It should be clear by now that we’re not purists. We believe in immersing ourselves in the culture where we are, but we also recognize that things like McDonald’s are, for better or worse, part of the culture everywhere. And that’s why we often go to the movies when we’re abroad (but never, ever to McDonald’s!). Sometimes we aim for a movie in English with subtitles in another language, so we can relax and practice at the same time. Sometimes we go see a kung fu or action movie so the dialogue doesn’t matter a lot. But we’ve also seen a Marvel movie in Moscow, a Brangelina movie in Thailand, and a Potter movie in Peru, among other things. Why? We’d like to suggest the notion of movie as a break.
Sometimes You Need a Break from the Language or the People
This is especially true when we’ve been studying a language, which we try to do immersively: books, television, podcasts, music, and conversations, all in a language not our own, can give us a headache. (See our post on how much we like Duolingo.) So we try to build in language breaks, and movies are the best one we’ve found. And in countries where we stand out a lot, we sometimes receive more attention than we want to. A darkened theatre can offer a very welcome chance to blend in for a few hours. Bonus: you can learn firsthand about junk food in other places, so this outing still counts as a cultural experiment. (For instance, not everywhere has popcorn, and some countries have super-wacky movie treats.) Also, there are some beautiful old theatres out there!
Sometimes You Just Need a Break
Movie theatres are a great place to kill time. If, say, you are waiting for the overnight train from Moscow to St. Petersburg and you’re exhausted from not sleeping on the previous night’s train, and you’ve drunk and eaten all you can AND it’s raining. In such a situation, we assure you, a movie can seem like a little slice of heaven. We’ve dealt with feelings of alienation and loneliness during long-term travel – these are not restricted to solo travelers – and we find a good movie or even an appallingly bad movie can lift us out of the doldrums faster than most other things.
Sometimes There’s a Great Movie out There
As a matter of fact, we’re not really movie people. But, in addition to escapism, once or twice a year something comes out that we just really, really want to see. And then – if we can track it down – we go, wherever we are. We attended a David Lean festival over several months in the UK, because we wanted to know more about him. But most of the time when you find us watching movies abroad, it’s because we’re taking a little break.
Do you have ways to escape when you feel overwhelmed by another culture?
