Did you know that it’s a very good idea to learn Spanish watching TV?
Back in 1995 when I was living in sunny Ft. Lauderdale Florida and learning Spanish like crazy, one of the things I used to do was watching Colombian Soap Operas.
Of course the official reason was to learn Spanish.
The “not so official one” was to watch the beautiful Colombian actresses who were part of the cast.
I would pick up a lot of new conversational Spanish words and entertain myself at the same time.
Talk about killing two birds with one piedra (stone).
Now think about how long a typical Latino Soap Opera lasts. Probably 3 to 4 months is a bare minimum.
That’s about 6 hours per week.
24 hours per month.
Even if you skip some chapters you could still potentially get around 80 hours of free Spanish instruction without even realizing it.
Nada mal.
Last week I was going trough some clutter in my room because I was looking for a tennis DVD.
What I found instead was Fast and Furious 5 on DVD.
In Italian.
Don’t you love it when you are looking for something and instead find something you didn’t even remember you bought? It makes the search task so much more interesting.
The same type of adrenaline rush that gamblers get, but in a healthier way. You know you are going to win, you just don’t know when.
Irresistible. (One of the few things I remember from my College Psychology 101 class)
Almost forgot, I also remember how the obsessive compulsive disorder works. But that’s for another article.
Anyways, my Brazilian wife is on her own mission of learning Italian.
And she has already seen the Brazilian version of Fast and Furious 5 a couple of times.
She is familiar with it.
I gave her this advice:
“Go watch the movie in Italian because this way it’s easier to understand/guess what they are saying since you’ve already seen it”
I hope she takes my advice to heart and watches the movie with the INTENTION of learning Italian. (And not only for Vin Diesel)
What about you?
Do you have a favourite movie or TV series that you have watched many times in English?
Great.
Then go find the Spanish version and watch it right away. You’ll be amazed at how this helps with your understanding.
And you won’t be bored to watch it over and over again.
One more thing: Do not use English subtitles, ideally use none or (if you have to) use Spanish.
