Whenever I’ve studied a language, the most common advice I’ve been given is to consume as much media as possible in that language so that I can learn to use it naturally and with more fluency than how it is taught in a classroom. There are only so many hours in a day for in-class teaching, and most classes don’t have enough time to dedicate to actual language use, rather you spend most of your time studying the structure and fundamentals of the language so you can better pick up the language when you do use it, which the teacher hopes will be done outside the classroom. Also language, like most skills, operates on “use it or lose it,” and the more you use it (by consuming foreign-language media) the less likely you are to lose those lessons you picked up in the classroom.

But I live in a predominantly English speaking society, and don’t have much exposure to foreign-language media, so for a long time I didn’t know where or how I could find foreign language media. I’ve eventually found some media that I enjoy, and I’d like to share it so anyone else learning languages can also practice and enjoy. Pretty much all the media I’ve found is Chinese-language mainly, so if anyone has their own media from other languages, feel free to share.

In terms of TV, there was a long-running Chinese TV drama called Three Kingdoms, a retelling of the famous Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. The whole TV show can still be watched on youtube for free, and is an excellent way to at least listen to some Chinese, even if the speaking style is old-fashioned.

For music, the band Transition is a really fun band made up of some English gentlemen living in Taiwan. They sing in Chinese but what’s also great is that as English speakers themselves, they have a bit of an “English accent” to their Chinese which is recognizable to me since that’s how all my friends spoke in Chinese class. I sometimes recognize a word sung by them where I wouldn’t recognize it otherwise because the accent is familiar.

For video games, Pokemon is actually a really good one, the 3DS games (and possible the newer ones too) usually have an option to pick your language settings before the game starts. The games are simple enough that you shouldn’t have a problem beating them even in a foreign language, and it gives you a lot of opportunities to read the language. I played Pokemon Ultra Sun in Chinese, which is also great as the story of that game is that your character is an immigrant from Kanto to Alola, and playing in a foreign language lets you roleplay some of the immigrant experience. The game also is noticeable for pretending your character has agency while never actually letting you talk, so I pretended I was someone who was unconfident in the language so didn’t speak as much.

For books, I actually haven’t found as many good ones. I’ve read a few Chinese/Taiwanese kids books as well as the first Harry Potter book in Chinese, but they don’t keep my interest as much as something like Pokemon. If anyone has any suggestions for good Chinese lit that’s accessible for a non-fluent foreign speaker, let me know.