Films are widely enjoyed by audiences worldwide. When thinking of the movie industry, Hollywood is typically the one location that is thought of immediately, with its commercial weight and cultural impact being felt globally.
The entertainment medium has proven to be one of the most enjoyable for the population, with many engaging in their favourite films as they continue to seek the best experiences. They are often immersed in the stories that are produced, as they can become engrossed in the action and feel an emotional connection that other activities may not be able to achieve.
Given the appeal and the power that Hollywood films have, they have also become an educational tool. Many use the biggest and latest blockbusters as a way of learning new languages and picking up certain phrases and words. It is not a new phenomenon, though, as movie directors have continued to incorporate multilingual dialogues within their movie scripts to increase realism and authenticity in the stories that they produce.
While many will often use language-specific films to aid their learning, such as using Spanish films to learn Spanish, Hollywood has helped to bridge the gap and provide a few more options that can enhance the learning process a little more. The use of multilingual techniques means there is a greater level of accessibility. At the same time, it can also be more engaging and appealing as it may not be as intensive as watching a film in a foreign language for its entire run time.
Multilingual language films across Hollywood can also help create cultural awareness, which can help with language learning as well as with general development. No one culture is the same, with each of them having their own unique features. Audiences can see certain traits, actions, or even patterns in behaviours that can be identifiable through a person’s words, thus broadening their knowledge base and potentially making them more culturally inclusive.
Given Hollywood’s platform and its influence on the global movie scene, the use of various languages within films can certainly be beneficial for audiences and filmmakers alike. They can use their position to break down any further barriers that may exist by educating and introducing new cultures and languages to people in a fun and entertaining way that viewers may not see as an educational chore that most view language learning as.
Numerous benefits are being achieved by Hollywood as they use multilingual approaches
While the audiences can enjoy various advantages, Hollywood can also benefit in numerous ways by incorporating multilingual approaches within the films they have been able to create.
The movies that are created can instantly become more appealing to a wider audience when they feature another language. While English is predominantly used, characters that speak and engage with others in a foreign language may appeal to audiences that speak that language and attract them to watch. If the language was not spoken and was solely in English, there may be limited interest in watching it.
Markets that were perhaps out of reach in the past or were blocked because of language barriers have now become available through the use of additional languages. For instance, Hollywood movies may look to use Chinese themes and the various languages that are spoken in the Asian country to try and maximise their chances of being successful in a country that boasts more than 1 billion people. “Crazy Rich Asians” is perhaps one of the most recent examples in which the language has been used to try and appeal to a greater percentage of the world’s population.
There have been further examples in the past of filmmakers doing it with locations like India, where certain dialects were used in “Slumdog Millionaire”, thus potentially making it more appealing to a country that is typically used to watching Bollywood movies more so than Hollywood box office hits.
The inclusion of other languages can add authenticity and realism, thus satisfying the needs of viewers as outlined already. The world is interconnected, with globalisation having made almost every country around the world diverse in terms of languages spoken. Even if the country does not have foreign languages spoken within it, there will be numerous regional dialects that can be heard throughout. Movie directors know that this is something that can not be ignored, especially if they are looking to create stories that are based on international events and want to portray an authentic experience.
The ability to expand its business horizons through multilingual language techniques can also positively affect a film’s bottom line. Hollywood blockbusters are always looking to do as well as they can at the box office and want to break records for ticket sales. By incorporating certain languages, directors can look to try and appeal to certain markets outside of the traditional norm, thus then look to expand the amount of viewership that is gained and generate even more revenue.
Verdict
Multilingual techniques and approaches have started to become the norm across the Hollywood movie scene as directors recognize their importance. They know and appreciate that audiences want realistic and authentic stories to follow, and various languages are key to making this possible due to the reality that we live in today.
