looking forward Mac version (or web version)
You can check out the streaming part of the site at fleex.tv/Home/Streaming. We have a large selection of videos, from TED talks to web series to web-produced movies.
Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
131–140 of 162 posts
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#132Why is it Windows-only, since it’s based on VLC which is available on Windows/Mac OS/Linux/…?
We need the web plugin of VLC for fleex with the windowless mode. The plugin shipped with the 2.0.6 version of VLC works great on PC but have strong performance issues on the mac (in windowless mode). The VideoLAN team is working on it and as soon as this problem is fixed, fleex player will also be available for iOS. As for linux, we're just ignorant... We're looking for someone to package the app for us.
I think Alex meant OSX, not iOS here. As for Linux, he's right that it's mostly a matter of packaging - which I think puts the prospect of a Linux release closer than that of an OSX release.
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work in language learning, and I whenever I meet someone that has successfully deaccented, they always tell the same story of how they did it. Listening to the same thing over and over. Watching a bunch of Friends won't work. You have to watch the same episode over and over. Find a piece of content and keep watching it until you have memorized what they say, and only then you will start hearing the sounds rather th…
I don't know if it's so hard for most people to de-accent, if they want to. All you have to do is to be able to make all the sounds that are in regular English - for me I was missing -th (ð) sound - and make an effort to pronounce everything correctly. I've always had a knack for imitating people, and it's never been hard for me to imitate any accent or dialect (of my own language or English) as long I've had enough…
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Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I learned English by watching Friends as well. However the thick german accent stayed. It's funny to see how many people in this post have learned english by watching Friends.
I work in language learning, and I whenever I meet someone that has successfully deaccented, they always tell the same story of how they did it. Listening to the same thing over and over. Watching a bunch of Friends won't work. You have to watch the same episode over and over. Find a piece of content and keep watching it until you have memorized what they say, and only then you will start hearing the sounds rather th…
But if someone copies that behaviour would they get the same benefits?
Some correlated traits: * mimicking. A critical skill, which is poorly encouraged as a general skill, and as adults we often have habits or beliefs that interfere with it. * perseverance and repetition * exploring/using different ways of learning and working out what are effective means of learning and ignoring invalid common techniques. * Avoiding book learning and rule based learning.
My belief is: look at how a baby or child manages to do it, try to do what they do, and avoid using any parts of the brain they don't use when learning. Not to say I am fluent in another language, just to say what I see in successful second language speakers, and how I try to begin learning (I mostly lack perseverance and repetition!)
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#135I learned Italian while watching Italian TV and movies with subtitles in Albanian. After a while, you pick things up without any conscious effort.
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#136What languages are supported? I'm on a mac, so I didn't install the player.
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#137I'm originally from Germany and moved to San Francisco three years ago, when I was 21. People are often surprised that I don't have a strong German accent and I jokingly say that it's because I watched all 10 seasons of Friends a few times in a row. It's a joke, but I'm convinced it has a lot to do with it. There's an interview with Max Levchin somewhere in which he says that he watched some TV show over and over and…
A woman serving in a bread shop in Cataluña thought I was retarded, ...but a native retard -- so that was pretty impressive considering I had only learned Spanish for 6 months.
"serving in a bread shop" = baker? Or at least "a woman serving in a bakery" :P
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#138I'm originally from Germany and moved to San Francisco three years ago, when I was 21. People are often surprised that I don't have a strong German accent and I jokingly say that it's because I watched all 10 seasons of Friends a few times in a row. It's a joke, but I'm convinced it has a lot to do with it. There's an interview with Max Levchin somewhere in which he says that he watched some TV show over and over and…
Oh if only watching tv was enough to get rid of the accent! As a dane, my accent at its worst sounds like someone making fun of a deaf person
Why would you want to lose your accent? Accents make people sound more interesting
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#139Learn English like a Dutchman and end up with a really confused British/American hybrid accent... ;-) Seriously, subtitles are the main reason most Dutch people speak English, traditional education has very little to do with.
Thus, what tv would you recommend to learn Dutch? ;)
Re: Show HN: Learn English with movies and TV Shows
#140I'm originally from Germany and moved to San Francisco three years ago, when I was 21. People are often surprised that I don't have a strong German accent and I jokingly say that it's because I watched all 10 seasons of Friends a few times in a row. It's a joke, but I'm convinced it has a lot to do with it. There's an interview with Max Levchin somewhere in which he says that he watched some TV show over and over and…
When I moved to the states at age 15, I came from a very prestigious English language school from my native country. As a result my written English was excellent, but nobody could understand my accent and I could not understand the American (or, more precisely, Californian) accent either.
It was "Married with Children" with closed captioning on that taught me how to actually speak American English. It took me a while to figure out what a "hooter" is and why Bud Bundy would want to pretend to be a FIDE ranked Grandmaster without earning that title, but it was all very educational.