DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 1 of 21 28 June 2013 at 10:40am | IP Logged |
It's not that common, but have you come across many shows where a character is shown learning a language ? In the series, The Americans, one of the characters is learning Russian. They show him been tested with flash cards, by a colleague, and sitting down listening to and repeating Russian tapes. The series is set in the early '80s.
Edited by DaraghM on 28 June 2013 at 10:40am
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 2 of 21 28 June 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged |
Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid were learning Spanish (and there was a nice example how counterproductive it is to cheat on tests :-) )
Ah, you wanted just tv series. Well, I think there aren't that many examples in films anyways to throw your thread in too much chaos.
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iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5264 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)
| Message 3 of 21 28 June 2013 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
Red Dwarf has some hilarious examples of Arnold Rimmer trying to learn Esperanto, and failing miserably. I seem to remember he watched a lot of videos. Esperanto was a requirement to become an officer in the Space Corps.
One of my favorite films is Breakfast at Tiffany's or Bonequinha de luxo in Portuguese. Towards the end of the film Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is preparing to leave for Brazil where she thinks she will marry José. She is shown learning Portuguese with a Linguaphone vinyl record. Here's the twist- it's Iberian Portuguese.
Linguaphone Portuguese in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" 1 minute clip
Audrey Hepburn speaking Portuguese in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" short 11 second clip
Edited by iguanamon on 28 June 2013 at 8:53pm
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montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 4 of 21 28 June 2013 at 2:53pm | IP Logged |
The series "Lilyhammer" with Steven Van Zandt has the Van Zandt character learning
Norwegian from a CD or MP3 player, while on the plane from the USA to Norway.
After he gets there, within an improbably short time, he seems to have a good passive
understanding, and occasionally speaks Norwegian, but not a great deal.
The series is in a mixture of English and Norwegian with subtitles.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4911 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 5 of 21 07 July 2013 at 8:50pm | IP Logged |
This is an example of prior learning in a film:
In the 1980 comedy "First Family", there was a foreign ambassador who learnt English from a phrase book. When asked if this was his first visit to America, he replied, "No, the sweater is too expensive!" And in response to another question he said, "It is forbidden to piss into the wind." These were the only funny parts of the movie, in my memory.
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Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5567 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 6 of 21 07 July 2013 at 10:37pm | IP Logged |
There was Mind Your Language - a British comedy about a language school. Even as a 6
year old in the 1970s I thought it traded in stereotypes (even if I didn't express it
that way).
and I was right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRgNG2UZnVc
Edited by Elexi on 07 July 2013 at 10:55pm
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Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian
| Message 7 of 21 07 July 2013 at 10:45pm | IP Logged |
In the Big Bang Theory, Sheldon learns Finnish.
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6599 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 8 of 21 08 July 2013 at 11:16am | IP Logged |
In Love Actually, a man falls in love with his Portuguese maid and learns the language.
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