English, baby!

Hairspray

Date: May 23 2007

Intro

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

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

It often happens that when a movie is successful, it is translated to other mediums. Hairspray is a comedy about Baltimore in the 1960s. It was released as a movie in 1988, and it became a classic. In 2002, Hairspray was made into a Broadway musical that was also very successful. Now that musical is being made into a new film.

Hairspray is one of Marni’s favorite movies. Listen to her talk to Kevin about the new version of the movie.

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.

Marni

Kevin

Marni: So I just recently found out that one my absolute favorite films, Hairspray...

Kevin: Oh okay.

Marni: I ended up seeing the musical because I love the film so much, I love John Waters, is actually now turned back into a film. They’re taking the musical version and making it into a film.

Kevin: Oh, interesting, who’s going to be in it?

Marni: John Travolta...

Kevin: Oh that’s a shame.

Marni: There’s a bunch of other big stars. It started as a film and it’s come 360.

Kevin: How do you feel about that? Will you see it?

Marni: I don’t know, I don’t know that I want to see it, because I thought the original film was so great, and, you know, it was kind of cute that they turned it into a musical and it’s always interesting to see things on stage…

Kevin: Because sometimes they’re great, and sometimes they’re total flops, right?

Marni: Exactly, but you know, turning it back into a film it’s just like beating a dead horse.

Kevin: It will be interesting to see what kind of reviews it gets, you know?

Marni: Yeah.

Quizzes

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Discussion

When Marni tells Kevin that the Hairspray musical is being made into a movie, he asks who will be in it. Marni says that John Travolta will be in it. What she doesn’t say is that he plays a woman!

But Kevin doesn’t like John Travolta. That’s why he says “that’s too bad” under his breath.

Kevin comments that when films are translated to other mediums, the result can be either really good or really bad. But Marni says that she thought the musical was really good. She might not see the new movie though because she thinks it could be redundant.

Kevin and Marni agree that it will be interesting to see what the critics say about the new movie.

Has a movie or play or book that you like ever been translated to another medium? What did you think of the result?

Comments

ttsuka

Japan

Having read others’ comments below, now I gather why recent E-Baby dialogues are much easier than this one. But I think E-Baby should not doctor the speed and unevenness of how people actually speak in the US. If some users cannot get it, that means they cannot get it in the real life and thus the material dialogue in natural speed is offering a genuine training ground. Easier dialogues like we see these days on E-Baby may make some users feel better of themselves but will deprive them of real opportunities to improve.