_lang_movies

Assault of the Killer Bimbos (1)

warning: content may offend

Trying to cross the Mexican border with virtually non-existent Spanish

This is phrase-book Spanish, "helped" out by an attempt to make English words sound Spanish

Assault of the Killer Bimbos (2)

warning: content may offend

Getting a "roomo" with "bathroomo" and breakfast at a sleazy Mexican motel

Illustrates the universal belief that when you try to learn a language you are bound to say horribly embarrassing things

Bambi - a great example of language learning and language teaching

Bambi learns to talk. His little animal friends help him with vocabulary and pronunciation. At the end of the clip he, like many a beginning learner of a language, misuses his new language in a way that is, literally, charming.

In an earlier scene, Bambi learned an important Novice-Low greeting ("Good morning," but did not himself speak it. Here he learns key vocabulary of his world by a sort of syntactic mapping. Note the gentle error correction provided by his teachers, who also know when not to correct errors.

The Blue Angel (Germany, 1927)

Professor Unrat, the prep-school English teacher, teaches the language with a combination of Shakespeare and a pencil in the teeth

The Professor combines several time-honored methods: 1) memorization of text passages; 2) text chosen from literary classics; 3) mechanical attention to phonetics. None of them works well, at least here.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch and the Kid learn "Spanish for Bank Robbers"

Illustrates the need to acquire communicative capability for "real-world" tasks, but phrase-book language learning has its limitations.

Casablanca

Emigrants prepare for their new life in America by speaking only English - and at times not too well yet (though it's odd that the same couple speak much better English before their "what watch, sweetness?" blooper).

A classic instance of why translation and dictionary-thumbing are a dangerous learning and communiction strategy at levels below, the the minimum, ACTFL Advanced. Compare this clip to "Pink Panther Strikes Again (2)," where the vocabulary is selected correctly because Inspector Clouseau is using a phrase book, which offers words in their appropriate context.

The Court Jester

Danny Kaye skillfully mimics French, Italian and German

He fools his listeners with his excellent accent and intonation, while speaking gibberish. A "native" accent counts for nothing if there is real no communicative ability.

Dead Poets' Society

A dry-as-dust Latin lesson in a prep school

The drill about verb forms (conjugation) remains a favorite technique for teaching other languages, one that some students love and others love to hate. Current informed opinion regards it as a poor way to teach living languages. See the "Marty" clip for the long-term results.

Marty (1955)

short version

long version

Ernest Borgnine, suddenly no longer shy with women, proves how good he was as a high-school German student by reciting one of the standard abstract declensional patterns.

Memorizing dehydrated declensional patterns, such as "der-die-das, des-der-des" (nominative and genitive cases of the definite article) is regarded by today's language-teaching professionals as pointless learning.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (1)

Ian learns how to say "Happy Easter," then tries it out on his fiancée's father.

Even though the girl's father scorns his attempt, acquiring language and culture together is a good feature of learning.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2)

Ian thinks he is learning how to say "Thank you," but he's being tricked!

In the early stages of language proficiency, most communication is accomplished through single-word vocabulary and phrases memorized as units. Grammar capability comes only somewhat later.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (3)

Ian thinks he is learning what to say to get the party into high gear - and it works, but in an unexpected way.

For all the embarrassment he graciously suffers, Ian is a great language learner - fearless, good-spirited, culturally interested. In the end he has both his love and a new language.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1)

Inspector Clouseau, disguised as Doktor Schultz, uses lousy phrasebook German to say Hello, how are you?"

The question "How are you?" (Wie geht's?), learned by so many German students, is inappropriate when meeting strangers.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (2)

Inspector Clouseau asks for a "rheum" in a German hotel, then looks up the word in his dictionary

Return of the Pink Panther

Inspector Clouseau mangles English pronunciation as he tries to get a "rheum".

Señor Ed, the Spanish Talking Horse

warning: content may offend

A horribly mangled Spanish version of the Mr. Ed song, along with some chit-chat

Situation Hopeless But Not Serious

A very young Robert Redford, playing an American pilot shot down in WWII, uses his German to win over his German captor, played by Alec Guiness (later Obe Wan-kin-obe in Star Wars).

