As the premiere of season 2 of Squid Game inches ever closer (December 26, 2024), I'm reminded that in this day and age the best way to learn a language, Bobby's time-tested strategy, is to watch movies/videos/TV shows in that language with subtitles. Obviously you have to know the basics of the language first to pick up basic words and the structure of the sentences, but starting from an intermediate level the most sustained way to learn is to watch videos, because it keeps you having fun. Human beings learn more when they want to learn something, and they want to learn something if they're having fun doing it. That's why I advocate for any Korean learners to watch Squid Game with the original Korean audio capturing the raw emotions of Gi-Hyun's quest for revenge against the faceless cabal that created the Squid Game and the desperate pleas to unite the contestants, and I also advocate for an animated series on Youtube I've been watching called "Hello Jadoo." Jadoo is "plum" in Korean, but it's a pretty cute-sounding name in any language. Jadu is living the life of a 1990s-2000s young girl going to school with a salaryman dad and "determined" mom (kind of archetype of the scary strong-willed mom) and 2 younger siblings (a rare thing in Korea nowadays- one couple having 3 kids). In a time when there's an overabundance of options to focus your eyeballs on, at least with Korean shows you know you're learning and using your brain to try to make connections between English and Korean, even if you're not actively doing so. (Instead of letting the Golden Bachelorette or the 88th season of Love is Blind wash over you). I think I also like Jadoo because it depicts the kind of family I would want, an ambitious and fun-loving but also considerate daughter who seems to be enjoying her life, despite having to vanquish various conflicts like sibling rivalry, bad grades, classmates who pick on her, and money issues all before the episode is over. Luckily, each episode is only about 10 minutes, so she's able to solve everything in about half the time American sitcoms do (about 20 minutes running time).
What you watch on TV does have an effect on you (just ask the people who watch political shows like Fox or MSNBC), but especially as a kid. I grew up as a kid watching family-friendly shows like The Cosby Show, Home Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, etc., come to think of it all shows that have a large nuclear family, something I didn't really have so maybe I was subconsciously yearning for one, or I wanted to be part of that family that looked like they all had each other's backs). I recently have talked to a lot of Americans older than me (either in their 60s or 50s) and they grew up with a completely different set of shows from a completely different time that shaped their worldview and prefernces, with shows like MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) that was set in the Korean war but was more of a reflection of the anti-Vietnam War sentiment back then, or Westerns like the Bonanza, Beverly Hillbillies, and even prime-time soap operas like "Dynasty" was a thing. I really like the title of some shows like "Have Gun, Will Travel" that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the show. In many ways, looking back as a kid, I probably learned a lot of my vocabulary and expressions from watching American shows, I just didn't know it, my brain just absorbed it as I was watching. Which is why it's important to regulate what you watch, don't just let it vegetate, give it some good foods like language learning and......trivial shows, to learn something. My grandmother on my dad's side once came to America and spent several months with us, and she watched A LOT of American TV, and I'll always remember she told me it was to "get more learning." She was a Professor in China and lived through the Cultural Revolution, had 4 kids.... smart woman, shoulda tried to learn more about her. Instead I was a little too rebellious at that age, like Jadoo.
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