Bilingual Friday: Use TV to Learn a Second Language

TV is a wonderful tool for learning Spanish. If you have cable or satellite TV there are several channels you can watch. Many of them have dubbed Spanish over the English of old time favorites. If you don’t want to watch Spanish channels, there’s always “Sesame Street.” They teach Spanish in a fun and simple way to children.

I learned a lot of my Spanish by watching TV. Growing up in Puerto Rico back before there was cable all our TV viewing was in Spanish. We watched cartoons like “Popeye” and “Felix the Cat” in Spanish. (I know I’m dating myself here.) At night shows like “Bewitched” were on, but they were in Spanish too.

Last year while living in Puerto Rico I was given the opportunity to talk about my bilingual books on a children’s TV program. The interview was done entirely in Spanish, well, except for one part where I couldn’t think of how to say something in Spanish. Let’s watch. (This was filmed by friends of mine who went along for moral support. Neither of them speak Spanish.)



I want to challenge you this week. Check your local listings and find a Spanish TV station. Watch a show or cartoon with your children. See if it helps you learn a few words. That’s all it takes, a few words at a time and you could be speaking Spanish in no time.

Let me know how it goes, I really enjoy hearing how people are progressing in their quest to learn Spanish.