Five Movies to Help Practice your Spanish

The best way to learn Spanish is to try and immerse yourself in the language! Classes are important in teaching you why the language works the way it does. However, putting your knowledge into practice by speaking to people, listening to songs and watching movies also helps.

First and foremost practicing Spanish through movies is fun!  Secondly, movies tend to use natural conversation which is different from learning through books. You also get exposed to different accents or slang terms which helps you understand the language better. Finally, you can also learn about cultures in different Spanish-speaking countries; something you might not have been aware of before.

On that note here are five movies in Spanish we recommend you watching:

1. Diarios de motocicleta. (The Motorcycle Diaries)

Gael Garcia Bernal stars in this Academy winning film as a young Che Guevara, whose motorcycle journey through South America realises his radical ideas. The two men soon witness the great disparities in South America, encountering poor peasants and observing the exploitation of labor by wealthy industrialists. When they reach a leper colony in Peru, Ernesto's values have changed so much that he sides with the sufferers, forgetting his own comfort.

2. El laberinto del fauno. (Pans Labyrinth)

This award-winning film by legendary director Guillermo del Toro takes place in Spain during the summer of 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War. The narrative intertwines this real world with a mythical world centered on an overgrown, abandoned labyrinth and a mysterious faun creature, with whom the main character, Ofelia, interacts.

3. La jaula de oro. (The Golden Dream)

The plot concentrates on immigration to the United States from Latin American countries, dealing with younger undocumented immigrants.

 

4. No se aceptan devoluciones. (Instructions not Included)

This Mexican comedy-drama follows a Mexican playboy who is suddenly saddled with a love child at his doorstep, and sets off to Los Angeles to find the mother.

 

5. Volver.

Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Volver evolves around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south of Madrid. Penélope Cruz plays Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene returns from the dead to tie up loose ends.

So why not get some popcorn, put your feet up. Practising Spanish has never been more fun!