English with The Simpsons. The Simpsons family and the “veiled” American dream Homer Simpson - the average American

Over the 26 seasons of the longest animated series in television history, Homer Simpson managed to come up with a lot of funny phrases. The creators of the cartoon themselves characterize Homer as “creatively brilliant in his stupidity,” and his adventures and random adventures that excite the life of Springfield can be reviewed and laughed again and again, since it is simply impossible to remember all the jokes. Here are the funniest quotes from the inimitable Homer.

Ijust called to say, I don't" t love you.

I called you to tell you that I don't love you.

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything.14% of people know that.

Oh, yes, people always have some kind of statistics for everything. This known 14 % population.

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Children, you tried very hard and failed miserably. Here's a lesson for you - never try.

The war is over and the future won. Past never even had a chance, man.

War finished and the future won. U the past never even there was a chance.

Just pick a dead end and chill out till you die.

Just choose a dead end and don't stress yourself for the rest of your life.

If only these walls could talk. Then people would pay to see my talking walls.

Oh, if walls could talk... everyone would pay me to look at my talking walls.

Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it.Now quiet! They're about to announce the lottery numbers.

Son, if you really want to achieve in this life, you have to work hard at it. And now be quiet! The winning lottery numbers will now be announced.

Lisa, Vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and eskimos.

Lisa,Vampires are fictional creatures, like elves, gremlins or Eskimos.

Operator! Give me the number for 911!

Operator! How to call 911?!

When will I learn? The answer to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle, they're on TV!

And when will I finally understand that the answers to life's questions are not at the bottom of the bottle. They V TV!

All my life I"ve had one dream, to achieve my many goals.

All my life I have cherished only one dream - to achieve my many goals.

I"m never going to be disabled. I"m sick of being so healthy.

I will never become a person with disabilities. I'm already tired of being so healthy.

Dad, you"ve done a lot of great things, but you"re a very old man, and old people are useless.

Father, you have certainly done many wonderful things, but you are very old, and old people are useless.

Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

Old people don't need company. They need to be isolated and studied to find out if they contain any substances useful to us.

It"s not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.

It’s not easy to be torn between a pregnant wife and an unbalanced child, but I still carved out my eight hours in front of the TV.

How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?

How can education make me smarter? Every time I remember something, it takes up space, pushing something else out of my brain. Remember that time when I took a winemaking class and forgot how to drive a car?

If something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can"t speak English.

If something goes wrong in a factory, blame the guy who doesn't speak English.

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Slide captions:

Caring Noisy Friendly Kind Funny Naughty Sweet Caring Cool Clever

ooCl indK leverC ndFriely unnyF htyNaug utiBeaful isyNo Say the words Cool Kind Clever Friendly Funny Naughty Beautiful Noisy Example: My mother is clever.

American TV Families

Lisa Simpson is 8 years old. She"s short and she"s got fair hair. She is very clever. She can sing and play the saxophone and she can speak Swedish and French.

Bart Simpson is 10 years old. He is short with fair hair. He is naughty and noisy. He likes comic books and skateboarding. He can speak French. He's got two sisters, Lisa and Maggie.

Homer Simpson is the father of the family. He is 39 years old and is tall and fat. He likes eating and drinking very much. He is not very clever, but he's funny.

Maggie Simpson is the baby of the family. She is small and she has got fair hair. She can"t walk and she can"t talk, but she can play the saxophone. She is quiet, friendly and very clever

Marge Simpson is the mother of the family. She is 38 years old. She is tall and slim and her hair is blue! She can cook well and she is very patient and kind. She is afraid of flying.

Say if the statements are true or false 1. Lisa is not very clever ………….. 2. Lisa can speak five languages. …………… 3. Bart likes comic books and skateboarding …………… 4. Maggie is small and she has got dark hair. …………… 5. Maggie is quiet, friendly and very clever. …………… 6. Homer is the father of the family. ………………… 7. Homer likes eating but doesn’t like drinking ……………… 8. Marge is 45 years old. ………………….. 9. Marge can cook well. …………………..

Marge mother 38 tall, slim can cook patient, kind Homer father 39 tall, fat eating, drinking funny Lisa 8 short sing Swedish, French clever Bart 10 short comic books French naughty, noisy Maggie baby small can"t walk can play saxophone friendly, clever

Homework Ex.16/17 p.41-42

On the topic: methodological developments, presentations and notes

The notes have been developed for conducting a mathematics lesson in a classroom with students in grades 5 and 6...

Author's works of students of the literary circle "Inspiration" (Victoria Baeva (6-8 grades), Sofia Orlova (8-9 grades), Yana Masnaya (10-11 grades), Nadezhda Medvedeva (10-11 grades)

English? Why do I need English?

