From Nuffnang

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

My Fair Lady reads The King's Speech: Learning How to Speak in English

The title of this post might indicate a misplaced article, but it is not.  The importance of English in Filipino culture cannot be understated considering that it is one of our official languages.  I would like to share with you two Oscar-winning films that delve on how to properly speak in English: My Fair Lady and The King's Speech.

My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the similarly-titled stage musical by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner. The film's title character, Eliza Doolittle, is a Cockney flower girl who is provided with speech lessons from the phoneticist Henry Higgins. The lessons were given after Higgins' friend, Colonel Pickering, wagered that Higgins will fail on passing off Eliza as a duchess at an embassy ball.

The King's Speech is a 2010 historical drama film about the struggle of the King George VI to overcome a stuttering condition. With the help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Hogue, the king successfully gave his radio broadcast on Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939.

Both films depicted montages of the title characters having their speech lessons. The scenes resonate within me very well, because I am exerting efforts to improve my oral communication skills in English.  I presume many other Filipinos can relate with my goal to become confident in speaking in English, and the films I mentioned can provide insights into the beauty of the language.

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