How to learn a language with Netflix

[@daysandwords]

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[@odrat]

When my wife first moved to the States, she took some free classes that gave her a good foundation, but I credit Friends with teaching her English. Even today, nearly 20 years later, she's still gaining English from Friends. Teaching in China, I had a teenage girl ask for a good SciFi show, and I gave her Stargate SG-1. A few weeks later, she came to me and asked, "What does 'For crying out loud' mean?" It was a proud moment.

[@ashley_smith]

One of my all time favorite shows :D

[@alb91878]

Lolol, that is so cute!

[@mmmirele]

I watched The Empire Strikes Back around 100 times during the summer of 1980. (Pre-Internet, only 1 cable TV channel and $2 matinee.) I absolutely believe you watched "Into the Spider-Verse" 50 times.,

[@daysandwords]

I will say, though, that a LOT of people who are like "Oh I must have seen *whatever movie* 50 times..." have actually watched it about 20 times. I know because I was once completely obsessed with a certain movie, and everyone, including myself, was sure that I'd seen it like 50-60 times, and when I counted them all up, it was actually 18. And now that I really have done 50 and kept a tally... it's insane how many that really is. It makes me realise that all the movies that we would rent from the video store and watch 4 times before they had to go back, and then do like like 5 times... Yeah, 20 is a LOT. Like, a LOT A LOT. So my conclusion is that even when people genuinely believe that they've watched something 50 times, it's AT BEST, 40, and maybe actually about 20.

[@jeffreybarker357]

What Lamont tells us at about 16:00 is spot-on. Nations that dub FROM English have a lower fluency in English. Can confirm because I lived in Germany for 3 years. Germans are GENERALLY good but not astounding. The Nordic states, though? Amazing. I met some 11 and 12-year-olds in Denmark who were as competent as kids in my own family. When I asked, they said, “I don’t know. We watch a lot of American cartoons and movies.” Then they proceeded to run back to the playground while I gushed to their parents about how impressive their kids are.

[@daysandwords]

What really annoys me is that people use like 20-30 year old Germans and French people as evidence that this theory is wrong... And I'm like "Yeah gee, it's almost like they suddenly had access to lots of English speaking content starting around 20 years ago..."

[@bjornfranzen7278]

@@daysandwords Also, even among 20-30 year olds you'll find lots of Germans (and probably french people too) who are kinda struggling when communicating in English. Sure, this might not be so common in like Berlin, but it is in large parts of Germany. Two years ago I moved from Sweden to Germany, and have gotten to know lots of Germans since then, and have seen a lot of variation in terms of fluency. Some are basically comparable to what I'd expect from Swedes who are the same age, but I've also met plenty of people in their twenties who are more comparable to 12-14 year old Swedes (in terms of being able to comfortably have a conversation and express themselves, not necessarily in terms of spelling, grammar knowledge etc). I suspect that the more proficient ones are those who frequently consume English media undubbed, whereas the ones who are struggling a bit mainly consume German media (or English media dubbed to German)

[@KatSchlitz]

These comments are so true. I was in Stuttgart a number of years ago, and virtually no one spoke any English at all, and a few spoke just a few words. In fact, my hunger to understand how to learn lGerman is what led me to this channel years ago, as my brief tourist learning was barely enough to get by there. And the younger people I'd met then (a college graduation) also did not speak English, but perhaps it is different now.

[@daysandwords]

Yep... I was aware that these people still existed, but I was just being brief... My point was more that the fact that Germans and French people USED TO not speak much English at all, but now speak a lot more, is proof that media in English IS what makes people fluent, not proof that is doesn't. Because in Germany in 1998, almost everything was in German. But by 2015, there were a lot more options for content in English. Obviously not everyone consumes that content. There are, of course, still Swedes, Danes, Norwegians etc whose English is only OK or not great at all... But they tend not to be the ones online a lot, so you don't hear about them much. Mauri recently had a truck driver on his channel whose English wasn't very good... but like, he's a truck driver in Sweden... Probably doesn't need to know much other than phrases he hears all the time.

[@loistalagrand]

I had never thought of creating a new profile in a different language. I'm going to try this now.

[@MaxEnglishCoach]

I've been enjoying your content Loïs! What language(s) are you learning?

[@ErlandKarlek]

Nah, go all in. Change your profile.

[@philipdavis7521]

I think one advantage of dubs is that the language is likely to be 'standard'. When trying to find a film I could watch repeatedly in Japanese, I chose the anime 'Your Name', but then was told by a Japanese friend to avoid it as half the dialogue is in a very rural colloquial accent. So while its great to have a favourite film or series to rewatch, unless you are fairly advanced in the language I think you have to make sure the characters are speaking the 'standard' language. One other useful hint on Netflix is that for some films/series they have a voice over for the deaf. This is really useful for language learning as you have a good quality narrator essentially telling you what you are watching - I reckon it doubles the 'real' time input of any series.