I'm not going to go to England.

Homer

Immersion method

Studying foreign language like swimming lessons: for the time being you can practice on the floor, but unless you dive into the pool, you will not achieve real mastery. The fact that it is impossible to study a language with any dignity in isolation from the environment in which it is used is perfectly illustrated by generations of Soviet travel restrictions, from the entire English course, who only remembered that “Landan from the Capital of Great Britain.” The immersion method has no equal; its effectiveness will be confirmed by every lover of communication who finds himself abroad. It’s easy to understand that you need to dive deeply by applying your own language to a foreigner. Every day, we, native speakers of the Russian language and heirs of our culture, sprinkle in idioms that only we understand, quotes from old films that were never shown outside the USSR and jokes that are familiar to us from childhood. This is the case with absolutely any culture. And for many years, only through direct communication with native speakers was it possible to achieve success in linguistics.

Fortunately, we live in the age of cinema and television, in the age of technology that it would be foolish not to use for self-education. If you want to learn American English, then the animated series “The Simpsons” is perfect for this purpose.

Animated chronicle

Why The Simpsons? Nowadays there is hardly a person who has not heard of the yellow-faced cartoon family. The series has been airing on the American Fox channel since 1989. The animated film parodies various aspects of everyday life, that is, it represents a real everyday chronicle of the last 27 years of America: events, people, society, culture. And what is extremely beneficial to those who are planning to improve their language skills: everything is told in simple, everyday, but at the same time completely literary language.

Any language is a living structure, inextricably linked with society and its activities, therefore, for perfect command of a language, it is necessary to understand the intricacies of another mentality, and satirical works are good assistants in this: the most characteristic features are always ridiculed.

Homer Simpson - average American

The series is based on a story about an ordinary family with three small children. Homer is an overweight, balding 40-year-old father of a family who, by an absurd accident, received the position of safety inspector at a nuclear power plant. Marge is a housewife caring for her children: 10-year-old bully Bart, 8-year-old straight-A student Lisa, and one-year-old Maggie. Homer loves his children, he is sure that “Children are our future. Unless we stop them now” (Children are our future. If we don’t stop them now).

All the residents of the city of Springfield (the name was chosen from the most frequently used place names) are very caricatured and even grotesque, which is very convenient for us. Each character represents a stereotype accepted in American society. Some are very understandable and close to the bearer of the Russian mentality: for example, the mayor of the city Quimby, although it is not clear how he got to this position, is actively involved in bribery and is building a useless opera house for his mistress, who considers herself a singer, and the city drunk Barney suddenly discovers an artistic soul and sings like Bocelli.

A little less understandable for us are the characters, whose images go back to purely American realities: the salesman in the only convenience store at a gas station is the Indian Apu, who spends all his time at work and at the same time has a wife and eight children. And he speaks with an accent familiar to every American who has called technical support at least once. Police Chief Wiggum is very fat and loves donuts - this stereotype became widespread when the FBI released a sensational study: it was found that US police officers are more likely to die from heart problems than in shootouts.

Since Americans were once a very religious nation, the tradition of going to church on weekends is preserved even among completely secular families and is an element of culture. The Springfield church is served by an absolutely stereotypical, bored priest, Lovejoy, who has long been disillusioned with both the church and the congregation, preferring toy railroads to sermons.

In the elementary school there are hooligans who take pocket money from other kids, and an ominous foreign janitor, and asthmatic nerds. In the world of The Simpsons there are career women, and saints, and alcoholics, and a suicidal bartender, and a grandfather, with endless stories about the war, and a news announcer with a smile on duty, and a gloomy clown-host of a children's program, always smoking. All of them constitute a slightly exaggerated, but still not devoid of reality, outline of American everyday life.

Phrases for all occasions.

All teaching aids invite students to act out communicative situations in which one of them is a seller and the other is a buyer, or one is a banker and the other is a client. This is necessary to increase your vocabulary.

The cartoon dictionary is large. In six hundred episodes, a huge number of topics were raised, the main characters traveled around the world, changed a couple of hundred professions, the cartoon is replete with parodies of Western literature and cinema. Dialogue is usually meaningful, realistic and... humorous.

Vendor: “Hot dogs, get your hot dogs!”

Homer: "I"ll take one"

Marge: “What, do you follow my husband around to sell him hot dogs? »

Vendor: “Lady, he"s putting my kids through college.”

Merchant: “Hotdogs, buy hotdogs!”

