How to Watch Films to Learn German?

22/01/2024

If you want to succeed, learning a new language may always be challenging and require a lot of discipline, motivation, and the correct learning environment. Given its numerous grammatical quirks, learning German might appear quite complex, making you wonder why you ever took the course in the first place.

Of course, the fact that multilingualism is essential in today's world is one of your main driving forces. 

It's a blessing that language learners may now discover several ways to improve their learning process, such as watching movies, listening to music, or exchanging languages online. Pop culture learning introduces you to regional dialects, idioms, and slang in German, which can make you seem more fluent. By practising German in private German lessons (https://livexp.com/skills/german), you will hone your use of idioms in free speech and pronunciation.

Tips for learning German

Begin with subtitles in English

This can discourage you from learning the language (how much will you know if you're busy reading the lines in your mother tongue, after all), but it's really the best option if you're a novice with little to no German language experience. Your brain will establish links between words you hear and their translation if you view the movie first with English subtitles; this will help you further cement your fundamental vocabulary.

Recommended viewing: Lola rennt (Run Lola Run)

Why: The fact that this movie uses a lot of terminology repeatedly makes it a perfect choice to watch initially. An extra benefit is that this film emphasises numbers a lot, so you should leave with a solid understanding of this aspect of German.

Change the subtitles to German

One of the most significant obstacles encountered by German language learners is the inclination of native speakers to continuously link words together. You might need help distinguishing between words and meanings, which can make it quite challenging. That's why the next thing you should do in your movie-learning process is turn on some good old German subtitles. Not only will your reading comprehension increase, but if you can read the dialogue on your screen, it will be simpler to understand what the characters are saying.

Recommended viewing: Good Bye Lenin!

Why: This fantastic film is excellent for language learners because it has a lot of comedic relief and because a lot of the dialogue is internal to the protagonist, reducing back-and-forth dialogue and making it more straightforward for German language learners to follow along with the subtitles. Additionally, it offers viewers a brief look into German history and culture following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Adopt a German accent

Whoa, here is the moment you've been both anticipating and dreading. Even though it might not happen right away (official surveys indicate that learning German fluently requires 750 hours of study), it will eventually occur if you persevere. Recall that learning a language is an ongoing process even after you reach fluency. It's straightforward to lose your language abilities, so watching an excellent German movie—without subtitles, of course—is a terrific way to keep them up to date!

Recommended watching: Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa)

Why: This movie is a must-see if you're searching for something that's heavy on historical detail (it takes place during World War II) and heavy on the struggles faced by immigrants overseas. Despite having English and Swahili spoken throughout, the primary characters in this film speak German most of the time. This is an excellent movie to help you get used to watching German films without subtitles because of the language's simple and succinct style!