Language-related popular films?

Thu Aug 17 16:13:51 UTC 2006

I've been wondering about that too--it would be great to find a way  
to share these resources in general so that we weren't all  
digitizing, clipping, etc. the same things.

Robin

On Aug 17, 2006, at 11:47 AM, Alexandre Enkerli wrote:

> Great lists. Silly question, probably, but it might be a good idea  
> to put these on YouTube. Surely, the excerpts are short enough to  
> count as fair use, no?
>
> On 8/17/06, Dr. Mark Peterson <petersm2 at muohio.edu> wrote:
> I've done three columns on this for the SLA based on member  
> contributions, over the years but Anthrosource doesn't archive  
> Anthro Newsletter back that far.  Here are the films that were  
> mentioned in the columns, along with credit where possible:
>
>
> Bambi
>
> Has anyone watched Bambi's language acquisition process recently?   
> B-b-b-birds?  Kate Riley
>
> Beavis and Butthead Do America
>
> Contains a humorous scene based on the prescription against using a  
> preposition to end a sentence with.  Ronald Kephart, University of  
> North Florida.
>
> Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
>
> There are wonderful moments when the protagonists struggle with the  
> Spanish language, which they need in order to flee to Mexico.  Once  
> there they manage to rob a bank with their obviously limited  
> Spanish, but these limits become painfully obvious when they  
> encounter real Mexican bandidos.  A great excuse for linguists to  
> see this classic again.  Marie-Lucie Tarpent, Mount Saint Vincent  
> University.
>
> Canadian Bacon
>
> And there's the scene from "Canadian Bacon" between John Candy and  
> Stephen Wright.  Stephen Wright, playing a Canadian, says "What's  
> this aboot?" and John
> Candy (or somebody else) says "We're going to knock that 'oot' out  
> of your speech!"  Very funny.  Shana Walton
>
> Dances with Wolves
>
> Kevin Costner, oops I mean Lt. Dunbar, learns Lakota in absolutely  
> no elapsed time between scenes.  Hal Schiffman, University of  
> Pennsylvania.
>
> Dead Dog Cafe
>
> On a slightly different tack, CBC Radio One in Canada has a First  
> Nations satire program called Dead Dog Cafe.  Usually there is a  
> segment called Conversational Creein which the hosts teach non-Cree  
> speakers useful Cree phrases like Please ask the chauffeur to bring  
> the car around.  Amusing for the dabbler and a spring-off point for  
> undergrads who aren't ready to handle things like Hill's mock  
> Spanish article right off the bat.  For the one or two of you who  
> may not live in Canada, text & Real Audio files available at the  
> Dead Dog Cafe website:  http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/deaddog/
> Jeff Deby, Georgetown University
>
> Encino Man
>
> Funny scenes of the caveman guy learning English after having been  
> dug up (I'm told; I haven't actually seen this one).  Hal  
> Schiffman, University of Pennsylvania.
>
> The Funeral
>
> In this Japanese film by director Itami Juzo a couple views a video  
> on "How to Have a Funeral" to learn the proper  things to say.  
> Laura Miller.
>
> I Cento Passi
> A recent Italian film I Cento Passi,(directed by Marco Tullio  
> Giordana) has quite a bit of dialect-standard Italian codeswitching  
> as well as some English codeswitching.  Petek Kurtboke.
>
> Phenomenon
>
> John Travolta learns Portuguese in about 10 minutes, after being  
> struck by lightning.  Hal Schiffman, University of Pennsylvania.
>
> Tampopo
>
> In this Japanese film by director Itami Juzo you find a noodle  
> masterusing high-register tea-ceremony-like language and gestures  
> to instruct a truck driver in the art of eating ramen.  Laura Miller
>
> Tas Notika Riga
>
> Codeswitching of Latvian and Russian is characteristic to Latvian  
> TV film Tas notika
> Riga('It has happened in Riga').  Rita Urneziute, Vilnius, Lithuania
>
> Taxing Woman
>
> This Japanese film by director Itami Juzo has samples of Yakuza  
> speechas well as a woman using so-called masculinespeech. Laura  
> Miller.
>
> The 13th Warrior
>
> If you haven't seen The 13th Warrior, it's worth seeing the movie  
> just to see Antonio Banderas learn a second language by just  
> sitting around a campfire, no assistance from the native speakers,  
