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Watch TV: the things you must do to learn a foreign language ...
If you have access to a foreign language TV station, take advantage of it! It's an easy (and often cheap) way to experience the intricacies of a foreign culture and improve your foreign language abilities. Whatever your interest, there's bound to be something out there in your chosen language. Recently I've started watching soccer matches in Arabic and there's no denying that it's difficult to understand all that fast commentary. Of course, any show in a foreign language will most likely feature natural and colloquial language, including idiomatic expressions and rapid speech. All of this can be a healthy challenge for your comprehension skills. Don't worry if you don't understanding everything; just try to spend some time listening to the language and picking out familiar words if you can. It's amazing how much you can pick up through visual cues and body language. At the very least, just hearing the language spoken by native speakers will help improve your pronunciation skills and allow you to become more comfortable with the sounds of the language. So when I visit Egypt, I might not be able to fully engage people in conversation on a topic almost everyone loves, kurat ul-qadam (soccer), but I will definitely have improved my vocabulary and furthered my pronunciation skills. Fortunately, thanks to the internet, you no longer have to subscribe to a foreign language channel in order to get foreign language programming. For example, simply doing a search for "Spanish telenovelas" should uncover plenty of options for you to explore. See if you can find snippets or video clips of a show that interests you, and try to follow it. Even commercials in your chosen foreign language will help, and gradually increase your ability. No one wants to sound like a textbook in a foreign language, and watching the language in action will help you contextualize and perfect your language abilities. So go ahead, turn on that television and challenge yourself! You might even uncover a new favorite show in the process. Tags: foreign language channel, newsletter, television
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