french subtitles

I like to have a movie playing while I eat my lunch. (on days that I am eating my lunch at home) I usually just turn it on for fifteen minutes or so then turn it off and go do my other duties.

Why a movie? Because I don't have TV.

One of my favorite movies is the most recent Star Trek film. I probably watch it once every two months.

Since today is supposed to be a super productive day for me, I felt guilty about watching the movie.

My solution was to put on the French subtitles. And I actually read along with the movie. It makes me wonder how much better my French would be if I had been doing this all along. I jokingly asked on Facebook if that could be counted as an intellectual activity but it really is. Because I am learning how to properly translate French.

My problem with speaking French is that I just try to say the exact same thing that I would say in English and translate each word into French. It doesn't work that way. The result is that I speak broken French. You know how immigrants in America use improper words and verb tenses all the time? "I am eat my food tomorrow." That's what I imagine I sound like in French.

But the subtitle thing is great because you can see a normal English sentence and then see how you would ACTUALLY say it in French.

I'm not going to lie. My brain is a little bit tired after doing that for twenty minutes. But what an enjoyable way to learn rather than reading Proust or Baudelaire!