The TV Method

Hello everyone, I'm White (that's my last name) and this is my very first blog post ever! [insert applause]

I've always had a love for languages, but I'm still monolingual. What? No really it's true. I've always been easily discouraged about my progress (or lack thereof) when learning a language. And don't even get me started on staying motivated! Yuck.

I've been on-and-off "studying" Japanese for... too long to not know more than I do by now. It's always been a struggle, what with grammar drills/books and memorizing vocabulary. All of that get's to you pretty quick too. You want to stop because you get frustrated over not quite understanding something and it can get to be too much. So then you make the worst possible mistake: taking a break. You don't take breaks from English ever, so why break from your target language? It only sets you back!

So when I was surfing the web about language learning (instead of actually learning languages) I found a lovely blog called Spanish Only that had some interesting information regarding self immersion. Then through this blog I was led to another called Natural Language Acquisition (NLA).

And this is where the magic happens!

I stumbled upon a wonderful method called "The TV Method" and I became instantly hooked. I was fascinated with this "new" approach to language "learning" or acquisition (as Spanish One and NLA refer to it). But what's so "wonderful" about this so called method? Well it's simple, so simple in fact that it's borderline unbelievable!

You watch TV. No really, that's it. You watch shows/movies in your target language without subtitles. "Oh and then I sit and pull out words and learn/study them right?" Uh, no. "What?" Yeah, you just watch. And it comes naturally! Great right? Your brain picks out everything for you using the visuals as the contextual clue. If you're really interested in getting more details about this method, then I suggest you read up on it through one of the previously linked (and highly recommended) blogs.

Now, what's this post really about? Well dear readers, I'm going to test this method out on myself and post about my progress along the way (as well as the hours I rack up).

What I was doing up until now wasn't working out all that well for me, so taking a different approach is probably in my best interest. And the best part is I really can't lose! I'll still be listening to native speakers at conversational speed, which is always a good thing.

And if this goes well, then you bet your pretty face that I'll be using this to learn other languages!! (See how nice I am? I complimented your face.)