English for Wizards

Wild and zany summer movies

By John Moore

Yahoo Movies で映画の予告編をチェックできる

It's summer! That means lots of zany movies. This year there is "The Matrix", "Terminator," "Hulk," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and much more. Do you like movies?

If you do, then those movies can help you learn English, mainly because movies tend to be more exciting than ordinary textbook English. And your computer can make it even more fun and easy.

One great thing about today's personal computers is that they can replace many other appliances. You don't really need a CD player, for example, because your computer can play CDs. Thanks to the Internet, your computer is also a radio with worldwide reach. And with a special plug-in circuit board, your computer can even be a television. You don't need a VCR anymore either, of course, because you can watch movies on your computer's DVD player.

These days you can find hundreds of DVDs at your local video rental shop. The great thing for English learners is that DVDs usually let you switch languages, so you can enjoy the dubbed Japanese version and then compare it with the English original. You can also choose either Japanese or English subtitles, or no subtitles at all.

If you don't have a DVD player, you can still rent a video and then download the movie's script from the Internet, so you can study it. Try searching for your favorite movie's script at Simply Scripts (http://simplyscripts.com), but be careful to use the "ScriptSearch" box on the right side instead of the "Net search" box at the top-left.

I entered "Wizard of Oz"(without quotes) in that search blank and found three good choices. But you can search for any movie you like, old or new. Peter's favorite these days is "The Matrix," and we found the script to the latest film, which is still in theaters.

It's also fun to watch short video clips online. Try going to Yahoo Movies (http://movies.yahoo.com), and click on the "Trailers" tab below the search box. There are often several short videos for each movie.

Try just listening to the short video clips over and over until you understand everything. Or, if you succeeded in downloading the script for that movie, use your browser's "find" function to search for the place in the script that you are studying. In Internet Explorer, for example, you can do Edit - Find (on This Page).

It's amazing how many movies there are - some good, some bad and some really terrible. If you look, you'll surely find one for you.

Shukan ST: July 25, 2003

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