Pill Bug's comments of August 5, 1999 about studying strategies:

In your answer to Writing-hungry in May 3, you gave us tips for improving English speaking skill: "One is watching foreign movies. Another is reading."

I believe they are lovely ideas. However, when it comes to movies, I'm afraid we cannot work out on our own. Of course screenplays of some movies are available, but they always leave much to be desired. What I really want to know is how bad the words are, or how corny the lines sound, or how funny and silly the sayings are, or whatever, that is, how useful they are to us. (The idioms from "A Bug's Life" are interesting to me, though I hate bugs.)

I have no clear idea right now, but I vaguely think that you may help us learn the most current, practical, useful, natural, and cool English used in films on this English Station (or in cartoons and pop songs as well). And this may sound strange, but the functions of this station is ER for active English learners. We can wait until Monday updating, but cannot count on a remote chance that we may happen to find the right answer in a vast amount of books at the corner, I don't know, maybe, 5 or 6 in Kinokuniya. Well, I could wait 3 or 4 weeks for your answer.

The goal of many English learners here is comprehend TIME articles and CNN news, I suppose. I wish I could, too. But even TIME often quotes lines from movies and lyrics from pop songs. So, without getting familiar with American pop culture, we cannot really understand English.

Please remember this a little when you have a future plan for this home page.

I'm encouraged by your comments--it's great to see that some students are actively studying the living language!

I agree with you--it can take a lot of research to find the meaning of one word or statement in a movie or song. It gets even more complicated when the word or expression in question is a cultural reference. I sometimes have the same problem myself--the cultural reference is either too old (before my time) or too recent (something that has became popular since I came to Japan).

So, what can we do?

The easiest thing to do ask ask a native speaker. Feel free to ask me in the Guestbook or by e-mail, or before or after class. This is an expedient method, but not always desirable--you can become somewhat dependent on other people for every question you have.

First, then, I would try to develop my own efficient methods for finding the answer. Once you've done this, it will be easier for you to quickly figure out the best way to find the answer you're looking for. Here are my ideas:

1. Have at least one good dictionary; having several good dictionaries would be even better. The larger, the better. This will cover a good bit of what you're looking for--even slang and idioms if the dictionary is big enough.

2. Have access to an encyclopedia.

3. If you're especially interested in one particular area (such as movies), subscribe to a magazine geared toward your interest. This won't help you find all the answers, but will, over time, help you develop a broader understanding of the area you're interested in and its history. This will also help with the cultural aspect of your questions. For example, the more movies you see and know about, the more you'll understand the references to those movies in the new movies you see.

If you have a computer this all becomes even easier.

1. Buy your dictionaries and an encyclopedia on CD-ROM. This will save time, space, and sometimes money.

2. Get reference materials that focus on your interests. You can find all kinds of CD-ROMs on tons of subjects. In your case, a resource on quotations might help you find some of the quotes used in movies and Time articles. (One good one is Microsoft's Bookshelf. It has an encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, book of quotations, and others--all on one CD-ROM.)

3. Get access to the Internet. This is a great, almost unlimited resource. I often use it to find out who someone is, what some organization does, why someone is famous, and many, many other things. Learning how to search efficiently is a subject all by itself, but if you learn to do so you can save yourself a lot of time and frustration.

I hope these suggestions help. Again, feel free to ask me anything via the Guestbook on my home page.