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Casa de mi Padre
简体
Casa de mi Padre
《我爸爸的房子》

How to Use "Be Able to"

Date: Apr 06 2012

Themes: Pop Culture

Grammar: Be Able To

Intro

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Since Hollywood movies are popular worldwide, many actors from other countries have to learn English and make movies in English if they want to become internationally famous. It’s much, much rarer to see an American movie star make a film in a language other than English. But that’s just what comedian Will Ferrell decided to do. Why not? It seems everything he does is funny, no matter what the language is. Maybe laughter is the true universal language.

Casa de mi Padre is Ferrell’s all-Spanish comedy. He plays the son of a cowboy who wants to gain his father’s approval, save the family ranch, and get the girl of his dreams. Whether or not he succeeds isn’t really as important as how goofy he looks speaking bad Spanish in this unusual, slapstick comedy. Hear Jason and Amy talk about Casa de mi Padre and the humor of trying to speak a new language.

自从好莱坞电影风靡全球后,来自其他国家和地区的演员如果想要在国际上出名,就不得不学习英语,使用英语拍电影。美国电影明星使用英语之外的语言拍电影则更是少见。但是那正是喜剧演员威尔·法瑞尔 (Will Ferrell) 决定要做的事。这又有何不可呢?不管使用什么语言,似乎他的一举一动都会令人捧腹。也许笑声才是真正的通用语言。
《我爸爸的房子》是法瑞尔出演的一部纯西班牙语喜剧片。他扮演一位牛仔的儿子,希望得到父亲的赏识,保全家族的农场,并得到他的梦中女孩。在这部不寻常的闹剧中,他能否成功并不那么重要,重要的反而是他讲蹩脚的西班牙语时那傻乎乎的样子。听詹森和艾米谈论《我爸爸的房子》和尝试说一门新语言的幽默。

Dialog

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Amy

Amy

Jason

Jason

Amy:  Will Ferrell did a movie entirely in Spanish. What’s that all about?

Jason:  It’s fantastic!

Amy:  Is it?

Jason:  Yeah. I mean, Will Ferrell is pretty funny no matter what he does.

Amy:  God, just his face is funny.

Jason:  Yeah. But so, of course Will Ferrell badly speaking another language is hilarious.

Amy:  Yeah. Is it funny for an hour and a half though, or however long the movie is?

Jason:  Yeah, absolutely. It is like 84 minutes, so I think they knew they had to get in and get out of there. I think that it’s a great movie for anyone who’s a fan of Will Ferrell or anyone who speaks a little Spanish, ‘cause a lot of the jokes involve him saying things you would’ve learned in a classroom. It really highlights his weak Spanish skills.

Amy:  Right.

Jason:  And it explains it in the movie. His character’s supposed to be a native speaker, but he’s just supposed to be really dumb. But there’s also gags if you don’t speak any Spanish at all. A lot of the props are really terrible, and it’s purposefully bad.

Amy:  Uh-huh.

Jason:  Yeah, I think it’s a really cool idea to make a movie that makes fun of the language learning process in a way.

Amy:  And anyone who’s learned a language themselves has had those moments of just feeling like you’re sounding ridiculous and making a fool of yourself, but you have to kind of be able to laugh about it, I think.

Jason:  Totally. And so many actors have to learn English and do a movie in English, that it’s kind of cool for an American actor to do that.

Amy:  Definitely.

 

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Discussion

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Amy asks Jason about Will Ferrell’s new movie Casa de mi Padre. Jason really liked it. He thinks Will Ferrell speaking bad Spanish is hilarious. But Amy wonders how long that same joke could be amusing. Jason agrees that it’s a good thing the movie is short. Jason and Amy also agree that the process of trying to learn another language can have a lot of funny moments.

Jason is impressed that Ferrell decided to make a movie entirely in Spanish. He points out that a lot of actors from different countries have to learn English and make movies in English. So he appreciates the fact that Will Ferrell, a native English speaker, decided to make a film in a language he isn’t comfortable in.

Have you ever had any funny experiences while learning English? Are you surprised that an American actor decided to make a movie in another language?

 

Comments

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kukuka

kukuka

Ukraine

I remember once I was talking to a native english speaker and I wanted to make a compliment to that person. So I called him understanding and “worm” instead of “warm”. That was funny indeed. I’m lucky the person actually was understanding and didn’t get offended, but I felt so ashamed. I think I will never forget that occurrence.

06:39 AM Apr 11 2012 |

Andressa Holland

Brazil

whathell, I think that too,  and Will Ferrel is a famous actor of comedy movies. Here you can learn a little bit about him and view his filmography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Ferrell  


Laughing

06:34 PM Apr 08 2012 |

Andressa Holland

Brazil

 Bluma, you can interpret this sentences like this:



“But there’s also gags if you don’t speak any Spanish at all.”


