Instead of binge watching movies, would you like to turn them into a language learning tool?
Well, that’s exactly what my guest, Curtis Mintah managed to figure out.
Curtis is from Ghana where English is an official language, but it’s not the one he grew up speaking at home. English is a language Ghanaians use at school and for official and professional purposes.
Curtis wanted to add some “cool” expressions to his English so that he could sound more natural and less formal and official. And he found that once he had a system in place, movies were a great way to do this.
Even if English isn’t an official language in your country, you can probably relate to the frustration of learning generic words and phrases in school, and then discovering that they have little connection to the expressions native speakers use in everyday life.
Thanks to his improved English, Curtis has been able to become a writer on the website Medium, meaning that he can share his skills as an Android developer and nutritionist with the world.
In this interview, you’ll discover how Curtis went from binge watcher to better English speaker and writer.
You’ll hear us discuss:
- which languages Curtis grew up speaking at home
- the status of English in Ghana and how to communicate with Ghanaians
- how Curtis went from binge watcher to English learner
- the importance of subtitles for learning “cool” English expressions
- why note-taking is essential to improving your English with movies, plus ideas for digital note-taking
- why you need to use and share the expressions you picked up from movies
- the social media hack that will help you use new words from movies and remember them better
- the importance of paying attention to movie dialogue in English
- why Curtis doesn’t like to recommend particular movies, but he does share some favourites
Watch the video:
More from Today’s Guest
As promised at the end of the interview, here are some ways to get in touch with and follow Curtis:
- You can follow Curtis on Medium: https://davidcurtismintah.medium.com
- Here is the article that inspired me to contact him to do this interview: https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-learn-english-as-a-second-language-with-movies-bd0cf4cbdc8d
- You can connect with him on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/davidcurtismintah
- And also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidcurtismintah
Subscribe To My Newsletter To Get Your Free Guide
Want to use your favourite movie or TV show to understand native English speakers when they talk fast? Download your free guide, Understand Movies in English.