Redford sings German pretty well. Guinness is a master of imitating Germans attempting to speak English. The German he produces elsewhere in the film is excellent.

South Pacific

Frenchman in love with sweet young thing from, as he calls it, "Small Rock", Arkansas, assumes that she can read French, because she studied French in school. He's in for a surprise, though anyone familiar with conventional language teaching would not be surprised.

Nellie Forbush is among (hundreds of?) millions of classroom language learners who have been poorly served by superficial, mechanical instruction in grammar. Grammatical competence, in the sense of the ability to apply structural principles in real-time communication, is necessary for the acquisition of language proficiency. But abstract explanations and mechanical exercises, while they are one of the easiest techniques that poorly-trained teachers can apply, are not sufficient, and probably not even necessary.

What's New, Pussycat?

An angry boyfriend interrupts his beloved's large-enrollment language class, which then imitates what it hears as the two quarrel.

The teaching technique is a combination of grammar drill and phrase-book or audio-lingual teaching.

Title & Situation

Comments

Movie Clips That Show Language Teaching, Language Learning, and Language Learners in Action
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Title & Situation	Comments
Alec Baldwin as a sing-song French teacher (Saturday Night Live)	The high-school students gradually learn that they can please him by saying nonsense syllables with his sing-song French voice. When he does go to French and tries to make the natives speak that way, they stomp on him.
`Assault of the Killer Bimbos (1)` warning: content may offend Trying to cross the Mexican border with virtually non-existent Spanish	This is phrase-book Spanish, "helped" out by an attempt to make English words sound Spanish
`Assault of the Killer Bimbos (2)` warning: content may offend Getting a "roomo" with "bathroomo" and breakfast at a sleazy Mexican motel	Illustrates the universal belief that when you try to learn a language you are bound to say horribly embarrassing things
Bambi - a great example of language learning and language teaching Bambi learns to talk. His little animal friends help him with vocabulary and pronunciation. At the end of the clip he, like many a beginning learner of a language, misuses his new language in a way that is, literally, charming.	In an earlier scene, Bambi learned an important Novice-Low greeting ("Good morning," but did not himself speak it. Here he learns key vocabulary of his world by a sort of syntactic mapping. Note the gentle error correction provided by his teachers, who also know when not to correct errors.
The Blue Angel (Germany, 1927) Professor Unrat, the prep-school English teacher, teaches the language with a combination of Shakespeare and a pencil in the teeth	The Professor combines several time-honored methods: 1) memorization of text passages; 2) text chosen from literary classics; 3) mechanical attention to phonetics. None of them works well, at least here.
Born in East LA segment 1 • segment 2 • segment 3 Cheech Marin, wrongly deported to Mexico and desperate to earn enough money to pay a "coyote" to smuggle him back to his native East Los Angeles, takes a job giving English and culture lessons to illegal immigrants from Asia. in Segment 1 he teaches them to say "Wass sappening?" In Segment 2 they learn how to put on the appropriate "attitude." In segment 3, the language works, but some cultural lessons still have to be learned.	Segment 1 shows a persistent teacher who switches from technique to technique until something works, and who is not afraid to behave outrageously if necessary. Segment 2 reminds us that "culture" is a word with many meanings, ranging from the smallest, often unconscious features of daily behavior, to the monuments of human thought, art, science and action.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Butch and the Kid learn "Spanish for Bank Robbers"	Illustrates the need to acquire communicative capability for "real-world" tasks, but phrase-book language learning has its limitations.
Casablanca Emigrants prepare for their new life in America by speaking only English - and at times not too well yet (though it's odd that the same couple speak much better English before their "what watch, sweetness?" blooper).	A classic instance of why translation and dictionary-thumbing are a dangerous learning and communiction strategy at levels below, the the minimum, ACTFL Advanced. Compare this clip to "Pink Panther Strikes Again (2)," where the vocabulary is selected correctly because Inspector Clouseau is using a phrase book, which offers words in their appropriate context.
The Court Jester Danny Kaye skillfully mimics French, Italian and German	He fools his listeners with his excellent accent and intonation, while speaking gibberish. A "native" accent counts for nothing if there is real no communicative ability.
David Copperfield - Latin, with caning	Mindless drill, with an assistant who has no idea what he so authoritatively commands.
Dead Poets' Society A dry-as-dust Latin lesson in a prep school	The drill about verb forms (conjugation) remains a favorite technique for teaching other languages, one that some students love and others love to hate. Current informed opinion regards it as a poor way to teach living languages. See the "Marty" clip for the long-term results.
Henry V French princess gets an English lesson. As often happens, it soon focuses on body parts and vulgar expressions.	The princess is much amused that the English word "foot," especially if pronounced to rhyme with "boot," sounds very much like the "f" word in French.
The History Boys (2006) British prep school boys are cramming for Oxbridge entrance exams. French teacher attempts to teach subjunctive and conditional by allowing them to do a skit set in a brothel. When the headmaster appears in the midst of the skit, it turns into a skit about a WWI military hospital. Caution: language may offend	The lesson nevers gets to the subjunctive and conditional. The headmaster makes it clear that language courses are unimportant - and the learners have absorbed that message.
Marty (1955) short version long version Ernest Borgnine, suddenly no longer shy with women, proves how good he was as a high-school German student by reciting one of the standard abstract declensional patterns.	Memorizing dehydrated declensional patterns, such as "der-die-das, des-der-des" (nominative and genitive cases of the definite article) is regarded by today's language-teaching professionals as pointless learning.
Moscow on the Hudson (1980s) Russian variety show performers hope to defect on trip to America; they practice their English in advance (to buy a lamb chop, talk about Hemingway, declare their love)	Berlitz-like. Note the cultural inappropriateness of the lambchop situation, and how fun is poked at learning language to talk about "serious" literature, especially that promoted by the Soviet authorities.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (1) Ian learns how to say "Happy Easter," then tries it out on his fiancée's father.	Even though the girl's father scorns his attempt, acquiring language and culture together is a good feature of learning.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2) Ian thinks he is learning how to say "Thank you," but he's being tricked!	In the early stages of language proficiency, most communication is accomplished through single-word vocabulary and phrases memorized as units. Grammar capability comes only somewhat later.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (3) Ian thinks he is learning what to say to get the party into high gear - and it works, but in an unexpected way.	For all the embarrassment he graciously suffers, Ian is a great language learner - fearless, good-spirited, culturally interested. In the end he has both his love and a new language.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1) Inspector Clouseau, disguised as Doktor Schultz, uses lousy phrasebook German to say Hello, how are you?"	The question "How are you?" (Wie geht's?), learned by so many German students, is inappropriate when meeting strangers.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (2) Inspector Clouseau asks for a "rheum" in a German hotel, then looks up the word in his dictionary
Return of the Pink Panther Inspector Clouseau mangles English pronunciation as he tries to get a "rheum".