Homer: "Give me one"

Marge: “Do you follow my husband around to sell him hot dogs?”

Merchant: “Lady, his money is helping my kids go to college.”

If we ignore the irony, we can see phrases that are quite applicable in reality: “I"ll take one/three/couple” (literally: I’ll take one/three/couple) - this is how the buyer agrees to purchase the product, and “put through” (in in this case, help overcome) and “follow around” (follow someone everywhere) - phrasal verbs which you definitely need to learn.

However, the ways of speaking and expressing themselves are unique to each character. The main villain, a rich man and the owner of the Springfield nuclear power plant, is Mr. Burns. He is over 100 years old, he is greedy, calculating and aristocratic. From his manner of speaking, it is obvious that he does not always keep up with the times:

Policeman: Are you sure this is the woman you saw?

Mr. Burns: Absolutely! She has the sloping forehead and temporal lobe of the career criminal.

Policeman: Phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago.

Mr. Burns: Of course you"d say that... you have the brainpan of a stagecoach tilter!

Policeman: Are you sure this is the woman you saw?

Burns: Absolutely! She has the sloping forehead and temporal lobes of a professional criminal.

Policeman: Phrenology was declared untenable 160 years ago.

Burns: Of course you say so...your skull is like the spring of a stagecoach!

The eldest of the children, Bart, is not the best student, but he is a recognized prankster. The whole world knows his signature words, of course, knowing the phrases “Eat my shorts”, “Ay caramba” and “Cowabunga” is unlikely to greatly improve your English, but now you know where this slang came from. Bart usually entertains himself by making prank calls to the local bar, using masterful puns to prank the bartender:

Bart: Can I talk to Al last name Coholic.

Bartender: One minute.Phone call for Al...Al Coholic...is there an Al Coholic here?

Bart: Can I talk to Al? Surname Kogolik.

Bartender: Just a minute. Call for Al...Al Koholik...Are there Al Koholiks here?

This prank, by the way, is as classic for American jokers as “your whole back is white” is for Russians.

Homerisms

If some things are quite international and one way or another subject to translators, then especially juicy puns, which make up the bulk of “Homerisms” - the aphorisms of Homer Simpson, cannot be translated at all or, as a result, lose their sparkle. By turning on a cartoon in English, you can fully enjoy high-quality American humor and self-irony.

“I have 3 kids and no money. Why can"t I have no kids and three money? »

(I have three children and no money. It would be better no children And three money).

“Sensitive love letters are my specialty. Dear Baby, Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: you"

(Sensual love letters are my specialty. Dear baby, welcome to the city of the Abandoned, where you are the entire population).

“Weasing out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals...except the weasel"

(Getting out of the water unscathed is a very important skill. This is how we differ from animals... Just not from otters. The play on words here is Weaseling out (turn out) and weasel (otter)).

From theory to practice.

Here's what you need to do to make the most of your time watching the cartoon:

1. If you are new to English, turn on subtitles, but only in English.
2. When you come across something unfamiliar, rewind the video and try to hear it. Try to remember the speech situation: what are the characters doing: are they happy, or maybe they are in conflict? Associations with specific situations make it easier to remember.
3. Try to think beyond the level of words, pay attention to intonation, structure of dialogues and even to the gestures of cartoons (precisely because their drawn gestures are easier to recognize).
4. Use dictionaries, giving preference to explanatory ones, in the original language. For example, Webster's Dictionary. This way you can more accurately understand the shades of meaning.
5. After watching the episode, try to remember the jokes or expressions you especially liked, and think about what other situation they could be uttered.

international language

If you want to learn more about America and understand Americans better, then The Simpsons will help you with this. Overcoming the sociocultural barrier often helps to overcome the language barrier. Of course, there are hundreds of other programs, programs, films and series, and watching them in the original language is also useful for self-learning the language. “The Simpsons”, in this case, simply seems to the author of the article to be the best option: capacious, competent, unobtrusive and entertaining, which is also important.

It just so happens that English is an international language and knowing it allows you to keep up with the whole world. There is another, truly universal language that has been understood by all peoples at all times of the existence of cultural humanity - comedy. Whatever the linguistic, social, cultural and other differences between people, absolutely everyone can laugh.

I won’t say that I adore the Simpsons cartoon series, since this popular series echoes many aspects of American life that I don’t always understand or don’t always like... However, I love watching The Simpsons in English and listening to the speech of the main characters. Why is that? Yes, it’s simple because in America it has long been a tradition to make fun of the habits and customs of local society through animation. Traditionally children's entertainment, cartoons are a great way to convey your message or opinion to the world. Firstly, censors (censorship has always existed and will continue to exist even in democratic America) let humorous notes and witticisms fall on deaf ears and allow not-quite-children's films to air. Secondly, children grow into adults who get used to cartoons and who continue to watch them into old age. Great audience!

