What do I think about YouTube?Well, I think that YouTube could replace television and radio as the main source of visual and oral entertainment. I know this is a strong statement but I honestly believe I’m not so far from the truth.
I discovered YouTube as a good source for language analysis. As a matter of fact, anybody says and writes what he/she thinks in a very, how can I say, direct way. Sometimes, people are too frank and they can post very rude comments, using foul language. I totally disagree with them, since straightforwardness does not mean vulgarity.
As regards my YouTube experience, I can say that, while searching on YouTube for funny videos to post in my blog, I come across some comments which were absolutely out of the world! I have always been told that orthography and grammar are the supreme 'laws' which enable us to learn a new language. Actually, I see that some native speakers do not care about grammar and orthography at all!
I think the language of ICT- information and communication technology can make us aware of how new words and new habits enter a language. For example, last Wednesday, Sarah told us how frequently some American students misspell some expressions and write "your" rather than "you are" or even "their" rather than "they are", in our forum about the Padova-Albany Exchange.
In my opinion, it’s important to distinguish among the kind of videos you can find on YouTube.
I mean, you can find everything; so we must pay attention to what we came across. Some videos are really weird! I think that YouTube, as any other tool, is a good resource if you use it the right way. On the contrary, it becomes very dangerous if people use it just to post insulting and offensive videos.
Before hearing about YouTube, I used to listen to BBC broadcast. I must say that on the BBC site you can listen to some very good programs and have a look at the scripts; but the spoken words are not supported by visual images. In one sense, the visual elements allow ideas to work with the full range of the human imagination.
As a consequence, this powerful tool will enable us to change our way to perceive information, communication and even learning. People are so used to communicating through digital materials that living without such technologies would be upsetting!
In conclusion, YouTube has become very popular and I think this is partly due to its high accessibly. Anybody can put almost anything on this site and the fact that people can rate the videos contributes to award high or low popularity to these videos.
I think YouTube is not only ‘a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.’ (wikipedia) but also a way to communicate, exchange ideas and improve our language skills!
5 comments:
Hi Martina,
I loved your post! It's so well-written!!
Please have a look at this sentence: "I totally disagree with them, since straightforwardness does mean vulgarity."
Given the context,I can't understand the meaning of this sentence. Maybe you wanted to say the exact opposite!!Did you? e.i.I totally disagree with them, since straightforwardness does NOT mean vulgarity.
Well, I agree with you when you speak about the positive and the negative aspects of this tool. Actually this website can be a double-edged sword! It can be very useful for improving your English only if it is used properly.
As far as the comments are concerned, I share the same ideas with you. As you did, I noticed that many comments are really rude and some of them do not fit at all. Moreover,I was really impressed by the various spelling mistakes the native made!
I don't agree with you when you say that YouTube could replace TV or radio. There's a huge amount of videos but there are no limits.Therefore you may find both interesting videos about politics, news and funny videos. However, you may come across on porn or vulgar videos... Sometimes even their titles are misleading!!
What do you think about it?
Silvia
Hi Marina!
Well-done, your post is much more concise this week, so that it is even much more pleasant to be read!
I agree with your "brave statement" when you say that "Well, I think that YouTube could replace television and radio as the main source of visual and oral entertainment". I do believe it will happen, don't know when, but it will happen, YouTube is so powerful! Indeed, you can already watch videos taken from TV programs!
I also agree with you when you say that "I think the language of ICT can make us aware of how new words and new habits enter a language": that's absolutely true!
The net is the only way language lerners can come across with everyday, informal, and updated language! And YouTube, if used properly, can be useful as a "training" for listening skills!
Anyway, here I am for my weekly peer reviewing:
- "I mean, you can find everything; so we must pay attention to what we came across"
The tense of this whole sentence is present, so that there's no reason to use the past "came" instead of simply "come".
- "I was used to listen to THE BBC broadcast."
Pay attention to the use of the definite article!
- "...the visual elements allows..."
