Ruslan
I've just invented the best way of learning English! Who knew that it would be so easy Look, take any long English-speaking tv-series, for example, all known Game of Thrones and watch it! After that, you have to lose your memory (just to keep interested to watch it again), and watch it again! Don't delete from memory words which were learned in the process of watching, only memory about a plot. There is only one small problem - how to do it? Any scientists around?...
May 25, 2019 6:17 AM
Comments · 20
7
If you memorize Game of Thrones that's okay for fun. But for actual learning, Games of Thrones uses words that are not common in everyday speaking. If you actually started speaking every day like the day in the show that would be unnatural and not common speaking. 
May 25, 2019
5

Watching TV series consistently is proven to improve listening skills and vocabulary. I use to watch a lot when I was younger.

But of course, speaking is also important, watching without being able to speak the words you learn would mean you will forget most of what you have learned. The more you use words that you learn, the more you remember them.

May 25, 2019
4

@Alice

You are too stilted. Please, take it easy, because what he says makes a lot of sense. Every one of us has the ability to use different language registers and gaining more registers only enriches your speech.

@Ruslan

Watching long term TV series with many many seasons and many many episodes is actually a great way to not just learn, but acquire a language once you are advanced enough to understand what it is said, or written if you have to resort to reading the subtitles because you don't understand the spoken language at the native fast speaker level.

It matters not if the vocabulary used in the series is outdated or uncommon, what matters the most is three things: that you understand or can infer most of what it is said, that it keeps you engaged and that you listen to thousands of hours of native speech.

In the end, you are going to end up watching many different series, and that's how you erase your memory of the plot :-)

May 26, 2019
2
Ruslan, you may have intended this post as a joke, but what you suggest is in fact the only essential ingredient to acquiring a language: fascinating content that we can understand, and that we therefore want to consume in massive amounts. There's a lot of moralistic preaching about how we can only expect success in a language if we study hard and put ourselves through insufferably boring classes, but in fact, most of it is an unconscious process that doesn't require deep analysis or gritty tasks. In fact, the more you enjoy the language and content associated with it, the better you'll get.

People feel guilty about pleasure. They think it's more noble to claim they struggled through everything and came out winners. Such a narrative may work in some fields, but it is not the case for languages. If you study the stories of many genuine polyglots, while some may themselves articulate slightly different beliefs about methodology, you always see the common thread: massive exposure to the language and fascination with some aspect of it. Mary Hobson, for example, spent hours combing through dictionaries to read Russian novels that were way beyond her current level because she was so curious about what they contained. Hungarian polyglot Kato Lomb also used the "core novel" method, found forced grammar study to be absurd, and thought error correction can have very negative effects. Some of the typical practices of the traditional classroom (intensive correction, curriculum based around grammatical concepts) and the pain associated with them just aren't effective in the experience of some of the greatest polyglots and researchers in the world:


I completely agree with what Miguel wrote. Note that his English is excellent, as one might expect from someone who uses compelling input as his foundation.
May 26, 2019
2
Ruslan: I actually like your idea. You don't need some sci-fi memory eraser; if the series is long enough, you'll forget the beginning by the time you get to the end. And if you remember some of the plot, so what? 
May 26, 2019
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Ruslan
Language Skills
Chechen, English, Russian
Learning Language
English
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