Teaching English and Culture through Film

(Report)

As English teaching evolves these days, so do English teachers. Books and literature have always made an important appearance in the learning of a new language, but sometimes fail to show important aspects of culture and real life of the English speaking communities. The two articles give importance to the fact that English students have ceased being simple receptors of written words. Stern proposes film as a very effective technique to incentivate students in their writing, because not only does the film tell a story but represents the lifestyle, customs and idioms in a way that students can identify themselves with the characters and students start their own writing without being asked to. Lee Zoreda focuses on the cultural background of the English language, since language is a very distinctive part of any culture and history of a foreign country; intercultural movies can show what views of Americans other countries have and vice versa.
Just as it was shown in the film Borat, a man from Kazakhstan, who works as a journalist, is sent to America to learn about their culture. The film focuses on Borat´s experiences through his journey; he starts doing things that are normal in his homeland but are very upsetting to Americans (such as kissing men on the cheek and making anti-semitic remarks), and he is shocked by the fact that women can vote and have other rights. He falls in love with Pamela Anderson and goes to California to search for her. This illusion makes him lose his goal and he gets in a lot of trouble. Finally, after realizing that he will never be with Pamela, he goes back to his country and marries an American prostitute.
In the same way, the two articles give examples of films that are appropriate for English students, first because the characters speak in the target language (English), and second because it shows the so called “cultural shock” that often happens between the Americans and any other foreign character (i.e Borat). The second article, written by Lee Zoreda, shows how ignorant most Americans are to other country cultures, thinking, for example that Spaniards and Mexicans are the same because they speak the same language, or that all Indian people come from the same place, and reflecting it in their films. For Borat, going to the United States was a great opportunity to know the culture, traditions and way of life of Americans; but his lack of knowledge and consulting caused his experience to be everything except enriching. He considered that his traditions and life style could (and should) be adopted by Americans. Things that the film shows are that sometimes some countries don’t like people from certain countries, and foreign people need to take that in account to prevent bad experiences from happening. In the same way, when people travel to other countries, they share an intercultural experience and they must embrace the life style of said countries, but without losing their own national and cultural identity.
Finally, it can be said that films depict important aspects of human life, not only because of the language, but of the daily lives of the people they want to show and their stories. Students forget that the characters are actors reading a guideline, and instead believe that these are real life scenarios with real people. This way, they reflect about their own lives, cultures and even personal traditions and feel free to write their ideas down, relating their own experiences and comparing them to the ones the characters displayed in the film.
However, it is considered that some scenes in the film Borat are not appropriate for all audiences; and besides that, it shows an exaggeration of cultural depictions of the country of Kazakhstan. Some scenes in the film are so inappropriate that they become disgusting and degrading to women’s rights, Jewish religion and Romani people (gypsies); although some scenes were inappropriate, the humor added to them made them more bearable (but to others, black humor makes films more awkward, nasty and unpleasant), showing us that even matters as serious as religion or politics can be subject of entertainment.


Bibliographic References
1.Lee, M. (2006) Intercultural Moments in Teaching English Through Film.
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa. México.
2.Stern, A. (s/f) Using Films in Teaching English Composition. English
Department , Montcalir High School. New Jersey.
3.Cohen, S. (2006) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. 20 th Century Fox. United States of America.