Can I learn a language by just watching movies? (2023)

Can you learn a language by only watching movies?

Passively watching a movie for fun won't help you learn a language. You have to actively study the movie you're watching, and focus on every word that's said.

Although excessive screen time is often frowned upon, language experts say that watching shows in a foreign language – if done with near obsession – can help someone learn that language.

Make friends with native speakers.

Native speakers are great teachers (and the best way to learn a language) because they know all the in's and out's of the language, they are experts in conversational speaking, and they can teach slang, jokes, and references that you may otherwise not be privy to.

With a busy work life, finding the time to commit to a new language can be a challenge in itself. But experts agree that it's more than possible to make meaningful progress in just one hour a day. Not only that, the skills gained from practicing a new language can feel like superpowers in the workplace and beyond.

It's pretty rare to forget your first language altogether. More often than not, people go through a stage referred to as “language attrition,” which means they have trouble remembering certain words or phrases and they might use awkward grammatical structures.

But even among the serial language learners at Babbel, you'll never find someone poring over French 101 textbooks, cramming themselves to fluency. That's because the central principle of the Babbel language learning approach is that people should spend about 15 minutes per day studying a new language.

Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti was reportedly able to learn a foreign language in fourteen days. His method was to ask a native speaker to recite the Lord's Prayer in their native language. This allowed him to synthesize the natural rhythms and tempo of his target language. A nice, low tech, hack!

Not a lot, unfortunately. As Jennifer Ackerman notes in her splendid 2007 book Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, learning a language while sleeping “is probably impossible, [and] attempts to teach slumbering adult subjects vocabulary of foreign languages or lists of items have failed miserably.”

What is the 7 hardest language to learn?

Many people believe that you lose the ability to learn new languages as you get older. Language experts, however, will tell you that you're never too old to learn a new language. As you get older, it can be more difficult to learn a new language, though. Children and adults learn new languages in different ways.

No matter how old you are, you're never too old to learn a new language. However, because your brain's ability to adapt and change decreases over time, you'll probably have to practice more.

They concluded that the ability to learn a new language, at least grammatically, is strongest until the age of 18 after which there is a precipitous decline. To become completely fluent, however, learning should start before the age of 10.

Give your brain no chance to escape your target language

Listening to music on your way to school or work, watching movies or Netflix shows on the weekends, reading a magazine during breakfast or posting on social media in your target language are all great ways to start getting real with your learning.

The next and most accurate answer is that it can take anywhere between three months to two years to learn how to speak, write, and read in a new language fluently.

True language fluency requires consistent effort and time, and while 500 – 1,000 hours may seem like a lot, a typical person could probably invest that level of time over 12 – 18 months, with the right study schedule.

Category I languages like Spanish, French and Danish are easiest for an English speaker to learn, and they will require about 600 to 750 hours of study to master. Category IV languages like Mandarin and Japanese are the most difficult, requiring 2,200 hours for relative fluency.

How many hours learn English?

Conclusion: How many hours does it take to learn English? Studies indicate you need about 360 hours of study to have a conversation confidently, and continue to 1765 hours in order to do a clerical job. However you must take this as a very rough guide, and try to optimise your learning as best you can.

But, why is it so hard to learn a foreign language, anyway? Put simply, it's hard because it challenges both your mind (your brain has to construct new cognitive frameworks) and time (it requires sustained, consistent practice).

The short answer is as much as possible.

Realistically, however, at least 20 minutes per day should be dedicated to learning a new language. The ideal amount of time to spend on daily study, if you can find the time, is an hour, but you don't need to cram it all in at once.

Answer: Thankfully, your brain can definitely handle learning two (or more!) languages at once! (Two down, 6,998 to go.) But there are also some ways you can make this linguistic task easier on yourself.

Learning another language is one of the most effective and practical ways to increase intelligence, keep your mind sharp, and buffer your brain against aging.

“Because the language centers in the brain are so flexible, learning a second language can develop new areas of your mind and strengthen your brain's natural ability to focus, entertain multiple possibilities, and process information,” Roitman writes in another post on the site.

An advanced speaker of a language is also categorized as fluent. Fluency means you've reached 10,000+ words and have reached the highest level of mastering a language without being a native speaker.

