Don’t watch, just listen

When I was away for the holidays, I wanted to continue expanding and maintaining my Spanish environment. Of course, that’s easier said than done, as I not only wanted to learn more Spanish; I also wanted to enjoy my destination. So what did I do? I listened music 10 hours a day (at times, it was just playing in the background), sometimes I listened to the Harry Potter audiobook I have, but I actually wanted to enjoy movies. But how can you enjoy movies while walking or driving a car? Well, there’s a simple solution: just listen.

Before I went, I ripped some of my DVD’s like “Toy Story” and “Dos policías rebeldes II” (Bad Boys II) and loaded the files to my PSP. So what I’d do was just starting the movies, turning off the screen and go away for a walk or a trip with the car. This way I could enjoy the movie, although I couldn’t actually see it, and memorized the movie somehow. Yes, in the end I began talking like the dubbed version of WIll Smith and Martin Lawrence (“Carajo this”, “carajo that”, “¡Qué asco!”, etc., etc.).

Point is, that I’ve had seen the movies (Toy Story and Bad Boys II) this often, that I knew what they looked like, but now I could concentrate on the spoken part. It’s weird that you can enjoy the audio of a movie so much, it’s like getting twice as much for your money as you discover new things everytime you listen to it. When you watch and listen at the same time, much of the audio isn’t important as you can see what’s happening. But when you take away the pretty pictures, things get more difficult but more exciting at the same time as you learn a ****-load of new words and phrases.

As with everything, you have to enjoy a movie a lot. Also, you must be able to watch a movie over and over again. Some readers of this blog said that it’s not possible (for them) to watch a movie a dozen times as it bores the **** out of ‘em. Of course it’s always better to just watch a movie over and over again, to listen one CD until you [almost] can’t stand it anymore, reread a book right after you finished it, etc., etc. as it’ll give you repetition which leads to fluency. But the most important thing is that you love the think you’re doing. Yes, not only liking, *loving* it. So if this means watching a movie once, listening to a CD a few times before putting it away for some weeks, it’ll be good for you somehow (hey, more time to see more movies!).

So can you only watch a movie once? Do it, but then rip the audio for listening practice. Carry it with you, playing it again and again when commuting, working, etc. Even passive listening does some really cool stuff in the long run.

The stuff I use:

Absolute Audio to Video Converter – Does cost some money (around €15), but works pretty much like a dream.

Absolute MP3 Splitter Converter – Same company, and also works like a dream. Both products to their work quite fast, which is always great. Again, costs some money (around €19).

I bet there are (free) alternatives to these programs, but I didn’t find any good ones so far. I you did, please share them!