Ratatouille

Intro

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

• dish
• opening night
• main character
• climactic

• merger
• chef
• culinary
• phonetically

• Middle America
• out of the gate

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

Rémy wants to be a chef, and luckily, he lives in the best culinary city in the world, Paris, France.

But there’s one problem.

Rémy is a rat.

And rats can’t be chefs. They aren’t even allowed in kitchens! Listen to Mason tell Amanda about how Rémy the rat makes for his favorite movie of the summer, Ratatouille.

Dialog

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

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

Mason

Amanda

Mason:  Have, uh, seen the best movie of the summer yet?

Amanda:  Uh, Transformers, yes.

Mason:  Well I was uh…I was talking about Ratatouille...

Amanda:  No, but what a fun word to say!

Mason:  It is a fun word. A friend actually pointed out to me…It’s funny, on the posters they spell if phonetically because there’s probably a fair portion of Middle America that’s never really seen that word before and wouldn’t know how to pronounce it.

Amanda:  Nor would they know what it is, right?

Mason:  To be honest, I know it’s food…

Amanda:  Well, it’s a French dish, stewed vegetables, sometimes a side dish, sometimes served as a main course. I’ve never had it myself, but it sounds wonderful. Think about how many people probably ate it on opening night.

Mason:  And of course, the name is funny for the movie because the main character is a rat...

Amanda:  Oh, I hadn’t really thought of that…

Mason:  ...who wants to be chef, in France, and then they bring the dish in the climactic scene. Oh it’s so good. Beautifully animated like all Pixar stuff is. The story’s fantastic.

Amanda:  And isn’t it the first film since the Disney-Pixar merger? I think it’s the first one out of the gates.

Mason:  Since the merger?

Amanda:  Yeah, between Disney and Pixar.

Mason:  They joined?

Amanda:  Yes! I believe this is the first child since.

Mason:  I don’t know…

Amanda:  I thought. I could look it up on Wikipedia.

Mason:  You know, you might be right, and if so, I would say that Pixar has survived the crushing hand of Disney that they escaped from.

Amanda:  Fantastic.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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