Learning a language can be fun. If you have your course books, audio CDs, MP3 files, etc. you’ll find that after a while, you probably want to take a break from learning. That’s okay. You can relax and still keep your language skills sharp and refreshed simply by watching a movie in Hebrew. There are several ways you can use movies on DVD to improve your Hebrew. Here’s how :

Watching a movie in English with subtitles in Hebrew.

Most people wouldn’t think of this as a language learning experience, but it can be very powerful, since you’re watching a movie in your own language you already know what it’s about so you can focus a little more on the Hebrew subtitles. But if you’re beginning to learn Hebrew, you can still pause and rewind and compare the texts. Be awre, though sometimes the translations do no macth up exactly. And that’s the beauty – you can compare and learn something new. Since Hebrew is not as popular a language as many others, most likely you’ll need to buy DVDs from Israel that are in English with Hebrew subtitles. Think of how many new real-world phrases you can learn and not feel exhausted from studying.

Watching a movie with sound in your target language but subtitles in English

One of my firm beliefs in language learning and use is that speaking and listening are the most important parts of communication. Reading comes afterwards. If you’re in the intermediate stages of learning Hebrew and you’re still not 100% confident in your abilities to go full immersion yet, you may want to watch the movie in Hebrew but subtitled in English. The advantage of this is you can read the English much faster than Hebrew and you can again use the pause and rewind buttons for things you want to really go over. And you still benefit from hearing real-world spoken Hebrew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vejym088OqY

Watching a movie with sound and subtitles in your target language

For you students who are in the more advanced levels of learning Hebrew, you may like to watch a movie in Hebrew with the subtitles in Hebrew. In this way you can catch something you didn’t hear, or the actor(s) mumbled something but you can still read what it was they mumbled. It’s also a great way to see how words are spelled. For example, the word עכשיוcan be easily misspelled if you’re going by sound alone.

Watching movies on DVD are a great language learning tool that shouldn’t be ignored. You can find a wide variety of movies at Israel-Catalog.com

Answers to the post “What Are These?“:
1. These are students – אלה תלמידים
2. This is a boy – זה ילד
3. These are teachers – אלה מורים
4. This is a television – זו טלוויזיה
5. These are wine – אלה יינות