> and immediately produces complex forms! I first saw this movie  
> because a fellow linguist called and said, hey, you've got to come  
> see this...  Shana Walton
>
> The 25th Hour
> Many years ago I saw The 25th Hour,a movie about Europe in the  
> turmoil and aftermath of WWII.  The main character, a simple man  
> who is uprooted by the war and thrown about by circumstances  
> totally beyond his control, gave me the impression of being almost  
> an idiot.  I was quite young when i saw this film and later  
> realized that this impression was given because there should have  
> been 5 or 6 languages spoken in this film, and of course the hero,  
> played by Anthony Quinn, could not understand them, but since the  
> same language (with varied accents, but all understandable) was  
> spoken by all the characters in the film, it did not make sense  
> that he, unlike the audience, could not understand what was being  
> said.  An object lesson in how to gloss over language  
> difficulties.  Marie-Lucie Tarpent, Mount Saint Vincent University.
>
> Wayne's World
>
> And then there's the scene from Wayne's Worldwhere Wayne is having  
> a conversation about relationships with pop-star love-interest  
> Cassandra. She is a native Cantonese speaker and Wayne has  
> (rapidly) mastered Cantonese. In the scene, their deeply serious  
> and reflective conversation is about the psychology of  
> relationships and dependence, but the very lengthy English  
> subtitles are co-ordinated with maybe only one or two words in  
> Cantonese. It's a great take on linguistic relativity. Dr. Claire  
> Cowie, University of Sheffield
>
> The Wild Child
>
> In Truffaut's The Wild Child / L'Enfant Sauvage  the issue is the  
> acquisition of  speech, period.  Students love it [though it is a  
> bit slow, in parts] and there are humorous / heart rending moments.  
> Maria-Luisa Achino-Loeb, N.Y.U./Gallatin.
>
>
> Mark Allen Peterson and James Stanlaw
>
> Linguistic Moments in the Movies
>
> We are again approaching the end of the school year, when the  
> strain of final projects, term papers and grading brings on  
> exhaustion for professors and students alike.  Its time to break  
> out the montage of movie clips you have cobbled together based on  
> last years May SLA column, presenting films and television programs  
> that feature sublime and ridiculous representations of human speech.
>
> Whats that?  Youve already shown those clips?  Not to worry.  The  
> following film and television suggestions should meet your needs  
> for some time to come.
>
> Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
>
>
> Dr. Evil, who has traveled back in time 30 years, uses 1990s slang  
> of African American origin (talk to the hand,you ain't all  
> that,gansta rap) while extorting money from the president of the  
> United States in 1969.
>
>
> Enterprise Two Days and Two Nights(May 15, 2002)
>
>
> On leave, Hoshi Sato, the communications officer (who speaks 40  
> languages) meets a stranger who shares her passion for language.  
> After 24 hours with Hoshi, the stranger
> speaks impeccable English.  Hoshi fails to learn his native  
> language, though -- she asks him to speak a little more slowly and  
> he says that if he spoke more slowly that would change the  
> meaning.  They end up having a one-night stand, thus communicating  
> on a nonverbal level.
> The Limey (1999)
>
>
> Terrance Stamp is a British criminal who travels to California to  
> avenge his daughters death.  His Cockney is unintelligible to most  
> Americans.  At one point, he tries to convince a California police  
> chief that they are after the same thing but from different  
> directions, employing some Cockney rhyming slang like "china" for  
> mate (china plate = mate). After his speech the chief confesses he  
> couldn't understand a word he said.
> Never Been Kissed (1999)
>
>
> David Arquette, the cutest boy in school, coins a new slang word  
> and tries to get his friends to use it. These scenes offer a good  
> way to illustrate the difference between slang and dialect, which  
> many students have difficulty teasing apart.
> Sesame Street
>
>
> Theres a scene that makes a great discussion starter on language  
