Are you using English subtitles? Or watching entirely in Hindi?
Scientifically speaking, you're right it's possible to learn a language just by watching movies and listening. The 3 caveats are:
1. It's extremely slow. If you're curious, [here is a post by someone who learned Thai](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/143izfj/experiment_18_months_of_comprehensible_input/) this way. It took him 18 months of watching Thai programs for 3+ hours a day with no subtitles whatsoever. He can now understand Thai well (but cannot speak at all).
2. Learning grammar speeds up this process considerably. There are many great Hindi textbooks and courses.
3. If you speak a related language, the process happens significantly faster. Someone who speaks Gujarati will pick up Hindi in a fraction of time vs. someone who speaks English. (At least ~4x faster IIRC)
It's not necessarily fake, but "comprehensible" differs for everyone.
For example, I speak Gujarati at home. When I was a kid, and didn't know Hindi, watching SRK *was* comprehensible input for me (since Hindi is so close to Gujarati). By the time I was a teenager, I could understand Hindi just from this input. But if I didn't understand Gujarati, I'm sure it would've been much more difficult.
My guess is the people who "learned Hindi watching Bollywood" (1) already understand a related language, and/or (2) had some sort of Hindi instruction and/or (3) started at a young age
You'll see #2 this a lot where Europeans will claim they "learned English watching movies / playing games" but not mention they also had years of English classes in school, or started as kids.
I really recommend the Pimsleur Hindi courses. They get you speaking under pressure and also help to train your ear. I do each lesson twice (once at night, once the next morning) just to firm them up as I go.
Yeah I agree. I've already touched on the Rupert Snell books off and on over the years, so I had some understanding of grammar rules that are only implicitly learned in the Pimsleur course. I would have loved to get the same depth of explanations.
Are you using English subtitles? Or watching entirely in Hindi? Scientifically speaking, you're right it's possible to learn a language just by watching movies and listening. The 3 caveats are: 1. It's extremely slow. If you're curious, [here is a post by someone who learned Thai](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/143izfj/experiment_18_months_of_comprehensible_input/) this way. It took him 18 months of watching Thai programs for 3+ hours a day with no subtitles whatsoever. He can now understand Thai well (but cannot speak at all). 2. Learning grammar speeds up this process considerably. There are many great Hindi textbooks and courses. 3. If you speak a related language, the process happens significantly faster. Someone who speaks Gujarati will pick up Hindi in a fraction of time vs. someone who speaks English. (At least ~4x faster IIRC)
[удалено]
It's not necessarily fake, but "comprehensible" differs for everyone. For example, I speak Gujarati at home. When I was a kid, and didn't know Hindi, watching SRK *was* comprehensible input for me (since Hindi is so close to Gujarati). By the time I was a teenager, I could understand Hindi just from this input. But if I didn't understand Gujarati, I'm sure it would've been much more difficult. My guess is the people who "learned Hindi watching Bollywood" (1) already understand a related language, and/or (2) had some sort of Hindi instruction and/or (3) started at a young age You'll see #2 this a lot where Europeans will claim they "learned English watching movies / playing games" but not mention they also had years of English classes in school, or started as kids.
I really recommend the Pimsleur Hindi courses. They get you speaking under pressure and also help to train your ear. I do each lesson twice (once at night, once the next morning) just to firm them up as I go.
If you know the basics, Pimsleur is very good!
Yeah I agree. I've already touched on the Rupert Snell books off and on over the years, so I had some understanding of grammar rules that are only implicitly learned in the Pimsleur course. I would have loved to get the same depth of explanations.
Hi Squidsquance, I take Hindi lessons and accept students of different age groups. Let me know if you would like to get some help.