From nursery rhyme shows to 13th-century Ottoman empire epics and Drag Race España, it’s easier than you might think to learn a language via telly – and way more fun than a textbook!
Alfie PackhamMon 7 Oct 2024 08.15 EDTLast modified on Tue 8 Oct 2024 23.22 EDTShare‘Now I only watch TV in Turkish’During lockdown, I watched a Turkish show called Diriliş: Ertuğrul. It is set in the 13th century and it’s about Ertuğrul, the father of Osman who founded the Ottoman empire. I enjoyed it immensely. This led me to research other Turkish programmes and I’ve been hooked to this day. Now the only programmes I watch are Turkish! I’ve also picked up the language and have started to learn it online. One of my favourite shows is called Emanet. I’m currently on episode 764! Sometimes the subtitles aren’t available, but I follow as best as I can. Lady-Marie Dawson-Malcolm, 62, London
‘Watching Swedish TV has made me more understandable’TV has helped me with studying Swedish. I found the Swedish broadcasting company SVT online and alongside reading and grammar lessons, I would watch comedy shows such as Trevlig helg, Morran och Tobias, Leif och Billy or Terese i Kassan. Comedies are useful because they’re shorter and you don’t have to watch the whole series to know what’s what. I have to look up many of the words, but I get used to them. My Swedish accent is far from perfect, though I think watching TV in Swedish has made me more understandable. Whenever I go back to Sweden, fewer and fewer people are immediately switching to English when they hear me speak. Stenner, 26, Lancashire
‘Drag Race España is my favourite’
View image in fullscreenCarmen Farala, winner the first season of Drag Race España. Photograph: World of WonderI started Spanish lessons in 2017. I was planning a trip to Costa Rica and Cuba at the time. Then I became addicted and carried on the lessons after I returned. I practised on Duolingo, and my Spanish teacher recommended watching Spanish TV with subtitles. My favourite is Drag Race España. I get to learn a lot of colloquial terms and rude words. Last night I watched the first episode of the new season and I learned “Que coño es eso?”, which means “What the fuck is that?” Much more likely to be used than some of the things I have learned on Duolingo! Sarah Wait, 43, Bristol
‘This Welsh comedy helped me not to take myself too seriously’I moved to Anglesey 10 years ago after I met my wife. I committed to learn Welsh and one of the first things my mother-in-law bought me was a DVD of Beryl, Cheryl and Meryl – a comedy programme in Welsh. It really introduced an element of fun to the language for me. Crucially, it helped me to realise not to take myself too seriously, and that it was more important to attempt to speak what I knew without fear or concern of getting it wrong than not speak at all. Baron Walkden, 40, Anglesey
‘This sci-fi made me fall in love with learning German again’I’ve been studying German as a third language for nearly four years and went on a student exchange to Cologne in 2022. But since being back in Australia, my fluency has really decreased. I recently watched the German TV series Dark on Netflix, which is an incredible sci-fi mystery thriller, and it’s made me fall in love with the language all over again. Most of the characters speak Hochdeutsch (high German), which is very helpful for someone learning German as a foreign language because it’s clearer to understand than dialects. Surprisingly, the show’s discussions on time travel and philosophy have actually improved my vocabulary by expanding it beyond the typical subject matter of textbooks, which are understandably more focused on daily topics than the butterfly effect. Maya, Australia
‘I now know a lot of obsolete Chinese expressions!’I learned Chinese watching historical costume dramas set during the Qing dynasty. The ones I began with were Qianlong Dynasty, Yongzheng Dynasty and Kangxi Dynasty. I combined watching TV with reading; first bilingual books and kids’ books, then more advanced ones. TV was very effective for getting used to spoken Chinese. The problem was that I ended up knowing a lot of archaic and now obsolete expressions and couldn’t always think of the appropriate 21st-century equivalent in actual conversation with people in China. Fortunately, some people I met appreciated the outdated touch to some of my vocabulary. Alexandra Nikolaisen, 43, Vienna, Austria
‘I’ve recently upgraded from children’s TV to Borgen’
View image in fullscreenBorgen: Power and Glory. Photograph: Mike KollöffelTo learn Danish I started with YouTube videos of Cocomelon, a show for children. It uses basic language and rhythmic songs so it’s really easy to pick up core words. Then I upgraded to some dubbing of familiar movies, such as Disney films and Toy Story. I’ve recently upgraded again to Borgen on Netflix, which is a Danish show about politics. This has been helpful on a more formal, adult level. It can be tricky, especially with a less commonly spoken language like Danish, to get any sort of immersion. TV gives you that. It can show you the typical flow and rhythm when it’s spoken, and you can pick up colloquial words, modern updates and even accents. The Danish tend to drop letters in their casual language – so TV helps me know what’s going on when I visit Copenhagen. Emily, 28, Lincoln
‘I developed the accent and mannerisms of an Estonian comedian’One of the most effective things I did to learn Estonian was watch comedy sketches from the show Tujurikkuja (best translated as Buzzkill). It ran every New Year’s Eve in Estonia and gave a satirical look at the year’s events and Estonian culture, and introduced me to a wide range of vocabulary. The videos were largely on YouTube and the “greatest hits” had English subtitles. I was also able to listen to the pronunciation of the comedians and mimic them. If I’d only stuck to the textbook, I’d be able to order food in Estonian – but I wouldn’t have had anything to talk about. I could bring up my favourite sketch (the Estonian prime minister fighting the Finnish President as Godzillas). Then I could ask what their favourite was, which everyone had. One unexpected outcome was that I developed the accent and mannerisms of one of the lead comedians. I once met an Estonian at a conference, and we chatted about the show. The following day she introduced me to her group as “the English guy I was telling you all about, who speaks fluent Estonian exactly like the comedian Ott Sepp”. David, 37, Tallinn, Estonia
