English Films

Hope you all had a great weekend and could enjoy the beautiful sunshine! I managed 20,000 steps yesterday – a record!

My highlight was my first visit to the cinema since before the pandemic. In informal English we would say I went to the ‘flicks’ (old word and back-formation of flicker which is what candles do), and of course in the US they go to the movies. With the added bonus of the lounge seats at the back of the cinema in Bensheim as well as the obligatory popcorn, the German film ‘Wunderschön’ really was wonderful and a real thought-provoker. It had excellent reviews and is really one of the best German films I have seen.

A good student of mine, Christoph, found a link with a list of 10 good films to watch to improve your English. We watched one of them together ‘The King’s Speech’ – such a lovely film with the absolutely gorgeous Colin Firth focusing on English pronunciation – perfect (thanks Christoph).

I thought during the film that your German has to be pretty good to understand the fast informal speech (especially of Nora Tschirner) and I was glad I had read a synopsis of the film beforehand. I must admit I often watch heavily accented films with subtitles so I can understand all the nuances and don’t fall asleep! In fact, I recommend using subtitles, as reading as well as listening to English covers two important skills whilst doing something very enjoyable. If you can then summarise the film verbally or in writing (using the grammar from my last newsletter) you’re doing a lot for your English.

https://www.ef.de/blog/language/die-10-besten-filme-zum-englisch-lernen/

I also found this link with a different selection:

https://onlineteachersuk.com/learn-english-movies-films/

I was happy to see my favourite film of all time in the list, ‘Love Actually’. This ‘rom-com’ (romantic comedy) is an absolute must for Christmas and includes lots of different accents and British humour. And of course it is the perfect ‘donkey bridge’ for the most common false friend …