[@daysandwords]

A voiceover for the deaf? I think you mean for the blind. I mentioned that very thing, in this video... Although to be honest, I'd be keen to hear what a voiceover for the deaf might be like. It might be a legitimate contender for a product more useless than the Cybertruck.

[@philipdavis7521]

@@daysandwords Oh damn, I shouldn't write comments after 2 glasses of wine before dinner....

[@bigred738]

​@daysandwords Deaf people throw some of the loudest parties because they like the feeling of the bass. I had a coworker with deaf parents, so he lived in deaf culture. Now I'm imagining voice over for deaf people being something similar to very bass heavy Morse code lol.

[@loctrice]

I've seen Die Hard, Lethal Weapon 2, and Starship Troopers all more than 50 times. I can recite music, quotes, facial expressions, etc for those movies.

[@Surgehero5136]

I don’t know, I wouldn’t knock people who say they learn English through film and tv but from my experience trying to watch a tv show or movie in another language doesn’t work for me. But it seems to be a popular thing within learning a language on KZbin that pretty much anyone will recommend it. I usually can recognize words in movies after studying by using simpler methods. And I usually like using tv and films as a way to test my knowledge of what I’ve been studying rather than being a study method I can use. Which is why I don’t anime to learn Japanese but it’s feels like a very popular method to learn Japanese. I can understand it too, If you watch an anime a couple times over, word mine with anki, study the flash cards , but I’m not really into it.

[@daysandwords]

I'm not saying that this is ALL you should do. But also, a lot of people who say "It doesn't work", are watching like 5 movies and going "Yep, still gibberish... doesn't work." You've gotta do it over at least 1000 hours. But with Japanese/Chinese/Arabic etc., you will also need some separate study (and it's helpful even in anglosemblant languages).

[@OrangeBarnacle]

12:49 after watching my fair share of medical dramas, I know quite a few pieces of medical terminology in my TL that I hardly even know in English!

[@cargath]

When i was at school and Lord of the Rings had just released, i watched that movie _a lot_. There was no Netflix back then, so we just watched the same DVDs over and over again. At that time i was still not comfortable watching movies in English. But i thought the voices in the trailer were very cool and i knew that movie by heart anyway, so i just kept watching the original version and "shadowing" all my favourite lines. I then did the same for Terminator 2 and Die Hard. And while that didn't make me fluent, it at least got me to a point where i could understand most of and feel comfortable with other movies and TV shows in English. Because i watched three movies basically on repeat. That might sound crazy, but considering that a surprisingly small number of words make up a surprisingly large percentage of a language - if you know every word of three long movies, you probably know the core vocabulary of that language pretty well. So yeah, find something you can obsess over in your target language, that's the gateway to immersion.

[@daysandwords]

"That might sound crazy, but considering that a surprisingly small number of words make up a surprisingly large percentage of a language - if you know every word of three long movies, you probably know the core vocabulary of that language pretty well." Nope, it sounds like the premise for a banger video that I made about watching one movie 50 times haha.

[@jplamarre]

I too watched a show more than 50 times for the same reasons than you. It was not even a goal or a challenge, I just love it and keep watching/listening to it. Basically every other day I listen to it from A to Z

[@daysandwords]

Haha, for the same reason as me is kind of wild... Cheers for the comment!

[@Fizzicist21]

Thank you! I didn't think of Bridgerton, but the way you say that it's a closed world with a lot of repeated words makes me think of it totally differently as a language learning tool and I'm going to give it a go!

[@ThePhilologicalBell]

08:00 watching with the audio description track on is a tip I picked up from MattvsJapan and it's so underrated. In fact I think it's the best way for someone with a very high level of reading comprehension but a low level of aural comprehension, to get their raw listening ability up. Because you can usually have closed captions *and* audio description. So you won't miss any of the dialogue and the content will still be very enjoyable even at a high level, but you'll still get loads of practise audio because the description track isn't subtitled (since it's for blind people). Not only that but it's possibly the perfect comprehensible input for an adult learner, since it's literally describing the events that you're seeing unfold on the screen in a series/movie whose plot you're (hopefully) interested in. Lil personal thing: my Swedish friend tells me literally the only thing I can say with good pronunciation and accurate pitch accent is "En röd N förvandlas till ett spektrum av färger". And it's because, I quite like Swedish TV, and have watched at least five series on Netflix all with Swedish audio description, which starts each episode with a voice explaining the Netflix logo animation. Have probably heard that single sentence at least a hundred times if not more. Whereas reading anything else in Swedish, even if I'm trying really hard to get my pronunciation right, sounds incredibly British. And it's effortful, whereas when imitating the audio description track, I don't really have to think about it, it just feels like doing an impression of someone for a laugh. Really put into perspective for me how much listening is required for one to develop a good accent.

