Home cinema is by no means a new concept.  There are plenty of people who have a been screen, or even a wall, and they can can take the home movie idea to new extremes.

Old news, right? Wrong! Just imagine doing open air cinema! If you live in a built up area, this is an option that can evade you. Well, for starters it’s outright impossible if you don’t have a garden. Even if you do, more times than not in a city area it just won’t be practical, comfortable, and depending on what part you come from, the weather could be horrific.

But just imagine doing a home exchange in a large, rural country house in Europe. Think: a big, fat barn. Think: softly humming crickets. Think: a pollen-flooded scent in the evening air. Think: twiddling a glass of sparkling rosé wine between your fingers. Think: your favourite film, projected onto the huge screen of a centuries old, rustic barn or farm house.

You can take the projector with you on holiday, and you can buy a screen when you’re there for a low price. With home exchange, if you use your imagination you can really bring the magic home (exchange).

Depending on which country you come from, television and film abroad can be riotous.

Alternatively, they can leave you flabberghasted, wondering, “Do people actually watch this stuff?” I often wonder how anyone can enjoy a TV film when there is a commercial break that lasts up to 25 minutes half way through. 25 minutes!!!

But one of the brilliant things about being abroad, from a lanugage perspective, is that you have such ample opportunity to listen and practise the foreign tongue.

You can relax at home in the house of your exchange partner, with a deliciously home-cooked dinner, bursting with freshly picked out local ingredients… and the simple exercise of watching TV at home will be transformed into a new cultural experience.

In the same vein, if you’re a lover of cinema, there are plenty of international picture houses across Europe. You can treat yourself to a genuine romantic cinema experience in a foreign country, in a foreign world.

Another great idea is going to a film festival during the summer. If you’re a cinema fan, there is no greater pleasure than sipping a chilled beer on your deck-chair, surrounded by palm trees gently swaying in the night-time breeze, absorbing to your heart’s content 7 varieties of short films from all across the world.

Films and television are a couple of the many media through which you can practise and learn a new language. All made that little bit easier through home exchange.