To Watch Or Not To Watch?
This is the problem, right? One of the most popular ways to learn a language, many people say, it's watching film and video in that language. You can hear the real language, not the "book" one, slang, intonation and all the gorgeous stuff but it is always true? No, it's not. The problem with this "approach" is: choose the material that suits YOUR level.
Let's be honest, some people claim you can watch whatever you want at any level because your "universal grammar" will be automatically activated, so you start watching any Italian movie or tv series and the next day you just quit with your Italian studies. Well, student, it's not your fault, you have just listened to the wrong advice. Let's make it a little personal: I don't speak German so if I start to watch movies in german I just don't understand a single word, and also after a month of binge-watching, I still won't understand a single word. Why? Well, because the language style they use is too complicated for my level of german. I also know Spanish, barely A2, but if I watch a movie in Spanish I can maybe understand 30% of what they say. Why? Again, there is a big gap between the style the movie uses and my level of Spanish.
I am an Italian teacher though, and there is an actual problem with the Italian language: most of the Italian movies or Tv series have a language style that is a mix of Italian and the regional dialect from the place where the film has been shot (mostly Rome or Milan); this makes the understanding process more complicated. You will definitely listen to the Italian language but the "risk" of hearing words or sentences that you won't understand is very high. How can you avoid this, though? Well, there are two ways that I'm going to explain and highly recommend.
"Soap Opera" and "Telenovela"
Among the original Italian productions that are completely in "standard Italian", there are these two genres of tv series that, to give you the idea, are quite the same as "Beautiful".
These productions are often about love stories and betrayals.
Some of them are:
- Incantesimo
- Vivere
- Cento Vetrine
Now, I have nothing against Beautiful but it would definitely not be my first (or second or third or....) choice to watch in another language so, if you still love this kind of stories, go for it, you've found where to start with your Italian listening practice! If not, just keep reading
Dubbed!
There is something easier than a piece of cake? Yes, finding some Italian dubbed film and tv series in 2020! I don't even write names like Netflix, Disney Channel etc, but just be aware that the easiest way to find the standard Italian language in a film or tv series is to watch them dubbed in Italian. This is not the place to talk about the other big problem I've mentioned above, that is fighting the gap between your language level and the language style of the movie, but I can give you the first advice: if you want to start, use a movie you've already seen.
If you have and intermediate level of Italian, you can listen to this video podcast from "Italisten" that talks about this problem in a great way, analysing this "mixed language" problem.
13 Mayıs 2020
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