What have you learned about a country from watching its movies?
I am a big fan of movies. Pieces of films loaded not only one frame by one frame’s pictures. They are not lifeless photos of people or landscapes. On the contrary, we can learn the culture and history in one country’s movies lively. In fact, many language schools take movies as one of their compulsory courses. It is an efficient way to acquire knowledge and pieces of a country from movies.
Firstly, we have the chance to know a country’s history and culture in its movies. A good film is a slice of a country’s Cultural Formation. We are not only exploring a touching love story from Love Actually but also taking a customs class from it. Actually, a love story is the most unremarkable point that I choose to watch this movie. Feeling the culture and customs of the British is the most important thing which I deserved. Christmas is not a common festival in China. But I always invited my friends to my home to watch this film every 25th December to mood Christmas.
Secondly, a documentary is a great window that made us could see landscapes and scenery of an unfamiliar country from it. My favorite documentary from BBC is Earth. I’ve seen magnificent Icelandic glaciers from it; Swimming with crocodiles in the Amazon River; Running with deer and Mountain Wolves along the Andes. Documentaries give us many marvelous animated pictures all over the world which we could never see in my life once. On the other hand, it is also an educational introductory course for us about where we want to understand.
In fact, there are so many kinds of video materials we can take. Movies are just parts of them. We could watch many sitcoms such as Friends and Modern Family to learn about American culture. Just like Wanda and Vision did. Moreover, we can still watch a biography of a woman Stand-Up comedian, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, to learn English and the female rights history of American. If you want to understand how the USA built and worked, I recommend you to watch another documentary O.J. Made by America, and the movie Lincoln. They will give you some real pieces of American.
In conclusion, movies provide us with many aspects of a country if we really love to dig them. Cultures, scenery, and history of countries. They were sleepy treasures waiting for us to explore. Playing them, opening new worlds.
