Be kind and be flexible!
It all started because I wanted to watch a French movie, L’Italien, during French study week. If you don’t know, the way I have been juggling learning three new languages is to dedicate one week to each language. I’m new to learning these three languages so I’ve decided this could be a good way to keep from getting them mixed up in my head … at least for now.
Well, it turned out I didn’t make time for the movie because my language learning goal changed that week. Due to time off for the holiday, I decided to focus on caroling in each of the languages. That goal change meant the French movie was forgotten, replaced by the French Christmas carol ‘Vive le Vent’.
Happy accidents make for good resolutions
As I was looking for yet another Christmas movie to watch over my holiday break. (I’m a bit obsessed with Christmas movies, just ask my husband. He hasn’t watched anything that didn’t involve Christmas since around October. 😂) Anyway, I’m searching through the movies list and what do I see but … L’Italien! the movie I had planned to watch during French week and it was going to expire from the list of available movies that very day. Ugggh! 😢 What else could I do? I decided to watch it, even though it was German week.
In general, the holiday has proved to be a bit of a change for my study habits so I didn’t really mind ‘breaking the rules’ yet again. I can be pretty strict with my language learning goals so I’ve been trying to be kinder to myself in this new year, being more flexible and not giving myself such a hard time for taking language learning breaks, for example. It’s a learning process. I find what works and leave what doesn’t. I’m evolving in this language learning journey. And I no longer get annoyed 😈 about losing my Duolingo track record. I’ve made my peace 👼 with the fact that using Duolingo daily is NOT for me.
Back to the movie!
So, I start watching the movie and what do I find out? It has Italian in it too. (Not a real shocker considering the title in English is The Italian. 😜) I had almost all the languages I was learning covered … except for the one I was studying that week. 🙄 Go figure!
Check out some of the cool things I got out of the movie.
First, I had a list of words I understood upon hearing them in French. That’s right, folks, words I understood without the use of subtitles! The list of words are:
merci, s’il vous plaît, je t’aime, bisou, bouche, père, femme, très bien, beacoup, oui … to name a few
And some Italian words too like ragazza.
I even got to practice Spanish since the subtitles weren’t available in English.
My brain was tired after all that language work! 😅
But on the flipside, it gave me a great resolution for 2019!
Without further ado, my new languages, language learning resolution for 2019:
I’m going to watch one movie or TV show with subtitles in Spanish or English each month.
That’s it.
A bit anticlimatic. 😁
Here’s the thing. I like to make concrete resolutions. I’ve already been going steady with my goal to study one of the languages for at least 20 minutes per week, which I’ll continue doing in the new year. I know that taking the time to watch these shows or movies in their original versions with subtitles, while fun, is going to be a lot of work that’s why I’m not watching one movie per week but rather one per month.
I’m going to divide it up as follows, so as to enjoy my resolution, but not become overwhelmed: In December 2018 I watched a movie in French. January 2019 I’ll watch one in German. February will be time for an Italian flick. Then in March, I’ll be back to French. And so on and so forth.
I’ve already added them to my calendar. So I’m all set!
Rolling with the punches
I’m not worried about having trouble finding things to watch in these languages because there are movies in German almost daily on TV and there are enough Italian and French movies making the rounds on Spain’s Paramount Network, for example, that I won’t have a problem finding things to watch.
I can’t tell you how excited I am about this idea! 👏 I feel like it’s a resolution I can stick to, that I’ll get a lot out of, and one that I’ll look forward to doing. It’s achievable, believable, and conceivable, which is my kind of resolution. Obviously, if I have more time and want to watch more than one movie or I want to also watch a TV show or movie in one of the other languages I will. I also reserve the right to tweak my resolution as needed, after all being kind to myself and flexible is the other half of my New Year’s resolution.
In fact, ‘be kind and be flexible’ is my language learning phrase to remember this 2019. Obstacles will come up. My language interests might change. Maybe I’ll decide that learning one of these languages isn’t serving me anymore and I’ll drop it. Maybe I’ll decide it’s better to study a little of each of the three languages each week. Who knows! I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
