Bex wrote:...The Netflix/YouTube thing I'm struggling to get straight in my head, I really enjoy watching celebrity chatshows/interview type programs... it's like my equivalent of eating junk food
I know of one or two Spanish chatshows that I can stream old episodes of on their channels app, but I'm not sure if they have subtitles or not. Does that matter? I start questioning if binge watching this type of TV would help?
When
iguanamon mentioned that it was a good idea to watch a lot of the same thing it makes me wonder why, I suspect it's just easier like staying with the same author when reading, same style, vocabulary etc. But I wonder if it actually matters what you watch? Does it need to be easy? Should you use subtitles/transcripts? Or if it just matters that you find something so you can watch/listen A LOT?
I hate not knowing what I'm doing, I've hated this aspect of my learning journey for a long time. I'm a very organised and practical person, if I say I'm going to do something I do it. But I do overthink things and Spanish is the first thing in my life I haven't just been able to plan and then do.
Maybe I should just tackle it like I did the reading in the SC...set a high target and just force myself to reach it however I can?
You're not alone. A lot of first-time language-learners don't know
how to go about learning on their own without "structure". You're right, watching a lot of the same thing is akin to getting habituated to reading by reading a series by the the same author. You become used to the accents and the actors' voices. Episodes of a series also have repetition within them- situations repeat, charcters' reactions repeat,vocabulary repeats- not exactly, but enough so that you'll know what's going on.
In language-learning, just like in life, sometimes we have to do things we wouldn't ordinarily do if we had our choice. So, you would choose to watch celebrity chat shows. I'm sure something like the Graham Norton show equivalent exists in Spanish, but here's the rub- I think it's too "random". The only repeating character is the host. In my opinion, you'll have to work your way up to chat shows. The format of these shows doesn't give you a chance to take advantage of the inherent repetition in a series. You won't get a chance to get used to voices and accents. The topics in a chat show are random- one celebrity may talk about the time they were thrown out of a nightclub in Biarritz and the next one may talk about the challenges of her latest film and another one may talk about their meeting with another celebrity. The vocabulary and topics will be varied but this works against what you are trying to achieve. As I said, you have to work your way up to this type of show.
Once you work through a series with around 75-100 episodes, you will be more able to watch and listen to other content more easily. An analogy would be to children who want to ride a mountain bike before they have ridden around the block on training wheels. Yes, we're adults, but when we're learning a second language we are somewhat akin to children in that we often want to do more than we're capable of doing (which is especially tough because we can already do this in our native languages) and we don't want to do what we may need to do to get there. I've seen this many times on the forum where people try to bite off way more than they can chew and end up frustrated and set back in their learning.
I'm not saying to watch (or read) material that you despise. What I suggest is that you choose a series, preferably with accurate Spanish subs or a dub of a series with which you may be familiar. Doing this, you will naturally be exposed to more vocabulary and grammar. Your listening and comprehension will improve over the course of the series. Random video browsing is akin to a hummingbird flitting between flowers. You won't stay in one place long enough to get a chance to utilize all the advantages a series can offer you in the context of language-learning. Just like Harry Potter has put you on the path to reading, choosing a series that you like (or one that doesn't annoy you too much) will do the same thing for you- plus the visual clues will be there to help you figure out unknowns- which you don't get with just reading text.
As far as what you use to help with a series: I find having a transcript (you can make your own with subtitles.org) and accurate L2 subtitles help. There are various ways to use them. If you are watching a dubbed series, you can make your own parallel text... or read the English and then the Spanish then watch the episode, or watch first then read, or watch- then read- then watch again. You can transcribe. Take notes. Check your notes or transcription against the transcript (answer key). You can read episode synopses on line as a check of your comprehension. There are a bunch of ways to mix it up.
Personally, I wouldn't watch with English subtitles. I'm not saying don't use them at all. I find them useful after having reached a higher level for how to phrase things in TL. At your level, I think you would focus too much on the English subs and you are trying to gain comprehension of the Spanish. You can use the English subs to go back (rewind) and make sure you understood what was going n in a scene or dialog, but use them sparingly to check yourself. Later, after reaching a high intermediate level English subtitles will be more useful to you, ala StringerBell.
Watching with accurate Spanish subs can help a lot but, your goal is to ultimately be able to do without them.
Good luck.