If a scandalous cartoon South Park shown late in the evening, targeting an adult audience, The Simpsons is shown at any time of the day. But wait, The Simpsons is not a harmless cartoon for schoolchildren and kids. The characters discuss quite acute problems, aptly notice certain aspects of American life, and harshly address certain people, for example, on the basis of race. I have collected a bunch of interesting expressions from several seasons and offer them for your consideration.

I would like to warn you that many of them are based on puns, jokes, allusions, etc... If necessary, I will provide a translation or a detailed explanation.

Oh, by the way, don’t forget the description of the characters in the film if you’ve never watched it.

Most catchphrases come out of the mouth of Homer Simpson, the father of a family who does not shine with intelligence (at first glance!). Homer is simple-minded and straightforward. He has a special role in the film - he is an ordinary American who does not always understand why his country has so many laws, obstacles, norms, conventions... Judge for yourself:

Homer Simpson(stupid, but with impeccable logic):

English --Who needs that? I"m never going to England! – English – Who needs it? I will never go to England!

I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch. (Homer makes it clear that he loves to eat well. He even makes time to eat between breakfasts and brunch.)

Hey, this man is not breathing. Don't people usually breathe? – Hey, the man isn't breathing. Do people usually breathe?

Relax. What is mind? No matter. What is the matter? Never mind! (Here the meanings of the words mind and matter are played on.)

Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream? (This is the real American dream!)

My dad"s a disgrace just like Bart"s dad... me. - Shame on my father, as well as on Bart's (Homer's son) father...that is, me.

I have feelings too -- like My stomach hurts or I"m going crazy! – I also have feelings... My stomach hurts or I'm going crazy!(Usually in English the expression “I have feelings...” means “I am sensitive, emotional.” Homer speaks straightforwardly about his “feelings.”)

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. (The authors of the script for The Simpsons episodes like to go against typical American everyday principles. For example, here the authors contradict the rule that is taught not only by American, but by Russian proverbs - Trying is not torture. Homer teaches - Never try!.)

And now I will move on to excerpts from the speeches of the characters of the series on topics (sometimes chauvinistic, racially charged or atheistic). There are so many of these expressions in the cartoon that someone even said: “There are as many great Simpsons quotes as there are Republicans in hell, which is another way to say “a lot.””

Ignorance and stupidity:

Ralph: Me fail English? That's unpossible.
Ralph: My cat’s breath smells like cat food. – My cat smells like cat food!

This difficult English:

Dr. Nick: Inflammable means flammable? What a country.

Philosophy of life:

Bill Gates: I didn't get rich by signing checks. – I didn't get rich just by writing checks.

Homer: Son, when you participate in sporting events, it’s not whether you win or lose: it’s how drunk you get. – Son, when participating in sporting events, it doesn't matter who wins or loses, it matters how much you drink.

Homer: When will I learn? The answers to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle, they’re on TV! – The answers to life's problems are not at the bottom of the bottle, but in the TV.

Homer: Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true! – Facts don't make sense. With the help of facts you can prove anything, even if it is far from the truth!

Mr. Burns: I'll keep it short and sweet - Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. – Let's put it briefly and gently - Family. Faith. Friendship. These are the three demons that must be eradicated if you want to succeed in business.

Homer: Here’s to alcohol, the cause of — and solution to — all life’s problems. – Let's drink to alcohol - the cause and solution to all everyday problems.

Homer: Bart, with $10,000 we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like…love! – Bart, with 10,000 dollars, we will become millionaires and will be able to buy various useful things, such as love.

Relationships between man and woman:

Homer: A woman is a lot like a refrigerator. Six feet tall, 300 pounds…it makes ice.

Homer: Son, a woman is like a beer. They smell good, they look good, you’d step over your own mother just to get one! But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman! (how do you like these words – considering that the film is being watched by boys who are about to become men?)

Unexpected discoveries and conclusions:

Homer: How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive? – How will education make me feel smarter? By the way, every time I learn something new, it pushes old knowledge out of my head. Do you remember how I forgot how to drive a car after taking a course on making homemade wine?

Milhouse: We started out like Romeo and Juliet, but it ended up in tragedy. – We started out like Romeo and Juliet and ended in tragedy.

Principal Skinner: That's why I love elementary school, Edna. The children believe anything you tell them. – That's why I like [working] in elementary school. Children believe everything you tell them.

These are the “harmless” cartoons.