W hy do we love movies? Hollywood, Bollywood, local fare, it’s all good. The truth is, movies have always been and always will be, fun. For the cost of a ticket, movies can make us laugh, cry, shriek in horror, and experience a range of emotions.
Besides evoking our innermost feelings and reactions, as well as encouraging us to suspend our disbelief, movies can also be very educational. Yes, that’s right—movies can actually make you smarter! How? Well, let’s take a look:
1. Learning Experience
There’s no denying it, movies can be an excellent learning experience. Many good productions are based on an incredible amount of authentic research, and this means that you can learn a great deal about a historical era or figure, people, culture or tradition, and even amazing scientific phenomena. These wide and varied topics are available in vivid color and exciting visuals, in less than two hours. Just think about it, most of us have learned all we need to know about the mafia through The Godfather trilogy, and gotten a crash course in paleontology via Jurassic Park. We saw the dangers of infectious diseases through movies like Outbreak and Contagion and vivid end-of-the-world scenarios in Deep Impact, Armageddon and 2012.
2. Travel Anytime, Anywhere
Most of us watch movies to escape, albeit for a brief moment, from the humdrum of daily life. Movies help us to take our minds of our problems and preoccupations. They provide us with well-needed breaks–almost like a mini vacation. Whether it’s going back to the Elizabethan era, or fast-tracking hundreds of years into the future, movies are the closest thing we’ll ever get to trekking across space and time. Movies regularly take us out of this world and into another, be it to Narnia, Middle Earth, Pandora or beyond–plus it’s all so easily accomplished! All we are expected to do is take the protagonist’s lead and walk into a wardrobe, hop on a train at Platform 9 ¾, or jump into a flying DeLorean. Once transported, the sky’s the limit!
Most of us watch movies to escape, albeit for a brief moment, from the humdrum of daily life. Click To Tweet3. Mind Your Language
Can movies really teach us about language? Sure, why not! Many movies are based on good literature, and you can be selective of ones that have a stellar script. Good grammar notwithstanding, you can learn lots about language through movies. For instance, you can discover new words, phrases, and expressions that you may have never encountered before. You can even learn a foreign word or two. After all, people started peppering their conversations with “Hasta la vista, baby,” thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Beyond the verbal, movies can also teach you about body language. Take a cue from your favorite movie star, and copy that confident swagger or seductive pose!
Good grammar notwithstanding, you can learn lots about language through movies. Click To TweetWhether art imitates life, or life imitates art, we can treat movies as a veritable library of lessons that can help us make life a richer, more fun experience.
photo credit: Express Monorail via photopin cc