[@daysandwords]

Have you tried just thinking of everything as an impression? Because that's what I've always done and I've always been good at accents, like even accents in English when I was a kid... I just make the sounds they make, rather than saying the words that they say. Förresten, skulle det inte vara "ETT röd N förvandlas till..." - Bokstäverna är ett ord allihop, så vitt jag förstod det.

[@ThePhilologicalBell]

@@daysandwords Yea I did that back when I was SESAL learner for Brazilian Portuguese and it worked well enough. And you're right it is ett, dunno why I remembered it as en. My bad! 😅

[@ToastbackWhale]

Dude, seeing you call audio description the perfect comprehensible input made something CLICK in my brain so hard. Thank you!!!

[@JoeProstko]

I usually leave the audio description tracks on, but I kind of have a love-hate relationship with them. They're great because they fill in the silence during scene transitions, and they provide extra context. They are not so great, since they often give you "mini spoilers" during scene transitions, where I know what is going to happen right before it does happen. My recollection may be off, but I think this most recently happened to me while watching En helt vanlig familj and Avgrunden. Also, yes, I am quite familiar with the "ett rött 'N'..." audio as well! I'm going through Netflix right now to see what I need to add to my watch list (I just added I dina händer), and I keep hearing that over and over due to the annoying auto-preview that Netflix does.

[@daysandwords]

BTW, for those interested, the colours behind me in the thumbnail of this video are made of the "Red N turning into a spectrum of colours"... What's interesting is that until I put them in my thumbnail and blurred them a little bit, I'd never realised that they look like curtains... and when the N seems to zoom towards us and split into all the colours, it's kind of like the curtains opening... Now I wonder whether that was deliberate on the designers' part. Also, for Bridgerton at the cinema, the N was decked out as a Bridgerton themed one... it was actually pretty cool.

[@sylve2474]

Pro tip for people who can't find the language in their country on Netflix and don't have a VPN,, if you switch your account language to the language you're learning, then it'll be an available option(you just need to have enough of the basics to still navigate with the account language switched),,, I'm in Canada and did it with Korean,, it works great Edit, he mentioned it a couple minutes later in the video, lol

[@daysandwords]

By, "Pro tip" you mean "Tip I got from the video I'm commenting on". I guess I'm a pro then. 😉

[@sylve2474]

@daysandwords lol, I wrote it during the surfshark section then forgot to come update it after it got mentioned in the video since I was cooking. I've seen the VPN thing mentioned so many times in videos, but haven't seen changing the account mentioned before, so I was actually pretty surprised and happy when I saw you mentioned it! (Also, I really like your videos, I love how you often come at things from a different angle than a lot of other language youtubers I've seen and tend to have original advice like this!)

[@TheRedleg69]

I actually have Disney+ just for this reason. Watched movies and shows for about a year now and think I've only watched Hamilton in English. I can't watch something more than a couple times before getting bored, but hopefully I can find something to binge watch 50 times.

[@galore777]

Sadly it's not available in my country

[@user-qm4go1oc3g]

It's cool to have seen your growth over the years, man.

[@daysandwords]

Thank you!

[@marionexley607]

I watched Nyad in Spanish about 20 times and could watch it 20 times more, I absolutely love that film.

[@mochamochamatcha677]

I am watching original Pokémon and jojo in French right now 😄

[@sambeawesome]

Funny that you posted this. I just binged Heartstopper on Netflix, and there are SO MANY language dubs of that show. I just finished watching in Japanese. (Sadly, of all the languages they have, they didn't have Russian. But I imagine I can find it...elsewhere, if I wanted to rewatch it, haha.) But it's a super cute show, with lots of dialogue to practice with, but the conversations are rather simple, with quite a few repeated topics or phrases. But I 100% recommend making a profile in your target language. If you can't get a VPN, that's your next best bet, as Netflix literally hides certain dubs/subs from English profiles, despite them being available in your country, it's wild and I hate it. I definitely got more Japanese options once I changed my language. (But if you can get a VPN, absolutely do so!)

[@daysandwords]

I'd never heard of heartstopper, but a very quick look at it suggests it's kind of like Young Royals, maybe? (an original Swedish series). But yeah, Heartstopper IS in a lot of languages!

[@sambeawesome]

@@daysandwords It's a very lighthearted cute queer story. Things have been rather tough for me lately, so it was a nice pick-me-up and distraction. :) If you're in to those kinds of stories, I recommend it! ^^

[@TheWishDragon]

I’ve heard of this show a lot but had no motivation to watch it 8n my native language. I think I will take a leaf out of your book and watch it in my target language. Thank you for the recommendation. :)

[@milkywave2619]

so should i just watch netflix in my target language even if my vocabulary in it is approximately 37 words? genuine question, how much do i need to understand for it to be actually effective?

