It’s Learning Jim, But Not As We Know It

“Dammit Jim, they can’t understand you. Speak to them in their own language.” Read more

Watch Foreign Movies With Your Kids

When I first moved to France I kept the French sub-titles on when watching a DVD in English. So THAT’S how they say that. Right! Get them primed to learn another language or two while their brains aren’t swamped with the same crap ours are

clipped from www.boston.com Want an entertaining and bonding family experience? Here’s an idea: Watch a foreign-language movie with your children. I mean it. You read books to your kids, don’t you? What’s so different about reading them a movie? It doesn’t have to be one of the warhorses of world cinema. I’m the first to admit that anyone who screens the 1948 neo-realist classic “The Bicycle Thief” for a small child deserves a visit from the Social Services van. And yet. Parents assume the only appropriate movies for their spawn are the ones hoarsely sold to them by the major studios: the computer-generated sequels, the fractious book adaptations, the fart comedies. Few of those films hint there might be a wider world out there beyond the Hollywood entertainment machine, one not predicated on numbing us with diversion. Pixar’s one thing and “Barnyard” is quite another, but there’s no other choice, is there? Hey, kids! Subtitles! You might think your children won’t enjoy watching foreign films. You might be mistaken.