Señor Ed, the Spanish Talking Horse warning: content may offend A horribly mangled Spanish version of the Mr. Ed song, along with some chit-chat
Situation Hopeless But Not Serious A very young Robert Redford, playing an American pilot shot down in WWII, uses his German to win over his German captor, played by Alec Guiness (later Obe Wan-kin-obe in Star Wars).	Redford sings German pretty well. Guinness is a master of imitating Germans attempting to speak English. The German he produces elsewhere in the film is excellent.
South Pacific Frenchman in love with sweet young thing from, as he calls it, "Small Rock", Arkansas, assumes that she can read French, because she studied French in school. He's in for a surprise, though anyone familiar with conventional language teaching would not be surprised.	Nellie Forbush is among (hundreds of?) millions of classroom language learners who have been poorly served by superficial, mechanical instruction in grammar. Grammatical competence, in the sense of the ability to apply structural principles in real-time communication, is necessary for the acquisition of language proficiency. But abstract explanations and mechanical exercises, while they are one of the easiest techniques that poorly-trained teachers can apply, are not sufficient, and probably not even necessary.
What's New, Pussycat? An angry boyfriend interrupts his beloved's large-enrollment language class, which then imitates what it hears as the two quarrel.	The teaching technique is a combination of grammar drill and phrase-book or audio-lingual teaching.