European Language Movies for Children and Adolescents
Also including American Sign Language, because I wanted to. Please sort by list order to see the movies I consider suitable for children listed first.
Incase you'd like to remain entirely Eurocentric, I've made a note of which movies are non-Eurocentric. This includes many Hispanic rather than Iberian Spanish and Portuguese movies, many French movies from Africa and the Near East, and a handful of movies from various European countries about foreign immigrants instead of Native Europeans.
If you wish to give your child a classical education then cover only ("only") Early Modern English, Italian, French, German, and Greek.
This is by no means a complete list. The trouble with finding European-language movies (other than in English) suitable for children is that most of them are unrated, and you can get hit with unexpected sex and/or depressingness that I consider unsuitable for children. Usually I just have to see the movie and find out for myself whether I consider it suitable for children or not.
However, YMMV. What I consider suitable for children, you might not consider suitable for children, or for your own individual children. Please check out the movies in advance and have an idea of what you're getting yourself into before you sit down to watch them with a child (or anyone who's sensitive).
I've also included animated movies that can frequently be found dubbed in European languages (most commonly French, German, and Spanish, occasionally Italian, though Disney movies can be found dubbed in all kinds of languages) and documentaries that can frequently be found with voice-overs in European languages. I have not included dubbed live-action movies, because the non-lip-syncing drives me nuts, and I consider it counterproductive for helping a child learn a language. Documentaries and animated movies are especially helpful for young children who can't read subtitles, because you can watch the movie in English first and then again (and again and again, knowing many young children) in the other language.
I treat Czech and Slovak as separate languages, rather than as Czechoslovakian, and Serbian and Croatian as one language, Serbo-Croatian. I treat Ukrainian and Belarusian as different languages from Russian. This comes primarily from reading however and not from much personal experience with the languages, so I could be wrong.
I include Swiss German and Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) as types of German. I include Afrikaans as a type of Dutch. I include Moldovan as a type of Romanian. I include Bosnian as a type of Serbo-Croatian.
Concerning Yiddish - Yiddish is classed as an Indo-European language - as a Germanic language, in fact, which means one would assume I would have classed it near the beginning with German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages. However, Yiddish has heavy Semitic elements which in my opinion would make it very hard for an English-speaking child to pick up on after only exposure to German and Dutch. Since the Semitic, and not the Germanic parts of the language are what make it hard for an English-speaker to learn, I class it as a Semitic language with Maltese. Though Yiddish is a variation of Hebrew, I do not include Hebrew movies on this list, because Hebrew is a Near Eastern and not a European language.
If you're interested in introducing your children to a broad selection of European languages and aren't sure what order to use for maximum ease of comprehension/acquisition, I've had good personal results with the "most to least similar to English" approach (assuming the child's native language is English), in an order like this (for languages on the same line, I'm not sure of the best order within that group):
Early Modern English
Middle English
Old English
German
Luxembourgish
Dutch
Old Norse
Faroese
Icelandic
Norwegian
Danish
Swedish
Ukrainian - Russian - Belarusian
Bulgarian - Macedonian
Slovenian - Serbo-Croatian
Czech, Slovak - Polish
Lithuanian - Latvian
Latin
Romanian - Albanian
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Catalan
French
Romansh
Irish Gaelic - Scottish Gaelic - Welsh - Manx
Greek - Armenian
However, because of cultural influence, the Romance languages, especially Italian and French, are also closely related to English, and to a lesser extent Greek as well, and you might want to introduce those earlier, especially if you're reading Latin and Ancient Greek. (This is another advantage of starting with dubbed documentaries and animated movies, because it means much earlier exposure to Italian, French, and Spanish than the above list would seem to indicate.)
Other languages included on the list below, that are not Indo-European, are:
Abkhazian
ASL
Basque
Georgian
The Semitics - Yiddish and Maltese
The Turkics - Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Kazakh
The Uralics - Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian
I go into some little detail about these language families under the first entries for ASL, Basque, Finnish, Georgian, Maltese, and Turkish, and under the movie Russian Ark, the first entry on the list. But, long story short, the order goes like this:
ASL
Basque
Indo-Europeans
Uralics
Caucasians (Georgian and Abkhazian)
Turkics
Semitics
However, it might be worth considering putting the Uralics and Caucasians before the Indo-Europeans, so that the list order essentially descends from Northern to Southern Europe.
A word on dead languages. For helping children learn living languages I strongly favor learning through extensive exposure – listening to movies, music, audiobooks, and youtube videos, speaking to native speakers in meetups, over skype, and through travel, writing in the language to pen-pals and for personal pleasure, as well as translating to and from the language, and reading bilingual books, picture books, native-language movie subtitles, and then longer books – with minimal grammar acquisition and vocabulary memorizing. However, for dead languages, learning through exposure is all but impossible unless the parent is already fluent and can read extensively to the child in alternating English translation and the language itself. So this means hardcore grammar downloading and vocabulary memorizing, because I consider phrase memorizing and reciting idiotic and pointless. For learning dead languages I recommend:
Early Modern, Middle, and Old English can be worked back to by reading progressively older and older English works, getting comfortable with the new style, vocabulary and pronunciation, and complexity of language at each stage before moving backwards.
Old Norse can be accomplished very well through exposure to Icelandic and Faroese, and extensive reading. Runic script will need to be learnt.
Wheelock’s Latin
Mastronarde’s Introduction to Attic Greek
You might consider including Ancient Egyptian, as in my opinion Ancient Egypt is closely tied to European culture.
