Cine Kids - Utilizing Children's TV Time To Learn A Foreign Language

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Introduction

Thank you all for the kind comments on last week's Cine Kids edition where I took a dive into the history of the Smurfs. Apparently, I wasn't the only one that wasn't aware of them going back all the way to the 60's. It's quite remarkable that these cartoons can last throughout several generations. Quite cool if you think of it.

I also had a few suggestions to check out Scoobiedoo in a feature post or Ducktales. I appreciate the suggestions and writing them down in my list for future moments. I want a variety of content for Cine Kids, so I will probably dig into the history of another cartoon in a few weeks and keep that as a monthly item.

This week I want to discuss the topic of learning a foreign language simply by watching tv in the foreign language one wishes to learn. This is a hot topic to me personally as we're currently doing this ourselves to support our daughter's journey on learning the Spanish language.

Using the TV as an assistant

TV can be a great assistant picking up a foreign language. I have to go back in time a bit to explain how this is a recurring topic to us. Some years ago, when we first landed in Spain, we barely knew 3 words in Spanish. We had no preparation time and weren't sure if we would end up staying in Spain anyway. The first advice we got from our host to learn the language was: put the TV on Spanish audio and English subtitles. He told us that his son was watching all the cartoons in Spanish and he picked up quite fast. I never forgot this when we moved from Spain and have been watching a ton of TV Shows in Spanish since. Not just because they're good, lol but also because I have picked up quite some Spanish thanks to that.

Learning English during my childhood

When I think back about my own childhood, I actually did the same thing. I was the top learner in English classes for as long as I can remember throughout the childhood as I picked up English myself by watching TV and English shows even when I was young. For some reason, others didn't really use this option to pick up English quicker and it was not a big deal that they didn't either because from lower school, English was one of the classes for Dutch students anyway. But I found it very helpful that English has felt natural to me even in my early childhood.

I can safely say that thanks to the assistance of watching TV in English, I have made a great connection with the English language and had no issues with English grammar throughout my school years. At some point, I can even say that English felt more natural to me in terms of grammar than Dutch, my native language. It sounds funny, but it's true. I would argue that I'm probably better at the English grammar than the Dutch nowadays as I speak way more English throughout the day than Dutch. Even though we speak Dutch at home.

Spanish audio

Where I used to have the subtitles in Dutch during my childhood, there's no need to use them for my 6 year old daughter as she can't write and read yet. She's just learning everything all at once now at school, as she's attending a Spanish school here. Her advantage is that she watched a lot of cartoons already in English, and often repeated them many times as well, meaning she remembers a lot of things how they were shown in English. If she now watches these same cartoons in Spanish, she quickly connects new words thanks to her repetitive behavior of watching the same thing over and over in the past. I was not a fan of it before but I can see how this is working with her in her journey of learning Spanish right now.

A low-key fun way to support learning a foreign language

To help her out more, I try to mention things in between the lines as I hear words in Spanish, to make her aware of the words she can easily remember. And we also practice the language throughout the day but currently with baby steps because the loads of info coming to her right now is a lot to take in. I hired a tutor for her assisting her 3x a week for 1,5 hours but it's hard for her to keep up the pace now that the new teacher has been drilling them like they're in the army.

To make sure it will remain fun for my daughter, I let her watch a cartoon she knows very well in Spanish on Friday's with her tutor so she has a relaxed tutoring session and she can actively practice with her. I think the cartoons are a low-key way of assisting children to pick up a language because it doesn't feel like learning but they think they're relaxing and just watching tv. This is what makes it a great support because their subconscious mind registers more than we realize.

Learning Spanish cartoon tips

Besides using the regular cartoons with different audio, there are also a few cartoons dedicated to learning a foreign language. I found them very helpful, even for myself when my oldest watched this when she was young.

Dora the explorer was an absolute favorite in our home. I can still put on a smile seeing these clips as it was a fun watch and educational at the same time. I remember how my oldest (and later my youngest) used to watch this many times and picked up quite some Spanish.

Pocoyo is a cartoon that I did not learn about until my youngest wanted to watch it on Netflix. I thought it was cute in a way but it also got on my nerves a bit. I don't think all episodes are about learning Spanish, but they are filled with educational stuff for sure. I found out it's available in English and Spanish for those that want to check it out in either of the languages.

One of my personal not so favorites is learning Spanish with Peppa Pig. Although educational, I find the whole cartoon highly annoying and have a natural adversity against Peppa Pig myself nowadays. But some love it, my daughter did too, so make sure to check it out if you can manage to deal with it.

Other languages

Of course you can find more of these cartoons focused on learning a language, Spanish natives can also use this to learn English and by setting the audio to any other foreign language (sometimes limited available, though) is always a good way to assist your child to learn new words in another language. I think the key is to make sure there is room for education that doesn't feel like learning but remains relaxing and fun. The subconscious registers more than we often realize.

Your experiences

As we have quite a few different cultures in the CineTV community and Hive in general, I would like to find out if you also utilized your TV time (knowingly or not) to pick up a foreign language. And if so, I'd love to read which language that was and of course make sure to share your tips in a comment so others can read and maybe use these tips too on their journey.

That's it for this week, next week we are back with another Cine Kids edition. Have a great weekend ahead! Make sure to follow our Twitter account and join our discord channel.

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