Reading books, listening to music, talking with others… besides these, it must be good for you to watch movies when you learn about foreign countries.Each semester, Ursinus College holds the International Film Festival to make opportunities to show movies which represent all languages that are taught on campus – Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish – to students and publics.
Dr. Colette Trout, the coordinator of the festival and professor of French says the aim of the festival is “to get students exposed to a variety of cultures through movies.” She says each movie from various countries reflects its own culture, and has its own habits and rules that differ especially from the Hollywood movies. By looking at these differences through a movie, students could approach the way what people in the countries think and behave.
According to Dr. Trout, suggestions from professors in each language department determine what movies they are going to show. The genres of the movies vary from classics to thrillers, romances, animes, dramas, and comedies.
Watching movies is a beneficial way to learn about foreign countries. In the magazine Education Week, Katie Hanifin, a teacher at Canastota high school refers to the psychologist, William Glasser. He discovered from his research that “we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see and 50% of what we see and hear.” Based on the result, Hanifin suggests using visual and hearing effect as a tool for teaching a foreign language.
Dr. Matthew Mizenko, professor of East Asian Studies at Ursinus says “movies are helpful for all levels [of students who learn languages], especially for higher levels.” He explains students could try to catch what characters say in the movie, and it is good for listening to the rhythm of language, learning phrases and ways of expression.
Abroad Languages.com introduces the way to improve language skills on their blog. On Sep. 24th 2009, the entry states watching movies is one way to improve speaking and listening skills. They suggest viewers to look at how characters in the movie speak language, and to watch repeatedly for deep understanding of what they are saying.
Sophomore student, Christopher Herpel has been to the International Film Festival five times in a past few years. He goes there because he wants “to have fun watching international films.” While he thinks catching foreign language through movies needs repeated practice, movies help him to learn foreign cultures.
Herpel talks about a Japanese historical movie called Hara Kiri, which he recently watched in the festival. He says, “I learned about ancient Japanese culture such as how to act in front of strangers or superiors and the art of hara-kiri” through the movie.
Dr. Mizenko points out the recent trend of media affecting students’ attitudes towards watching movies. As we can see on campus, laptops and cell phones are necessities for college students. The data from the Internet World Stats indicates the population of Internet usage in the U.S. reached 74.1% in Aug. 2009.
Relating to the fact, the use of online videos also grows. According to The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, nine in ten (89%) Internet users among 18-29 years old use online video-sharing sites like Youtube and Google Videos. This frequent use of online video sites is what Dr. Mizenko calls “visual literacy.”
Dr. Mizenko thinks because students have experienced watching movies through the Internet, they are open-minded to watch movies. He says “I feel students’ growing interests in the festival.”
The photo came from filmconnection.com
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