[@daysandwords]

What language is this for? But yes, you should start watching/listening even if you don't understand much. 37 words won't become 100 words by itself.

[@thejohnnytapia123]

I was at that level in Italian and tried watching Netflix. I couldn't get any context so learning new words was a nightmare. So I believe your question is great and the answer is probably that in the super-beginning its not that worth

[@thetightwadhomesteader3089]

I just saw mitchells vs machines for the first time and in spanish. I didnt think I would like it, but I actually love it and I only understood it from around maybe 50-60%. I feel like its too good to keep watching over and over, I want to see it down the road with fresh eyes. Im trying too rewatch puss in boots the last wish multiple times. I love the characters/style, but the story plot seems slow. I just spent 3 hours writing down all the words I don't know, only did it for half the movie so far (after I found out its Castilian spanish and im learning latin American spanish....). Im going to at least try to finish writing the words down then maybe the whole dialog of the parts I cant read...Its a lot of work. Your patient to watch something so many times, I don't know if I have the will power. Im going to buy the spider verse movies this weekend and see if if like them.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah Mitchells vs Machines has a lot of the same creative team behind it as Spider-verse! Unfortunately Puss in Boots (Last Wish, I assume you mean?) is not available in many languages for me. Especially sad that it's not available in Swedish since my son has watched it about 94 times.

[@thetightwadhomesteader3089]

@@daysandwords yeah sorry my comment wasn't the clearest, it was 3am after watching 5 or 6 hours of spanish content..plus the 3 hours to write 😅. I love the art style of the mitchells so at the very least, I'll love it in spider verse, I'm picking it up this evening. I love the original Puss in boots and the 2nd is good, its just not one of my top favorite, although I love the characters in it.

[@3lmodfz]

I've been re-watching Bridgeton in Hungarian while waiting for season 3 to drop! I have made a new profile on my netflix account for Hungarian content only, but I still have to check it's dubbed and not just subtitled.

[@alb91878]

13:34 I completely believe you watched it 50 times. I did the same thing for kung fu panda and Jurassic Park. I really loved those movies.

[@PAWfessionalTennis]

My 'into the spiderverse' was 'blue eyed samurai'. (Samurai de ojos azules) I'm not watching it 50 times, but it's been 3 times already and i know im gonna be rewatching it another few times at least. I just enjoy it a lot. (And by the way, I actually watched it with audio descripción too, so there's always a voice descibing everything thats happening. I first thought that might be too annoying but its super useful for learning more words and I like the voice they used)

[@Shibby27ify]

With netflix of course you can download the movies and listen to the audio of the shows/movies. But it opened up a new world for me when I realized I could record the audio of shows/movies I watch on other streaming services of which I can't download onto my phone.

[@nendoakuma7451]

I’m sure that would help me a lot. Whether I could retain some of my sanity, is an open question. Kids are so great at watching stuff over and over again, but adults don’t seem to like it as much. I remember when i was in my twenties, i was teaching English in Taiwan and the kids in school were required to memorize English texts (although most of them were not doing itvwell). I decided to try it myself with my intermediate and advanced Chinese textbooks. Although it was pretty boring, my speaking skills improved a lot. I started using really authentic sentences that did not sound translated from English. I would write much better (linguistically) although people thought it was weird because my handwriting looked worse than somebody in kindergarten.

[@daysandwords]

"Kids are so great at watching stuff over and over again, but adults don’t seem to like it as much." Try it (give yourself a goal of 10x). I think you'll be surprised... it's kind of a forgotten skill from being a kid.

[@nendoakuma7451]

@@daysandwords i’ll see if I can think of something.

[@technomancer_066]

Just started watching Legend of Korra in German dub on Netflix. Been annoyed for ages they didnt have ATLA in any other languages then realised they have Korra in a few!

[@tz12346]

Great advice as always! I'll be making those changes to my Netflix account 😊

[@lapkrit]

So that's why you have the access to Swedish Storytell. I thought it was weird I couldn't pick Swedish in the app. I might just try SharkVPN for that. I also tried Pokémon for Swedish as a total beginner and it was really difficult without subtitles, but hearing over again the intro song eventually led me to learning few phrases and words. I'd still say listening to even 1% comprehensive input is worth, especially if you analyse it too. though, Netflix subtitles do poor job of matching actual speech. You do however bring up a very good point about repeating stuff that's high quality. For me it was rewatchng Breaking Bad for learning German. It was wonderful. Also recently found out German podcast that reads Reddit stories which I am addicted to in English, and I already picked up a few half-known or new words from that! And for Swedish I learnt many words from listening to indie band Humörsvängnijngar which repeats phrases in songs constantly. An incredibly amazing indie music too! I've kind of forgotten about watching content in Swedish besides just listening to short stories. So your speech helped me now convince myself to go back into Swedish Pokémon or whatever else fitting my taste. Tack för din hjälp och har en bra tagen!

