August 16, 2025 | Ademola Adeyemi

You have a folder. 

Maybe it’s on your computer, maybe it’s a Netflix “My List,” maybe it’s just a mental collection of all the Korean dramas, Japanese anime, or Spanish shows you’ve been “saving for when you’re ready.”

Every time you discover something you actually want to watch—

something that gets you excited, 

something your friends are talking about—

you add it to this folder.

And then you go work through graded readers instead. Content labeled for your level that you “should” master first.

I used to do this exact same thing. The logic felt bulletproof: 

Start easy, build systematically, don’t waste good content on bad comprehension.

So you diligently study beginner dialogues about ordering coffee. You can follow every word perfectly! Progress!

But six months later, you still can’t understand that one K-drama episode. “I must need more foundation,” you think. “Let me finish this intermediate textbook first.”

Another six months pass. You’ve mastered weather conversations and can read stories about cats. But somehow you still need English subtitles for the shows that made you want to learn Korean.

Wait a minute. 

You’ve been “building foundations” for a year, but the thing you actually want to do—understand Korean media—you still can’t do. And the content that would teach you to understand Korean media? You’ve been avoiding it because you can’t understand Korean media.

This bulletproof logic sounds a bit in… circular, doesn’t it?

So Why Do We Keep Doing This?

We’ve been conditioned to treat language learning like every other academic subject. Math builds sequentially—you can’t do calculus without algebra. History has chronological order. Science has prerequisite knowledge.

So we apply the same framework to languages: 

Start with Level 1, master it completely, move to Level 2. 

Logical, systematic, responsible.

But languages aren’t math problems. They’re living, they breathe, they’re evolving. With every meme, in every culture, across every community, language that had no meaning yesterday can become the everyday lingo of a generation. Type shit.

When you learned English, you didn’t wait until you could conjugate every verb before watching your first movie. You figured out Harry Potter or Disney films or whatever caught your attention, using your eyes, your ears and genuine investment to fill in the gaps.

And here’s the thing we forget: You didn’t have perfect explanations for everything either. Sure, you could ask questions, but how often did adults actually give you real answers?

“He’s too young, he’ll learn when he gets older.” 

“Because I said so.” 

“You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Kids figure out language through the same messy comprehension process adults avoid—watching, listening, guessing, being wrong, trying again. The difference is they don’t have a voice saying “you should understand this perfectly before you’re allowed to enjoy it.”

Now you’re an adult. You don’t have parents explaining every cultural reference in your target language. You’ve got to do that same comprehension work you did as a kid.

Your brain learned English through content that made you forget you were learning at all. That same process—getting so absorbed that comprehension happens automatically—that’s what you’re avoiding every time you choose “appropriate level” content over content you actually care about.

But wait. Stop right there.

You’ve been sitting on a goldmine this entire time.

That folder of shows you’ve been saving? That’s your personalized language learning curriculum, hand-crafted by your own interests. Every K-drama that made you think “damn, I wish I could understand this,” every anime that had you reading episode summaries at 2 AM—that’s not content you’re “not ready for.”

That’s content that’s been waiting to teach you faster than any textbook ever could.

You already have everything you need. The motivation, the materials, the genuine desire to understand. You’ve been treating these like distant goals when they’re actually the most direct path to fluency you’ll ever find.

This isn’t about fixing what you’ve been doing wrong. This is about unleashing what you’ve been doing right without even knowing it.

Turn Your Binge Sessions Into Fluent Gold

This folder is not your reward. It never (really) was. It’s “your” curriculum. And you made it. So let me teach you how to use it.

Step 1: Just Start Watching

“We acquire language in only one way: when we understand messages. And we understand messages when we are focused on what is being said rather than how it is being said.”

— Stephen Krashen

Alright, let’s do this. Tonight, I want you to pick one show from that folder you’ve been building—something that actually excites you—and just start it.

Put on your target language subtitles if you need them, get comfortable, and hit play. No dictionaries, no note-taking, no pausing every five seconds to analyze sentence structure.

