Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the English Learners Club. I'm Etsuko, and today, I'll talk about a movie called "The Penguin Lessons."
I saw "The Penguin Lessons" at a movie theater last week. Before seeing it, I had heard about it and read a short teaser for it, which went as follows: “Inspired by the true story of a disillusioned Englishman named Tom who went to work at a school in Argentina in 1976. Expecting an easy ride, Tom discovers a divided nation and a class of unteachable students. However, after he rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach, his life is turned upside-down!
The reasons I picked this movie were: 1) my birthday was coming up, so I wanted to take a day off work and go somewhere on a weekday, 2) it was cold outside, so I wanted to be indoors, and 3) it didn't have excellent reviews, but the penguin looked cute, so I said to my self, “hey, why not!" And decided to watch it.
I didn’t set my expectations very high, but I was surprised! It was excellent! The penguin was cute, of course, and the lead actor's performance was fantastic. He brilliantly portrayed an intelligent English teacher who had lost motivation due to an unfortunate incident in his past, but then is faced with unforeseen challenges after being transferred to a non-English speaking country.
I liked how the director portrayed the gradual changes in the atmosphere around him using the classroom scenes. For us English learners, the English poetry lessons were fascinating, even though it’s just a movie.
Since watching this movie, I've been thinking deeply about many things that came up in it. Needless to say, I will definitely watch it again when I get the chance. This was the best movie of the year for me.
Thank you for listening! Keep learning, keep practicing, and always remember to have fun. See you in the next episode. Bye for now!