[@daysandwords]

With Swedish it's easier to just to go to the website on a browser, and choose Sweden, and sign up through there. THEN after you've done that, download the app and sign in to your account, and you'll have Swedish and the relevant languages... But you'll still need a VPN for some content, including most books in English (if you ever want to listen to stuff in English).

[@theswedishpolyglot]

In Sweden I can see what I presume to be all available languages (audio/text) since there is a lot of them (and more then previously). I assumed it was a general change from Netflix. I don’t even need to use VPN anymore. Currently watching through all 8 seasons of Dexter in Japanese. Great video as always 🤓

[@daysandwords]

In Sweden they may have made it all languages because of the diversity of languages spoken in homes. On some shows it is actually inconvenient to see every language (unless you're a language nerd) because it's literally 35 languages.

[@theswedishpolyglot]

@@daysandwords Sure, but I guess that problem is lessened by them having two "tiers", the first one containing the languages most likely to be relevant. And they could just add a "show more" button or something to solve the issue. I assumed it was a cost-benefit/licensing issue.

[@daysandwords]

It could be a few things, but mainly I think with Netflix, that quote applies: "Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence." Netflix is pretty horrendous at a lot of things when it comes to UX.

[@MTimWeaver]

I can attest to the fact that watching movies and TV in your target language can make you fluent: In 1989 and 1990, I taught English in Tokyo at a conversation-based school. One of the students...who was in the most advanced level we had...had never been to the United States or any other English-speaking country, but had learned it all from movies and TV. The guy was amazing. The only downside was that one of his favorite genres was detective and police investigation...so, he occasionally said things that came across as odd to a native speaker unless you knew that about him. (even then, it was a little strange). His English was easily as good as other students I had who had spent a couple years in the UK, Canada, US, or Australia (those were the countries I remember) as a student abroad or something. The only person who was better than that group was one of the American Embassy translators that attended (who asked for non-American instructors when possible to gain more exposure to other variations of English). As for the movie I'd watch 50 times...The Fifth Element. We've already watched it about 20...it's a favorite and loud enough to mask fireworks during Independence Day and New Years (one of our dogs is super frightened of them and thunderstorms). I need to see what languages it's available in. :) Thanks!

[@lartrak]

Do you remember any examples? Those sound fun.

[@your_pal_gil6796]

Dear Lamont, thank you very much for the extremely interesting and enriching content. In one of your interviews you mentioned that you'd likely choose to learn Norwegian instead of Swedish if you were going to start learning it today. Why would you do this? I started learning Swedish out of curiosity and I got very inspired by watching your videos. Maybe you could make a video on Scandinavian languages, about their similarities and respective advantages of learning? That might be pretty interesting for those who are interested in such languages. Thank you very much! tack så mycket!

[@daysandwords]

Hmm, I don't know where I said that but if I did, I've changed my mind now - I would take Swedish again.

[@your_pal_gil6796]

@@daysandwords Dear Lamont, thank you very much for your reply!

[@your_pal_gil6796]

@@daysandwords Dear Lamont, you said that in the video you were interviewed by Luke Truman (5:35)

[@ForeverForwardPod]

You know what, you've inspired me. I'm going to try and dust off my French skills - I took AP French in Highschool but I've completely lost my near-fluency in the years since. Any great French content on Netflix that you can reccomend?

[@daysandwords]

It depends what you like. I like: Dix Pour-Cent (called "Call My Agent!" in English, 10% is a better name) Au service de la France (again, renamed in English to "A Very Secret Service") Not so great but still decent is The Mantis (I forget its French name) and The Forest... stay away from the French belgian series... (La Treve and Unité 42)... they are awful, IMO. And then basically any of the English shows I named in this video, but in French.

[@MisterGames]

There are loads of movies i have seen more than 50 times. Sometimes, for example, ill put Aliens on and then immediately watch it again once it has finished. And ill do a double watch some times 4 days in a row. I watch them so much i know all the dialogue in the movies 😎

[@georgiewalker5826]

Started watching Peppa Pig in French on Netflix. Thought it would be the most tedious task ever, however I am slightly ashamed to say I ended binge watching it, and enjoyed the whole series.

[@daysandwords]

Haha. I want an essay on the motivations and inner conflict of Edward Elephant, due next week. But seriously, it is like that - stuff that would be boring tends to be interesting, and stuff that would be interesting tends to be boring (unless you're at a high level, or it has lots of auxiliary interest.)