Incase you'd like to remain entirely Eurocentric, I've made a note of which movies are non-Eurocentric. This includes many Hispanic rather than Iberian Spanish and Portuguese movies, many French movies from Africa and the Near East, and a handful of movies from various European countries about foreign immigrants instead of Native Europeans.
If you wish to give your child a classical education then cover only ("only") Early Modern English, Italian, French, German, and Greek.
This is by no means a complete list. The trouble with finding European-language movies (other than in English) suitable for children is that most of them are unrated, and you can get hit with unexpected sex and/or depressingness that I consider unsuitable for children. Usually I just have to see the movie and find out for myself whether I consider it suitable for children or not.
However, YMMV. What I consider suitable for children, you might not consider suitable for children, or for your own individual children. Please check out the movies in advance and have an idea of what you're getting yourself into before you sit down to watch them with a child (or anyone who's sensitive).
I've also included animated movies that can frequently be found dubbed in European languages (most commonly French, German, and Spanish, occasionally Italian, though Disney movies can be found dubbed in all kinds of languages) and documentaries that can frequently be found with voice-overs in European languages. I have not included dubbed live-action movies, because the non-lip-syncing drives me nuts, and I consider it counterproductive for helping a child learn a language. Documentaries and animated movies are especially helpful for young children who can't read subtitles, because you can watch the movie in English first and then again (and again and again, knowing many young children) in the other language.
I treat Czech and Slovak as separate languages, rather than as Czechoslovakian, and Serbian and Croatian as one language, Serbo-Croatian. I treat Ukrainian and Belarusian as different languages from Russian. This comes primarily from reading however and not from much personal experience with the languages, so I could be wrong.
I include Swiss German and Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) as types of German. I include Afrikaans as a type of Dutch. I include Moldovan as a type of Romanian. I include Bosnian as a type of Serbo-Croatian.
Concerning Yiddish - Yiddish is classed as an Indo-European language - as a Germanic language, in fact, which means one would assume I would have classed it near the beginning with German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages. However, Yiddish has heavy Semitic elements which in my opinion would make it very hard for an English-speaking child to pick up on after only exposure to German and Dutch. Since the Semitic, and not the Germanic parts of the language are what make it hard for an English-speaker to learn, I class it as a Semitic language with Maltese. Though Yiddish is a variation of Hebrew, I do not include Hebrew movies on this list, because Hebrew is a Near Eastern and not a European language.
If you're interested in introducing your children to a broad selection of European languages and aren't sure what order to use for maximum ease of comprehension/acquisition, I've had good personal results with the "most to least similar to English" approach (assuming the child's native language is English), in an order like this (for languages on the same line, I'm not sure of the best order within that group):
Early Modern English
Middle English
Old English
German
Luxembourgish
Dutch
Old Norse
Faroese
Icelandic
Norwegian
Danish
Swedish
Ukrainian - Russian - Belarusian
Bulgarian - Macedonian
Slovenian - Serbo-Croatian
Czech, Slovak - Polish
Lithuanian - Latvian
Latin
Romanian - Albanian
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Catalan
French
Romansh
Irish Gaelic - Scottish Gaelic - Welsh - Manx
Greek - Armenian
However, because of cultural influence, the Romance languages, especially Italian and French, are also closely related to English, and to a lesser extent Greek as well, and you might want to introduce those earlier, especially if you're reading Latin and Ancient Greek. (This is another advantage of starting with dubbed documentaries and animated movies, because it means much earlier exposure to Italian, French, and Spanish than the above list would seem to indicate.)
Other languages included on the list below, that are not Indo-European, are:
Abkhazian
ASL
Basque
Georgian
The Semitics - Yiddish and Maltese
The Turkics - Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Kazakh
The Uralics - Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian
I go into some little detail about these language families under the first entries for ASL, Basque, Finnish, Georgian, Maltese, and Turkish, and under the movie Russian Ark, the first entry on the list. But, long story short, the order goes like this:
ASL
Basque
Indo-Europeans
Uralics
Caucasians (Georgian and Abkhazian)
Turkics
Semitics
However, it might be worth considering putting the Uralics and Caucasians before the Indo-Europeans, so that the list order essentially descends from Northern to Southern Europe.
A word on dead languages. For helping children learn living languages I strongly favor learning through extensive exposure – listening to movies, music, audiobooks, and youtube videos, speaking to native speakers in meetups, over skype, and through travel, writing in the language to pen-pals and for personal pleasure, as well as translating to and from the language, and reading bilingual books, picture books, native-language movie subtitles, and then longer books – with minimal grammar acquisition and vocabulary memorizing. However, for dead languages, learning through exposure is all but impossible unless the parent is already fluent and can read extensively to the child in alternating English translation and the language itself. So this means hardcore grammar downloading and vocabulary memorizing, because I consider phrase memorizing and reciting idiotic and pointless. For learning dead languages I recommend:
Early Modern, Middle, and Old English can be worked back to by reading progressively older and older English works, getting comfortable with the new style, vocabulary and pronunciation, and complexity of language at each stage before moving backwards.
Old Norse can be accomplished very well through exposure to Icelandic and Faroese, and extensive reading. Runic script will need to be learnt.
Wheelock’s Latin
Mastronarde’s Introduction to Attic Greek
You might consider including Ancient Egyptian, as in my opinion Ancient Egypt is closely tied to European culture.
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