Job Discussion Forums

george61 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 59 Location: china

I was watching a show called Mission Possible last night.....first time I'd seen it, and also the last time! A scruffy,young American git was "teaching" English to a group of teenagers.............something about samples.and I swear to God,he said ".........you've got this big frikkin watermelon..........."
What are your thoughts on how TV is used to teach English......for example, style of program....presenters.....language used...etc........(sorry,...and so on)

kimo · Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 668

These kinds of shows might have their place. Say for example, someone's level is high and he/she going to America to study and live. Could be useful. But usually, I believe, the people looking at these shows haven't yet mastered the basics. Modern English is another culprit in this genre. In an attempt to find a niche, they spew out total garbage that is not useful to most students here.

I hate it when someone says. "I very like eat big, friggin' watermelons. So cool!"

George, you Aussies could do well to start your own Aussie English show on the boob tube. Lots of students going that way. Maybe throw in some Kiwi jargon to snare those headed that way too.

You could start a story line. I can envision it now.

"Aye, twas during Govner Bligh's administration that me great, great, great granddaddy led the insurrection. Things got a wee bit outta 'and and they hanged the poor b-tard. But not before he sired the next generation. And that leads ya to me 'n' the purpose of this show so now I'll stop usin' this bloody Cauckney accent...." Very Happy

----

P.S. Can you believe it? The software beeped Cauckney.

wOZfromOZ · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 272 Location: Shanghai

Another outstanding example is the "Crazy English" moron.....

I'm always quick to point out to my students when the topic crops up about the unforgivable errors made on the part of TV EXECUTIVES here in China allowing this moron to go on tv to supposedly exemplify western standards - certainly not Australian!

The guy's parents forgot to turn the oxygen on at birth I reckon and what you get is "zhende shen jing bing" - the real deal - they dont get any more pathetically rediculous. ting de dong ma?

wOZfromOZ

(now that's really shooting from the hip hey Jen! Very Happy

)

george61 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 59 Location: china

I agree about Mr Crazy English.but at least he dresses well. The scruff that I saw was exactly that!! SCRUFFY!!...3 days growth,long,blonde hair,(unwashed,uncombed and unkempt),untidy clothes. His presentation was appalling.Discussing fruit with a "street vendor" he refuses to buy this fruit because "it has seeds"...so he throws it away,and decides to buy a watermelon......like a watermelon has no seeds?????
The presentation was bad,the presenter was worse! Nothing to do with nationality or accents, Kimo.
How many other of these slobs are there,out there????
COCKNEY!!!....well,bugger me,it does bleep cockney!...CORKNEY.

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Herbie · Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 31 Location: weihei

thank you oh wise ones for your incite
had you not pointed out such glaring insults to our existence, i may have believed everything i see on tv..
im not sure what the problem is here...are you worried we will all receive a bad rep because some seppo wan.ker on tv made us look silly because he was cursin about fruit ?
next you'll be telling us the matrix doesnt exist, and freddy krueger won't really torment us while we sleep
not EVERYTHING is out to get you trolls.....only i am
dissect away............

Steiner · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 573 Location: Hunan China

Yeah, there are some bad ones. There's a program on with this horribly animated little thing up in the top left corner of the screen and it talks to the presenter with a high squeaky little voice. It looks like a Pokemon reject.

One of the ones I watch is a competition--they have a flower as their logo. Three kids compete in different English games. It's pretty funny sometimes. The guy presenter will sometimes trash people from the audience who are called on to help the contestants. They're just volunteers who try to help the kids in a game, and they get insulted on national TV. The contestants get it, too. Sometimes the show has a visiting professor from Beida. The one guy I watched could barely speak English and was trying to explain some Chinese poems that had been translated very badly into English. The idea was for the contestants to read the English version and tell what famous Chinese poem it was, but the translations were incomprehensible. Word by word out of a dictionary is my guess.

george61 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 59 Location: china

Respect,herbie. It's about respect. This "bum" has no respect for himself,his audience, or the people he is working with.
BTW..we hope to illuminate you with our INSIGHT.

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

I know the lady who does the English-learning program on Shenzhen TV. It turns out she has to bow to all these station-created regulations when making the show. I first met her when her co-host was leaving SZ, and she talked to a bunch of people from my program to see if any of us wanted to do it. She was interested in three of us: a guy named Lovell, a guy named Matt, and me. She talked to the station and they nixed me because her co-host had to be male. They nixed Lovell because he is black, because they thought viewers wouldn't watch the show because he'd be "too frightening." They told her they wanted her to get a white man with blond hair, and they picked Matt, who, to his eternal shame, appeared on the program. Whenever it came on, his roommate would turn up the sound really high to torment him, and he'd run from his apartment going, "Aaaagh!"