There is an infinite number of theories about what makes language learning successful. I encountered one crucial ingredient for sustainable results, namely, to find the way to link the given language to the learners' hobbies. By incorporating the language into their everyday lives, the teacher can overcome a very significant barrier: the resistance to learning. If the exposure to the language is embedded into a pleasant, everyday activity, it will feel less like learning, and much more like living.
With English, we are lucky, because a plethora of (types of) material is available, from books and blogs, through games and communities, to music and movies, so everyone can find their preference. Many people, for instance, seem to be fond of films, so I usually include film experiences into our learning process. A couple of times we even went to the movies as part of the class, and I must say, people loved it.
Lately, however, it is getting harder and harder to find movies in their original language, at least in the cinema. The current administration overruled the previous practice of subtitling and forced the dubbed distribution of movies, which means that despite the fact that Hungary is inundated by American films, like most of the Western hemisphere, we can only watch them in Hungarian. Refreshing exceptions are film festivals. Since this week hosts a cluster of these festivals, I am going to present some of them briefly, as they offer the rare and precious opportunity to watch quality films in English, on the wide screen.
I am going to write about the LGBTQI Film Festival, the Jewish Film Festival, and Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
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