Interesting videos / DVDs with business situations..?

[strider]

Can you recommend any films that have scenes and / or dialogue that would be useful in Business English settings?

For example, a movie with lots of scenes of offices, hotels, airports, giving directions, cross-cultural problems, etc.

I think the visual aspect will be more important than the dialogue, as I want to exploit the images and have the students imagine what the characters are saying.

A few titles that have come to mind so far include 'Lost in Translation', 'The Firm' and 'The Matrix' (just the first bit, obviously!)

Any ideas?

[Sally Olsen]

There was a movie with Tom Selleck about him playing baseball in Japan but his Japanese girlfriend worked in an office and she took him home where he committed lots of gaffs. How about 9 to 5? Winning London with Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen has several scenes in a hotel, shows the young fellow being a dork with pick up lines and has great directions in "London English" from the taxi driver. The best movie for giving directions was Whose on First? - well not exactly directions but understanding a fast and loaded conversation. Matrix Reloaded has the scene where the pilot, Niaobi is giving Morpheus directions. Bend It Like Beckham has a scene at the airport and you can see David Beckham's back (maybe). Pretty Woman shows living in a hotel and another side of hotel life. What about all those Airplane farces? Johnny English (a talking Mr. Bean) manages to kill off the secretary in his James Bond rip-off near the beginning of the movie. The old Columbo reruns have lots of scenes in the office and he always asks tons of questions. Whether they could understand them or not, is another question. There was a movie called "Inferno" I think that had a lot of office scenes at the beginning before everything caught on fire. I guess you know the Side By Side video. My friend Jaffer has a home page with lots of ideas http://www.carleton.ca/~jsheyhol/esl.htm

[strider]

Thanks for the info Sally, great ideas!

Also, I followed the link you gave me and I found another really useful site (in case anyone else is interested) :

http://www.eslnotes.com/synopses.html

A colleague suggested 'The Office' (a recent BBC comedy), has anyone used this in class?

[Popster]

I have been using streaming video from the Internet.

If you have an Internet connection in your classroom it is easier. I recently signed up for Internet access using my cell phone and can connect somewhat faster than a dial-up line to a laptop.

There are a number of sights that make video files available - there are some great ones in the newsrooms of Universities.

Unfortunately, many sites prevent direct download access.

I just found the Annenberg/CPB site that allows you to play files on-line and has some good situational dialogs for everyday activities.

Note particularly: http://www.learner.org/resources/series71.html# - Kevin and Rebecca could be good Soap Opera characters.

Good luck - let me know if you have questions relating to the technology - it can get a bit muddy but many issues can be worked around.

Popster

[strider]

Hi <b>Popster</b>

Thanks for your reply and the link.

I'm now putting together a few short films and extracts that I can use directly from my laptop (not all our training rooms have internet access) and I intend to make a CD version for my colleagues.

So, I've found a few short films and extracts. One I've used is www.bmwfilms.com - short films, good quality, very watchable. (I used Season 1 'Star'. It certainly livened up the 'Advertising' module of my Business English course!) Also, my technician friend just made a DivX film from an old (but favorite) VHS tape documentary.

I'd be interested in any links that can help me acquire a few more films.

Also, further to the message I posted above, I have just bought the BBC DVD of 'The Office' - I'll post any ideas I come up with.

[sbourque]

Just saw this topic--I used "Working Girl" with Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith, and Sigourney Weaver this semester. Made in 1988 I think, lots of good business vocabulary and topics for discussion (business culture, ethics, women in the workplace) plus some brief nudity which you may or may not want to fast-forward past, depending on where you teach and how old your students are.

Other films: Trading Places, Other People's Money, Big Business.

[CPT_MONK]

suitable for the classroom?

http://www.evade.info/bumcloth/mov/geor ... co_uk).wmv

CHars!
Mike

[sbourque]

I recently saw "In Good Company" and would recommend it when it comes out on video/DVD. Good business situations and a not-cliche ending.

[Hewit7]

Check out the site www.archive.org lots of great video archives you can download really cool films.from the prelinger collection.

[Mike Drummond]

this is a bit off what yr asking about but thought that it is very useful just the same: for really excellent listening comp material complete with soundtrack and transcripts see: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl? ... 17/1447233

and then go to http://www.democracynow.org/search.pl?query=video

[joshua2004]

Here are my goodies:
Commercials! they're the best; short, funny and have a point!http://giesbers.net/video/

Movie trailers! for upper intermediate and advanced, I think its beter to choose a movie they haven't seen to make it more of a new and interesting thing. On this site you can download lots of movies that are about a year old. the newer movies are just streaming video. But when I can't find a newer movie I want in a downloadable format such as Windows Media or Quicktime, I just google search using stems such as "star wars III download wmv" or quicktime.http://www.movie-list.com/

And Movie Shorts! this site has lots of downloadable movie shorts but many of them don't have audio or the audio is real bad. I found one move called "grape scented" that I use a lot. This site also has movie trailers. http://www.pocketmovies.net/pop.html

And as long as I am sharing links, I have a really good audio link. Its a website called voa news. They have a section that is called "special english" they give a transcript of the story AND have an downloadable audio link of a reporter reading the story reeeeaaalllllyyyyy slow. My students really like it. and they have up to date stories all the time.http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/ To download an audio story, just right click on the link and select "save target as"

[Muttman]

Try Glenn Garry Glenn Ross for business situations. The language is a bit colorful but so are the characters and the dialogs. There are just so many brillant actors in this one, how could you go wrong? Al Pacino is the man!

The Mutt

[kisi]

Hi,
For business English teachers, try using the movie THE APPRENTICE by Donald Trump. This is a reality show and it has great stuff to teach business English with. The first season is great. There are activities you can do to teach NEGOTIATION, and more business skills with. I have used the first episode of season one to teach students how to describe different roles in a company for example. Also see an interactive listening quiz I built with this movie here http://www.englishmedialab.com/business.html
For ideas on how to build worksheets for video lessons, please visit this link http://www.esl-galaxy.com/video.htm
It works for me. It may work for you. Cheers!

[aprillove20]

Well, I think language is a bit colorful and visual aspect will be more important than the dialogue.