A good movie: Office Space in ESL classes

Ralf

A few people from a class of students of a vocational school I'm teaching asked me whether we could watch an American film in class. The lad who voiced the request didn't know if it was OK to watch a movie since it wouldn't be in real English. Funny guy. Of course I told him that American English didn't lack anything in terms of realness since most of the world assiduously cultivates this variety of our language. And no, I have never made any derogatory remarks about American English. I love America. I hope I got that right.

Anyway, I could watch any odd movie with them, but I'm sure that there are some Americans or Americaphiliates out there who could recommend one or two suitable flicks. It should appeal to your average youngster in his or her late teens, not be too hard to understand for pre-intermediate learners and at the same time convey a valuable image (positive, of course) of the land of the free.
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Boke · #2 (permalink) Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:09 am *A good movie*

Think family or kid movies, those would be the easiest (certainly not easy though) I just used Back to The Future for an intermediate adult class and they got a good 65-80% of it
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Jamie (K) · #3 (permalink) Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:31 am *A good movie*

I think they'd probably get a kick out of Napoleon Dynamite. To some foreigners without any knowledge of American high school, it's not funny, but many of them get it.

A popular one from last year is Akeelah and the Bee. My friends from Iraq liked that one and The Pursuit of Happyness enough to see them twice, bringing their whole family the second time. I know some Germans who also liked those movies.

Ratatouille is out on DVD now. It's not about the United States, but it's pretty funny. Foreign friends liked this, because everybody had a foreign accent and was therefore easy to understand.

It's still in the theaters, but the movie Bella has been popular lately.

Lost_Soul · #4 (permalink) Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:25 am *A good movie*

I like Office Space
Here is a link to a torrent of this movie if you care to download it from the net:
http://www.torrentz.com/727565aafc88ef7f060b0a4bde445b7f097cbc93

Jamie (K) · #5 (permalink) Sun Dec 23, 2007 13:37 pm *A good movie*

I like Office Space too, but I think parts of it are too sexual to show to kids.

Ralf · #6 (permalink) Sun Dec 23, 2007 21:29 pm *A good movie*

Thank you for your suggestions! I think I'll go with The Pursuit of Happyness.
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Jamie (K) · #7 (permalink) Mon Dec 24, 2007 16:46 pm *A good movie*

Torsten · #8 (permalink) Sat Nov 19, 2011 11:56 am *Office Space is terrific!*

Hi everybody, for anyone of you who is learning English as a second language, you must watch the movie 'Office Space'. It just great. It shows you corporate America at its best and the language is easy to understand. Although it was made in 1999 the messages it conveys are still as true as ever.

I think Office Space is an excellent movie to show and discuss in an ESL class. I'm going to incorporate it in our current LCCI EfB prep project in Dresden using both the movie itself as well as the transcript.
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