Pay also attention to the use of the verb in the third person: here the subject is plural but the verb is in the third person!
However, I'm sure they're all just silly mistakes, yuor English is so good!
That's all for the moment, see you soon!
Camilla
Hi Martina!
Thank you for your comment on my post! As far as your post is concerned, I think it is very well written; you managed to express the strong and weak points of YouTube. Well done!
I have nothing to add to our peers corrections on your post; I didn’t find any important mistakes!
I agree with you when you say: “I think that YouTube, as any other tool, is a good resource if you use it the right way. On the contrary, it becomes very dangerous if people use it just to post insulting and offensive videos.” As you read on my post, I think that YouTube is a fantastic tool that allows us to find a lot of videos dealing with several topics, but you should be aware that you can also find bad stuff. I was impressed by the vulgarity of and by the grammar mistakes that I found in some comments!
I think the importance and the use of YouTube will increase enormously, but, as Silvia pointed out, I don’t think it will replace radio and television. In YouTube there is no censorship and you can really find every sort of files; I don’t think it shouldn’t become one of the main means of communication!
That’s all for now!
See you soon
Veronica
Hi Martina!
“I think that YouTube could replace television and radio as the main source of visual and oral entertainment”. What a bold statement, Martina! Well, in part, it’s true: I think that in future we won’t have TV any more; instead we’ll use a computer with a big LCD screen. It will be connected to the Net all day long, and we’ll be able to watch all the programmes we want (YouTube included) whenever we want; instead of channels we’ll have the URLs of international broadcasters, let’s say Rai, Mediaset, BBC, CNN, FOX, ARD, MTV, and we’ll command our ‘computer TV’ with our voice, not with a remote control!!! What do you think about this futuristic idea?!
As for YouTube, I agree with you; it’s a further example, like forums and chats, of how we can learn new words and idioms that enter a language thanks to the Internet. I had never thought about this great advantage of YouTube, but it’s so true; by reading the comments people leave on the videos, you can learn current and cool expressions used in English these days! Eventually, we’ll learning everyday English!!! To practice my listening skills I prefer using podcasts, but you are right when you say that the visual impact of Youtube videos is important because it catches your attention and helps you understand the message.
By the way, you did a very good and well-thought-out work; in addition to what Camilla has already said, I’ve very few grammar observations:
- “Before hearing about YouTube, I (was used) USED to listen to BBC broadcast.”
- “People are so used to communicat(e)ING by using digital materials.”
Be careful not to confuse ‘used to’ with ‘be/get used to (doing) something’: the former means that if something used to happen, it happened regularly or all the time in the past, but does not happen now; the latter means to have experienced something so that it no longer seems surprising, difficult, strange etc. (Longman Dictionary).
- “People are so used to communicatING THROUGH (to avoid the repetition of ‘used’ - ‘using’) digital materials that LIVING (use the –ing form as subject) without such technologies would be upsetting.”
- Anybody can put (on this site) almost anything ON THIS SITE (S+V+O) and the fact that people can rate the videos contributeS (3rd person)…
Hope it helps!
Kisses!
Elena
Hi Martina!
I read through your post and your comment to my post. I saw that we have a different opinion about the usefulness of YouTube for language learning. Or rather, for that purpose I'd prefer podcasts, while you'd prefer YouTube! :-)
As for your statement "YouTube could replace television and radio as the main source of visual and oral entertainment", I definitely agree with you. I mean, in the Internet you can find everything, and when I worked at the reception of a hotel we didn't have a radio; we just listened to the radio in streaming. At the same time you can watch programmes, videos...And I think you are not far from the truth!
Your post is very well written. However, I think that a couple of things might be changed:
1- "This powerful tool will enable us to change our way to perceive information, communication and even learning". Here I would write this way: "to change our way OF perceivING information, communicatING and even learnING".
2- "I think this is partly due to his high accessibly". Here I would use "its" instead of "his", since we're talking about YouTube.
That's all!
Mary
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