I have added on to my New Year’s resolution.
Thanks to the fact that the German movie I chose starts off with a song I love that I ALWAYS think is French because I first heard it in the movie French Kiss but it’s actually Italian, I have added songs to my monthly language learning goal. (Any guesses as to what song I am going to choose for next month? 😉 ) The German song I am singing is Du hast by Rammstein. It’s a song I remembered hearing during my high school years. Only now I know more than the chorus.
What can I say! Ever since the Christmas carol experiment, I want to sing my way to learning these languages. 🎤🎵
A brief explanation of my personal song learning procedure is that I write the lyrics out in both German and English (or at least the best translation I can find). Then I sing the song along with the music, marking down any pronunciation tips as I go.
Now on to my German movie experience!
I chose the movie SMS für Dich. (Un mensaje para ti in Spanish or Text For You in English.) Because who doesn’t love a good romcom?!? ❤️ If you’ve noticed anything about my movie selection, clearly I love myself a good romantic comedy any night of the week.
Here are my thoughts on the movie.
Let me preface this by saying, I feel like learning these languages have some really proud, pat-yourself-on-the-back days and some equally frustrating, I-wanna-throw-in-the-towel days. That being said, watching this movie was extremely difficult. I really had to take my time with it. I confess it was hard not to just change it back to the dubbed Spanish version and say “forget watching this in German!”.
The biggest issue I had, was that the Spanish subtitles didn’t show up at times and, wouldn’t you know it, the characters kept chattering away in German! They didn’t wait for those subtitles to make an appearance. I know I missed some things due to the subtitle delay but I stuck with it.
The almost two-hour long movie took me nearly four hours – spread out over three days – to watch. I admit this did take some of the fun out of watching it. Isn’t there usually an element of dislike or “not fun” involved in learning sometimes though? If it was all fun and games I feel like everyone would learn languages and that’s why there’s got to be some work involved. You know, so only those of us who want to work for it stick around. 😋
What kept me watching during those difficult moments instead of giving up
Tschüss.
Yes, the word tschüss, a common way to say ‘bye’ in German, kept me going.
Hearing that one word changed everything.
I hadn’t heard it since my last visit to Germany many years back, but I still remembered it. That was my proud, pat-myself-on-the-back moment. It doesn’t matter how big or small those moments are. Small was in enough, in this case, to get me going. German baby steps lead to crawling, which leads to walking, and maybe one day a slow German jog or even a quick run. 🏃♀️ A girl can dream. 🤩
In total, I understood 30 German words. That may not seem like much for a two-hour movie but again – baby steps. We’re just going for baby steps.
The biggest bummer of the movie was all the Barça references which kept my husband from watching it. He’s a diehard Real Madrid fan, in case you weren’t aware. (Psst, for those who don’t know, those two Spanish soccer teams are rivals. ⚽️ I don’t know when the rivalry began, maybe someday my husband will tell me the story and I can fill you in.) For now, all I’ll say is that I recommend this movie to everyone, even Real Madrid supporters. I want to spoil the movie SO BAD, but I won’t. 🙊
Do your language learning your way
I get that I am still level zero with these three languages and you all may wonder why I’m learning them so weirdly and does it even count as learning them? 🤔 All good questions. I guess we’ll see. 🤷♀️ As I keep repeating the tried and true saying, “take what works, leave the rest”. If there’s something that you think will work for your language learning adventure – do it!
Would you like to know something else fantastic? I’ve already got a French and Italian movie lined up for February and March.👏👏👏
