When the Refold roadmap says "reading," it doesn't mean sitting down with a novel. Reading means engaging with any text in the target language — and at the beginning of your journey, the best reading you can do is watching TV with subtitles.
What Counts as Reading
- TV shows with target-language subtitles
- YouTube videos with subtitles
- Manga, comics, webtoons
- Social media posts and comments
- News articles and blog posts
- Text messages and chat
- Graded readers and novels
- Subtitled podcasts or audiobooks with transcripts
TV Is (Sometimes) Better Than Books
In the early phases, TV with subtitles is superior to books for most learners because:
- You get three input channels (visual context + text + audio)
- The visual context helps you understand without looking things up
- The audio trains your ear simultaneously
- Content is more engaging for most people than graded readers
- Episodes are short enough to maintain focus
Books become more valuable later (Phase 3 onward) when your vocabulary is large enough to read comfortably, and especially useful in Phases 5+ when extensive reading is the best way to expand vocabulary beyond everyday words.
Don't feel bad if you're not "reading books" yet. If you're watching TV with subtitles, you're reading — and it's probably the most effective form of reading for your current level.