Just watch it like you’d watch anything else you actually care about.

When I first started immersing in K-dramas, I understood maybe 3 in every 10 words of dialogue. But I was so invested in the love triangle that I found myself predicting plot points and feeling the story. That’s exactly what your brain needs to do—get so absorbed in the story that comprehension happens without you forcing it.

Go for: Stuff with lots of visual context—dramas, reality shows, action series. Leave the news and interview shows for when you’re feeling more confident.

Step 2: Use Spoilers As Your Secret Weapon

Okay, so you watched something and probably felt like you missed half of what happened. That’s completely normal.

Now I want you to do something that goes against every instinct you have—rewatch the same episode or movie within a week or two.

This time, your brain isn’t scrambling to follow the plot. You already know the main character confesses their feelings in the rain scene. You remember that the twist happens in the third act. You know who the bad guy turns out to be.

With all that plot anxiety gone, your brain can finally focus on how the story is being told instead of what’s happening.

During my second viewing of that first K-drama, I started catching phrases that had sounded like complete gibberish before. I finally understood the wordplay joke that made everyone laugh. I picked up on cultural references I’d completely missed while just trying to keep up with who was dating whom.

The satisfaction of suddenly understanding something that had confused you completely? It’s addictive.

Here’s what to watch for: 

• Emotional expressions you remember but couldn’t understand the first time. 
• Jokes that went over your head. 
• The way characters talk to each other in different relationships—how they speak to friends vs. parents vs. romantic interests.

Don’t take notes during the rewatch either. Just let your brain make those connections naturally.

Step 3: Track Your Growth Markers

Here’s something that’s going to feel incredible: In a few months, you’re going to go back to that first episode you watched and be shocked at how much you can understand now.

But you won’t believe it’s happening unless you keep track of it somehow.

I want you to start a simple note in your phone—nothing fancy, just title it “Shows That Kicked My Ass.” 

Every time you finish watching something that felt challenging, jot down the title and maybe one line about what made it tough. Don’t write down every word you didn’t know (that’s study mode, not experience mode).

Just something like: 

“Episode 3 of Kingdom – felt completely lost during the political conversations” or “My Mister – couldn’t follow the workplace dialogue at all.”

Here’s why this matters: Three months from now, when you’re feeling like you’re not making progress fast enough, you’re going to scroll back through that list and find something that used to confuse you completely. Watch it again.

That moment when you realize you can follow conversations that once sounded like complete noise? That’s pure language learning gold. Better than any test score or certificate you’ll ever get.

Here’s what to track: 

• Just the title and one specific thing that challenged you.

Step 4: Build Your Learning Loop

Alright, here’s where we turn this from random entertainment into a language learning system that doesn’t feel like studying.

While you’re still on the couch thinking about what you watched, I want you to spend about five minutes asking yourself a few simple questions.

• What did I want to understand but couldn’t? 
  • Maybe there was a conversation between characters that felt important but went over your head. Or a reference everyone laughed at that you completely missed.
• Which character’s way of speaking caught your attention? 
  • Sometimes you’ll notice one person talks differently than others—maybe they use slang, or they’re more formal, or they have a specific way of expressing emotions.
• What moments made me wish I could understand more? 
  • That argument scene where you could feel the tension but missed the details. The joke that made everyone crack up. The emotional confession you could sense was important but couldn’t fully follow.

Then, over the next few days, if you’re doing any focused study time, you can look up a few of those specific things. Not because you have to, but because you’re genuinely curious about them now.

The loop: Watch → Notice what you’re curious about → Look up a few things when you feel like it → Watch more content → Notice how much more you’re catching.

This turns every binge into personalized learning that actually sticks.

You’ve been building the perfect learning library this whole time without even knowing it.

The only thing standing between you and those fluent conversations you’ve been dreaming about is your fear of enjoying the journey while you’re still learning.

The journey is the destination. The confusion is the classroom. Your desire to understand is the curriculum.

Stop saving the good stuff for later. Fire up that K-drama and

Press play.