Watch the movie several times (without the subtitles). Each time, you will pick up something that you missed before, and you will understand more and more of the movie. You may not understand 100 percent of the movie in this way, but don't let that frustrate you. Even native speakers do not get everything that is said in a movie. Over time, the percentage that you understand the first time you watch a particular movie will gradually increase. It may take a long time, but you will notice a definite improvement in your listening comprehension.

From the way your question is worded, it is clear that your English is good enough for this to work. Of course, if a person's knowledge of English is very elementary and his or her vocabulary is extremely limited, it will not work. Such a person needs to take ESL classes first, in order to increase his or her English proficiency to a level where he or she has at least an intermediate-level listening comprehension.

Using subtitles is not a good idea if you are interested in improving your listening comprehension. It encourages you to depend on your eye rather than your ear and eventually you stop paying attention to what you are hearing and focus only on what you are reading. If you can consciously do both at the same time (listening and reading), then English subtitles may be of some help in the early stages. You might try watching a movie with the subtitles on the first time and then turn them off and watch the movie again several times, concentrating on listening only. Or reverse the process. Watch the movie several times without the subtitles, and get as much as you can just by listening. Then watch it again with the subtitles on to fill in the parts that you missed.

Also, you need to associate with native English speakers to get a feel for how they speak and how they pronounce words. Many non-native speakers have a fairly good vocabulary, but do not recognize words when they are spoken because they are not familiar with how these words are pronounced in spoken English. This is because they have learned their vocabulary from books and through reading rather than listening.

If you do not have the opportunity to associate with native English speakers, then buy audio books along with their print versions and listen to the audio book as you read along in the print version. This will acquaint you with the pronunciation of English words and with the sounds of spoken English, since you will see the words and hear them at the same time. This is not the best solution, since it does not give you quite the same effect as spoken English dialogue (which is what you get in movies), but it will help to some extent.



From my personal experience:

Start from movies you've already seen. This way you don't need to understand everything and can start getting used to the language.
Don't focus on understanding every word. It is useless and distracts you from understanding the meaning, and you can always infer that from the context. I often understand a sentence a few seconds after it is spoken, and even when I don't, it rarely prevents me from getting the meaning of the conversation.


If possible, watch the trailer to the film in your native language first so that you won't be completely lost. Pay special attention to the setting of the film that you are watching and try to familiarize yourself with vocabulary relevant to the film. Comedies generally feature people speaking much faster than usual and consequently, they may be more difficult to understand. Contemporary movies have lots of slang and popular culture references. Take notes and follow up with these later if you would like to know more. Even if you don't understand the language, body language will inform your proficiency and show appropriate situations for saying certain things or conversely - show when something is never appropriate to say or do.



With much difficulty, if at all (especially depending on the L1-L2 distance and your current level).

To understand it, the language should not be much higher than your level and should provide plenty of contextual cues to allow you to guess what they're talking about.

Related answers:

What are your favorite language learning techniques?
Is immersion the best way to learn any foreign language?
Is it better for English learning to watch movies with English subtitles, or in my own language?



Answer:

I too find it difficult to understand the dialog in English (and American) movies without using subtitles, and I'm a native English speaker. Actors these days are allowed to mumble and speak too rapidly to be understood. I must assume that this is encouraged to give the movie verisimilitude.

As an example, I had to watch the brilliant movie Inception three times, the last time with English subtitles, in order to be sure of everything that was being said. If you are not a native English speaker, I don't see how it can be done without subtitles.




I agree with Mike Mendis that for training listening you must always watch movies (serials even better!) without subtitles.
But even movie is suitable to your level sometimes you will not understand something.
I fix this by opening movie in two players: one with subtitles and one without.
When i miss something, i stop and go to player with subtitles, watch (listen!) difficult place several times and come back to main player.



It's quite easy, actually, especially with today's Google search engine and Inetrnet resources.

All one does is to do some good homework, or should I say, basic detective work.

Trailers, synopses, background stories, stories about the actors and actresses involved, trivia and goofs, as well as movie reviews can easily be found on IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities, or through Google search findings.

Having such prior knowledge prior to watching the movies facilitates what learning psychologists call, "schema activation": linking what you are learning/watching with what you already know.

Next, watch and listen with a large notebook, plus a roving eye and attentive ear, so as to capture interesting vocabulary and/or intriguing dialogues, by taking notes and making notes.

Pay attention to the "big ideas"of their conversations and dialogues, so as not to get bog down by singular words or phrases.

Naturally, this initiative takes disciplined practice, but it's worthwhile in your learning pursuit.

It's always good to have a strategic mental framework in the head when watching a movie, even as part of your English learning pursuit.

I suggest the use of a storygrid or a storyboard [Many thanks to the legendary storyteller and movie maker Walt Disney!], so that you can follow the settings, characterisations, story plot (and even subplots), critical events, etc., of the movie with ease and expediency.

