How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

General discussion about learning languages

How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Useful.
1
8%
Not Useful.
8
67%
Other.
3
25%
 
Total votes: 12

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mick33
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby mick33 » Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:23 pm

It's not just "Don't say no!/yes" videos because the first one that the algorithm recommended for me months ago was "Don't say хорошо (good) in Russian". I had no idea that these kinds of videos were so common until I searched YouTube just now for 'don't say no in Spanish' videos and found the following titles: "DON’T Say NO HABLO ESPAÑOL, say THESE 15 Alternatives Instead!", "Don't Say SÍ in Spanish, Say THIS Instead!", "DON’T Say ¡NO TENGO DINERO! Sound fancy in Spanish with these 7 Alternatives", "DON'T Say QUÉ When You Don't Understand Something In Spanish, Say THIS Instead!", "Don’t Say MUCHO GUSTO, say THIS instead (4 Alternatives)!", "Don't Say Hasta La Vista! 11 Ways to Say Goodbye in Spanish" and so on :roll: .

While it looks like alternatives are always suggested judging by the full titles (I haven't watched any of these videos and I probably won't watch many of them) the clickbait gets tiresome and a little misleading. To give just a few examples of where they are wrong: I am certain that some Spanish speakers really do say "¿Qué?" when they don't understand something as I've heard it many times, or Sí when they mean yes and that it's acceptable to say "de nada" as a response to gracias as I have done so myself. As for saying "No habla español" if one in fact does not speak any Spanish, exactly why would it be a good idea to use a more grammatically complex phrase? Especially when doing so could imply that you actually do speak Spanish and are just being lazy or rude.
Last edited by mick33 on Mon Aug 01, 2022 12:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby SalzSäule » Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:45 pm

The content of the videos? Usually 'fine'.

The wording? Awful. Unless something is grammatically incorrect to the point of egregiousness, or horrifically outdated, these videos shouldn't be phrased this way. 'XX synonyms for Y' or 'Other ways to say Z' are much better, providing the content creator actually delves into the differences between them.

Some which I've seen where it's just ''NEVER SAY XXXX IT'S TOO SIMPLE/BORING etc.'' gives me the same energy of high school students taught to avoid certain adjectives because they are viewed (in an almost elitist manner) as being too common/everyday.

Someone needs to let these creators know that merely because a word is 'commonplace' it is not ipso facto to be eschewed.

Ultimately, because all of these videos do usually contain synonyms for the expression(s) about which they are opining, they have some utility. Hence my vote for 'other'.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby Cainntear » Mon Aug 01, 2022 7:39 am

Or in other words, in a traditional course, these words and phrases would be given as a way to expand your vocabulary and add variety to your speech, but you'd still first teach the one these videos say never to say.

mick33 wrote:I had no idea that these kinds of videos were so common until I searched YouTube just now for 'don't say no in Spanish' videos and found the following titles:

Same here, but now that we've all done a search for them and possibly even watched one or two, we're now cursed to see them in our YouTube suggestions for ever more.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Aug 01, 2022 3:23 pm

Cainntear wrote:Same here, but now that we've all done a search for them and possibly even watched one or two, we're now cursed to see them in our YouTube suggestions for ever more.

Certainly this! I went to YT from a thread talking about that 'Inner French' fellow to look at some of the videos. Followed some sidebar recommendations, now they're permanently in my suggestions. I don't mind though because some are quite good.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby keineAhnung » Mon Aug 01, 2022 8:04 pm

Le Baron wrote:Followed some sidebar recommendations, now they're permanently in my suggestions. I don't mind though because some are quite good.

If you ever minded, you could tell YT to stop recommending that kind of content: in the tree-dots menu next to each recommendation you can select "Not interested" and/or "Don't recommend channel." The menu appears when you hover over the video preview.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby rdearman » Mon Aug 01, 2022 8:08 pm

keineAhnung wrote:
Le Baron wrote:Followed some sidebar recommendations, now they're permanently in my suggestions. I don't mind though because some are quite good.

If you ever minded, you could tell YT to stop recommending that kind of content: in the tree-dots menu next to each recommendation you can select "Not interested" and/or "Don't recommend channel." The menu appears when you hover over the video preview.

Also you should remove things from your history that you don't want to get recommendations on.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby SpanishInput » Mon Aug 01, 2022 8:48 pm

As a native Spanish speaker, those "Don't say X", "N ways to say Z" or "10 idioms to sound like a native" videos and blog posts are, at best, cringe-worthy and a waste of time. Why would a student who's still watching videos about Spanish in English need extra ways to say the same thing?

At worst, they're downright misleading. Some include dialect-specific idioms or even rare ways to say something... Without telling you this.
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:38 pm

SpanishInput wrote:As a native Spanish speaker, those "Don't say X", "N ways to say Z" or "10 idioms to sound like a native" videos and blog posts are, at best, cringe-worthy and a waste of time. Why would a student who's still watching videos about Spanish in English need extra ways to say the same thing?

At worst, they're downright misleading. Some include dialect-specific idioms or even rare ways to say something... Without telling you this.

This is so true. I've even been sceptical and checked with native Spanish speakers here and they say: well it exists, but you don't hear it that much if at all! So it seems more like making interesting content videos.

Normally, if you watch a film or look at TV you can see what regular key words people use and they tend to be a small set. A native speaker to a native speaker doesn't need to waste words a lot of time because the listener can usually devine from tone and context even if you just say 'no!'
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Re: How useful are "Don't say no!" posts and videos?

Postby Sae » Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:04 am

After doing my initial look up at what these videos are, YouTube has started recommending me more and videos that have the same principle but for different words. I'll give credit to one that's teaching English learners, which was "Don't use okay, OK" where he makes it clear it's okay to use 'okay' and uses it several times throughout, but gives alternative ways of expressing yourself without it and what it might communicate in certain situations, though it had points I could nitpick. The title felt like clickbait, but I think the intentions were good and the guy at least laid those out clear at the start.

So it makes me think maybe many go in with good intentions of encouraging people to expand their vocabulary, but make a provocative statement to draw attention to the video, but the statements are misleading unless given the proper content/explanation.

Though in trying to expand my adjectives & descriptions in practicing Vietnamese with my tutor, I am seeing how little I actually use them in normal speech in English because most of my hesitation isn't from struggling to understand the questions...but from trying to think how I'd give a good answer that isn't along the lines of "they're good" or "because I like it".
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