How I learned english with TV Series and Movies
It's not easy to write in a different language. For example I had bad marks at high school, in english. I recall those days as a sum of annoying hours spent to learn irregular verbs. It was not my cup of tea.
I was made to speak french.
I have a natural rolling R that made everything so easy. Plus I'm good at mimic the tone of voice and the rhythm of the language. I had my very first french lesson at primary school, at age of 8 years old and at that time I used to go on vacation with my family in Corsica, where I could speak my 10 words of french with a lot of enthusiasm.
I won't bore you on how everything changed, but when I started university I had to study english to succeed. To read some text and be comfortable without the dictionary close to me.
That's why I've started compulsively looking at TV series in english, starting with Italian subtitles, then english subtitles and at the end, with a big leap of faith, I've decided to abandoned them to be more attentive on the pronunciation and about expressions that you cannot translate into your language on point.
Here's 3 easy steps to follow to approach this technique:
1. Pick an easy-to-follow TV Series that you love or a movies you know by heart.
To me it was Grey's Anatomy (at that time it was worth following) and When Harry met Sally.
2. Switch the language to english and add subtitles (So easy, that I've been thinking of cancel this paragraph a couple of times that I decided to link also number 3) and Write down expressions and words you want to remember. Here's some examples:
"I'm nuts"
"you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible"
"It is so nice when you can sit with someone and not have to talk"
"I'll have what she's having"
"This is an amendment to the earlier rule"
"the pressure of possible involvement is lifted"
"being secretly attracted to the person you're just friends with"
"who the hell are we kidding"
"because the sex part always gets in the way"
"Amanda mentioned you had a dark side"
3. (But was actually 4) Then, for each of them, I tried to write down another sentence with that combination of words, with a similar meaning. If I wasn't able I would just googled it to find something. (Because I strongly believe in learning by practice).
You will build a wide range of expression you can use instead of being stuck in many "ah", "ehm", "erh", "uhm", when you cannot finish a sentence.
It's a trick of course, it won't work forever, but at the beginning when I wasn't confident enough to face a full conversation, it made me feel stronger.
Moreover I could always use a simple "You know that?" in a Cali accent and it would make the work.
So to move forward in 2018 I've decided to dedicate every week a full hour english writing for my own pleasure and for my business attitude. That's why, starting today, I've decided to write here about Tv Series and Movies. I've majored in this field at University and I mastered at Writing Techniques, but I wasn't so sure they would be interesting for anybody. But friends always say "You have to make videos". I don't think I can make videos: I think I would be perceived as too much opinionated. Which, of course, I am. So let's keep it out of the game for now.
So let's start with baby steps first.
I will try to face some interesting themes using movies scenes, storyplots, character's journey. Because storytelling is always present. Let's start to know something new about it.
