How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

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sillygoose1
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby sillygoose1 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 2:30 am

chokofingrz wrote:I'd love to get some more Italian or Spanish recommendations, any genre.



Italian: Romanzo Criminale, Gomorra, E' arrivata la felicita', Capo dei capi, L'ispettore Coliandro
Spanish: Anclados, La que se avecina, El internado, Vis a vis, Senor Alvila, Profugos, Club de Cuervos
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Jul 09, 2016 3:29 am

chokofingrz wrote:[SE/DK] Bron/Broen - the must-see Scandinavian crime programme, but the dialogue is a bit sparse and specialised.


Not really adding to the thread here, but I really did enjoy season 1 of this drama very much so. Unfortunately I did watch it with English subtitles, but at least it was foreign.
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby Cavesa » Sat Jul 09, 2016 11:18 am

chokofingrz wrote:[FR] Engrenages seasons 5, 1, 2, 3 - good police procedural show. Probably not that great for language as it contains lots of slang and is quite repetitive in its usage of vocabulary.
[DE] Türkisch für Anfänger s1, s2 - great comedy/drama for teenagers or older. Definitely helped me with colloquial German.
[DE] Deutschland 83 - slick thriller which offers plenty of cultural insights as well as the language.
[SE/DK] Bron/Broen - the must-see Scandinavian crime programme, but the dialogue is a bit sparse and specialised.
[SE] Äkta Människor - good sci-fi thriller. Improved my comprehension quite a bit.
[SE] Blå Ögon - political thriller. I made a word frequency list out of the subtitle files, to bring me up to speed.
[SE] Tjockare än Vatten s1 - slightly cheesy dark drama. Plenty of everyday dialogue.
My to-watch list is long and includes [DK] Dicte, [FR] Le bureau des légendes, [DE] Altes Geld.
I'd love to get some more Italian or Spanish recommendations, any genre.


Engrenages is great for language learners (especially for the reasons you mentioned) in my opinion, but just for the advanced ones. I'd recommend all the intermediate learners out there to start with something easier. Many dubbed shows will do for start, or original series like Profilage.

For the De and Se shows, where did you get them? Got some tips on sources, please? I couldn't even find useable dvd eshops so far, truth be told (amazon doesn't have that much Swedish and I don't want to buy from them, since their logic is "of course we deliver for free to several countries, but the worthless czechs must pay 5 euro to have the things delivered 20km from the warehouse).

Thanks for the Le bureau de legendes tip, I need some more French series.

[quote=sillygoose1]

Italian: Romanzo Criminale, Gomorra, E' arrivata la felicita', Capo dei capi, L'ispettore Coliandro
Spanish: Anclados, La que se avecina, El internado, Vis a vis, Senor Alvila, Profugos, Club de Cuervos[/quote]

Adding a few more to the Spanish tips: El ministerio del tiempo, Aguila roja, Cuentame como paso, Angel o demonio, Isabel

About the Italian shows: are there some good ones that don't belong to the crime genre?
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby NIKOLIĆ » Sat Jul 09, 2016 1:52 pm

Cavesa wrote:About the Italian shows: are there some good ones that don't belong to the crime genre?

These are the ones I've watched:

I Cesaroni - The Italian version of "Los Serranos".
Tutti pazzi per amore - A romantic comedy.
Boris - A cazzo di cane!
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby chokofingrz » Sat Jul 09, 2016 2:56 pm

Thanks for the recs everyone! The only one I've tried is Romanzo Criminale and I didn't get far with it. Maybe I'll try again this year.

Cavesa, if I didn't watch these shows at the time of broadcast (BBC showed several) then there's a good chance I torrented the series or watched them on a dubious streaming site. Educational purposes, no harm done, etc etc your Honour! :oops:
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby garyb » Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:01 am

chokofingrz wrote:Thanks for the recs everyone! The only one I've tried is Romanzo Criminale and I didn't get far with it. Maybe I'll try again this year.


Romanzo Criminale is a difficult one as it has a lot of Roman dialect and slang. Modern crime films and series tend to be like that: Gomorrah has a lot of Neapolitan, Montalbano has some Sicilian, etc. For intermediate learners (I don't know your particular level, I'm just saying in general), something like La Piovra is more suitable as the language is quite standard and clear. Most of the good Italian TV seems to be crime, but for other genres there are some comedy series already mentioned like È arrivata la felicità, Tutti pazzi per amore, I Cesaroni, Boris (the last two have a bit of Roman dialect but nothing too challenging). I wouldn't say they're spectacular, but they're watchable enough.
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby Iversen » Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:26 am

I abhor reality shows, and I don't watch soaps or things like that either, so when I see the word "show" I primarily think of quiz shows, stand-up comedy and other programs with an audience in the studio (part of the definition, but I could live happily without that audience). Also musical shows, but I prefer classical music so those on TV are not really relevant - and I can't see how you can learn anything you can trust (or even catch on the fly) from listening to singing people - and of course you even less about language from instrumental music. As for talk shows I sometimes watch them, but they tend to be fairly boring - especially those that have political or sport topics. However they are generally easier to understand than films and the stand-uppety things I mentioned earlier. My favorite programs are documentaries with presenters that don't try to show how utterly stupid and irritating and selfcentered they are AND more or less Scientific quiz programs of the QI type ('Quite interesting' from BBC).
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby garyb » Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:00 am

I tend to use the terms "TV show" and "TV programme" interchangeably, but that might not be the same across the English-speaking world.

