Can Watching Movies In A New Language Help With Learning?

People often think movies are just a form of entertainment, but you can actually use them to learn a language and in fact they are actually one of the best ways you can learn.

I will go through how you can do this and why it works so well.

Watching Movies Is A Form Of Immersion

Movies are actually a form of listening immersion, which is why they are so good at helping you learn a language.

If you don’t know what the immersion method is, it is basically where you just expose yourself to a large quantity of the language and basically over time your brain is able to start understanding what is going on.

To get this exposure of the language all you have to do is engage in things that involve the language …so you can watch movies.

You will need to spend a lot of time doing this, you can’t just watch one movie and be fluent, you will need to spend multiple hours every day, for months immersing in the language, but the process does work.  

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Language Learning Through Immersion?)

Movies Are A Form Of Culture

Another reason why movies can help you learn a language is because they are a form of culture. This really only applies if you are watching a movie that is form the country that speaks the language you are learning.

These types of movies will give you both the language and culture at the same time. Understanding the culture is actually pretty important when it comes to understanding the language as usually the two are very closely intertwined.

If you want to understand one, you need the other and movies are a perfect way to experience this while studying at home.

(You can read more about – How Important Is Cultural Immersion When Learning A Language?)

Look Up Words That You Don’t Know

To make the movie a useful learning experience you should look up the words you do not know. This is going to teach you new words, but it is also going to help you understand the movie better.

Immersion works best when you can understand what is being said, so looking up any unknown words and making it comprehensible is very important. 

Take Notes As You Go Along

If you are looking up a lot of words it can take a while to get through the whole movie as you will feel like you are constantly stopping and starting.

It can sometimes be easier to take notes as you go and then look up all the words you were unsure about at the end

This of course depends on your level in the language as this can be hard to do at the beginning as often the words can seem very fast and it may also be a word you need to actually understand what is going on, if this is the case then stopping and checking the words as you go along makes more sense.

You Can Break Movies Down And Watch Them In Smaller Parts

You can also watch movies in smaller chunks to make them more study friendly.

Instead of just sitting there for 2 hours you can break a movie down and watch it one scene at a time. You can really go through each scene, looking up all the words and learning them before moving on.

You can really take the time to master everything as one scene may only be 5 minutes long, but you may spend an hour going over it a number of times and really squeezing as much as you can out of it.

Usually I like to watch the movie all the way through, then I go back through it one scene at a time, to make sure I understood every little detail.

It can be hard work doing this, but you will get a lot from it.

Do Not Use Your Native Subtitles

If you want to watch movies to learn a language then it is extremely important that you do not use your native subtitles.

I know you want to make it comprehensible and understand what is going on, but subtitles make this too easy and it actually becomes a hindrance to your language progress.

Your brain is going to take the easy option and just read the subtitles and it is going to totally ignore the audio, which was the whole point of watching the movie.

Do not give your brain the easy option, do not use subtitles and force yourself to actually listen to the new language.

You Can Use The Subtitles Of The Language You Are Learning

It is okay to use the subtitles for the language you are learning. Basically if the subtitles and the audio are both in the same language, then it’s not as bad. If you are watching a Spanish movie, you want the subtitles in Spanish too.

This still isn’t ideal as your brain will again use the easy option and it will read the subtitles, at least in this situation the audio and text match, so you are still being exposed to the language, but if you do this a lot you will find your reading skills get better than your listening.

When you hear someone speak without subtitles (like in real life) you will realise how heavily you relied on the subtitles.

These can be fine to use in the beginning, but really you should just watch the movie without any subtitles and force your ears to do all the work.  

What Kind Of Movies Should You Watch To Help Learn A Language?

When it comes to what kind of movies to watch, there is really only two things to think about.

Firstly, it needs to be in the language you are learning, but I think that is fairly obvious, then secondly, it needs to be something you would be interested in.

So long as you can meet those two criteria, then any movie is going to be fine and is going to help you learn the language.  

Watch Movies At Home

When it comes to where you should be watching the movies, I think at home is the best option.

This just means you can rewind/pause bits and even re-watch the whole thing as well as take notes throughout.

You can’t really do all this if you are sat in the cinema. You also have to pay to go to the cinema, so it might get a little expensive if you are trying to do a lot of immersion there …although I am not sure how many local cinemas are playing movies in a different language. I guess if you are living in the country that speaks the language you are learning then it makes more sense, but either way, watching at home is going to be better. 

Watch Movies With Dialog

This may sound kind of stupid, but make sure the movie you are watching has enough dialog in it to make it worth your while. 

When I was learning Japanese, one of the first animes I watched was an hour long and there was maybe 4 lines of speech throughout the whole thing. I don’t think anyone spoke for the first 20 minutes and when they did …it was one word.

This was a great movie, but it wasn’t great for language immersion. I thought I was going to get an hour of language into my ears, and I really did not.

Luckily most movies will have plenty of dialog, but just be aware some movies may be more action than speaking. However, I would say these are still worth watching, they are of course still fun, they are just not exactly going to help you get any better with your language.  

Watch Kids Movies

I know we are all adults, but kids movies are exactly what we need. They are usually pretty easy to understand, both in terms of language and story line and this can make them a great place to start.

Even if you are struggling with the language you should be at least able to work out what is going on in the story, so you should get some sort of comprehension though this.

They are also usually light hearted so can just have some fun while you learn and find your feet before moving on to more adult themed movies …not that kind of adult theme!

Watch Movies From The Country That Speaks The Language 

A very good way to get more exposure to the culture of the language you are learning is to watch movies from a country that speaks it. For example, if you are learning French, then watch French movies. 

These movies are made with the native speaker in mind and there are no weird alterations or translations, it is exactly how it should be, which makes it great for immersion.

This is one of my favourite types of movie to watch and I think you can learn the most from these. 

Watch Dubbed Movies

Another great alternative is to watch dubbed movies. These can be a little awkward as usually the mouth movement doesn’t quite match up to what is being said, but for helping you learn, its fine.

Usually these are going to be movies that may be from your own country and they may contain actors you already know … but they are dubbed over in a different language.

You might actually have access to a lot of these movies without even realising. If you go to your DVD collection and look on the back, it should tell you watch language options are available.

This will not be helpful for everyone, but if you are learning French or Spanish, these are often available on a lot of English speaking DVDs, so it’s worth just seeing what is available.

You can also do the same on Netflix, where you can change the audio to a different language, so hopefully you can start watching some movies that are now dubbed, it’s kind of weird, but it’s good for your studies, so just do it.     

Re-watch Movies You Have Already Seen

You can also re-watch movies you have already seen. This is of course going to be exactly what your DVD collection will be.

You will have seen all these movies in English, so you will kind of know the story, and maybe you even know all the key lines …now you can watch this again, but in your new language and you will already have some idea what is going on, since you’ve already seen it before.

(You can read more about – How Can You Use Movies or TV Shows In Your Second Language To Enhance Your Listening Skills?)

Enjoy Yourself

Really the best advice I can give you around watching movies to learn a language, is to just enjoy yourself.

This shouldn’t be hard as movies are generally enjoyable, so just sit back and have some fun. Try and follow along and understand as best as you can and you will see results.

As I’ve already said, it will take a lot of movies, but you can learn a language from them. There are also plenty of other ways you can get exposure to the language, so if you run out of movies there are plenty of other things you can watch and listen to that will help you learn the language.   

(You can read more about – What Is The Optimum Amount Of Language Immersion?)