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Today’s Challenge: Watch a Movie on Netflix in a Foreign Language

This was a little easy for me as I’ve taken to watching French series, Spanish movies and I even saw an Egyptian movie recently! I included this challenge to create more intentionality in my search for cultural expansion.

I like audiovisual communication, and I find that movies stick in my subconscious mind a lot more than text. When I watch a movie, I take in the story and the cultural dimensions to it. As a Nigerian, I do appreciate Nollywood movies for their portrayal of the Nigerian culture. But I don’t watch them as much, because I’m already present and immersed in said culture. To expand my horizon, I seek out foreign movies. I remember when a professor introduced me to this Indian movie, The Lunch Box. It was unlike the stereotypical Bollywood movies I had seen, and it has remained with me for years now.

For this challenge, I picked the Italian movie ‘Four to Dinner’ (4 metà), on Netflix. I selected the Italian audio with subtitles (which is way sweeter to listen to than the English voiceover). It’s a romcom with a twist. It’s not the regular ‘boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl and they live happily ever after’ story. This movie sought to explore the concept of soulmates. Do we go for the ‘opposites attract’ idea, or for the ‘birds of a feather flock’ together concept? It explored the dynamics of relationships between four people. While it may be a little confusing, you need to pay more attention (and read the subtitles really fast).

I found it pretty interesting because it challenges the idea of ‘The One’. Perhaps, there really isn’t just one person in the entire earth that fits us in a relationship. Maybe they’re various soul mates that we could match well with. And that’s reassuring for those who thought they’ve already lost their soul mates. I’d like to believe our soul mates are still out there, trying to find us as well. Lol.

Another interesting thing about watching foreign movies, is that you begin to see the similarities and differences in our various cultures. Sometimes, the similarities outweigh the differences. Personally, I don’t believe in being bound by a single culture, I believe in forging  intercultural unions and broadening our sense of identity and our ways of life.

Basically, I enjoy watching foreign movies because I see more of these countries I intend to visit someday. While for now, a girl can only dream…it sure helps to have motion pictures to give my imagination a runway to take off from.

Understanding languages and other cultures builds bridges. It is the fastest way to bring the world closer together and to Truth. Through understanding, people will be able to see their similarities before differences.

Suzy Kassem

Have you ever watched a foreign movie in a different language? Let me know your experience in the comments section.

Love,

M.