> acquisition in which Ernie tries to teach a baby to say his name,  
> and it does not work.  I cant locate the episode number, but the  
> clip is used in Acquiring the Human Language: Playing the Language  
> Game,the second volume of PBS program The Human Language, now  
> available as a video series.
>
>
> Star Trek: "Metamorphosis" (Nov. 10, 1967)
>
>
> This episode introduced the concept of the universal translator.   
> This handy device renders linguists unnecessary, as it  
> automatically translates every nuance of language on the basis of a  
> set of "universal" concepts (one of which is the distinction  
> between male and female, which even sapient energy clouds  
> apparently share).
>
>
> Star Trek: The Next Generation: Darmok(Sept. 30, 1991)
>
>
> The universal translators dont work on the Tamarians in this  
> episode, which is built entirely around an effort to communicate.   
> It turns out the Tamarians communicate entirely by metaphors that  
> refer to their own myth cycles (how does one construct a myth cycle  
> without a language?  Its a Tamarian secret).  The Tamarian captain  
> Darmok teaches Enterprise Captain Picard this language of metaphor  
> through the interesting pedagogical technique of kidnapping him and  
> forcing him to ritually act out one of the myths (unfortunately, it  
> is one in which two heroes become friends by defeating a monstrous  
> beast with just their knives).  Once Picard gets the hang of it, he  
> teaches the alien the myth of Enkidu and Gilgamesh.
>
>
> What Planet Are You From? (2000)
>
> This film about an alien from an all-male planet come to earth to  
> attempt to impregnate an earth woman may not be top-notch comedy  
> but it includes a number of great scenes about male-female language  
> differences.  There is a scene of alien men being trained how to  
> pretend to be listening to earth women.  Later in the film is a  
> scene in which a revised course (based on fieldwork) is presented.   
> The film also includes several scenes of the alien on earth  
> applying compliments in inappropriate contexts.
>
> Thanks to William O. Beeman (Brown University), Carol Hayman  
> (Austin Community College), April Leininger (UCLA), and Leslie C.  
> Moore (UCLA) for suggestions.
>
>
>
>
> At 02:19 PM 8/15/2006 +0800, Kerim Friedman wrote:
>> Teaching in Taiwan, I find my students do not have the English  
>> ability
>> necessary to follow films like "American Tongues" and "Cross Talk" -
>> but many Hollywood films, and some documentaries from the Discovery
>> Channel and National Geographic, etc. are available here with Chinese
>> subtitles at the night market. Which brings me to my question: Can
>> anyone think of popular films (contemporary or classics, US or
>> foreign) with language related themes that might be suitable for
>> teaching? I've thought of a few, but I'm not too happy with the list
>> so far:
>>
>> Windtalkers (2002)
>> Pygmalion (1938)
>> The Unconquered (1954)
>> Enfant sauvage, L' (1970) (many more such films about feral children
>> are listed at http://www.feralchildren.com )
>> Children of a Lesser God (1986)
>> Ishi: The Last Yahi (1992)
>> Lost in Translation (2003)
>> The Conversation (1974)
>>
>> I almost added Blazing Saddles for the Yiddish-speaking Indian chief,
>> but then thought better of it...
>>
>> Obviously some of these films are better than others (as far as
>> teaching is concerned) - but I just wanted to put something out to  
>> jog
>> people's minds. Send your suggestions to me at this address (off
>> list): oxusnet [at] gmail [dot] com.
>>
>> I'm traveling for a while, but I'll edit together all the suggestions
>> and mail it back to the list  (and on the web) when I get back.  When
>> you send your suggestions please state how I should list your name  
>> and
>> affiliation if I post this list publicly on the web.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Kerim
>>
>> -- 
>> ____________________________________
>> P. Kerim Friedman
>> Department of Indigenous Cultures
>> College of Indigenous Studies
>> National DongHwa University, TAIWAN
>> http://kerim.oxus.net/
>> ______________________________
>
>
>
> -- 
> Alexandre
> http://enkerli.wordpress.com/

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