rpg wrote:
- victorhart attempting to learn Mandarin exclusively by watching TV. I think he was making progress with this, albeit slowly. Someone's masters thesis (I think? Don't remember) about trying this for French was posted on Reddit recently and they also had slow results.
I accidentally came across the thesis ~ one and a half years ago (i.e. before it was posted on Reddit). It inspired me on making my own experiment. I didn't try to replicate what the author of the thesis was doing though, I just decided to try to learn a language exclusively through input, without textbooks/courses, or dictionaries. But I chose French as the language for my experiment and started it with watching Hélène et les garçons because of the thesis. Probably, one day I would try something like that even if I hadn't read the thesis, I'd already kind of been "driving" in that direction - that was how I came across the thesis in the first place.
I wouldn't call my French experiment really "crazy", though. French isn't Mandarin, after all. I mean French is not as difficult for someone with my language background as Mandarin wouldn've been.