Goodbye Lenin German Subtitles
Shawnna Franz
DS is coming to the end of y8 and has been learning German for 2 years. I think it would be really good for him to see some German in context but am struggling to find anything that's both suitable and subtitled (he's a long way from understanding without English subtitles!)
Can anyone recommend anything? We've got Netflix and Amazon if that helps. Also- it's been a while since I last watched Goodbye Lenin. Would you say it's suitable for a just-13 year old?
Thanks in advance!
I just checked my netflics menu, if you keep going down the themed categories there is one for foreign tv programmes/films.
They may not be to his taste (I watched them some time ago) but all these are age 12 rated: Holiday Secrets (soundtrack is German with subs), Charite and Charite at War.
There are other options with age 15 ratings so that depends on your DS's maturity.
Worth looking on Prime Video as well for other options. I think it's a great way to expand passive understanding of a foreign language.
I recently watched the whole of Borgen in Danish with English subs and now understand rather a lot of Danish as a result!
"I recently watched the whole of Borgen in Danish with English subs and now understand rather a lot of Danish as a result!"
Wow. I watched it and The Killing and The Bridge and can remember about 5 to 10 words in total.
On YouTube look up Extr@ German . It was a channel 4 series for KS3 learners . It is loosely based on friends and an American guy learning German . The whole thing is in German , without subtitles , but the language is used that is high frequency and easy to follow , but without it seeming slow and patronising . There are about 14 episodes and there are lots of jokes . I am a teacher and the kids love it .
What about watching things he knows well, that you have on DVD, with the German language switched on? My DD watches films and TV series she knows well and she finds it hilarious hearing the different actors they've used for the German version
French and German teacher here. If the aim is to improve his language (rather than cultural input), it might be better to get him to watch German dubbed versions of English language films he already knows well, possibly with the subtitles on in German.
Although it's great culturally to watch stuff from the target language country, in reality it's pretty hard for a GCSE or even many A Level students to understand much of the dialogue. A year 8 is likely to just read the English subtitles and barely recognise a single word of German.
I'm learning Spanish myself, and although I am approaching A Level standard and have a huge advantage as I'm used to watching foreign language content and am already fluent in French (with all its similarities to Spanish), I watched a bit of a Spanish tv series the other day and found it really really hard!
The thing Candyapple49 recommended sounds great though.
P.s. I used to often show the dubbed versions of Harry Potter to classes of that age. They knew the stories so well that they could concentrate on the language a bit more. I've listened to the Audiobook versions in Spanish, which was also fab.
Oh this is amazing, thanks so much to all of you! Never occurred to me to switch a Netflix profile to German. Thanks also for your teacher input,
@lazylinguist. I watch a lot of subtitled foreign programmes (am also a professional linguist although not a teacher) and it hadn't occurred to me that he might find that tricky.
Lots for us to try here, thanks again!
Would anyone be interested in hosting my cousin's friendly german son from 1 to 5 October? He's 14 and could have accommodation organized by his exchange programme. So I'm only asking if it's of benefit/enjoyment for your family. Send me a message if that's the case. South of England, I can do the driving.
What about stuff specially made for learners? Is that too uncool? The Deutsch Welle tv channel website has video courses. Nico's Weg is the beginner-low intermediate level story. Its also on youtube as 3 separate films, one for each level A1, A2, B1. There are a couple of other video courses at intermediate level . And lots of other high quality free stuff.
When I grew up, I got used to movies in cinemas and TV dubbed in German. Every character in a show or movie has their own voice. I never disliked it, as I grew up not knowing English, and having movies in German is then quite convenient. The other option, as in for example the Netherlands, is to subtitle movies, and leave the audio in the original language. Though when I was very young, those subtitles went a bit too fast for me. It is something to get used to, and often seen as one of the reasons why the Dutch speak such good English.
To me, the German dubs always looked quite real. The movie titles are also always translated, and sometimes not literally. For example, the movie Identity Thief is called Voll Abgezockt (Completely Ripped Off).
Of course, watching movies in German, whatever the original language, will help you learn the language better! Though I would refer you to good German movies, like Trkisch fr Anfnger, Lola Rennt, Die Welle or Goodbye Lenin! But just be aware of the difference between movies from different cultures!
Hi! I am Sten, both Dutch and German. For many years, I've written for the German and the Dutch blogs with a passion for everything related to language and culture. It's fascinating to reflect on my own culture, and in the process allow our readers to learn more about it! Besides blogging, I am a German-Dutch-English translator, animator and filmmaker.
I find original voice preferred in non-animated films but like you, prefer the Disney films in the language I first heard it in. (i.e. I like the Portuguese Mulan better than the original after seeing it first in Portuguese.)
Ever watched Russian TV? On voice speaks all characters complete out of sync and in a 1950s news style. Sometimes, they go out of their way and have two speakers, a female and a male voice doing everyone, parted by gender, while you still hear the original voices below (and sound effects way turned down).
As far as the effect on English proficiency, one should not have to use movies as a language learning tool if one does not want to. The Spanish government was wrong to consider a dubbing ban based on that.
@Mike Which is why you should ALSO have BOTH versions in the cinema. For example, you could show a movie in both dubbed and subtitles versions so people could CHOOSE whether they want it dubbed or not.
Like, you have a german movie theater where they will play the latest Johnny Depp flick in dubbed at 8:15 and subtitled at 9:00, for example. Just like they have a 2D and a 3D version of a movie to choose from.
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