[@juan_salvador_gaviota]

Subtitles rarely match audio unfortunately, but the Language Reactor extension can fix that, total game changer for language learning imo.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I didn't mention that in this video because there are a few things that are personal gripes of mine about it, and it seems to go on and offline every now and then, so I used to get a lot of complaints that it wasn't available. But I'm glad it is now.

[@mrme6189]

Good Swedish movie series: Beck Johan falk Bron (both danish and swedish) Irene huss Wallander // Swedish guy

[@daysandwords]

"Bron" kan jag hålla med dig om... de andra... nnjjaa

[@jillvslangs]

As a fellow language enthusiast who happens to make their living as a professional 3D Animator (yes, it's the best job ever) I just enjoy the hell out of how much love Lamont has for The Spiderverse movies. (and Animation in general ♥♥♥) And he is correct btw. The amount of effort and skill put into making Into The Spiderverse is way above the norm. It literally made animation history and was regarded as THE modern masterpiece in the industry. Until Across the Spiderverse came out that is. Somehow the team at Sony Imageworks managed to surpass themselves. If anyone here happens to be interested in making movies (not just animation. just, movies. fullstop.) just watch and analyse the crap out of Across The Spiderverse. I'm not kidding. I'm senior enough to have become a teacher now too and this is one of the first things I tell my students. Its literally a masterclass in pretty much everything. just sayin... 🙃

[@daysandwords]

YES! My son and I have literally minutes ago finished listening to Daniel Pemberton talk about the score for it (also a masterpiece in its own right).

[@daysandwords]

P.S. he (my son) wants to be an animator and when we realised you had videos, we got distracted watching some of the interview ones (he had to go to bed because it's really late here). But we will watch some later!

[@_N7__]

So do you recommend, for instance, if i want to learn Arabic, watching content with Arabic dub, and english subtitles? Or should i not include english at all in the process?

[@daysandwords]

Use whatever you need to help the Arabic to have meaning to you, e.g. English subtitles the first time through, no English subs the second time. If you use English subs ALL the time then you'll just read those and tune out to the Arabic.

[@Tomanita]

Great video! I love to rewatch TV shows, so I started to watch them in French to get more use out of it😁

[@daysandwords]

Thanks Anita. ✌

[@m3talhe4d72]

yeah, i'm 20 and a man, and i fucking love Bluey 😂 it's honestly a very wholesome and funny show, and it's available in like a kajillion languages. the episodes are really short and i find them quite a good starting point for beginner stages of learning 😊

[@apoet9144]

Any Koreans or Korean-learners know a show or sitcom that's good for learning the language, similar to what Friends does for ppl learning English?

[@irine_elle]

I've been watching Young Royals with the Norwegian dub instead of the original Swedish. At this point, I think it transcends language learning and I understand the culture of pissing off the Swedes.

[@daysandwords]

How strange that it's dubbed into Norwegian? For two reasons... one is that anything that is not meant for kids, like Frozen or Kung Fu Panda, they don't dub in general, which is one of the reasons that they speak English well, but it's PARTICULARLY weird that they dub it into essential a dialect of the same language.

[@tyffis9525]

I'm getting more and more the sense that this is just an ad for Bridgeton. But anyway great video, I'll guess I'll check out Bridgeton. Also I just realised that I do know a movie I could watch! The Truman show! I've seen it so many times in English already. Förresten, jag har inte sett tv serien. Men Björnstad är en riktigt bra bok och jag tycker att du borde läsa den om du inte har gjort det redan. Kanske faller den dig i smak. Brukar själv alltid läsa böcker på engelska men då det finns en riktigt bra bok som faktiskt originellt är skriven på Svenska, då fan. En annan grej, lite ur säsong just nu men, Kalle ankas jul. Obligatorisk jultittning, varje julafton klockan ett. Om du inte har sett den ännu så har du en lucka i din allmänbildning.

[@daysandwords]

Jag har läst boken och sett på serien... Serien är MYCKET bättre. Boken är faktiskt barnslig och irriterande. Backman borde hålla till gulliga böcker som "Britt-Marie var här" och sånt.

[@aev1an728]

A problem i come across is there is no cc subtitles so there is the same meaning in the audio and subtitles but different words used, which is very annoying when trying to learn a language (for me its italian), is there any fix to this? greetings from croatia,

[@julbombning4204]

Are you traveling in to Sweden this summer? We need an update!

[@daysandwords]

The update is that there is no update yet, tyvärr.

[@thexenoist3493]

Oh, Arcane has a Japanese dub. Handy to know.

[@lou108]

I changed my profile to spanish and put the vpn to spain, and yet disney plus still doesn't give me the spain spanish dub of star wars the clone wars. The audio is available, and the subtitles are available in latin american spanish... but no spain spanish :( any ideas how to get it?

