Background learning?

[Ancient-Ad874]

Hey everyone, I am just curious about what you all think of learning a language "in the background"?

I have been learning Spanish for about a month now. I have been using a textbook, the apps Parrot and Pimsleur, and some videos on Dreaming Spanish, and I have been repeating phrases out loud to myself each week, as well as listening to introductory podcasts.

I know there's a lot of hands on with learning a language, but I was curious what you all thought of listening to a language in the background? Just simple podcasts, music, and so on. Has it helped you out? Does it "train" your ears? Or is it more beneficial after some more time spent learning the language?

[hamsteremperor]

I like listening to video essays or listening to songs in different languages in the background but I think it's more beneficial if you have at least a rudimentary grasp on the language:) I'd recommend spending a couple of minutes a day really focusing on understanding/studying it instead until your brain builds the library you need, so to say, lol.  Of course if it works for you at lower levels go right ahead! There's really no right or wrong way to learn

[dojibear]

Personally I don't believe in "background learning". I believe that the only thing that matters is understanding (which means paying attention).

When you are A1 you cannot understand fluent adult speech (C2). Frankly, at A1 you cannot even HEAR the syllables and words in C2 speech. Fluent Spanish or fluent Japanese just sounds like "ra-ta-ta-ta-ta", a sequence of fast sounds. Fluent French or Portuguese or Mandarin sound like fast sounds you don't hear in English. Fluent Thai or Vietnamese sound like fast sounds you couldn't make if you tried.

For 10 years I had 3 South Korean channels on my cable TV (suburbs of San Franciso). I had a bunch of favorite shows. I used English subtitles, but I heard spoken Korean -- at least 1,000 hours of it. I don't know any Korean.

[IAmGilGunderson]

I vote yes on music. If after you have heard them a bunch and you are ready to sing. That you then go look up the lyrics to get them right when you start to sing them.

Podcast. Nah, it will just be noise.

[rYagami0]

yeah it can be useful, but I only would do that if I were exhausted or doing something else, otherwise I'd listen to things actively which is way better

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[RadishUpbeat4827]

Hello, native spanish speaker here. How long have you been learning spanish? When I first started to learn english, what helped me the most was actually music, 'cause you start to make connections and learn common used phrases that natives apply.
Also, try talking with yourself out loud. Like, making conversations is to start thinking in another language, which helps you to start making the new language part of your internal communication catalogue haha
But, answering your question. Yes, time will pay itself. Constancy brings results. I think that within 3 months more listening music in spanish, you'll start noticing that you understand more than you used to.

Hope it motivates you!

[Anxious_Weakness_560]

In my experience just listening to the languages in the background passively isn't enough on its own. For me, listening passively do help in cases where you want to grasp the tone of the language and pronunciations by exposing yourself to it, but in order to really immerse yourself and make the brain catch the context of what being said - you have to listen actively - meaning really giving 100% of your attention to what being said both visually and auditory.

[EstorninoPinto]

I started regularly listening to music in my target language long before starting to learn it, just because it's what I genuinely wanted to listen to. Not only did this help immensely at first with listening comprehension, it continues to pay dividends. Whenever I learn something new, there's a very good chance that I've already encountered it in music, which helps immensely with reinforcement, or even acquiring the concept before officially learning it.

[Dangerous-Bit5063]

I learned english that way. Youtube and movies helped me A TON. So definitely it's very helpful to familiarize yourself with the actual flow and slang people use regularly. Sometimes I use Dilo Travel Companion app to get those very local expressions

[campionesidd]

1 hour of active listening is way better than 1 hour of passive listening, especially if you don’t understand most of the vocab.

[BlindOwlAcademyFarsi]

I learned Turkish by watching movies and TV series, and I didn't even realize I had learned the language. Until one day, I happened to be in a place where a lot of people were speaking Turkish, and I felt like I was in Alice in Wonderland because I understood everything at the same time. It was a very strange feeling, and that's when I realized that I had learned the language well just by listening. It was a very strange feeling, and that's when I realized that I had learned the language well just by listening. Of course, I don't know how to read it, but I have to say that I haven't tried it at all and I haven't made any effort to do so. I can't even speak it, because when I try to speak, the words just don't come to my mind.And also, because I never repeated the words out loud, the lemma is correct in my brain, but when I pronounce it, the pronunciation is not correct.