How to learn a language Matrix-style
You’ve seen the film right? Keanu Reeves downloads knowledge of Kung Fu and various other martial arts straight into his brain. Well, guess what? You can’t do that with languages. Not yet anyway. However, I discovered something rather marvellous the other day: The Matrix may be able to help you with your language learning after all…
A French cousin came to visit for a week with her son and one night we decided to watch The Matrix together. Since he doesn’t speak much English, I was going to put French subtitles on but I discovered to my surprise that my bluray version had various voice-over options in multiple languages. So instead we watched with French dubbing with English subtitles! I was even more suprised by just how impressive the dubbing was. I’ve watched French dubbed films before and some of the voices are, frankly, comical. Not so with The Matrix. Neo sounds like Keanu Reeves, Morpheus sounds just like Laurence Fishburne, and Trinity like Carrie-Anne Moss – all speaking French! Even Agent Smith has that wonderfully deliberate Carl-Sagan-esque delivery that Hugo Weaving first voiced.
The Matrix may or may not be your first film choice, but how many other films might be in your home DVD or Bluray collection secretly hiding a couple of hours worth of foreign language exposure? Definitely worth a look…
Gareth
You’ve seen the film right? Keanu Reeves downloads knowledge of Kung Fu and various other martial arts straight into his brain. Well, guess what? You can’t do that with languages. Not yet anyway. However, I discovered something rather marvellous the other day: The Matrix may be able to help you with your language learning after all…
A French cousin came to visit for a week with her son and one night we decided to watch The Matrix together. Since her son doesn’t speak much English, I was going to put French subtitles on but I discovered that my Bluray version had various voice-over options in multiple languages. So instead we watched with French dubbing and English subtitles! I was then further surprised by just how impressive the dubbing was. I’ve watched French dubbed films before and some of the voices have been, frankly, comical. Not so with The Matrix. Oh no. Neo sounds like Keanu Reeves, Morpheus sounds just like Laurence Fishburne, and Trinity like Carrie-Anne Moss – all speaking French! Even Agent Smith has that wonderfully deliberate Carl-Sagan-esque delivery that Hugo Weaving first voiced.
The Matrix may or may not be your first film choice, but how many other films might be in your home DVD or Bluray collection secretly hiding a couple of hours worth of foreign language exposure? Definitely worth a second look…
Gareth
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Tags: Bluray, DVD, Exposure, films, Practice
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So what u r telling us is that we should watch for example a German movie with English subtitles ? if we want to learn German.
Well, even better, get a normal foreign language DVD (e.g. Moliere for french) and watch it in french language and french subtitles.
Wow! What a great idea! Definitely worth giving a try! Thanks Gareth
@alex I guess it depends on what level your German is. I’ve watched the Matrix enough times to follow what’s happening in French without subtitles at all but French uses quite idiomatic expressions and it was helpful to me to see how exactly certain phrases were translated. The great thing about this method is you can choose any audio/subtitle language combination that suits you. So you could listen in German with English subtitles, or German/German or even English/German (and don’t forget the pause and rewind buttons…)
i`ve been studying spanish for a while , incl watching movies in spanish. i recommend not only watching familiar popular movies dubbed into your chosen language, but also some that were produced in the language of study. that way you`ll get a dose of the country`s culture.
I agree this is a fabulous idea and I have always tried to immerse myself in a language this way. The only problem for me living in France is that often French films (especially older ones) don’t have subtitles at all.
I do that with German. Get a DVD player that plays multiple region DVDs (or one that can be modified to do so — Google ‘region free dvd player hacks’) and get movies meant for the target audience and play them with the original language subtitles (if available). As vocabulary increases, buy books in the language targeted to adolescent audiences (Harry Potter translations are particularly good, especially if you read them in English first). And finally, satellite providers often have programming in many major languages. Reading, vocab drills and foreign TV have boosted my skills a hundred times over the past couple of years.
Also, listen to french music–buy a few Jacques Brel CD’s….they are amazing to learn words. You will be singing in french before you can speak. You can then go on American idol in France!
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When watching German movies with English subtitles I get a bit confused. Feels like my brain is trying to watch the movie by “thinking” the language and I try to force it to “translate” the language instead. Plus you lose out on the emotional aspect of the movie.
German is my 4th language I’m trying to learn. While learning English (moved to US about 15 yrs ago, had enough vocabulary to ask my way around) I quickly figured out which way works for me. I guess you still need to start with memorizing the vocabulary and grammar structure but once youre past that stage, try turning the subtitles off and submerge yourself into the world of the language you’re trying to learn.
Its just like learning to ride a bike… you can have your training wheels for as long as you want and enjoy riding around the hood. But I bet that if you take those off and go downhill once or twice you’ll learn how to controll that bike much quicker. So there… my 2 cents
gareth.davies is right about the quality of translation, especially the idiomatic expressions. I’ve watched some soviet-era russian movies with very specific humor which can be only understood by someone who grew up in that era, with the English subtitles. And I should say they did a great job translating that humor into English via subtitles.
Thanks GARETH,
I will start this week. Already have the selection of movies I want to see. And yes the Music also helps a lot.
I soooo agree and I do this all the time. So recomend it : )
[...] my article How to Learn a Language Matrix-style ? Start by raiding your DVD or Blu-ray collection. You’re looking for DVDs that have many [...]