TV?

One time when I was chatting with Yosuke and Yuki's mother, I mentioned that watching TV was an easy way to pick up English. Yuki is a fan of Spongebob, so I encouraged her to continue watching.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but recently I read an article that watching TV is actually detrimental to learning a language. Who would have thought? I regret encouraging it as a learning tool, but I'm also a bit dubious of the article (which I can't find again, or else I'd post it here). According to the author, we learn either through visual stimuli or audible stimuli, but not by both. So you can learn a foreign language by reading or by listening to music or tapes, but watching TV doesn't work.

I'm not sure I completely believe the article, and I plan to keep looking for other opinions. In any case, when studying a foreign language, watching TV shows or movies in that language beats watching them in your native language, right? I hope so.