Movies, Culture, Language, Time, and New Perspectives, Tradition, Holidays

Movies provide amazing insights into time periods and cultures.  Movies in different languages offer perspectives that are otherwise invisible.  Turner Classic Movies provides a wealth of films that reflect some of the best America has had to offer.  As a teacher, I used the movie It's a Wonderful Life to introduce ideas about American culture--the great depression, World War II, small-town life, the evolution of industry.  The film is rich in all of these things.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington offers English language learners a glimpse into the history of politics in the United States.

While fiction, many movies have become traditions and capture much of the culture of their times.  In my family, Thanksgiving (near the end of November) is the time for Miracle on 34th Street which begins with the Thanksgiving Day parade of Macy's department store in New York City.  We also watch White Christmas and Holiday Inn (two versions of the same movie), and are sure to see It's a Wonderful Life before Christmas.  Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol is also part of our holiday fare.  I saw a delightful new version in "Real 3D" of Disney's A Christmas Carol with Jim Carey earlier this week.

When I was learning Italian, I lived in Italy as a graduate student for six months and went to lots of Italian re-runs.  As the audience laughed themselves silly, I was struggling to keep up with the folow of the words.  Before long my Italian improved and I laughed along with the rest of the audience.  Many of the Italian films and much of the Italian humor differed greatly from what I was used to in American films.  It was delightful to get to know the movies in Italian.  One title I remember was very different in Italian and in English.  I believe it was an Italian western.  The Italian title was Giu la testa (keep your head down).  The same movie's title in English was Duck, Stupid! later changed to Duck, You Sucker!

Recently, to bring back my French fluency, I began watching French films from Netflix.  One movie is entitled Une hirondelle . . . a fait du printemps (The Girl from the Spring).  The English title for the same movie is The Girl from Paris.  The French title is much more in keeping with the theme of the movie though the girl does come from Paris.  Another French movie I have recently watched and enjoyed was Priceless.  Again, the culture and humor of the film is very different from typical American movies.

Watching familiar DVD's in other languages is also a great way to bring fluency back.  Many DVD's have sound tracks and closed captions in multiple languages and it is a great way to review and refresh fluency by working with a combination of oral and written languages with viewing the DVD's.   Some of my favorites to watch in multiple languages are Dave, French Kiss, One Fine Day, and Groundhog Day.

Creating Conditions for Quality and Value

There have been years of debates about “nature vs. nurture” with numerous points of view. To put this age-old debate into modern terms, each of us has gifts and talents which can come forward to be shared to benefit others with environmental conditions are right for the sharing of those gifts. Most of us have experienced frustration when we had something we thought was valuable to be shared and the environmental conditions either made the sharing less than effective or stopped it completely.

Teachers often have great lesson plans that never seem to be fulfilled because of the environmental influences of the school and the students and the teacher when he or she attempts to implement these lesson plans.
In business, a thought leader will have a wonderful idea for the organization—only to find that the environmental factors influencing the organization diminish or negate the value of the idea.

The phrase “an idea whose time has come” evokes a sense of enthusiasm and excitement over something new that is about to unfold. Often ideas come at times when they cannot be effectively implemented. When times change and become more favorable, those ideas are frequently no longer available.

Leaders need to be aware of this challenge and to go about creating conditions for quality and value--finding the talents and valuable contributions that can come from others and molding the environment to be supportive of the sharing.

We also need to look for environments where we can bring forward these same talents and valuable contributions. It is a rare organization that creates this type of environment on an ongoing basis that can accommodate the range of diverse talents and values of the people working with it.