It only perceives a tiny fraction of what the characters say and, all in all, the time spent watching the series ends up being wasted because we’ll have remembered at most one or two words from a memorable scene. For our brain, it is incredibly difficult to focus on two languages at the same time, which is why it chooses the easier way and only takes in the subtitles. In this case, the easier thing is reading subtitles in a language we already know well. In fact, this has very little effect on our progress in learning a foreign language.ĭo you know why? It’s because our brain automatically focuses on what it considers to be easier.
It is the biggest mistake most of us make – we watch a series or a movie just once, reading subtitles in our own language and thinking how much German or Spanish we’re learning. When it comes to subtitles, the golden rule is: subtitles in your mother tongue will do you no good if you’re at the B1 level or higher.
The real question then is: Is this really the most efficient way of watching movies and series in a foreign language if our aim is to improve our skills in this language?
Watch movies with english subtitles movie#
In my native Slovakia (although I’m sure this applies to many other countries, too), nowadays, if you go to the cinema to see a foreign movie in its original language, it will automatically come with subtitles in Slovak. After all, when you speak to people from countries in which dubbing is far less common than subtitles (for example, the Nordic countries or the Balkans), you’ll notice they’re usually better at languages than those who grew up watching movies or series dubbed into their mother tongue. I guess it’s no surprise when we say that watching movies and TV series in a foreign language helps us improve in this language.