Whether English or Spanish or Swahili or Japanese, learning a new language is always going to be a challenge. One of the best ways to help with language learning is to immerse oneself in media content with that language being the primary.
I grew up with a couple languages being thrown around the house. Between having lessons from my parents, school, the fact that my grandparents didn’t speak English and passive media consumption, I was able to pretty successfully grow up juggling three languages and being able to communicate decently.
I’m sure having to speak the languages on a daily basis had a significant impact. I spoke with both parents, had workbook assignments and readings daily. I remember that my folks had a rule for me about what kind of television I could be watching. I was only allowed to watch films or shows with English dub on weekends and only foreign films and shows during the week. This was mostly childrens’ series and cartoon or animated films. My own father has shared several anecdotes from my childhood of me using a word or phrase properly which he had never used in front of me.
I also remember growing up with music in these respective languages, among others. My childhood playlist was a modge-podge of classical music, German oom-pah celebratory, Italian disco, Russian pop and rock, Spanish ballads etc.
As I got older, I realized that I spoke one of those languages too formally. Having had most of my exposure from children’s and limited adult media, speaking to my parents and grandparents, some more traditional and pop music, it made perfect sense that I wouldn’t have known slang, expletives, and casual language.
After realizing the problem, I decided to pay more attention to my speech with vocabulary and pronunciation and such. I also made a point to find some more modern music in that language. After a few months of combined active and passive effort, I was more comfortable with some slang and profanity. I felt more comfortable to speak among people in a peer setting rather than a professional or familial one.
Obviously, there is so much work that goes into learning a language. No matter how you spin that web, there will always be hard work. Just turning the TV onto your favorite sitcom with a French dub won’t get you anywhere without consistency, immersion, and someone to actually talk to. Learning another language is like anything: the more you practice the easier it becomes. But just because the work is hard and there’s a lot of it, doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some fun thrown in. Learning another language is fun and exciting and opens up so many avenues for culture, music, media and just other people and their stories.
— dj dragonfly
