What started it all going in my mind was the lesson in my English pronunciation class that I gave on Tuesday. It was comparing and learning the difference between pronouncing L and R. Now, with some languages, mostly Asian languages, this distinction is not made, because the L sound is not in their pronunciation lexicon. So, of course, the iconic FA-RA-RA-RA-RA-RA-RA-RA-RA from "A Christmas Story" came to mind. I started laughing out loud and then tried to explain to my students what was tickling me. It's hard to tell just that part, so I started talking about all the parts of that movie.
So, try to explain the leg lamp to a foreign student--or, how about Ralphie's pink bunny suit? Or the Red Rider 200 shot bb gun (will you shoot your eye out or not?), or the triple dog dare to try to lick a metal flag pole in winter? Or Father's salty vocabulary that gets Ralphie in great trouble when he tries it out? And my motivator for showing it, Christmas dinner in the Chinese restaurant because the neighbor's dogs stole the Christmas turkey off the kitchen table. Thus, the rendition of Deck the Harrs, with boughs of horry, fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra!
This movie has so many ICONIC images that we all can't help but chuckle at, just remembering them. I know some cable tv stations do a 24 hour marathon of "A Christmas Story", but I wanted my students to get the real dose of the movie, so I showed it to them today. They howled at most of the sight gags, and the jokes. I know there were some things that they didn't get, but most of it was clear to them.
Rent it, buy it, but watch it, it will really put you in the holiday spirit! I got my Christmas chuckles today, and I know you will too!
2 comments:
LOVE that movie and so glad you decided to share it with your students.
They really enjoyed it and got most of the gags. Guess some stories don't need words to tell the tale!
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