[@BustaDeluxe]

For some languages its not so easy I tried it with Korean

[@GenkoKenja]

It's not so easy to what? learn through immersion? or use a VPN to watch shows from the region? I can relate trying to immerse in Korean is harder (at least for me) than doing so in Japanese. For me it comes down to motivation. I have been involved with Japanese media and culture since I was very young..so when I first started the language I was just obsessed and would not mind the hardships of early native immersion (right after learning kana)... With Korean, however, I find I have to change my process quite frequently (sometimes reading immersion, sometimes premade anki decks, sometimes grammar book, back to immersion, etc) because I get overwhelmed and it is not as smooth as I would like it to be

[@daysandwords]

It's not as easy with languages further removed, but it's definitely possible with Korean. Unless your "trying" with Korean lasted at least 18 months, I don't think you can really say you tried it.

[@BustaDeluxe]

@@GenkoKenja I dont learn Japanese but I am more interested in anime than in kpop or kdrama so its not so easy to find motivation in listening to their shows

[@BustaDeluxe]

@@daysandwords I started 4 years ago and when I got covid I had to stopped then ppl from my workplace left all at the same time so I am very busy with work all day long. But I will switch my job this year and go back to learn Korean which is fun

[@GenkoKenja]

​@@BustaDeluxe You could attempt to watch anime dubbed in Korean. I do that for Japanese all the time, where I watch shows that are just dubbed. If you use a VPN set to Korea you would probably have a lot of options (I say probably because I have not tried it). Of course, as mentioned in the video, you have to be ok with the show not being as "fun" to watch as if it was in a language you understand perfectly...also there is the issue of CC, where subs may not match what they're saying...but it's worth a shot...as long as it motivates you to keep learning :) Also, I can't recommend language reactor for netflix enough. It is a very good extension for learning languages through netflix

[@TheStickCollector]

I suppose if I ever buy any (or otherwise have one that's free) I probably could when I get started.

[@daysandwords]

You mean streaming services? There are quite a few that are free, but with the VPN, which is like $2-3 US a month.

[@EvanGann20]

Does anyone have tips on finding content in Irish? Im looking to learn the language but am having lots of trouble finding things to listen to. Thanks in advance for any help 🙌🏻

[@daysandwords]

Hmm, I don't, but as far as I understand, the Irish government does stuff like podcasts etc. I think there are also some KZbin channels. Try googling but google the Irish word for Irish, so that you don't just get matches for The Cranberries and Tommy Tiernan.

[@EvanGann20]

Thank you! Searching for Gaeilge instead of Irish really helped 🤙🏻

[@MisterGames]

Pepper pig is free on youtube 👍👍

[@straytonox1492]

russian + russian subtitles feels very weird i mean there is so muche word in this languagues (like 20+ variations for any verbs or even word) even when you translate you steel don't understand sometimes lol

[@ricardomendiola3947]

Me gusto tu gorra, ¿donde la compraste?

[@daysandwords]

Gracias! En Australia hay "Lids", que viene de Estados Unidos pero aqui, las gorras de basebol (MLB) son muy baratas. Tengo muchimas. 😂

[@hillmanntoby]

Does anyone know if Max shows dubs if you use a VPN? I have a Max (and Hulu) subscription but have generally been disappointed in the availability of subs or dubs not in English, Spanish or Portuguese, especially compared to Netflix or Disney+.

[@daysandwords]

We don't even get Max or Hulu in Australia, so I'm sorry, I can't answer. I must admit that I was thinking of DVDs when I said that because I remember picking up a DVD of GoT here and seeing that it had a few languages.

[@hillmanntoby]

@@daysandwords Hulu actually drives me crazy, because Hulu has several fantastic shows with Open Captions burned onto the video.

[@daysandwords]

??? That sounds like my memories of pirated movies haha. Jag orkar inte med "brända" undertexter.

[@hillmanntoby]

@@daysandwords Jag orkar med brända undertexter om de är på samma språket som ljudspåret. Men när de är på engelska är det slut för mig.

[@ForeverForwardPod]

Also - that hat is so dope. I gotta beef up my fitted cap collection.

[@AmazingMediocrity]

Does simply changing the language of your already existing Netflix account not work, since I tried doing so to get more movies in Dutch and the language selection hasn’t changed?

[@daysandwords]

What movies are you trying? The Netherlands and Belgium do not dub content that isn't for kids, so it's not going to turn shows like Breaking Bad, Bridgerton etc into Dutch, because dubs of those shows don't exists.

