Korean Job Discussion Forums

[the_beaver]

Let's say you were going to teach a multimedia English class and decided to require students to watch one movie (or television show) on their own time in preparation for class (one a week for 13 weeks and every week's class would start with a quiz to ensure that students watched the movie).

Class time would be used for speaking about that week's movie and doing related activities. Which movies (tv shows) would you choose and why.

[SuperHero]

The Graduate - great theme, superb cinematography and it's well known in Korea, though most younger people haven't watched it.

Dead Poets Society - very popular here, and the story speaks to Koreans as it really is a metaphor for the Korean school system.

Nightmare on Elm Street - give them a taste of what a western style horror/slasher film is about, make sure it's only the first one as it isn't the bloodbath that the rest of the series turned out to be

Psycho a true psychological horror and a classic

2001 a Space Oddossy - damn I can't remember how to spell that. Classic science fiction with several deep themes and messages

Star Wars: A new hope - This is what Star Wars is, not Jar Jar Binks! and remind them that it was filmed in 1977

The Godfather - almost perfect cinema

Supersize Me Gotta watch a documentary and this is a great one.

The Princess Bride It's funny, a fairy tale, and a great movie.

If I think of anymore overnight I'll let you know.

[crazylemongirl]

I second the Princess Bride.

Whalerider -the English in it is very simple. Beautiful story and the scenery is fanbloodytastic. It will appeal to younger koreans as the story echoes some sentiments about how traditional socities battle against modernity. Also they get some exposure to non-american english (as it's a new zealand film).

The power of one. Again some more exposure to non-american english. Good themes, and a chance to see Africa is more than just people running around with bones through their noses.

Stand by me. Again good coming of age movie, if you have many males in your class.

CSI - Cause it's cool.

The neverending story. Koreans seem to really like fantasy/adventure stories. The themes in it are pretty obvious. Also they can laugh at the 'old school' special effects.

Ghostbusters - Staypuffed marshmallow man! Also song is good tie in lesson.

[noguri]

Zardoz. Everybody, no matter who they are must watch Zardoz. A film from the 1970s starring Sean Connery.

Does it have redeeming value for ESL? Sure. After the nuclear war, the immortals are trying to teach Sean Connery how to read. They are teaching words that are futuristically mis-spelled [or, just spelled futuristically] like "apulz" instead of "apples." The Korean students can review and correct these obvious spelling errors.

Hmm, what about The Traveling Executioner, starring Bud Cort and Stacy Keach? It'll teach them about...uh, weird 70s movies.

Two-Lane Blacktop, starring pop singer James Taylor as he races his souped up GTO across the country.

Clute is good. Anything with Jane Fonda. Why not Barbarella?

Basically, I would brainwash students to try to make them like 1970s culture from the US. Hopefully they would turn me on to 70s culture from Korea! I would dig it.

[Faron]

Monsters Inc: Love the plot, very original
Shrek: Great for kids and adults
Finding nemo: Poor fishy
Super size me would be cool for the kids
Pretty Woman: It's a classic

Those are just movies I liked, in my theatre class (4th year uni) we studied films like platoon or full metal jacket because they have lots of hidden plots and symbolism. Movies like Jurassic Park that revolutionized the movie seen and is always a crowd pleaser. Oh ya we also watched both the old and new romeo and juliet.

We also Watched and analysed spartacus but I really didn't like that movie as much as the others.

[Captain Corea]

The Apprentice - Good for business vocabulary.
Desperate Housewives - Everyone likes drama.


These are for adults of course.

[Faron]

Friends! Everybody loves that show

[TJ]

[gdimension]

I taught Forrest Gump in a multimedia class last semester and it went over fairly well. He speaks slow enough that it was fairly easy to understand, and he speaks "wrong enough" that we could talk about all of the grammar mistakes he made.

(As an aside, I made a lot of materials for that movie (broke it up into scenes, cleaned up script, made listening exercises, vocabublary lists, comprehension questions, etc.) that I wouldn't mind giving to anyone in exchange for something similar of another movie or TV show.)

[deessell]

Not sure if you know about this site. http://www.eslnotes.com/

It has many films and has everything that the esl teacher needs. Most are geared towards strong intermediate.

Contains character lists, the idioms etc.

[Faron]

[the_beaver]

Some pretty good stuff here, but:

[voth]

What about The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, or Toy Story I, II? Each should keep the kids occupied and should make for an interesting session.

[the_beaver]

[the_beaver]

Any more thoughts? I'm just finishing up the syllabus now.