Well...a smidgen of Spanish, but more recently beginning Italian. When I was learning my tourist Italian I did use movies to practice. I was really proud that I understood Mid-August Lunch, for instance. I also listened to Italian radio on the internet, which was a blast, but like radio DJs everywhere I guess the chatter was so fast that I caught just a fraction of it. I also read some of the newspapers online (I remember the massive breakthrough when I realized that the Corriera Della Serra, a title I have known at least since I had my first newspaper job with world wire stories coming in, would in the US bear the pedestrian name "Evening Courier").

Well...a smidgen of Spanish, but more recently beginning Italian. When I was learning my tourist Italian I did use movies to practice. I was really proud that I understood Mid-August Lunch, for instance. I also listened to Italian radio on the internet, which was a blast, but like radio DJs everywhere I guess the chatter was so fast that I caught just a fraction of it. I also read some of the newspapers online (I remember the massive breakthrough when I realized that the Corriera Della Serra, a title I have known at least since I had my first newspaper job with world wire stories coming in, would in the US bear the pedestrian name "Evening Courier").

My Spanish has been going down, down, down since I was in high school, but I watch Univision on occasion (one of the two major Spanish-language channels here in the US). It is, how you say, a different culture entirely.

Because my husband works for the cable company, we have every channel known to humankind. MTV Tr3s is probably the closest to what I would consider "normal" cultural stuff, with things like the quinceanera show (like "My Super Sweet 16") as opposed to an endless stream of telenovelas, Sábado Gigante and... well... La Comay.

Once I was flipping through the channels and realized that we have a Central American channel. They were showing the Miss El Salvador Pageant or some such, and the production quality was (understandably) not as glossy as the stuff on Univision. But it was still really interesting to watch, probably for that reason. There are so many different cultures in the Spanish-speaking world that it was kind of nice to see it focusing on just one :)

I speak German pretty well but have discovered over time that I really dislike most German movies. And my favorite German music is classical, which is mostly wordless.

My French is a lot more spotty, but I do like French music and movies. More because I understand a good deal of what I hear.

American English is my main language but I'm surprised what what I've absorbed from youthful exposure. I take it that this is not common, but I've occasionally unlocked pockets of other languages and I'll be damned if I know how to do it purposefully, it also seems to be something growing less accessible with age. I also use to have a great alacrity with accents which I think has just gotten rusty.

Anyway, with Korean, I can watch a subtitled show and usually get where they are deviating from the translation as well as brush up on some basics, whereas trying to get a more formal and concrete use of Spanish seems to be blocking out what I use to be able to glean, and I think this has also interfered with what I use to be able to get from watching lots of French films. Back to the point, I think subtitles really help me learn a language because seeing how the word is spelled and having a visual symbol for a sound really help me get a grasp of a word, and like how learning how to play a song can get you to know notes and chords, words and use in phrases and context really help things stick for me.

I got this old book from a library sale ages ago to help me learn French that turned out to be some kind of actual primer of some sort with a partial translation and glossary, but damned if I know where it is right now. The issue with Spanish stuff that is not meant to be educational is that people tend to speak very fast, at least in the things I end up thinking I want to watch. I really do need to get up to speed with my Spanish, which will be a great excuse to hole up with a bunch of Almodovar films. After that, I'm not sure with which language I'll try to make a concerted effort. Maybe which ever one I'm best at blurting out strings of when I'm tired or in some affected state. I use to know a remarkable range of swear words, but that's New York for you.