This is why I've taken to watching a lot of TV in languages I'm interested in. Challenges with such: 1. A program I'm actually interested in and with which I

This is why I've taken to watching a lot of TV in languages I'm interested in. Challenges with such: 1. A program I'm actually interested in and with which I can engage. And access to same. 2. Differences between: Spoken and written language. Dialect versus "standard usage". 3. Passive as opposed to active participation. (Also, I seem to have forgotten my original point 3.) Even when I'm not entirely certain, what I've gained through this gives me a starting point in having an idea of what the/a proper idiom may be, which I can then take to the Web if I need further research/verification. I wish I'd had access to such resources when I was learning my first languages. Instead, I was largely limited to the classroom and the professor for such exposure. (In most of the U.S., and with other than Spanish and perhaps family and friends, foreign languages are -- were, certainly, a generation ago -- "far away".) And music. I happened across some that I enjoyed. If nothing else, this helped give me more sense of the sound of the language.