Lana and I have enjoyed discussing films together in our classes. Lana is an advanced student and so for our first lesson together, I recommended that she watch the film Eat, Pray, Love as a home task, including writing a film review about it. She really enjoyed the film and wrote a great review, which we went over together in class, adding notes and corrections. Since she wants to work on improving her vocabulary, we then went on to talking about personality traits. Lana always likes to make her own sentences using any new words she comes across in lessons.
In today’s lesson, we discussed the second film I had recommended called Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I asked Lana to focus on describing the main characters of the film using some of the personality traits we had covered in previous lessons, or any other adjectives that she might already know. Lana had also written her own short story for homework using some of the new vocabulary she had learnt, such as: down-to-earth, methodical, humble, stingy, untrustworthy, easy-going, high-strung and obnoxious. This was a wonderful exercise, which allowed her to be creative while also reinforcing her vocabulary and grammar skills at the same time.
New Vocab:
- Down-to-earth: Someone who is practical and reasonable with no pretenses, you can trust them easily.
- Methodical: Orderly and systematic in thought and behaviour.
- Humble: Someone who is modest about their own self-importance.
- Stingy: Unwilling to give or spend, not generous.
- Untrustworthy: Not able to be relied on as honest or truthful.
- Easy-going: Someone who is relaxed and tolerant in their approach and manner.
- High-strung: Nervous and easily upset.
- Obnoxious: Extremely unpleasant and rude.
This is a glimpse into one of our personalised, conversational Inspired English lessons with Teacher Haanee.
Question: Have you seen either of these films? What was your impression of them?
Exercise: Make sentences with the list of words above (down-to-earth, methodical, humble, stingy, untrustworthy, easy-going, high-strung and obnoxious). Be as creative and silly as possible, so that you can’t possibly forget these new words!! We’ll offer some feedback in the comments. 🙂
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