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Meet The Parents

Date: Nov 07 2001

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

Speedos

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Almost all of us in the office have seen Meet the Parents so we decided to retell our favorite parts of the movies. See if you can follow our conversations.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

John: That name just kills me...Focker! Like, when he walks into the parent’s house for the first time they’re all, “That’s an interesting last name you have there. How do you say it again?” And he says, “Just like it’s spelled,” and they say, “F-O-C-K-E-R? Focker?”

Tanis: Focker! Yes!

John: What’s his first name Tanis?

Tanis: Gaylord.

Nedra: That poor man!

Tanis: It’s such a play on words. I feel so sorry for him.

John: That guy just gets ripped on the whole movie.

Tanis: Every single conceivable thing that can go wrong for him does.

John: I love it when he’s over at his, his, uh fiancée’s ex-fiancée’s house and they give him the Speedos to wear in the pool.

Tanis: I’m so embarrassed for him and you know that the guy just, you know, did it outta spite.

John: He did it on purpose?

Tanis: Totally!

John: And that guy…that, that freak...he had, he built that huge wood statue…

Tanis: Carving! Out of one piece of wood.

John: Yeah.

John: Outta one piece of wood.

Tanis: They’re just trying to show all of Focker’s short comings the whole time.

Joe: What about the cat, Jinxy?

Tanis: Jinx..the, the cat that can go to the bathroom by itself?

Nedra: Yeah, that’s right.

Miguel: What’s the thing about the wooden statue? I don’t understand what’s…

Tanis: It’s like he goes over to her ex-fiancée’s house, you know, and he has this like gorgeous house, but he’s like does all these things, like he’s, he’s a Christian and so he’s like trying to like convey how he’s such a good person and then he’s like, “Wood carving’s a little hobby of mine. I actually, uh, carved this.”

John: So he takes him into this room and he pulls this sheet off this thing and it’s like, it’s this intricate…

Nedra: Kind of like this Gazebo thing…

John: Huge like Gazebo thing that he carved from one piece of wood.

Nedra: Yeah!

John: And then they go, “Focker, what do you do?” And he’s all, he’s all, “Focker’s a male nurse.” And then he just smashed that chick’s face with the volleyball.

Tanis: Oh yeah! Blood everywhere! Right before her wedding!

Nedra: Right in her eye. Her eye’s all swelled up.

Tanis: She’s getting married the next day.

Nedra: Yeah that’s pretty harsh.

Miguel: It’s not his, it’s not his fiancée that he does it to?

Tanis: No, her sister’s getting married and he’s actually not engaged to that girl…

Nedra: No.

Tanis: he, he wants to ask her to marry him, but it’s important to her that he meets her parents first, so everything’s kind of hinging on the parents and then the, the parents end up thinking that he’s like, uh, a drug user and he, all of his clothes get lost so he has to borrow her younger brothers clothes who’s like in high school. So he’s wearing these baggy jeans and like parkas and stuff! It’s just terrible!

John: He gets screwed the whole time. He’s like, he’s like, “Wake me up, you know, for breakfast,” or whatever and they all go down there…this is the worst part…I can totally relate to this…I always like to be woken up first…when he comes to the breakfast it’s all quiet and he’s in his pajamas and his, his bedhead and, and he opens up the kitchen door and there’s like eight people sitting around this table just laughing and drinking coffee…

Tanis: All dressed! It’s like the family of the new girl and he’s like doesn’t have any clothes, you know, to go up there…

John: What’d they call his bedhead? They’re like, “Nice, nice bedhead Focker.”

Miguel: But what was his first name? His first name is not much better is it?

Tanis: Well, well no one knew that was his real first name. His middle name is what he goes by and it’s like…

Miguel: Which is what?

Tanis: I don’t know Michael or David or…

Miguel: So Gaylord is his mid..is his first..

Tanis: Well the Dad runs…the Dad used to be CIA[/def] or something so he runs some kind of security check on this guy and he can’t come up…he’s trying to match his story and it doesn’t come up so then like…finally when his luggage gets delivered they’re like, “I have some luggage for, uh, Gay Focker!” But then that, that’s when they realize that they’ve been like doing the security on the wrong person.

John: I think all guys can totally relate to that ‘cause it’s, it’s always so intimidating to go meet your, your girlfriend or fiancée’s father for the first time.

Tanis: It was fun seeing Robert De Niro[/def] in a comedy role though.

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Discussion

It’s not easy to follow a conversation like the one above. We keep interrupting each other and talking about different things because everyone is so excited about talking about their favorite parts of the movie.
I really liked watching this movie, but I think my boyfriend, Rick, liked it more. Like John, he could identify with main character and how it feels to meet your girlfriend’s or fiancée’s parents.
Have you seen Meet the Parents yet? Did you like it? Tell me about it on the Movie Madness message boards.
Have a great day!
Nedra