Column

Never Lived There

Nate acquires English from Netflix and YouTube without ever living in an English-speaking country, then starts Taiwanese Mandarin with the same cheap instruments.

An editorial illustration of a television paused on a blurred street scene, with a script page and headphones on a low table.

Nate's About box lists his languages. Japanese is the native language. English is a second language, and one line says he has never lived in an English-speaking country. He is currently learning Taiwanese Mandarin, lived in Hong Kong for about ten months, has some college Korean and does not speak it, and likes learning languages by himself with Netflix and YouTube.

A ten-minute video from 2024 is his account of how. Its title is "how to learn any language from TV shows, ten-plus years of experience in ten minutes," and the description says a native Japanese speaker shares how to learn from shows on Netflix, YouTube, and similar platforms. "What I do is pretty simple," he writes. The chapters cover why shows, including advantages and costs; how to choose content; how he learns from television; how he reviews; how he shadows the script; what he does when he really does not understand; and a summary. The public video names the chapters, not the steps inside them. The one method he names is: shadow the script.

The title claims ten-plus years. It does not give a year-by-year record. He does not name the first series, or the year he began to call English "acquired." About and the listing both use "acquired," not only "studied." He names the tools and the span: Netflix, YouTube, ten-plus years, and no years living in an English-speaking country. About also lists about ten months in Hong Kong, with no language claimed for that stay.

One chapter is titled "when you really don't understand," which shows that not understanding is part of the method he describes. He is now learning Taiwanese Mandarin with the same tools, and he names shadowing the script. At the end of the video he asks viewers for a coffee if the videos help.

Story details

  • Series: *multi-lingual and their ways of learning*
  • Article date: 2026-08-16
  • Keywords: language learning; multilingual learning; polyglot; learning from TV shows; shadowing; self-taught English

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