Monday, January 21, 2008

REPETITIO EST MATER STUDIORUM

REPETITIO EST MATER STUDIORUM. There's a reason it's a Latin proverb and also a reason it's a proverb, and a reason that it was repeated ad nauseam to generations of pupils. Watching, reading or listening to something over and over again is very boring and consequently very hard work for most people. The brain tunes out. You need to trick it and give it something else to process while you're also absorbing the language. Because of the visual component movies and series are handy for this purpose. A possible course of action? In the beginning I'd choose a few favorite movies, the ones that I've seen "a thousand times" my favorites and "cult movies" where you can perhaps score a few points by knowing some trivia (that's obviously secondary). It should be something entertaining that I don't mind watching repeatedly. Movies have less dialogue than series but that might not be a bad thing for a beginner. Movies also generally make better and more entertaining repeated viewings. I am now watching in Italian, just for the blast, the Army of Darkness. Dammi un po di zucchero, baby :) Then I'd move on to my favorite series. I would not waste time "refreshing" my knowledge of the "original" vocabulary. What counts is understanding the plot and different situations. It's likely I've seen these episodes several times already, courtesy of the local station. It's been a while so I don't mind seeing it again. A perfect occasion to recuperate hundreds and thousands of hours of otherwise wasted time.

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