Once you have established a baseline in Spanish, incorporating videos or television programs into your learning routine can be an entertaining and time-efficient way to learn Spanish more quickly.
Here we will go into exactly what “baseline” you should start with, how to best use video programming to aid in fluency, and a list of some programs that you might enjoy.
How Much Spanish Do You Need to Incorporate This Method?
Generally speaking, this is not a method that I recommend for beginners. Even if you view children’s programming only, there are just too many words and phrases that you don’t know.
If you don’t know more than 10 words in Spanish, then develop a bigger vocabulary base before you begin with this type of learning.
Once you’ve got about 100 to 200 words under your belt, you can start with some of the more basic programs. One key point is that you should know at least the top 30 verbs in Spanish.
The reason for this is that most video programming has a lot of dialogue. Those dialogues are going to be full of verbs. Recognizing as many of them as possible is going to make it easier to understand what’s going on.
What’s the Best Way to Incorporate Television or Video Programming Into My Spanish Learning?
First of all, lower your expectations.
Wait… what?!?!
If you are a beginning or intermediate Spanish learner, don’t expect yourself to be able to watch an entire 30-minute program from start to finish on the first try.
Depending on how much you engage with Spanish on a daily basis, watching even two minutes may quickly become overwhelming.
If you’re a little more familiar with hearing and interacting in Spanish, then you will probably be able to last a little longer.
The best way to use video programming is to do it in chunks and be consistent about it.
To set yourself up for success, follow these steps:
1) Turn on the captions IN SPANISH.
Do NOT turn on captions in English. What we’re trying to do here is train your ears to hear the sounds. Choose a program that has accurate and timely spanish captions.
If there are no captions available or they are delayed or inaccurate, select a different program. As a beginner or intermediate speaker, captions can make all the difference.
If you are an advanced speaker, then don’t worry about the captions if you don’t feel you need them.
2) Stop when it hurts.
On the first run through, stop as soon as you have lost the thread of the dialogue or story line. This may happen after three minutes, or it may happen after just 30 seconds. Wherever it happens, STOP!
Pause the video and write down any words that you heard, but did not understand. Spelling them should be easy because you have the captions to help you.
3) Replay the video from the beginning and see if you can understand just a word or two more.
4) Replay it again and try to catch just a little bit more.
5) Look up key words that will help you understand what’s going on.
6) Watch it one more time.
7) Repeat this process with the subsequent segment of video.
Although the instructions here state that you should replay it twice and then once more after you look up words, please know that you can replay it as much as you need. That is the miracle of technology!
This process will seem really tedious at first and will likely frustrate you, but I encourage you: DO NOT GIVE UP!
Once you advance more fully into the storyline, the video will become easier and easier to understand.
Watch 2-3 segments the first day (set aside about 30 minutes for this) and then continue to watch more segments on the following days. Try not to skip any days. You want to build momentum.
As you’re building that momentum, you’ll notice that you are able to understand longer and longer segments.
You come to understand the characters’ manner of speech and general personalities. You get the gist of what’s happening in the story better.
When you stick with one video from start to finish, these things help you to understand more quickly. If you jump around from video to video, you lose these benefits.
So, stick with it.
Once you finish that first video, choose another one. If you do this consistently for 15 minutes a day, you will be astounded at the level and quality of your Spanish.
For bonus points you can also begin pausing the video and repeating exactly what the characters’ say. By repeating and imitating as closely as possible what they are saying, you will perfect your accent.
Doing this with videos, songs, and other material is the fastest way I know to sound like a native. It happens so quickly you won’t believe it!
Here are some programs (some paid and some free) that might interest you:
Netflix
Note: If you are serious about learning Spanish and want to learn through TV programming, I highly recommend getting a Netflix account. They don’t pay me to say this either.
There is no bigger repository of TV programming WITH CAPTIONS IN SPANISH that I know of for a better price. Pro tip: if you set your VPN in your home to a Latin American country, you’ll get 100% Spanish programming from those countries.
“Extra en Español” – This is a TV program that is specifically designed for people learning Spanish. Its set up is similar to that of the show “Friends”, but they simplify the language so it’s easier to understand.
“La Casa de Las Flores” – This one is a little more advanced. It’s a comedy-drama television series that has very clear pronunciation. The plot isn’t very complicated either so it’s not too difficult to follow along. I would not recommend this particular program until you reach at least an intermediate level
“Go! Live Your Way” (¡Viva tu Manera!) – This series is targeted at a younger audience, but it has simple dialogues that are easier to understand than general TV programming.
Disney +
I have never personally used this method, but I do know other teachers who recommend it.
Switch the language of any of the Disney movies to Spanish with Spanish captions. Because you are probably familiar with the plot lines of many of these movies, learning what’s going on is not a problem. You can just focus on the language.
And, if you’ve ever had children who watch the same move 200 times, you may very well have lots of the dialogue memorized. Now, it’s just a matter of learning how to say it in Spanish.
The one disadvantage I see to this method is that movies are quite long and it will take you a long time to get through one of them.
But if you’re content with toughing it out or you only watch certain segments, this could be a very effective method for learning.
YouTube
There are a LOT of video on YouTube in Spanish. If you follow certain influencers or YouTube personalities in English, try to find a Spanish counterpart.
For example, I really enjoy following a certain set of people on YouTube that discuss gardening (one of my hobbies). If I were learning Spanish, I would try to find someone similar who discusses gardening in Spanish.
The more interested you are in the topic, the better. It will keep you going and may help you understand a lot of the content.
Aside from looking for videos that cater to your hobbies, YouTube does have some videos that are specifically designed for Spanish learners.
“Dreaming Spanish” – This channel is sorted by difficulty level and is designed specifically to help people learn Spanish. The presenter has a very clear and slow speech style that is helpful to learners. This is a great free program for beginners.
“Peppa Pig” – If you love or hate her in English, you will love or hate her in Spanish, but you can’t deny that the plot lines are pretty simple and the videos are short. That is ideal for following along in another language.
If you don’t like Peppa Pig, think of other programs that young children watch (Paw Patrol and others) that are also available in Spanish. Episodes are short, have simple language and have the same repetitive plots).
“Destinos” – This is a program that has been specifically designed to teach you Spanish. I cannot say that I have watched all of the episodes, but the first few looked pretty good to me. There are 52 episodes total. That alone will probably give you all of the vocab you need to shoot up to upper intermediate or advanced.
What a World We Live In!!!
Even just ten years ago, no language learner on the planet had access to such plentiful and (mostly) free resources. Take advantage of that!
Spanish content is everywhere, especially on the internet. And with today’s technology, it’s easy to watch programs with captions and even slow down the speed.
If you enjoy watching television or you find story lines more interesting than workbook pages, then do yourself a favor and choose one of these programs to watch. You’ll learn a lot, tune your ear to hear Spanish better, and even improve your accent.
Enjoy!