Learning Spanish is a great skill to have in any profession and is one of the top five languages spoken in the world with over 400 million active speakers. But like with all languages, it can be tricky to master, especially for students who do not live in an area where there are native Spanish speakers.
How Watching Spanish Movies Helps You Learn Spanish
There are tricks to learn the language for better comprehension. One of these tricks is to watch Spanish movies. While it might seem odd to watch Spanish movies while you are learning the language, it is one of the best ways to connect with the way Spanish works in everyday life.
Language in Context
Every language is a living language — it is informed by the people who speak it every day. For non-native speakers, spending time just learning Spanish without understanding how the it’s used in ordinary life won’t teach you the context. Speaking Spanish in context differs from language lessons, and it can lead to confusion for students.
You will find that while your Spanish lessons are comprehensive, they will lack this small detail of teaching you how to use the language in informal interactions. By watching a few Spanish movies, you will better understand how to speak to people on the street without the awkwardness that comes from the formal Spanish language, which is rarely used in regular life.
Speed and Tone
Many native Spanish speakers speak quickly. Spanish speakers, on average, speak faster than English speakers and generally have passionate tones. For non-native speakers, it can seem like words are spoken too fast for them to understand and they can lose meaning because of the tone in which the words are spoken.
Watching a Spanish movie will help you get comfortable with the speed in which Spanish is spoken. You will become used to the speed and tone quickly and can help you keep up in conversation with native speakers.
Sentence structure
One thing to note about the Spanish language is that sentence structure differs from the English language. There is more fluidity in the Spanish sentence structure, which allows speakers to construct their sentences for emphasis, whereas English structure tends to be more rigid. For every right structured sentence spoken in English, there can be two or more structures in Spanish.
Spanish movies are a great way to understand the fluid sentence structure present in the language. You will find that similar sentences spoken by different characters will have different structures, all of which are correct. It will also help with your grammar lessons, taking away much of the confusion that arises when learning Spanish structure!
Learning Spanish doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does take some practice. As with every language, you will need to understand not only how sentence structure works in Spanish, but will teach you how to discern words when spoken at a normal pace and how Spanish culture informs the language. Watching Spanish movies is a great way to learn all these lessons and will help you to quickly understand the language.