5 ms·

Living in post-communist Poland, Cartoon Network via sattelite was exactly my first exposure to English, too. The second exposure was video games. I wonder how

Living in post-communist Poland, Cartoon Network via sattelite was exactly my first exposure to English, too. The second exposure was video games. I wonder how do people learn English in countries like Germany or Spain, where all TV shows and games are fully localised. Nowadays, in Poland these things are localised, too. I guess I will need to hide that fact from my kids.

foobarian 7y ago
I didn't really get much from spoken subtitled English, other than maybe an ear for it. Lion's share of actually learning came from text adventures alongside a bidirectional dictionary.
- dougmwne 7y ago
  Developing an ear is an enormous advantage. It's taken me years to passively develop an ear for Polish and to go from hearing a mess of unpronounceable consonants, to being able to hear a new word, then accurately repeat it in one shot.
klingonopera 7y ago
Speaking for Germany, mostly from school. Germans are terrible at English compared to many other European countries (especially the smaller ones) as they're big enough to sustain their entertainment, Internet and business in their local language. Despite them being forced to learn English in school, very few will try to consume American media in English, and still prefer consuming the locally dubbed versions. In my opinion, it's the easiest (and most fun) way to get better in English, without doing much at all, except for the initial year or two one would need to invest to be proficient enough to consume said media. Source: Am a German citizen, who fortunately/unfortunately has English as a native language, spent my first 16 years in Asia, and presently another 13 years in Germany.
- amaccuish 7y ago
  Hmm. I'm gonna disagree here and say that the majority of Germans I've met speak great English. I however will caveat this with the fact that I'm 22 and it may be a generational thing. I am aware that if I go out into the sticks in Germany, I will be 100% speaking German since it seems to me the more rural I go the less English is spoken.
  - klingonopera 7y ago
    People in rural areas, no matter which country, will almost always be worse off in speaking a foreign language than their urban counterparts. I agree it is a generational thing, and I believe this does have a lot to do with the Internet and the "international culture" it promotes. Have you compared some European countries in your age category? It's true that 22-year-old Germans speak English well, but a similarly aged person from Romania, Poland, Denmark or Albania will almost certainly still be better at English than the German.
posterboy 7y ago
after a run in with americans on vacation the ice was broken for me and I started to torrent the simpsons, family guy, and other shows, mostly in English because those were easier to find and of course more exiting.

foobarian 7y ago

I didn't really get much from spoken subtitled English, other than maybe an ear for it. Lion's share of actually learning came from text adventures alongside a bidirectional dictionary.

dougmwne 7y ago
Developing an ear is an enormous advantage. It's taken me years to passively develop an ear for Polish and to go from hearing a mess of unpronounceable consonants, to being able to hear a new word, then accurately repeat it in one shot.

klingonopera 7y ago

Speaking for Germany, mostly from school. Germans are terrible at English compared to many other European countries (especially the smaller ones) as they're big enough to sustain their entertainment, Internet and business in their local language. Despite them being forced to learn English in school, very few will try to consume American media in English, and still prefer consuming the locally dubbed versions. In my opinion, it's the easiest (and most fun) way to get better in English, without doing much at all, except for the initial year or two one would need to invest to be proficient enough to consume said media. Source: Am a German citizen, who fortunately/unfortunately has English as a native language, spent my first 16 years in Asia, and presently another 13 years in Germany.

amaccuish 7y ago
Hmm. I'm gonna disagree here and say that the majority of Germans I've met speak great English. I however will caveat this with the fact that I'm 22 and it may be a generational thing. I am aware that if I go out into the sticks in Germany, I will be 100% speaking German since it seems to me the more rural I go the less English is spoken.
- klingonopera 7y ago
  People in rural areas, no matter which country, will almost always be worse off in speaking a foreign language than their urban counterparts. I agree it is a generational thing, and I believe this does have a lot to do with the Internet and the "international culture" it promotes. Have you compared some European countries in your age category? It's true that 22-year-old Germans speak English well, but a similarly aged person from Romania, Poland, Denmark or Albania will almost certainly still be better at English than the German.

posterboy 7y ago

after a run in with americans on vacation the ice was broken for me and I started to torrent the simpsons, family guy, and other shows, mostly in English because those were easier to find and of course more exiting.