Who doesn’t love watching movies to relax? We all do, but did you know that watching movies can help you pick up a second language? Streaming platforms such as Netflix have made it easier to access foreign language movies.

For example, if you want to watch something in Hebrew, there are numerous movies and T.V. shows such as Fauda, which can help you learn Hebrew. Studies have shown that visual aids are one of the best ways to learn a new language, and you must be wondering how movies can help us learn a new language. Well, here are some ways you can utilize your movie watching time more effectively and get proficient in a new language.

Choose the Right Movie

Now you may want to watch popular shows like Money Heist to brush up on your Spanish. However, if you’re looking to watch a foreign movie to learn a new language, don’t consider its popularity or ratings; focus on its language difficulty level.

You can get an idea of the difficulty level of a foreign language movie by checking its genre. Children’s movies will be easier to comprehend compared to deep movies, requiring a lot of concentration. Furthermore, you can also choose action movies since they rely more on visual sequences than audio dialogues.

After you’ve figured out the difficulty level, you’d want to figure out the type of vocabulary used in the movie. A children’s film or a romantic comedy will have simple daily use of conversational vernacular compared to a movie regarding the law which will likely have a more complex vocabulary.

You need to have the right motivation to learn a foreign language, so try and enjoy the experience. At the end of the day, it’s all about having fun while you learn a new language.

Suggested for you: Watch These Movies in Hebrew to Learn the Language Fast

Have Some Support While Watching

After you have decided on the movie or T.V. show to watch, getting a native speaker to help you understand complex vocabulary during the experience will be super helpful, but that is not possible in most circumstances. Do not watch a foreign movie without language support.

If you’re a Netflix lover, then turn on the subtitles of foreign films. Subtitles are a great way to get a grip on word recognition and grammar. You can always pause the movie to read the subtitles and captions on the screen. It will help you to identify and understand tenses, verbs, and phrasing. However, don’t rely on them too much as you might find yourself reading a film instead of watching it.

You need to balance both, and have an efficient strategy. For example, you may watch a scene first in the native language without the subtitles and understand what the character is saying. If you don’t understand what happened, you can rewatch the scene with subtitles to help you familiarize yourself with the dialogue.

If you’re watching a movie on a platform where subtitles are not available, use the Google translator app to help you understand unfamiliar phrases or words.

You might be tempted to understand the meaning of every word that comes out of the actor’s mouth. However, don’t try to look up all the words, as it will affect your listening even if it is a great vocabulary-building exercise.

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Be Prepared

All you need to prepare for an enjoyable movie experience is to make the popcorn, hit the couch, and press the play button, right? You want to be more prepared than that, and we don’t mean adding butter to your popcorn. 

Being unprepared for a foreign language movie will make the movie tedious and overwhelming rather than enjoyable, which is understandable because you’ll have no clue what the actors are talking about.

Therefore, it is better to do a bit of research before you immerse yourself in the movie. Stay away from spoilers but read the summary available on IMDB or other sources to give you a general idea of the movie’s plot. Read through the character list beforehand so you don’t end up wasting time figuring out the characters during the movie.

Divide and Conquer

Foreign movies can be a hard watch, especially if you have no idea what the characters are talking about. In such instances, it is better to divide and conquer. Break down the movie in chunks, and don’t watch it all in one go.

Take one scene and watch it multiple times so that you get an idea of what is happening. Use your translating app where subtitles aren’t available to understand the vernacular. After watching every scene, take a break and think about what you just saw and the new words you’ve just added to your vocabulary. If you don’t understand a particular moment in the scene, then rewatch it. It’s that simple. 

A few scenes here and there will also make this easy to schedule, will not make you feel overwhelmed, and will keep you motivated. Furthermore, if you like a line, then memorize it. After all, we all remember famous lines in a foreign language, such as the classic “Hasta la vista” from Terminator 2.

Set Reasonable Expectations

Look, you won’t become an expert in Japanese by watching a single anime movie. Expecting to master a language by watching a single movie is an unrealistic expectation, especially if you’ve had no exposure to the language before.

Even for people who have picked up a bit of their target language before, watching a single movie will not make them proficient in communicating. The traditional resources used to teach a foreign language are easier to understand than an everyday conversation between two natives.

Expecting to understand a language immediately can only de-motivate you and push you towards not learning a new language. Therefore, set realistic goals and know that it will take time to become fluent in a foreign language. Even if you’ve studied a language before, you might not be able to understand the language in the movie straight away.

Engage More with The Movie

The relationship we have with movies is just to stay quiet and enjoy the experience. However, when you are learning a language while watching a movie, you need to be less passive and a bit more engaged with the movie. Watching a movie quietly will improve your listening skills, but to become proficient in the language, you need to work on your writing and speaking skills.

To improve your speaking skills while watching a movie, try to repeat the dialogues being spoken. You can also pause the movie and guess what the next dialogue would be. If you like what you hear, then try repeating it aloud. It will only make your accent better and will also help you memorize words in the foreign language.

In addition to speaking, you should have a notebook and pen to make notes while watching the movie. Write down phrases you don’t understand and dialogues you like. Be a bit more creative and try summarizing a scene in the language you want to learn.

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Discuss With Others

It would be best if you spoke with natives to sharpen up your foreign language skills. If you can manage to gather a group of natives to watch a foreign language movie, it will greatly help your language learning. If this is not possible, discuss the movie with a fellow friend who has command over the foreign language.

If you don’t have friends or any acquaintances with whom you can discuss, go online and look for movie fans in forums. Engage with them in the local language.

Watching a movie is always fun, but learning a new language is a masterstroke if done the right way. Watching the right movie will make you familiar with the native speech, as the movies are intended for native speakers. Furthermore, it will also expose you to the language used in everyday conversation and not the one written in non-fiction books or newspapers.

However, not all of us can learn a language by merely watching movies. Some need the individual attention and help of a native speaker, especially for languages such as Hebrew.

So, if you’re interested in learning Hebrew as a foreign language, then Ulpan-Or can help you. We are an Israeli-based linguistic service that will help you to learn Hebrew online with Israeli teachers. Our Hebrew digital courses are designed to meet the unique requirements of every individual.

If you’re looking to pick up the language fast, you’ve come to the right place as our Rapid Language Acquisition method will help you quickly pick up Hebrew. Our courses are a combination of video dialogues, audio lessons, and vocabulary-building exercises, which makes learning Hebrew enjoyable.

We also offer programs for prospective immigrants to learn Hebrew for seamless immersion into the Israeli culture. Contact us today for more information.