What If I Don't Like Watching Movies?

I once fell asleep at a cinema.

My siblings and I had gone to watch a 3D movie, and at some point, I drifted off. Nobody noticed until my 3D glasses slipped off my face. That was how they discovered I was asleep.

You see, I've never really been someone who could sit through a two-hour movie. Sometimes, I'd need a couple of days to finish one. I'd watch a little, get distracted, return to it another day and eventually, hopefully, get to the ending.

So imagine my dilemma when I started learning languages and kept hearing the same advice:

"If you want to learn a new language, just watch movies in that language."

But what if I don't even like watching movies?

Don't get me wrong. Immersion is a fantastic way to learn a language. Hearing native speakers, observing how they construct sentences, picking up expressions and becoming familiar with pronunciation are all valuable parts of language acquisition.

But I think we sometimes mistake a useful learning method for a universal prescription.

First, there's the question of time.

Children often have more opportunities for natural exposure to language. They spend hours playing, watching cartoons, interacting with people and absorbing information, often without consciously trying to learn.

Adults, however, have jobs, businesses, academic commitments and other responsibilities. We cannot always dedicate several hours a day to watching television in a language we barely understand.

Age also influences language acquisition, particularly pronunciation and certain aspects of linguistic development. But that doesn't mean adults cannot learn effectively. Adults have their own advantages, including analytical skills, literacy and the ability to consciously understand grammatical patterns.

Then there's the question of effectiveness.

Watching a movie isn't necessarily the same as learning a language.

Imagine being an A1 French learner watching a two-hour movie. The actors are speaking quickly, using slang, contractions and expressions you've never encountered. You might recognise a few words, understand some sentences from context and completely miss the rest.

You've spent two hours listening to French, but how much have you actually processed?

Interestingly, a 2026 meta-analysis by Dru Sutton and Stuart Webb, published in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, examined 56 experiments involving 1,954 participants. It found that audiovisual content supports language learning, but educational videos produced stronger learning effects than entertainment-focused content such as movies and television series.

This doesn't mean movies are useless. It simply suggests that the type of content we consume matters.

So, what if movies aren't your thing?

This is something I think about quite often, particularly because of what we're building at De Glot.

At De Glot, we approach immersion a little differently. We create opportunities for learners to actually use the language, not just consume it.

Imagine having a live conversation on a Tuesday evening with people who were strangers a few weeks ago but are now acquaintances, perhaps even your internet besties. You're telling them, in French, about a delivery you made through Instagram, only to discover that you might have been scammed.

Suddenly, you're not just learning vocabulary. You're trying to explain what happened, construct sentences, conjugate verbs and figure out whether you should say acheter, achète or acheté in a particular context.

And everyone is figuring it out together.

On another evening, we might watch a short film without audio and attempt to narrate what's happening in Spanish. With our tutor's guide, we work through the exercise, find the right expressions and practise putting our thoughts into words.

Our live conversations hold three times a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also share a handbook twice a week for independent study, reading and research practice.

The idea is to create different opportunities to encounter and use the language: through conversations, structured learning, reading, listening and even a little detective work.

You don't always need a two-hour movie to immerse yourself in a language. Sometimes, a one-hour conversation with people who are learning alongside you can be just as meaningful.

You can also listen to podcasts, read articles, follow creators who speak your target language or explore subjects you're already interested in. You don't have to develop entirely new interests to learn a language. You can incorporate the language into the things you already enjoy.

I'm not against watching movies to learn a language. I think it's a wonderful resource, especially when combined with subtitles, repetition and active engagement.

I just don't think it should be the default prescription for everybody.

Because if you fall asleep at the cinema like I did, perhaps the first step to learning French shouldn't be buying a movie ticket.

Perhaps it should be finding something you actually enjoy.

And that's a really great place to start.

Written By: Theodora Eloh

Date Written: November 11, 2026