Watching Television to Learn a Language

Many people will say that the best way to learn a language is to immerse them in it and interact on a daily basis with native speakers of that language. I can’t argue that that is probably the best way to do it, but how do you learn a language when that ideal situation isn’t an option?

I live in Japan. You may have already figured that out if you have read any of my previous posts. I live in Japan and I am trying to raise my son to be fluent in both Japanese and English. The Japanese part is easy. He lives in Japan and everywhere he goes he hears Japanese. Every time he sees television it is Japanese.

Now, what do we do about his English? I leave for work about 30 minutes after he wakes up each morning and normally I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off getting ready to go to work. I have very little time to sit and interact with him linguistically. After work, I get home between 6-7:00pm. He normally goes to bed shortly after 8:00pm. This doesn’t really leave me with a lot of time to talk to him. I do as much as I can and try to read a story or two to him before bed time, but realistically, he only gets about 2 hours of English each weekday.

To supplement things, I do what many parents in my situation do. I have him watch television. It isn’t the best way, but it is one of the few options I have and it works. I know it works because he has been learning vocabulary and phrases that I didn’t teach him.

My wife teaches him some English throughout the day, but he picks up idiomatic English from various DVDs he has and is able to apply that English correctly when playing or interacting with me.

We of course want our son to lead an active life and be outside as much as possible so we do limit the amount of time he spends indoors watching television. On a daily basis, he probably watches about 1 to 1.5 hours of English programming.

Again, it is the best we can do in the current situation.

Some of the shows that my son seems to really react to and enjoy the most are:

Thomas and Friends (my son is OBSESSED with all things Thomas)

Dora the Explorer

Go Diego Go

Theodore Tugboat

Blues Clues

His favorite movies are:

Wiggles Music DVDs (songs)

Toy Story

Cars

Wiggles Magical Adventure

You can follow me on Twitter @jlandkev

Playing Outdoors

Playing outdoors and learning outdoors are things I have been thinking about a lot lately. As both a teacher and a parent, I understand how important it is for not only my son, but also my students to have as many meaningful and fun experiences outdoors in nature as possible.

Sadly, many people out there don’t seem to agree with me. In Japan as well as in my home in Canada, children in general are becoming disconnected with nature. Children are spending more time indoors and often, their parents do little to encourage them to get outside. Many find it convenient if their kids are downstairs playing a game as opposed to being outside running around where they may not know where they are. The growing fears of “stranger danger” lead many parents to keep their kids “safe” by keeping them inside the house.

On so many occasions, whether at the local playground or on a family field trip at school, I have seen too many parents scolding their kids for getting dirty or getting upset when they touch a bug. I’ve been witness to parents teaching their kids that dirt is bad. Bugs are bad. Playing with mud is bad. Running around in the woods is bad. Eventually, these kids will start to believe what their parents are saying. Parents are of course the most important teachers in a child’s life and if these negative messages are being sent to them by the most important of teachers, they will believe them!

As a teacher, I am fortunate enough to have large park within walking distance of my school. It is filled with fields, gardens, ponds, stream and even a small forest. I am lucky enough to get my class outside on an almost daily basis. We wander through the park and explore it on a regular basis. We run, play and learn about nature. My students are becoming bird watchers and love to collect insects. I encourage my students to get their hands dirty and discover the things that live under leaves and rocks.

I grew up in a small town in Canada and the forest was in many ways my playground. I am already encouraging my young son to play with sticks, rocks, leaves and other things he find outside. Hopefully, with lots of exposure to nature and playing outdoors, he will love the world outside as much as I do. 

My son (about 6 months ago) exploring a patch of nature close to our house.