2.en.57 Describing characters: some useful adjectives to talk about personality

We have already looked at how to talk abour age and looks and now we are going to expand our vocabulary to be able to analyse people’s personality. Yesterday we talked about how different the four main characters of the film “Stand by me” are. Have a look at the table below and check you understand the meaning of the adjectives that appear in each column.

Gordie	Chris	Teddy	Vern
Resourceful  Creative Arty Invisible Smart Intelligent Loner Observant	Tough (outside)  Sensitive Independent Brave Courageous Handsome Resolute Rebellious	Imaginative  Defensive(violent) Dreamer Crazy Problematic Fearless Foolish	Naive  Whiner Fat Indecisive Unambitious Ingenuous Plain

For Thursday 3rd, as homework, you must choose 1 character and 3 adjectives. Then you must look for evidence in the film to support your choice. Use the dictionary and look at the example below to help you.

http://www.wordreference.com/

In this link you can also find a lot of words  to describe personality listed in alphabetical order. It is like a dictionary to talk about character. You do not have to learn them, but they come with audio, so if you want, you can check how the adjectives are pronounced.

http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/omexpress/psicologia/personalidadycaracter.htm

Gordie is creative. You can see it when he invents a story by the campfire.

Character’s description	Evidence /scene
Gordie is creative	During the night, at the campfire, he invents a story

Try not to repeat the same character/evidence your classmates have posted. Use your imagination!

2.en.52 Different versions of the song that gives the movie its name “stand by me”

The theme song of the film “Stand by me” was performed by Ben E. King and written by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In the 60’s. According to Wikipedia, “Stand by Me” was ranked number 121 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1999, BMI named it as the fourth most-performed song of the 20th century, with about 7 million performances.

Here follow 3 versions of the song. One is a cartoon animation, the other one is the result of an initiative to use music to connect people from all over the world, called “playing for a change”

Finally you might choose to sing along the original Ben E. King version as you read the lyrics

Timon and Pumba (animation)

“Playing For Change: Peace Through Music” street musicians from all over the world singing together

Stand By Me (lyrics) – Ben E. King

1. What do you think about them?
2. Which one do you like best?
3. Do you understand the lyrics?
4. What are the words you did not understand and had to look up in the dictionary?

Homework: Post your answers to the blog for Monday23rd January

 

2.en.51 “stand by me”

We shall see it together in class, but you might want to watch it at home in its original language.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-pcwt6XpDM
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emU083jDVlk
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdxGAb2x_n4
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8JpBltAmKk
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXUZA3libIc

 

2.en.49 From books to Films: “Island for sale” and “Stand by me”. Some useful language to talk about films

Last term we set off reading a book about an island, a Scottish island, and we learnt some important aspects that we must include in a book review:

Author, publisher, genre, setting, narrator, characters, plot.

This term we shall move form  books to films. We have already talked about movies, haven’t we? I’m sure most of you saw a film Christmas, do you remember it? Last week you asked Taylor questions about a book, now you must prepare a set of questions to ask her about a film, she saw during Christmas and about her favourite films

We shall  uploaded   a film ”Stand By Me” that has to do with the topic of this term: family and relationships. In the first term we looked at the physical environment around us: our city and our school. This second term we shall concentrate on the relations we establish with our family, with our friends and with the people around. In English we’ll learn to talk about people and their personality, we’ll also learn to talk about and to describe feelings, we’ll use films to illustrate conflicts and different attitudes towards family life and friendship. We hope you’ll enjoy the film and learn a lot doing all the activities.

Homework: In English you have to prepare a short summary of a film for Monday next week, and we’ll also look at some parts of “stand  by me” in its English original version. In this post you will learn some vocabulary that will help you analyse and talk about films as real professional reviewers.

 

Here follow some useful words to talk about films. Check the ones you know and copy them in your notebook. then try to fill the gaps of the texts using the words in the box. This activity must be done for Wednesday. You do not need to copy the text in your notebook. Just  the vocabulary and the answers next to the numbers. Remember to write the summary of the film of your  choice. We’ll do “Stand by me” together.

1 action  2.actors 3.animation 4.blockbusters 5.cameo 6.camera

7.character  8.comedy 9.critic 10.documentary 11. extra 12.genre

13.horror  14. plot 15. projector 16.scenes 17.sci-fi 18.screen

19.sequel  20. setting 21.star 22.theater 23.ticket 24.usher

Parts of the Movie:

The place or time a movie takes place is called the (1)_________________. What happens in a movie is called the (2)_____________. A movie is usually broken up into many(3) _________________.  The movie is filmed with a(4)________________.

People in Movies:

The people who act in the movie are (5)_________________. A (6)_______________ is a part that an actor plays. The main actor is sometimes called the (7)____________________. When a famous person has a short appearance in a film it is called a (8)___________________. An (9)______________ is an unimportant person who acts in the background. A(10) ________________ is a person who watches movies and writes reviews about them.

Movie Genres:

The type of movie is the movie (11)_________________. A movie that makes you laugh is a (12)___________________. A movie that makes you scream is a (13)___________________. A movie that is exciting with lots of guns and explosions is an(14) ______________ movie. Movies about the future or space are known as (15)__________________ films. And a movie about real life is a (16)_______________________. An(17) __________________ film has cartoon characters.

Blockbusters

Movies with big budgets that sell a lot of tickets are called (18)______________________. Many of these movies do so well that movie producers make a (19)_______________, or part II.

At the Theater:

The place where you watch a movie is called a (20)_________________. To see a movie, usually, you have to buy a (21)__________________. The movie is projected onto a large (22)_______________ using a movie (23)_________________. An (24)__________________ is a person who shows you to your seat and makes sure everybody is quiet during the movie

This activity is from an excellent site

© 2005 www.bogglesworldesl.com

if you want to download the document to do the activity on a word document a keep it you can visit the site

 

2.en.48 Before watching a film, let’s think about things we can’t stand…

In our last lesson I told you that this term we will be watching a film “stand by me” that deals with relationships among families and groups of friends.

Stand, stood, stood; Stand by; Stand for; Stand out; I can’t stand.

You all know what the verb to stand means, don’t you?  But I bet you do not know many of the idiomatic expressions with stand. Today we’ll learn a few. To begin with , let’s start with the title of the film.” Stand by me”

Stand by = apoyar, respaldar

“Stand by me” has been translated as “Cuenta conmigo”, but it also could have been translated as “Apóyame”, “Respáldame”

The opposite Let someone down=  dejar en la estacada, fallar, no apoyar y dejar tirado a alguien.

Stand out = destacar, sobresalir

Stand for= defender, abogar

Stand for= significar, representar

• Basketball players stand out in the crowd, they are usually so tall!
• Stand for your rights, don’t let bullies frighten you.
• What does UFO stand for?

There’s a very common expression with stand, “I can’t stand”= I strongly dislike, I hate

I’ll give you five  examples of somethings I cannot stand:

1. I can’t stand bullies and violent people
2. I can’t stand people who are whining all the time
3. I can’t stand lying on the beach for hours
4. I can’t stand Reggaeton
5. I can’t stand crazy driving and the sound of motorbikes speeding up in the city

What about you?

Homework  Wednesday 18th: Write 5 things you can’t stand and post them to the blog.