will eventually learn to understand it. > > If you are starting from zero (for example, if I were fed a non-stop diet of Thai or Fulani TV) I think you could go a very long time without understanding or learning anything useful at all. And I believe that is true for adults and children alike. Personal anecdote that goes along with this: I watched a lot of American/British movies and TV shows. I also took English in elementary school, and the television definitely helped me understand spoken English better. I could pick up on a lot of the dialogue fairly quickly. We also used to get German TV, and I watched cartoons in German. I distinctly remember watching the X-men cartoon in German, and not understanding a single thing, despite being fairly interested in it and never missing an episode. I only knew the names of the main characters because the intro listed them all. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/33 "2015-05-06T00:31:32Z")
Obviously people vary. Watching French TV didn’t do much for me. I can speak it with difficulty, but can almost never understand locals. One trouble is that the French spoken on the street is quite different from that on TV and radio. ---
**Author:** ![Potestas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@Potestas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Potestas)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/34 "2015-05-06T00:39:08Z")
To the original question the answer is absolutely yes 100%. I have become fluent (in conversational) in just close to 5 languages besides english from just watching different things. Now can I write in those languages? I’m sure if I put things together phonetically as it sounds I might be able to but I don’t know grammatical rules and I dont do well with writing it at all because my point of reference is almost exclusively visual so my knowledge is strictly conversational. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/35 "2015-05-06T00:51:21Z")
> [@Potestas](#): > > To the original question the answer is absolutely yes 100%. I have become fluent (in conversational) in just close to 5 languages besides english from just watching different things. Now can I write in those languages? I’m sure if I put things together phonetically as it sounds I might be able to but I don’t know grammatical rules and I dont do well with writing it at all because my point of reference is almost exclusively visual so my knowledge is strictly conversational. I don’t think an “average” person is fluent in 5 language, no matter what the learning system. Your linguistics skill is admirable, not average. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946/36 "2015-05-06T15:07:09Z")
No, I don’t think it is possible to achieve a high degree of proficiency in any language simply by watching TV, absent any other input or interaction. TV can certainly support learning, especially if one is actually living in the target culture. And I think it would be possible to pick up words, phrases, etc. exclusively from watching TV. But if there is no additional scaffolding (no subtitles, no clues to language beyond context), I would very much doubt that TV alone could lead to high proficiency. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-average-person-learn-a-truly-foreign-language-just-by-watching-a-native-language-tv-station/718946.md?page=1)