Speaking English: Lesson One

by Robert Popper on January 24, 2010 · View Comments

There’s so much great stuff here: the silences, the clip-clopping of shoes and best of all, mispellinks…

And is it just me, or does the whole thing sort of feel like a long lead up to a porn scene?

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uberVU - social comments: January 24, 2010 at 5:57 pm

{ 20 comments }

1 tomdaylight January 24, 2010 at 11:48 am: You would probably learn English better watching actual porn.
2 Ant January 24, 2010 at 11:51 am: Poor old Edward Green. First day at work, and everyone is a robot.
3 Eric Fell January 24, 2010 at 12:19 pm: Don Bradley sounds like the name of a particularly mild Mafia leader. I do dig the Pet Shop Boys soundtrack on this, though.
4 gottago January 24, 2010 at 12:54 pm: I like the way she tells him to sit down and he blankly refuses. If only all of humanity spoke like this.
5 Ben.Harper January 24, 2010 at 5:10 pm: The inevitable clip-clop between each exchange of pleasantries just killed me. I also liked the big BS logo for the not-at-all English-as-second-language Bye Berry Systems.
6 Duncan January 24, 2010 at 6:07 pm: Haha I'd missed the “please sit down” bit!

Why does Jenny Rose (sic) lie about Don not being there?
7 Rob Jennings January 24, 2010 at 8:24 pm: If he needs to learn how to use the fax, he can just watch those useful videos on eHow.
However, if he needs to use the stationery covered papers, well that's another story.
8 martin January 25, 2010 at 4:44 am: *clomp clomp clomp*
That fax machine looks suspiciously like a spiral binding machine.
9 slepkane January 25, 2010 at 9:06 am: Who is the lady receptionist with the nostrils? I've definitely seen her in something else? Anyone? This is driving me spare.
10 Nick January 25, 2010 at 9:15 am: Hey Robert, I found a video of a real life vegetable orchestra, like in Look Around You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpfYt7vRHuY&feat...

I… can't believe it.
11 Beset by Apes January 25, 2010 at 12:16 pm: MISS ROSE MAY I SEE YOUR BEASTS?
CETAINLY MR GREEN.
THANK YOU
12 Matt January 25, 2010 at 2:17 pm: If you thought the mispellings here were good, 'engrish.com' will blow your mind, Mr. Popper. That site is possibly the greatest thing on the internet; no joke.
13 pringleflicker January 26, 2010 at 9:49 am: I watched this with growing discomfort first, then read your comment underneath -yeah, spot on! At 4:27, Kate holds Mr Green's gaze for just a delicious beat too long before she speaks.
14 Dirk January 26, 2010 at 3:23 pm: Well there are a lot of difficult silences considering it is a language lesson, but this is more like Howard's Way, Triangle and The Brothers all rolled into to one.

I reckon, right, that Mr Harris is actually having an affair with Jenny and all that 'did you have nice weekend stuff' is for show so Geraldine doesn't dob him in to Mrs Harris.
15 predar January 28, 2010 at 9:16 am: very arty film!
16 Ben Park January 28, 2010 at 12:27 pm: How very weird, that they all stand so intimately close when saying “good morning”.

Frankly the “Good morning” and “here's your newspaper” bits were a bit repetitive.
I do like how she smacks the blinds and strokes the plant seductively, before she goes “here is the photocopier” though.
17 Chris January 28, 2010 at 10:57 pm: I keep imagining a group of foreigners walking around and slowly annunciating GOOD MORNING and I'M THE HEAD OF THE ADMINISTRATION IN THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT.
18 moogyboobles January 31, 2010 at 7:23 am: I want to see more! The sexual tension is palpable. I swear I've seen Don before.
19 moogyboobles January 31, 2010 at 1:23 pm: I want to see more! The sexual tension is palpable. I swear I've seen Don before.
20 codeman38 May 4, 2010 at 6:41 am: Although the subtitles were added by the poster, apparently the video itself is a 1990s BBC production for English learners. And the name of the company in the video appears to be spelled “Bibury”, at least judging from some of the stuff I found online about this.