Learning French through movies is possible. It is a fun learning tool and one of the best way to learn French because it is multi-sensorial (audible and visible). However, in order to have a benefit for you, you will need to work a lot and not just watch French movies as leisure. In this article, I will detail why it can be a fun learning tool box to learn French watching movies but also how to make the most of it to significantly improve your French.
Why learn French watching movies?
The apprehension from beginners of watching French movies
It can be frustrating for beginners to watch French movies because they feel like they will not understand much and be intimidated. But you have to start somewhere and that is why I will give you tips to make it as smooth as possible.
It is important to understand that learning a new language from scratch takes time and it won’t make you fluent from one day to another. You will need to practice and have a lot of patience because it can be time consuming but you will learn a lot from it.
At school, when I was learning English, I remember when the teacher put a movie on, I was really scared because I knew from the start I will be completely lost and don’t understand anything. Unfortunately, I did not have the insights I am going to give you to make it a good experience and take your intimidation away.
You might tell yourself that you can find tapes specially made for learners which will be easier to understand for beginners. These tapes are made deliberately slower by accentuating words but unfortunately this is not French speaking in real life.
A fun way to learn French
Learning French with movies helps in many ways and it will be detailed through this article. It is super fun and entertaining because you get the chance to have a break from your grammar book sessions and watch a movie.
I believe by starting to read this article you already see yourself in the sofa, with pop-corn, a soda, comfy and relaxed. Do not worry, I would think the same 😉 Unfortunately, by doing that you won’t learn and remember anything, so what is the point? Instead, you can get comfy (okay, that is fine), with a pen, a notebook and if possible a voice recorder. It is crucial for you to be an active watcher and listener and take all the benefits from watching French movies.
Although watching movies is motivating, entertaining and more comfortable than books, you should also continue reading books.
You can have a look at my article about “Learn French with books”.
An alternative to immersion in a French country
You are scared of taking the plane to go in a French speaking country? Or perhaps you do not have yet the necessary funds for it? Then, watch French movies from home!
Usually French movies relate the real day-to-day French life. French things are always about food, romance, fashion. You can take a look at my article “Why you should learn French” to know more about “gastronomie”, “mode” (you will find the translation of these words in that article). Movie dialogue is also spoken in realistic conversational scenarios where you can practice hearing different accents, tone and intonations.
By watching French movies you will discover the culture in action and being immersed in that rich culture. You can see famous squares like “Trocadero” or “Jardin du Luxembourg” or monuments such as “la Tour Eiffel” (“the Eiffel Tower”). You will also learn about French personalities such as Edith Piaf, a famous French singer, for who the life was retraced in the movie La Môme portrayed by Marion Cotillard.
Improving vocabulary in French while watching movies
When watching movies you can learn a lot of French vocabulary. We will see later in this article how to do it for beginners who may only have a basic understanding of the language.
In order to learn and remember a word, you will need to use it over and over again. Repetition is key for memorisation. You can also write them down in sentences so you will understand how to use words in different contexts. Writing down sentences is the most effective way to understand how to use a word. It is a long learning process but it will allow you to advance your learning progress and enrich your vocabulary in the long-term.
A way to learn the right pronunciation
By hearing French people talking in a movie, you will be able to reproduce that same pronunciation for a word. I know that pronunciation is a pain point for a beginner but it is a key element as in French for some words, if you do not pronounce correctly it can mean something different (not necessarily something nice I can tell you).
You will need to focus on the listening and repeat the word over and over again by saying the sentence out loud. If you did not get it the first time, just listening again three, four times if necessary can be very helpful.
How to learn French watching movies and make the most of it?
Why you did not understand?
There are several reasons why you may not understand a movie.
- You did not understand what a specific French actor said because of his pronunciation and mimic perhaps.
- You did not understand because he did not enunciate well even by listening carefully.
- The actors spoke too fast.
- You have a noisy background at home and you cannot hear well
I will detail in the section “Methodology to adopt” how you can overcome these difficulties when learning by movie watching.
Pick the appropriate French movie
Before you start watching a French movie, take the time to choose the right one.
It is important that the sound quality is excellent! Perhaps old French movies won’t be the best to choose from and not movies from the internet with a bad quality. Nowadays, we have a lot of options, for a low price you can have thousands of movies. Netflix offers a wide selection of modern films in many languages, including French!
