I took two years of Spanish in high school, but that has been a long time ago. I basically remember the most numbers and several words. Could I pick up the words simply by listening to it for long enough?
No, but I bet you can learn English by watching the English Channel.
Sorry.
It’s probably possible but much much harder than just going to a place where everyone speaks it and being forced to communicate. Even if you watch newscasts, they aren’t really trying to talk to you and you don’t have a chance to ask questions. So I imagine it’d be pretty slow. Given that you already know the basics, it might be possible with a lot of effort.
I’m somewhat fascinated by foreign-language channels, but I only pick up a mostly Asian-language channel where I live. I watch and try to figure it out, but still can’t pick out more than a few words. (I’m sure it doesn’t help me that the Japanese shows are almost all game shows). Then again, I’m a pretty awful aural learner.
No. You won’t understand anything. From time to time, of course, you’re going to recognize a word or guess its meaning. Eventually you’ll remember it, if you spend enough time in front of your TV. But it would have taken vastly less time to just learn it from a book or tape.
Besides, I would note that it’s posible to eventually understand a language without being able to speak it, if you never try. That’s what I did with Occitan when I was a child. Assuming that you spend some years in front of your TV, or instead listening to spanish spakers, that’s probably what would happen.
I would add that a number of modern language teaching computer CDs are quite well done and fun, so learning it more formally might not be as boring as you might think (some are definitely boring though, some choose wisely). You’ll still need to actually use it, though.
PS : I don’t know why I assumed that you intended to listening to it on TV 
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“I never actually learned to speak Spanish when I was a kid. Just a few words, coño, carajo, puta, to help you get through the city in a day. But I’ve been learning by watching Spanish soap operas. Telenovelas. Those are great because they overact so much you don’t even need the words. You can figure out what’s going on just by watching the actors. ‘¡Te quiero! ¡Te odio! ¡Yo no puedo tener niños! ¡Déjame! ¡Déjame en paz!’ And those are just the commercials.”
- Marga Gómez
I’ve got the equivalent of two or three years of high school Spanish and I can only pick up the occasional word off those channels. The main problem for me (as far as picking out words) is that they talk too fast for me to follow, so even if I might be able to get the general idea of what they’re saying they say it so fast I can’t keep up.
you could if you watched the childrens channels. I picked up a lot with sesame street while in Mexico
¡Me violaron! (Patricia, in “Betty la Fea”)
I was able to pick up a fair amount of Spanish by watching Spanish language TV while using a dictionary. I had some instruction and a “get by” level of vocabulary. But in 1982, I spent much of the summer watching the World Cup, which was televised only in Spanish then in the U.S. (except for the final). So I kept picking up more and more words as I was able to match them up to what was going on on the field. However, I don’t have to use the words “corner kick” too much. I also would sometimes listen to Dodgers game on the radio and I could learn some phrases there. The Dodgers Spanish language announcer, Jaime Jarrin, has great diction (he’s Ecuadorian so it’s a different accent), and I learned some more phrases.
But the best instruction was going on vacation to Spain by myself for two weeks. Then I learned that all of my West Coast Spanish was unintelligble to most Spaniards (except in Andalucia). But I bore down and got through it. When I went to Chile last year, I didn’t have much trouble making myself heard.
What you might want to try is to do something like watch a U.S. show with a second audio channel where you already have an idea what the actors are saying. “The Simpsons” is good for this.
I believe that you can learn any language just by watching programs where you understand what is happening, then you can relate that to what is being said. I have been watching Spanish Lauguage Novelas for about 20 years and although I have not mastered the language, I have a pretty good vocabulary and both speak, read and understand a lot. I am sure, however, that if I had taken formal lessons in the language, I would probably now speak fluently. The important thing is to pay attention, and repeat what you hear; while watching a Spanish Language program. If you have a Spanish speaking spouse like I do, that is a plus and can help immensely. Of course, I live in Colombia and sometimes I need to speak or listen to someone in Spanish.
Emphasis added.
I disagree. It’s likely that the OP would indeed understand more and more over time. He already has some basics (2 years of school) and many Spanish words are similar to English words (due to the inlfuence of Latin, French and Spanish on English, and due to the influence of English on Spanish).
However, it’s unlikely he’d be able to learn to speak the language, unless he also practiced speaking while he was listening to the TV. Understand and speaking are two very different processes and require different experiences. As an example, I learned to read quite a few Kanji while spending time in Japan. However, I never write kanji and I can probably only write about 10% of the symbols that I can read.
Any gringo who can watch Univision trying to learn Spanish and not just to ogle the hot babes such as Jackie Guerrido is a far more disciplined person than I am. 
Do you have any suggestions for good Spanish language learning programs?
Thanks to everyone for their opinions. I am also interested in what CD or book you would recommend.
Nope, because being french, I doubt you’re going to find the programm I’m using in the USA 
Though after checking it, it has been published by Mindscape. So, they might sell a similar or identical programm in the USA.
But I can tell you that not all language learning programms are born equal. I also have a russian programm which is excruciatingly boring (I didn’t have any choice, it was the only one I could find that worked on my old computer). So, you’d better ask before buying one.
The Rosetta Stone is a program I would recommend.
Here is a pretty good link for learning Spanish. Also, get a good English/Spanish dictionary.
Ooops… Forgot the link… http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
Anecdotal story:
My father used to be a hospital administrator at a hospital that had a lot of foreign doctors. We had dinner at the house of a new doctor, and his ~4 year old daughter spoke English as well as any child born to English speaking parents. The thing was that they claimed to never speak to her in English (except around company); they only spoke to her in their native language. She learned to speak English from watching TV.
Two points that make this different from the OP:
- She was watching PBS shows (Sesame Street, etc., shows designed to teach young children), not ESPN
- From what I’ve gathered, it’s easier to learn languages in the first few years of life than later.
My theory:
My first nephew used to watch The Lion King and/or Toy Story at least once a day from the time that he was ~ 1 until he was about 4. I theorized that he could learn Spanish by alternating the DVD settings every 100 viewings or so from English audio/English subtitles to Spanish audio/Spanish subtitles, or some combination thereof (I originally theorized making the change gradual by using English audio with Spanish subtitles or vice versa, but then decided that that would only be confusing). Considering how many times this kid had watched the movie, I figured that switching the DVD settings to Spanish probably wouldn’t bother him too much, and that eventually he would learn (at least some) Spanish just from watching it another 100 times. However, none of my siblings are willing to use their children as guinea pigs, and none of them respect my genius. Sigh.
I don’t mean to hijack this thread, (but I don’t consider this as much as hijack as an extension.) Any linguistic experts want to weigh in on my theory?
Listen and understand, but not speak, because you’re not speaking.
I haven’t had Spanish since High School, but I did, once, get caught up in a telenovela (soap-opera, but with a planned beginning and end, which has good and bad points). And, after an hour a day, 5 days a week, for months on end. I could understand pretty well. My speaking still sucked, but I could watch the news snippets and other talk shows.
Sadly, a lot of the dialog probably never comes up in real life - how often, really, are you going to need to say things like:
“She’s not a maid, she’s my daughter!”
“The hysterical pregnancy caused her paralysis” or
“He’s suffering from amnesia - I told him that I was his wife.”