This means that even if you don’t speak Spanish will still laugh.




” A lot of the props are really terrible, and it’s purposefully bad.”


This means that a lot of accessories are terrible and bad ‘cause they want it that way.


06:24 PM Apr 08 2012 |

Andressa Holland

Brazil

I have spanish class with an Argentine and he have a lot of accent, but I like it. I like to learn spanish and how it sounds.


About the british accent and the american, I prefer the british, but only in order to hear, if i have to choose one of them to speak I would choose the american one, ‘cause is easier.


I made many mistakes while I tried to speak English with others, and I still do that, but I think it’s normal, happens with anyone, and you all proved it with your funny stories  :D

06:10 PM Apr 08 2012 |

Red_Hot_Chili_Pepper

Afghanistan

Will Ferrell looks just like Chad Smith )

11:48 AM Apr 08 2012 |

marwa89

marwa89

Syrian Arab Republic

many ,many and many times that happend to me and it still happensTongue out

10:03 AM Apr 08 2012 |

samirah

samirah

Saudi Arabia

for the first time i took English classes with my friends were enthusiastic ,but unfortunately English classes were taught at the end of the  school day . the teacher asked us to repeat after her the days of the week.she said saturday ,sunday etc after that she said “AGain “in order to repeat them again , instead of doing so , we repeat The word Again. hhhhhh 

09:23 AM Apr 08 2012 |

Elena,1

Elena,1

China

English is useful .i can understand many movies which is famous all over the world.I like movie.

01:26 AM Apr 08 2012 |

abdo saleh

Yemen




Yemen


I love to learn english

07:36 PM Apr 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

abdo saleh

Yemen




Yemen


I love to learn english

07:35 PM Apr 07 2012 |

riverboy

riverboy

Yemen

I love to learn different languages, like Spanish , Trukish and so on, but Somali language is funny too,  you have to try it is hilarious


for me English language makes me confuse some times, I   worked an American agency in a refugee camp, when a foreign spoke to me. I feel that everything lose to me, i forget the vocabulary and that makes me to be a fool oneself

05:01 PM Apr 07 2012 |

1 person likes this

i love life

Palestinian Territory, Occupied

Actually We should confess there are a lot of difference between our Language and their  Language I meant about All people from U.S.A and U.K .


Their  accent are very wonderful , we can’t compare ourselves with them , Really when we hear How they speaking ,How they  pronounce the vocabularies .


I have met some persons over the world ,some of them native speaker they speak very well , so fast , more wiser , more beautiful , when I look at myself How they speak , I can’t Imagine If I someday I Will be  like them . 


We have slang Language , Those countries are using different Language , fortunately we have Englishbaby site At least contributed in Enhance and improve our Language .


Always I watch T.v mostly  I prefer watch American movies , mostly  of the artists speaking slang Language , they didn’t use the official Language .


I’m confident these days English Language Has became one of the most Language Important over the world .


I had a lot of scenes  during my life when I was teenager , I had some of difficulties , I respect  any artist who using many Languages in his movies .


I can’t Imagine How many people are speak a lot of Languages as the same time , How they can do that , they are genius .

04:58 PM Apr 07 2012 |

rozana.ea

rozana.ea

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i realy love spanish.i heard some where that spanish is love language! maby it is ! im from iran and our language is persian which is full of sence and we have beautiful poem s  .many people know hafez . his a great man.i love his poems.but about spanish i just can say i enjoy to listen its musics.specialy enrique s beautiful spanish music videos.

03:54 PM Apr 07 2012 |

whathell

whathell

China

I dont like british accent at all. American accent is much easier for me to understand. Anyway who is this will ferrell guy? The title of this movie “house of my father”(in english) right?

01:26 PM Apr 07 2012 |

Bluma

Bluma

China

But there is also gags if you don’t speak Spanish at all.


A lot of props are really terrible, it’s purposefully bad.


How to understand these two sentences? :(

11:37 AM Apr 07 2012 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

mnal,  unlike you , my preference is the american accent  Cool

11:22 AM Apr 07 2012 |

farid1390

farid1390

Afghanistan

thank you for sharing.

09:14 AM Apr 07 2012 |

albertbrine

India

It is nice that movies uses english it not only gives an opportunity to release it worldwide but also helps learners to learn english by viewing the movies and participate to understand english.But it is to be written in below picture so that it can be understandable also.

07:40 AM Apr 07 2012 |

ali O

ali O

Saudi Arabia

sure I had I remember I had english teacher have problem when pronoun ” th” so he wrote in broad word ” faithfully” and he tell all students in class around 25 students read after him as he do so he read it ” faisfuly ” hehe and i think all students in my class until now they don’t know about this mistake hehe


 

07:01 AM Apr 07 2012 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

I agree, kudos to english,baby.

01:41 AM Apr 07 2012 |

2 people like this

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