Choose a movie with French accents you understand and actors that enunciate! In general, French accents are not that different but people in Quebec have a strong accent so it might not be the best option to choose a Canadian movie.
The best are comedies! Comedies are fun, easy to watch, the story is simple to understand with shorter dialogue. The main challenge will be jokes, don’t try to understand all of them, just get a grasp 🙂
It does not have to be a French movie
The movie you pick does not have to be a French movie. Just choose a movie you know or your favourite movie and watch it in French! Everyone needs to start somewhere. Just be aware of the dates because old movies will perhaps an older language or the quality of the sound won’t be as good. Also, you will need to choose the appropriate genre, for instance a psychological movie where we usually do not understand what happened won’t be helpful. Make it simple by choosing an animation or a genre that matches the kind of vocabulary you want to learn.
Use subtitles
Why not use subtitles when watching a movie in French?
When I arrived in the UK, my English was so bad, I always used the subtitles (I still use them by the way for Scottish accents or other difficult English accents). It really helped when I did not know a word and I even spotted errors! I was using English subtitles from the start because it just confuses me to hear one language and see in writing another language. But if you want to use English subtitles, you can!
Nowadays, you have a multiple choice of subtitles, so don’t get frustrated, choose the subtitles in the language you want (at least at the beginning), it is better than doing nothing. As I repeated many times in this article, we need to start somewhere! Then, you could re-watch the same movie and switch with French subtitles and a third time without subtitles. By doing that, you will recognise more and more words you hear in French from the movie.
Methodology to adopt to learn French watching movies
- Choose the movie you want to watch: as we discussed previously, either a French movie or your favourite american action movie 😉
- Break it into chunks: movies can be long, up to 2 hours, so perhaps you can make a plan and decide to watch one day 30 minutes, the day after another 30 minutes and so on… If you watch it all straight you will feel exhausted and it will be more and more difficult to stay focus and understand.
- Be ready with your pen, notebook, voice recorder and a dictionary! Headphones may also be helpful to reduce any background noise that could distract you.
- Choose the language of your subtitles, let’s start with English at the beginning.
- Start watching the movie only the first few sentences 2-3, rewind and listen again
- Then, from these 2-3 sentences, are there any words you do not understand? Sometimes, you can see the object related to the word said, try to find clues with the context to guess the meaning and then search in the dictionary.
- Technology is so fantastic that you can lower the speed of what you are watching, making words easier to hear.
- Repeat the words out loud to practice on your pronunciation.
- Write the words down on your notebook: put the English word on one side of the column and on the other side the translation in French.
- Continue like that with the next few sentences. Remember, repetition is key.
What have you learnt from it? Review your progress in French by watching movies
It is important once you finished watching a movie in French to identify your progression. You can watch it again at normal speed and without subtitles and do the following actions:
- Summarize the story in about 10 sentences in French so you can practice your writing too!
- Who are the main characters?
- Is there anything you did not understand? What is the reason for that?
That will motivate you by seeing an improvement so you can focus on your weaknesses.
Which movie to watch to learn French?
Les choristes
The story is set in 1949 in a school named Fond de l’Étang for troubled boys. A new teacher and supervisor arrives and will discover the hidden talent of Pierre Morhange who can sing wonderfully. From there, this teacher will create a choir with Pierre Morhange as solo. It is not always easy for the boys in this school with a very strict headmaster Rachin, who does not like humour but little by little he will start to get more comprehensive.
To watch the trailer, you can click here.
Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain
“Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain” (literal translation “The fabulous destiny of Amélie Poulain”) is a romantic comedy set in Montmartre about Amélie played by Audrey Tautou. You will discover Montmartre, a very well-known place in Paris. She is an innocent and shy waitress who wants to help people around her and make them happy. She is a bit the guardian angel with her own sense of justice. Then, one day she bumps into a handsome man and discovers love. Oh La La !
If you wish to take a look at the trailer, it is available here.
In summary…
You will make great progress by watching movies in French, it is undeniable! It is important to keep in mind that it is a long learning process and a lot of work but it brings outstanding results. If it is way too hard for you then you can start with podcasts but then switch to movie to leave your comfort zone. Watching movies is the best way to understand real French people because movies reproduce real life situations most of the time. You can improve your vocabulary, your listening, your pronunciation in only one fun activity!
Let me know in the comments if you commit to watch a French movie this month and tell me which one you chose. Feel free to share this article.
A bientôt!