The Hollywood Lessons (2)
Beggars can’t be choosers. Beggar I was. So I wasn’t picky about genres of the Hollywood movies I saw; action or animation, drama or documentary, war or western, I swallowed them all.
Each genre has its own gems. For the purpose of learning English, some genres beat the other. Start with the ones that are not so good for learning.
War: I’ve seen Patton at least five times, each time blood boiling; a great movie to understand what hero really means (hint: not a celebrity who sells million copies of records); a good movie to learn profane language—bastard and son-of-bitches. (That’s classic; for modern version, I had to go to Pulp Fiction.)
Add a few military terms, that’s pretty much all I could pick up from war movies. Even Saving Private Ryan didn’t save me much.
Science Fiction: The first one I saw was E.T. It’s barely useful before Elliot met alien—he still talked to his brother and sister the mundane stuff I could relate to. After their encounter, however, I was bewildered as much as the creature trapped in Earth.
After E.T., it went straight downhill, all the way to Star Wars and its sequels; I couldn’t make sense of any words out of Yoda’s ugly mouth, or R2-D2’s, let alone learn any practical English to apply in the non-fiction life.
Musical: The Sound of Music is my all-time favorite—fantastic story, fabulous Alps scene. But each time Maria, the Captain and his seven children would have real conversations, they began to sing. I ended up with learning more songs—not those by Sister Abbess—than words.
I fared even worse in Singin’ in The Rain. No way could I dance like Gene Kelly, nor did I learn much English; besides dancing and singing, he didn’t talk that much.
Western: I love to watch cowboy, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, riding on a horse, and gun slinging in a cool manner. The problem is, again, they seldom talk. Or they let gun do most of the talking.
In Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood has grins in his face much more often than the words out of his mouth. His performance was unforgettable; but just forget about any idea of learning English from it.
Action: Need to say no more; action speaks itself—car chasing, helicopter hovering, rocket firing, and, the latest trend, kung fu fighting. As thrilling as it is, that leaves little room for the meaningful dialogues. But it can be perfect genre to learn basic conversation. For instance,
Q: “What is your name?”
A: “Bond. James Bond.”
More non-English speakers, I bet, have learned English Conversation 101 from the agent 007 than from their English teachers.
Each genre has its own gems. For the purpose of learning English, some genres beat the other. Start with the ones that are not so good for learning.
War: I’ve seen Patton at least five times, each time blood boiling; a great movie to understand what hero really means (hint: not a celebrity who sells million copies of records); a good movie to learn profane language—bastard and son-of-bitches. (That’s classic; for modern version, I had to go to Pulp Fiction.)
Add a few military terms, that’s pretty much all I could pick up from war movies. Even Saving Private Ryan didn’t save me much.
Science Fiction: The first one I saw was E.T. It’s barely useful before Elliot met alien—he still talked to his brother and sister the mundane stuff I could relate to. After their encounter, however, I was bewildered as much as the creature trapped in Earth.
After E.T., it went straight downhill, all the way to Star Wars and its sequels; I couldn’t make sense of any words out of Yoda’s ugly mouth, or R2-D2’s, let alone learn any practical English to apply in the non-fiction life.
Musical: The Sound of Music is my all-time favorite—fantastic story, fabulous Alps scene. But each time Maria, the Captain and his seven children would have real conversations, they began to sing. I ended up with learning more songs—not those by Sister Abbess—than words.
I fared even worse in Singin’ in The Rain. No way could I dance like Gene Kelly, nor did I learn much English; besides dancing and singing, he didn’t talk that much.
Western: I love to watch cowboy, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, riding on a horse, and gun slinging in a cool manner. The problem is, again, they seldom talk. Or they let gun do most of the talking.
In Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood has grins in his face much more often than the words out of his mouth. His performance was unforgettable; but just forget about any idea of learning English from it.
Action: Need to say no more; action speaks itself—car chasing, helicopter hovering, rocket firing, and, the latest trend, kung fu fighting. As thrilling as it is, that leaves little room for the meaningful dialogues. But it can be perfect genre to learn basic conversation. For instance,
Q: “What is your name?”
A: “Bond. James Bond.”
More non-English speakers, I bet, have learned English Conversation 101 from the agent 007 than from their English teachers.
posted by Lingual Bee at 11:45 PM
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