To me, especially in any learning pursuit, English or otherwise, everything is possible; it's just a question of strategy and discipline!
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I read over two dozens of books in English and have played games in English ever since I was 8 years old (It's very fun to play that old game and finally understand what was being said!). I took a very long time bettering my vocabulary before I jumped on to listening and even then it was difficult to understand anything because I didn't know how to pronunce any of the words I had learned. To be honest, my choices of listening also weren't the best: Dr. House had an enourmous amount of technical terms, people in Lost and The Walking Dead are generally out of breath and, for god's sake what a cauldron of accents Game of Thrones is! I never had the patience of watching anything twice, but since I was paying triple attention to what I was hearing and little to the subtitles that were on, at first. But thanks to that I developed not only a good listening for a variety of american and british accents, but also this wonderful ability to pay attention to subtitles, voices and images at the same time, ability which is coming in handy when I watch Japanese animes.

So a short answer would be, in my case, masochistic sessions of concentration, which at first sight might seem a torture, but when a single sentence was acknowledged without subtitles... The joy of accomplishment...



Key is to first watch it with subtitles. Then, when you watch it second time your brain will automatically make associations what is being said and you won't actually miss anything. With time you won't  need subtitles and get grasp of various accents used. The more you'll watch, the less you'll need.


Watch the movie ove and over again until you understand all the words necessary to make a sensible dialogue.
Try understanding the screenplay while consciously   hearing the dialogues as well. That helps.
Watch the movie at normal speed first, then slow  motion and figure out the dialogues. And then watch it again at normal speed to enjoy it.
Or just use the subtitles and enjoy the movie. You can use YouTube or books or audios to learn english later as well. :p




My ex-wife was excellent at body-language and people-watching. Actually, somewhat beyond excellent.

She would always watch movies and TV with the sound off, but always be able to explain exactly what was going on. She could also do the same at a table crowded with 10 people having multiple random conversations, in a language she didn't speak.

So cultivate this skill if you can!



Any person that isn't non-native English can understand pretty much every movie in English language.

Of course, to be able to understand you need to have a good level of English language learnt already.

Many people have a huge vocabulary of English language learnt, yet there is missing of one important language skills which is listening.

If you would like to improve your 4 important steps of learning a language you can find a private tutor at http://www.multilingualacademy.com

After having your first lesson your tutor will have an understanding of where you should put some extra work in your knowledge regarding English language.

Good luck and go for it!



A friend of mine not originally from the Americas explained to me that the way she learned to speak American (I won't call it English with respect to my friends from England), was to watch American films.
It's one of the best ways to learn a language really. It is essentially the way people learn their native language--through word-image-association. When you see an apple enough times with the word "apple" associated with it, you begin to put them together.



on't think that it's always easy for native speakers.  As an American I usually have no difficulty understanding British films, but when it came to Monty Python and the Holy Grail there were some bits of dialog over which I had to run the tape repeatedly until I finally got it, like the line about "employing pig bladders to predict earthquakes", or when Connie Booth says "It's a fair cop".

When listening to German news radio, if they're reporting on something that happened in a provincial region of England, you might hear someone speaking York dialect or Scouse, and for me it's often easier to wait for the German translation than decipher what the English interviewee has just said.
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In my opinion,It depends on Level English of each person.Depend on the situation and the exact feeling to guess what are them talking about?
So the solution is that you have basic level of english and the ability to predict.
Try your best in english until you are confident in your ability of english,you can watch this kind of movie without using subtitles^


I am graduated in English Language and Literature back in 1984.  But at times I depend on sub titles to understand English conversation in movies.

But take the cases of my kids.  They were exposed to English Movies from childhood onwards.  We live in Kerala, India and our native language is Malayalam.  But my kids (boy, girl, boy) do not find any difficulty in understanding the conversations in any English movie as they were exposed to these conversations from childhood onwards their brain easily understand and follow these conversations.

Now do you really need to start picking up the conversation?  There was a very interesting serial in English called "FRIENDS".  It is very old one but continued for near 10 years.   Download it and start listening to it from the first episode.   Listening to first 25 episode will help you understand English conversations much better.   Reaching 100th episode you will understand almost everything and then you can follow English conversations much better.



i used subtitles, but they are sometime really differents from the dialogs,
i stopped using subtitles, that open me the door of youtube in english.
Currently i still have some troubles with some strong english accent and US redneck and texas accent.



Badly, especially if it is the 1st viewing. Well take it easy, I often do not understand what my busking mate says and I have no idea what is the lyrics when he sings either


When I watch a movie in a language I don't understand, I generally try to make things out from the screenplay. However the best west to understand the whole thing without subtitles is to learn the language.



Initially it will be difficult to understand. As the english movies  generally have various accent like - North US , south US, British, Australian and various others..
But once you start watching the movies regularly the Language grows inside you and you will be gradually more comfortable with the language.
I am sure a day will come you wont need any subtitles to watch the movie.



by watching more and more english movies you will get acquainted with that type of accent