Hello, everyone and
happy Sunday! As I was thinking about what I would write about this week, I had
several ideas, but today's topic didn't come to mind until I was sitting
on a plane on my way to Copenhagen where I'm spending my final college Spring
Break.
I don't know what it
is about plane-rides, but they somehow give me a space where my creativity
flows and I feel free. I'm not sure if it's the thrill of knowing that I'm
going to another country, seeing clouds go on for miles and miles on end, the
fact that I enjoy watching a movie or a TV show alone,
or listening to music from different corners of the planet that gets
me going. There's just something about being on a plane that feels liberating,
which brings me to how this post came to be.
Close to the 3 hour
mark, I noticed that the lights had been turned off and that I didn't want to
watch a second movie in a row, so I decided to play some music. One of the
playlists that you can listen to on a Scandinavian Airline flight is called
"Meditainment", which is basically an hour-long compilation of
jazz and meditative music. This started to relax me, so I let myself just
think. For once I felt like I could think about everything and nothing at the
same time, because I knew that a long week was long gone and that a new
exciting week would soon begin.
To give you some
context, my parents, my sister, and I are going to Copenhagen over break for a
pre-graduation trip. I have always preferred trips to asking for presents, so
my mom figured that going on a trip abroad would be a well-deserved graduation
present, and boy was she right. Over October break, my mom and I were
home alone, so we discussed my graduation and how I wanted to celebrate it.
After some brainstorming, my mom started looking at both domestic and
international flight options flying out of multiple airports close to
home. After some searching, we found out that it was cheaper to buy tickets for
4 to go to Copenhagen, Denmark than to go to New Mexico, or Arizona, which
are 2 states I have yet to visit, so our decision was a no-brainer.
I'm very fortunate
to have a mom who studied Hospitality & Tourism during her undergraduate
career, so my family has already traveled to over 40 countries together, but
always on a budget. The key word is on a
budget. Copenhagen was also an ideal location for me, because I love the
cold and it's still winter there. As some of you know, I get very ill when I'm
in warm and humid places, so Scandinavia was very appealing to me. Furthermore,
it has been my lifelong dream to experience Scandinavia first-hand,
specifically Sweden.
Copenhagen is
located very close to Malmo and to other towns in Sweden, so my mom assured me
that we could go to
both. I have also wanted to learn a
Scandinavian language since high-school, shortly after visiting the Swedish Language Village
at Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji, Minnesota
(located in the northern part of the state).
Swedish has been a language that I have been fascinated by every since. There's something about
Scandinavia that gives off good vibes that I can't describe. Needless to say,
I'm very excited about this trip!
At the beginning of the
flight, I was in the mood to watch a movie. Due to wanting to
find out more about Scandinavia and Sweden, I decided to watch a Swedish movie
called "Unga Astrid" (Becoming Astrid) with English subtitles. This
past year, I have been exposing myself to Swedish music, so my ear has become
slightly more attuned to the sounds the language makes. While watching the
movie, I was able to pick up on a word, or a few words here and there based on
my knowledge of the 7 languages I speak, which was fascinating. Who knows?
Maybe my dream of learning Swedish will someday come true.
The reason why I wanted to
write this post is, because I wanted to encourage you to take advantage of what
airplanes and specific airlines have to offer. The more you travel abroad with
international airlines, the more options you will have to choose all kinds of
entertainment during your travel journeys. I especially love
watching movies, as they give you insight on a country's history and culture.
If you already speak the language at a decent level, it helps you build
confidence in understanding a language in your listening comprehension skills
in that language.
For those of you who are
beginners, or intermediate learners of a language, I
recommend watching movies with subtitles in English if you have minimal
exposure doing so in your target language, but if
you're slightly more comfortable and
brave, then it's best to watch them
in the language you're learning, so that you start training your
brain and your ear to familiarize yourself with the sounds, pronunciation,
cadence, and various dialects and ways in which people speak that
language.
I know how tempting
it can be to resort to your first language, but I promise that every victory
counts, even if you only understand 5% of a movie the first time around. The
more you watch movies, the more you will start to understand them over time.
Trust me, it's a process that takes years, but the earlier you start doing
this, the less strenuous the language-learning process will be.
What I like and
prefer about movies over television series is that you know exactly how long a
movie will last. In other words, you know that for 1.5, 2 hours all you
will do is watch a movie and nothing else. I also find them to be more
thrilling, because you don't have to watch 3, or 10 episodes of a television
series in order to get the full entertainment experience. Don't get me wrong, I
also love television series, but I personally don't have enough free time to
consistently watch one as a full time student and worker in my last semester of
college.
Even watching movies in
languages you don't already speak is beneficial. Most polyglots I have followed
on YouTube and successful language learners suggest exposing yourself to as
much audio content as possible before "learning", or
"studying" the language. Forcing yourself to focus more on how the
language sounds and the musicality of a language is highly beneficial,
especially when you have subtitles in your first language. After
just 2 hours of watching "Unga Astrid", I feel like I have a better
grasp on how Swedish is supposed to sound.
Aside from movies, feel
free to also watch television series and to listen to international music
at some point during your plane-ride. If you're going to be
sitting on a plane for 7, or 15 hours straight, you might as well do something
fun and productive, so why not practice your language skills for free while
you're at it?
I hope that you
enjoyed getting to know my family and I bit better and that you got some
practical tips on how you can make the most of your plane-rides when traveling
abroad!
Bis später,
Laura
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