I have just started watching series and youtube videos to improve my listening comprehension I decided to only start this when I had reached 10.000 words.
I remember trying to watch a kids series on netflix with spanish audio and subtitles when I think I had under 5000 words or equal too.
Just watched the first episode of the series again and I understood more or less 90% of what was going on which was an absolutely amazing feeling,
baring in mind that this type of content is for kids but then again at my currently number of known words I think this is very subtitle content for me to begin improving my comprehension.
and perhaps when i have 15.000 or 20.000 words I will watch more mature content.
Congratulations! Itās a wonderful feeling, isnāt it? Sometimes we focus so much on what we still canāt do that we forget how much weāve improved
Not at all. As I am genetically disinclined to learn a new language (I have Aspergers Syndrom) I have to work a lot harder than most people to learn. The high word count is a result of having to listen to a lot of content to get to where I am, I can follow news and cartoons, but I have a hard time following dialogue. French people have to have really poor English skills before they are willing to communicate with me in French.
About 24 months now. The first 6 months, though, were before I knew about LingQ and before I found much suitable beginner reading & listening material. I need this vocabulary tracking system! LingQ has been great. My time available for quality study had been severely limited in 2017 (mostly just listening to podcasts in the car most of the year, plus netflix series in the last 6 months). 2018 looks great and I am sure I will get to the 20k mark. I suppose I average about 30 minutes per day studying, 5-6 days a week, more than half outside of LingQ.
Nice man Iām sure you have a way better understanding of the Spanish grammar than me haha and yeah my goal is to get to 20.000 known words by the time I hit 1 year which is in about 5 months.
Why are you so worried about it being ākidsā content ? Cartoons or series for kids are no worse than some adult youtuber talking rubbish which so many people seem to be into given their astronomical view counts. See Jenna Marbles, Cyprien and PewDiePie for notable examples of aforementioned adults. Theyāre also not necessarily easier in terms of language content.
There is a guy on another forum who learned Italian as a kid from watching cartoons, appears to be well versed in several languages and gets there mainly by watching cartoons. They are FANTASTIC resources as long as you find them interesting.
Iād rather watch cartoons than listen to two middle aged men in suits lie about the economy to get votes.
There is nothing wrong with watching cartoons me personally am a massive anime fan but when I would like to watch something a bit more mature for example narcos I cannot do it because my word count is too low for now.
I am a volunteer at a museum. I greet visitors in English, and those not comfortable with English will politely gesture ānoā. Several times when I hear tourists speaking French, I will greet them in French, and specify the question needs to be simple. When they hear me struggling in French, they become more comfortable using whatever English they have with me, and we will both practice and help each other in the otherās language. I have struggled many years to get to the point of speaking broken French with a terrible accent, but I have to practice to get better.
I think 30,000 known words in 600,000 words of total reading is pretty impressive. Iāve got only 1,000 more with three times that level of reading and 5 times the amount of LingQs.
āNarcosā isnāt that hard! Donāt fear it, jump in!
The show being half in English anyway, the narration will guide your understanding. I started watching it when I only had 1000 words. Iām watching season 1 for the 3rd time now. The first episode is one of the 10 best pilot episodes Iāve ever seen. The Medellin accent and the narcotrafficker slang make it more challenging, though. Plus, youāll learn a ton of fantastic insults!
On Netflix:
āFabulosas Floresā is a Chilean comedy series that, so far, I find to be pretty easy to get the gist, if not the individual words. Iām trying not to binge it because it is only one season so I want to savor it. Also, i have a crush on the actress Angie Jibaja.
On the cartoon side, Iāve been watching āEl Chapulin Coloradoā which is easier too. Funny, ridiculous.
āLa Vendedora de la rosasā is a dramatic telenovela. It is much harder for me to understand, Iāve watching it by alternating Spanish subs and English subs when i get really lost. But I enjoy the characters and story, and i am gaining a lot of insights into Colombiaās culture.
I tried āingobernableā and it is incomprehensible for me at this point. I might try it again in a few months.