English
When I started reading books and watching movies in English, I realized that my English improved much more than when I watched YouTube videos or read articles, but I didn’t exactly understand why. I think one reason is that when you do these activities, you immerse yourself much more in the language. But is there another reason? What do you think?
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5
If I were to theorize, I’d say that movies and books are generally longer than videos and articles. They give you a larger body of context to draw from so that you have a more thorough understanding of the subject matter.
Additionally, your brain is being stretched more. Long works such as movies and books in your target language aren’t just about understanding. They’re about retaining previous information and ideas while simultaneously processing new ones, and also synthesizing the old with the new to derive meaning. That’s hard enough to do in your native language, but it’s even harder in your second language.
The other factor that might be helping is the type of English used in each form of media. The types of phrases people use in videos is different from the ones in movies, as well as books compared to articles.
Good for you for exploring multiple types of input!
@JGComm - I feel the same way :)
Furthermore, I believe that one of the reasons is that books and movies typically have a deeper emotional connection. Thank you for sharing this. I'll check out more English-language films and books.