You can actually learn a language without speaking. It all depends on your goals. Speaking is only important if you want to connect with other people. So if you just want to watch TV in your target language, read a newspaper, or listen to podcasts, then focus on developing your reading and listening skills.

And The World's Weirdest Language Is…

Chalcatongo Mixtec! This language, spoken by 6,000 people in Oaxaca, Mexico, ranked first in the weirdest language shortlist.

What are the Top 5 easiest languages?

On average, native speakers use 150 syllables a minute. But Spanish people go along at an amazing 300 syllables a minute. Japanese is another fast language. Mandarin is probably the slowest.

Korean includes many words of Chinese origin, and borrows words from English and other languages as well. Still, it's a stretch to say that Korean has the most words of any language in the world because one of its dictionaries has over a million headwords.

In the latter half of the 19th century, Ludovik Lazarus Zamenhof had an idea.

Are you ever too old to learn a new language? Well, the good news is that experts say you are never too old. Studies show that anyone at any age can learn a new language. In fact, it is even easier to start speaking in a foreign language now with all the advanced technology available on the market.

Learn a Language in Your Fifties: It's Never Too Late to Get Started. There's some truth to what the naysayers are telling you. Neuroplasticity does decrease with age, and learning a language in your fifties might prove to be more challenging than learning it in elementary school.

We believe that consistency is likely the most important part of language learning. There is no point of rushing for a few weeks, only to give up before it truly becomes enjoyable. For most people, around 30 minutes of active study and 1 hour of language exposure a day is a schedule that will give you great results.

The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.

Can you learn a language by watching movies without subtitles?

Once again, the answer is yes! In fact, watching TV in your target language without subtitles is recommended if you're working specifically on hearing real life language and it is appropriate for more advanced learners. By doing so, you'll focus on cultivating your listening skills, fluency and pronunciation.

Additionally, actors can study on their own time by reading acting books and plays to increase their knowledge. Also, watching movies with an analytical eye is a great way to learn about film acting.

This is because watching in English with English subtitles will help you to learn the sound, familiarise the word and thereby making it easier to recognise in future. So, in the space of one movie, you learn new vocabulary, pronunciation, context and conversation.

If you're watching movies, TV shows, or any other material in your target foreign language, it's generally better to watch it with subtitles than without them. Foreign-language subtitles are generally a slightly more effective study aid than native-language subtitles.

You can actually learn a language without speaking. It all depends on your goals. Speaking is only important if you want to connect with other people. So if you just want to watch TV in your target language, read a newspaper, or listen to podcasts, then focus on developing your reading and listening skills.

The short answer is yes. Just like closed captions help ESL learners improve their English skills, subtitles are an effective way to reinforce foreign language learning. Among many benefits, subtitles offer a new approach to language comprehension.

Movies teach us all sorts of things: how to aspire, who to fantasize about (all those princes will come), how to smoke, dress, walk into a room (always like Bette Davis). They teach us who to love and how, as well as the ostensible necessity of sacrificing love along with careers.

So how do you get started? First, find some scenes or monologues that you can perform. Once you have your material, set up a camera and record yourself performing the scene or monologue. As you watch the playback, pay attention to your facial expressions and body language.

Age 8 – 11

This is one of the best ages for getting started in acting as kids this age tend to be that little bit better at reading their lines and more disciplined with practice. Kids in this age group will sometimes play roles younger than their actual age as the group is generally easier to work with.

You learn English words in context.

After watching 10 or 20 movies, you'll start to learn vocabulary related to the context, or subject, of crime. Usually, when we learn words traditionally (e.g. in school), we study things like vocabulary lists.

Is Netflix good for language learning?

Netflix is a tool that can help you master your target language. Focus on learning. It's best to choose shows you've either seen before (so you already know what happens) or children's shows (so they're not too difficult). This the best way to make sure you focus on the language.

Movies bring us a sense of relief, even if they stress us out first. Watching something suspenseful releases cortisol (the stress hormone) in the brain, followed by dopamine, which produces feelings of pleasure.

For most people, around 30 minutes of active study and 1 hour of language exposure a day is a schedule that will give you great results. It's a model that's sustainable over a long period to help you reach fluency.

The fastest way to learn a new language is a well-established language learning program and practice, practice, practice! The phrase “practice makes perfect” is particularly relevant when it comes to learning a new language.