[@AmazingMediocrity]

@@daysandwords I've also tried it with kids movies like Spider-man:ITSP and ATSP, basically every Dreamworks movie on Netflix and the only kids movies I've found in Dutch were Leo and the second Angry Birds movie

[@daysandwords]

Then create a new account. I know why this is but to be honest it's complicated to explain in a comment... create an account and make it ONLY speak Dutch. If Hilda isn't in Dutch then you're something something wrong, because it is for me. Spider ITSV isn't in all the languages... Sorry, that was a mistake in the video... It DOES have dubs for those languages, and if you have it on Amazon Prime or Disney then you'll get all the languages including Swedish and (I THINK) Dutch, but it's Netflix being cheap with their rights.

[@daysandwords]

PS Another one to try is Puss in Boots The Last Wish. It has Dutch for me.

[@AmazingMediocrity]

@@daysandwords Ok, thanks for the clarification!

[@KatSchlitz]

Whomever said you could not watch a Spiderman movie 50 times, has not heard of The Rocky Horror Picture Show phenomenon. 300 times was normal for that cult fave..

[@fatimahmakgatho8968]

New video!

[@daysandwords]

Unfortunately a much less frequent occurrence than I'd like it to be. 😆

[@stevencarr4002]

Where did the hat come from!

[@daysandwords]

Wait... I can't tell if you're joking or not haha. You're a channel member so you're part of the like 0.1% who could actually check this information haha.

[@Stephanie-gv8rh]

As usual, top notch advice 👏

[@daysandwords]

Thanks Stephanie!

[@Aadrian7]

15:50 I do think this is just a coincidence. Sure, the nordic countries would suggest there's a correlation, but on the polar opposite you've got Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, etc. which despite not dubbing their shows (back in the 90s not even kids cartoons), they still fare a lot worse than even countries like France and Germany, which do dub everything. Sure, not dubbing probably is a factor, but the majority of it can be attributed to socio-economic circumstance and nationalistic sentiment.

[@daysandwords]

Thanks for your long comment! You're kind of right, there IS more than one factor... however that doesn't make the dubbing thing coincidence. That just means there are other factors. The dubbing has still been a major factor until recently (internet). France has actually had TERRIBLE English, worse than some of the countries you mentioned, and they have NO excuse because French and English are almost the same language, pronounced differently. They performed terribly overall until it started shifting in about 2012-2015... because of the internet. I want to make a whole video response to this because it's more in-depth than I can go into in one comment.

[@Aadrian7]

@@daysandwords Yeah, I can see that. France is why I refered to nationalistic sentiment. With it having been the lingua franca for so long, I imagine even post cold war many French people saw it as a point of pride to not speak the language of the "new kid on the block". As for the internet, I believe it helped a lot more people to learn English than (passively) watching films does. This is pretty anecdotal, but my father and many people his age have been watching American films their whole life, but the subs make him kind of tune out the spoken words. The internet on the other hand forces you to look up words in order to function. But I'm getting ahead of myself, a video on the topic would be very interesting.

[@daysandwords]

In short, I think it's the combination of early school exposure (like Sweden, Norway, etc.) AND movies etc. In those countries, by the time they're 9 years old, they consider English COOL. This is now changing in other countries too, thanks to the internet, but in France, even though English is taught, it was always considered boring and "bookish". Still though, it's not "coincidence". I completely understand what you mean, but coincidence is the wrong word. There is an undeniable correlation that IS linked, but is not the only cause.

[@Aadrian7]

@@daysandwords Sure, that's fair. Poor wording on my part.

[@daysandwords]

That was my doing because of the dichotemy I set up in the video of: causation or coincidence... but as we agree, there is some causation and some extra factors.

[@vesimitta]

I prefer using the original audio, not dubs. It would be too many decisions to make otherwise. First, what to watch and, second, what language to watch it in.

[@daysandwords]

Fair enough but if something's available in Swedish, I'm watching it in Swedish. No decision necessary. Plus, "original only" is kind of a luxury reserved for widely spoken languages like Spanish. Start learning Icelandic and your sentiments may change.

[@TaincKWLanguages]

I so badly want to use your voice to improve my English.

[@daysandwords]

Be my guest! I'd be proud to be someone's language parent haha.

[@cairnwest287]

FFS, now I want to eat a burger.

[@daysandwords]

Hahaha. I questioned whether to keep that bit in, but I'm glad it got a reaction out of SOMEONE, even if not necessarily a desirable one.

[@cairnwest287]

@@daysandwords I think something that never gets mentioned anywhere with regards to the immersion approach of watching movies / series is how quickly your brain can want out when the comprehension is low. It takes effort to stay engaged when you start out. So glad you mentioned that. I'm gonna go get a burger for breakfast now, cheers Lamont!

[@ThePhilologicalBell]

First

[@daysandwords]

This is the first time I've seen a "first" comment from someone who is actually a fan/follower of the channel as opposed to just some bot-like comment haha.