***there is a quiz at the end of this article***
What are some useful tips to learn English from movies?
Learning comes good when one reads, better when one hears and the best when one sees.
This is a universal fact and to establish that let’s look at an example.
Remember the movie, ‘The Titanic’? the OG of all-time movies! Yes. There was a time when people would just go watch it even though they failed terribly in understanding what the conversations between Rose and Jack were. The beauty and the majestic appearance of the unsinkable ship kept, I am sure, all of us glued to the screen.
The non-English speakers often, miss out on the best of Hollywood’s creations due thinking they won’t be able to understand the story without being able to speak the language. I’d personally say, that is sad!
But don’t get disheartened. There’s something to boost your confidence up. The English movie makers chose to cast English-speaking actors a decade ago. Times have changed and so has the movie industry. People have acknowledged that everyone speaks differently and that is what adds beauty to the language and people.
Having said this, let us address the elephant in the room. How can one take lessons from English movies and improve their conversational skills?
As sophisticated as it sounds, let the language trick you into believing that you can’t achieve mastery at it.
1. Pick a movie of any genre that thrills you. This is very important since we know at the back of our head, we would be more interested and be able to connect to the movie to understand better only if we are into that specific kind of movies.
2. Search for the option of subtitles in English only! This is a must. You should keep it in English, how else would you think of picking up the language, eh?
3. For beginners, run the movie at a 0.75x speed. This step is only so, to let you read the subtitles and listen to how the actors pronounce the words very clearly. You could slower it a bit more, but that would ruin your cinematic experience.
4. Start watching the movie. Take breaks every big twist, where you can just analyse by yourself of what happened in the plot, repeat the words and also find the meaning of the new ones you might have just picked up.
5. It is very important to make note of the new words you see. Always have a dictionary handy, preferably English to English or, you could use English to your native language one, for your easy understanding.
6. Be sure to inculcate the words spoken in the movie in your day-to-day conversations. This would not only increase your vocabulary but would also boost your self confidence of how well you can talk.
7. The initial few attempts at watching an English movie might not be as great and may demotivate you, but remember learning is always a slow and steady process, but the end results are very good.
Short story, I used to think all the people who watch and are able to understand English movies are cool. I would really look up to them. I personally, did give English movies a try, intending to pick up the supposedly ‘cool’ accent and language. I must say, the above tips did help me be better.
Go ahead, give this a try you too. And maybe, you could connect with someone on the same opinion about Leonardo Di Caprio. *wink!
Here is a list of 10 best movies to learn English. Make sure to check out the list and consider choosing one of those movies next time you decide to watch movies.
Make sure to take the quiz at the end of this article about the use of should and would to improve your grammar and to test your understanding of this topic. Don’t forget to share your score in the comment section below.
Happy learning!
Should or Would
Put should or would in the spaces in the following sentences.
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