俺混壇也有倆個多月了，得到很多同學的幫助和鼓勵，俺也該回報回報了，（俺尋思俺也沒少回報 :)），總之，以前俺逗笑的多，今天俺嚴肅的談點學習正事。
俺的英語大多是從看美劇和小報來的。
俺不愛看小說學英語，俺看小說是一口氣，不過夜，盡追求故事情節，故事完了, 激情沒了, 就再也不想回頭琢磨。 再說，中國人為學英語讀的還少嗎？可成效又怎樣呢?
俺不愛看什麽英語諺語大全之類的參考書，這和背字典一個德行，沒有context，難記，記住了，用的時候也想不起來。
如果一個詞語是從context裏學來的，你就很容易在相同的context裏把它用出來。而且，如果是聽出來的，映像就特別深, 因為中式英語缺的就是聽的刺激，能聽就不要看。這就是我什麽愛看情景劇學英語。在美國，說是有語言環境，其實大多數時間都是貓在小格間裏，偶爾和同事說話，還是被印式英語忽悠。俺隻有看美劇了，裏麵五花八門，好聽又好玩。俺看的時候會把聽來的詞，句子記下來。等俺回頭再看這些東東時，它們不在是單個不相幹的詞語，而是情景和對話的重現。當俺想用一個這樣學來的詞時，俺對它有信心。有時間，俺會把有意思的劇情寫下來，發表點看法。這個比較難一點，因為你聽的都是ABCD的對話，轉成故事，你要有很多自己的東西在裏麵，但很練寫作, 也提高口語，特別是是生活口語。下麵就是俺的一個活例子，有夠臭夠長
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In his company conference meeting, George was pigging out on the cocktail shrimps while other attendees only had a plate of plain salad in front of them. Reilly, one of George’s co-workers couldn’t stand it any more and mocked him, “George, the ocean calls. They are running out the shrimps”. George didn’t know what to say to retort, dumbfounded like a damn fool. Everyone in the meeting started laughing side-splittingly at Reilly's joke.
George was so fumed at the taunt that he couldn’t stop thinking about it when he was driving home. Suddenly, a sharp comeback popped into his head, “ Then the jerk store called. They are running out of you.” When he later on showed this comeback line to the rest of the gang, they were not quite enthused as George. Jerry thought the moment had gone and George should move on. Elaine just didn’t quite get the line since there were actually no “jerk stores”. Kramer suggested an even more racy line –“just tell him, you just had sex with his wife”.
George just couldn’t let it go and he must revenge on Reilly with his own SMART line. When he got to know Reilly transferred to working for Firestone, another company in Ohio, he flied hundreds of miles from New York to Ohio out of his own pocket money just to zing this guy. Upon arrival, he set up the meeting and even brought his own shrimps. That is so funny and sarcastic. George usually was such a cheapskate that he wouldn’t over tip the waitress one dollar more when he once hit big money on the stock investment.
In the meeting, George put up some moronic proposal and at same time stuffed his mouth with a bunch of shrimps. It was so irritating and gross. He was setting up the trap for his prey by recreating the similar encounter. When Reilly finally brought up that shrimp line, check out the look on George’s face. He almost couldn’t contain his self-satisfaction and excitement. He stopped eating with ease, stood up, dabbed his mouth with a napkin and then delivered his long-planned comeback line with an I’m-gonna-nail-you-big-time tone, “While the jerk store called. They are running out of you.” My hat off for Alexander’s (who played George) wonderful acting.
However, Reilly, unruffled at all, retorted quickly, “What’s the difference? You are the all-time best seller.” The whole room was burst into laughers again. It was so unexpected. George was at the end of his rope and blurt out Kramer’s line, “I had just had sex with your wife”. The whole room was quiet down. The manger stood up and whispered to George in a stone-cold tone, “ His wife is in coma”. You can imagine how pissed off George was. This was just reminded of an interesting saying “go for wool and come home shorn”. Did George learn his lesson? No. On his way home from the airport, he kept murmuring to himself something. Suddenly, it looked like he was hit by some new enlightenment. He swung his car madly and headed back to the airport…
He would never get it - this is a mismatched game that he could never win.
When I just came US, I liked watching Friends a lot. I didn’t care much about Seinfeld. What the fuss about it? How come it could be called the NO1 US hit sitcom. It was wacky, insensitive, and hard to understand. The wardrobe was so last century, let alone the hairdo. As my English gets better, I can get more out of Seinfeld. I’m totally hooked up by it. Friends even becomes kind of sappy to me. Especially after season 6, it really goes downhill. Before when I was told Friends was the queen and Seinfeld was the king. I would nod along. Now I have to say that Seinfeld is the groundbreaking No.1 sitcom in US entertainment history, which has had no match before. And it may take many years for a new one to catch it up. The last Seinfeld episode was aired on 1998. Eleven years passed, it still has been actively re-run on NBC. Every time I re-watch an episode, I can still get new stuff out of it and get cracked up. It is an absolutely amazing show.
It is a non-traditional, non-conventional show with no sentimentality or moral lecturing. In regular sitcoms, you see hu*****and and wife bickering, lovers fooling around, and friends poking fun at each other. The bottom line here is no matter how weird or crazy the plots are, you can always sense the moral foundation and common social believes they are based on. “Family comes first.” “ True friends will be with you ups and downs.” “ One day, you will meet the one and fall in love no matter how cynical you are.” In Seinfeld, you can never find these. Seinfeld is not a show about friendship, relationship, or family. It is show about nothing. It mocks all kinds of trivial things in daily life in an outrageously exaggerating and wacky way with a great sense of black humor. Just like what the show did with the George’s obsession with the comeback. That is the kill of the show. Believe or not, many people feel relate to the characters in the show on the certain level, especially to George, a 40 years old, short, bald man who lives with his parents. What a loser! He is selfish, empty, petty and coward. You dislike him, you look down your nose at him, but he will get you eventually. Everyone has a mini-version George inside his body.
In this episode, I feel I can totally relate to George on the comeback part. When I get into some argument with someone, I sometimes find myself tongue-tied and don’t know anything witty or sharp to throw back until it is over. Then I have my comeback line. But it is just way too late. I have lost the moment. I have to forget about it no matter how unwilling I’m. It is just killing me. I won’t go out of my way like what George did. I know it is foolish and childish. Thank God. I can still control myself. Deep down, I kind of admire George’s persistence and obsession for revenge. That is why I like to banter with people in forum. I can put my retort 20 minutes later. I can even answer back the next day. The expiration date for on line comeback is so lenient. It fits me well. :)
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