I enjoy documentaries, but I don't watch many because in general they're just far too easy. Drama and comedy shows push me more and help me to understand conversational language. However I also agree with the points about how scripted dialogue isn't quite the "real thing" and I've been trying to watch more unscripted stuff too like talk shows and interviews. But they just don't grip me and make me want to keep watching in the same way that a good drama series does.
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby Cavesa » Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:12 am

Yeah, I use them interchangeably as well, but I might always be wrong, as I am not a natives.

I agree about the documentaries being easy, but they are still great at the intermediate level. And the talk shows might be a great choice for me, true.

Iversen,would you have some tips on the science quiz programs, please? And documentary series, perhaps something like those on nature with Attenborough just in other languages. Or some on history or science. Or sources, where I could easily find a lot ofgood documentaries in one place. All these might be great but I am just reluctant to try many without recommendations, as I know how many of them are horrible (should anyone encounter the Czech version of QI, protect your neurons by not watching it. It was really a failure here, we've got significantly better ones).

As there are a few Czech learners around these days, I would like to recommend two talk shows and one publicistic program. Na plovárně is awesome. Marek Eben is the most popular moderator in the country, well known for his beautiful language and sense of humour, and probably the most polite czech ever. His show includes lots of fascinating guests and Eben is really good at asking unusual and thought provoking questions. In his show, he is more interested in culture, sport, science, than in politics. And I'd say it is intermediate friendly. Another is a bit harder, but still not that hard, and it is DVTV, it is on the internet only. Two journalists (probably kicked out of the state owned tv for asking too good questions and demanding answers), Drtinová and Veselovský, invite lots of various guests. Common subjects of discussion include politics, society, art, science. The language is still pretty standard. Uvolněte se, prosím is a show following an american format, but still great. Jan Kraus has got awesome sense of humour and mostly good guests, the language is more suitable for the advanced learners.
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Re: How efficient are TV shows for improving listening comprehension?

Postby reineke » Mon Jul 11, 2016 3:29 pm

The show needs to be interesting. I watch films, cartoons, sports, sitcoms, documentaries and documentary-like programs, news & analysis, investigative journalism, interviews, TV series, mini-series, drama, travel programs, food, cooking, talk shows, reality tv (Cops, The Iron Chef, Deadliest Catch, Takeshi's Castle), game shows (quizzes), satire (Blob, Striscia la notizia, The Colbert Report), stand-up...
Commercials are always fun and useful at the beginning of the learning journey.

The term "documentaries" can refer to anything nonfictional. You could be watching a program about a type of fungus that turns ants into zombies, or a film about life in Iran. Complaining about linguistic attributes of documentary films is like complaining about your bread being buttered on both sides.

"In terms of form, documentaries can follow a narrative, present a categorical form in which information is delivered in a simple fashion or show a rhetorical structure presenting a persuasive argument (Bordwell & Thompson, 2008)

In most documentaries language is not highly technical because specialists are generally aware that they are addressing a lay audience but, nonetheless, terminology is quite usual.

One usually relates documentaries with formal language. However, documentaries are an evolving filmic product which has gone beyond the typical structure of a formal off-screen narrator. In the selected corpus, examples from different types of tenor can be seen, ranging from the formal narrator in 14 to the colloquial language in 15:

(14) One extraordinary group of animals rivals us as masters of earth. They ruled the ancient sea, and they were the first creatures to venture onto land. With highly adaptable limbs and bodies, they invaded every realm of the planet… equipped by nature to
survive almost any challenge. (Blue Realm)

(15) Child: Anna is a crybaby, Anna is a crybaby
Dad: Stop saying that.
Jo: Brian is incredibly passive.
Dad: Knock it off.
Jo: He doesn’t say boo to a mouse really. They don’t listen to him.
Dad: Ellie, don’t tease me. Just give it to me. (Supernanny)"

Translating documentaries: from Neanderthals to the Supernanny.

https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/2009/117140/perspectives_matamala_accepted.pdf

German:

http://www.doku-stream.org/
http://www.doku-stream.org/category/serien/alpha-centauri/
Audio: http://www.geo.de/GEO/reisen/podcast/reise-podcast-geoaudio-hoeren-und-reisen-5095.html

It would be great to compile a list of resources for different languages.
Last edited by reineke on Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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