Learn English With Movies TOP 3 American Movies
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you want to use movies to learn English?
Let’s talk about it.
Do you like watching movies?
Personally, I don’t watch too many movies,
but I really enjoy a good movie.
Today I’m going to share with you my top three
movies plus two bonus movies for learning
more about American culture, and these aren’t
just my choices.
The National Film Registry has chosen these
movies along with several others that they
say are important for learning about American
culture.
They are culturally, historically, and aesthetically
significant films, so let’s get started with
my first recommendation.
My first recommendation features to quite
famous actors.
They are Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio
and this movie is What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
This movie was filmed in the ’90s, so they
are young.
In fact, they’re almost kids, they’re teenagers.
In this movie, Johnny Depp is the older brother
and he needs to take care of his younger brother,
Leonardo DiCaprio who has a mental disability
and the older brother needs to take care of
his younger brother because their mother is
incapable of doing it.
She is 500 pounds or 260 kilograms.
In this movie, we can see an interesting dynamic
between the mother and her sons, and also
this is something I think is quite valuable
for learning about American culture, their
family, and the small town in Iowa where they
live.
This is in the middle of the US.
This is real small town America.
When I watched this movie, I thought this
really accurately portrays small town America.
You can see some dialogues between characters
that’s quite realistic and even though this
movie is not action packed, there’s not explosions
and crazy things that are happening, it’s
realistic and I think that it’s a great way
to learn more about culture and improve your
listening skills.
My second movie recommendation is a classic.
It features Tom Hanks and it’s Forrest Gump.
I hope that you’ve at least heard of this
movie and if you haven’t, make sure that you
watch it.
It features a slow witted, which means not
so smart man, Forrest Gump, who’s played by
Tom Hanks and he lives through some really
valuable times in American history.
This takes place between the 1940s and the
1980s, and a lot of things happened during
this time and the lead character plays some
important roles in American history.
Even though he’s a fictional character, you
can see him in different places in American
history that are quite pivotal.
Some of the things that he experiences and
even influences are American football matches,
meeting President Kennedy, going to war in
Vietnam, playing ping pong in China, investing
in Apple computers.
These are quite important things that happened
in the last century, so here you’re going
to be able to understand a lot of history,
but as well learn more about a movie that
is culturally significant.
It’s quoted a lot, it’s talked a lot about
in daily conversation, so you’ll be building
your knowledge so that you can have great
conversations.
My third movie recommendation is the reason
why I’m wearing this shirt that has little
bicycles on it.
It is the classic movie E.T. or extra terrestrial
and you might know that this movie is about
an alien who is found by a 10-year-old boy
and this movie is excellent for testing your
listening skills because the main character
is a 10-year-old.
The dialogue is pretty simple, not too fast,
and you can see it through his perspective.
This is a great way to start watching movies
in English without feeling too overwhelmed.
This movie E.T. also plays an important role
in American culture because often when someone
points or especially if they point to the
sky, we might say ET phone home, which is
the classic line from this movie.
In fact, I found myself doing this yesterday
with my baby.
Even though he’s not really speaking much
yet, he’s still quite young, he is starting
to learn about American culture through daily
conversation.
He likes to point a lot.
When he was pointing to the sky, I said, “Are
you trying to phone home?”
Here he’s going to be building his knowledge
of the culture through these type of interactions.
You can do this as well, watch the movie and
try to learn more about the culture and included
when you speak with other people.
Now I have two bonus movies for you.
These ones are a little bit more intense.
I would say they’re probably not good for
kids, depending on your kids, but I personally
wouldn’t show them to my children.
The first one is Shawshank Redemption.
The reason why I’m including this movie is
because it is definitely culturally significant
in the US.
We reference this movie.
There are scenes where we imitate this movie
quite often, and this is about the American
prison system.
There is a man named Andy who is convicted
of two murders and he sent to prison.
In prison, he meets Red who is Morgan Freeman,
a famous American actor, and they formed a
friendship.
This movie is about learning more about American
culture.
It’s about learning about the prison system,
about friendship, and ultimately about hope.
What is hope?
Can we have hope in desperate situations?
This movie is based on a book by Stephen King
and Stephen King is pretty famous for suspenseful
intense stories.
As you can imagine, this book in this movie
is pretty intense.
I wouldn’t recommend it for children, but
if you enjoy suspense, intense filled movies,
not horror, not thrillers, but just intense.
I really recommend this one.
My second bonus movie is one of my personal
favorites, it’s the Rear Window and this movie
is quite old.
It’s from the 1950s, but it’s filmed by a
famous film director Alfred Hitchcock.
In my personal opinion, you haven’t lived
until you’ve seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
They’re simple and suspenseful and delightful.
I love them.
Well, this one is unusual because it takes
place in only one room.
You never leave this one room.
Why?
Well, the main character who is played by
Jimmy Stewart and his counterpart, Grace Kelly,
who became the princess of Monaco after filming
this.
Anyway, the main character, Jimmy Stewart,
he has broken his leg so he’s stuck in his
room.
He can’t get out and he’s a well-known photographer
and journalist, so he’s always curious.
While he’s stuck in his room, he’s watching
the neighbors.
You can see out his apartment window and you
can see what he’s seen out his window.
I think this movie is pretty culturally significant
because we often think about this old style
movie when we think about classic films and
this one is one of the best in my opinion.
When you watched this movie, I hope that you’ll
appreciate the beauty of the cinematography
and how creative they were with just this
one room.
Go ahead and watch it.
It’s not a horror movie, it’s not a thriller,
but it is intense and it is a mystery, so
go ahead and enjoy it.
Now I have a question for you.
In the comments below this video, let me know
what is one of your favorite movies.
The next time that you want to just kick back
and relax, turn on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon
Prime or wherever you watch your movies, and
take one of these recommendations and try
your best to watch it in English, even with
English subtitles.
Go ahead, you can do it.
Thanks so much for learning with me and I’ll
see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel, bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book,
5 Steps To Becoming A Confident English Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much, bye.