Language and Linguistics Movie Reviews

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Family movie reviews for "Language and Linguistics" sorted by average review score:
The Standard Deviants - Learn Advanced Spanish - Building on the Basics
Released in DVD by CEREBELLUM (01 February, 2001)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Average review score:

Juvenile, not advanced!
The title is misleading. This really is not advanced Spanish. They spend the first quarter of the program reviewing basics (noun genders, adjective agreements, etc.) so that's wasted. By the time we reach the end, we're just learning about direct and indirect object pronouns. These are the things you learn in an Intro II Spanish course at the local community college. (The proof is in the syllabus of a course I took!)

Another gripe is the presentation. They use a kind of silly, juvenile format with embarrassingly bad, scripted comedy. It's like something you'd see on Saturday morning cartoons.

Last, of the six or so youngsters who deliver the course (they all seem to be about 19 years old), only one or two of them has a good (i.e., native) Spanish accent. The others all speak with that flat, nasal American sound that sounds so bad in Spanish! And one of the presenters made a bad grammatical faux-pas when he said, "No problema" which is a Bart Simpson-ism. It should be, "No hay problema".

Apart from the bad accents I would have no qualms with this DVD if they'd just labeled it correctly, for instance, "Spanish Reveiew for Kids".

I was very satisfied
While it's true that I wouldn't label the DVD "Advanced Spanish" I also wouldn't label it "Spanish Review for Kids." In fact, it is more like an intermediate Spanish review. While I already knew everything they teach, they still use some tips I wish I had heard when I was taking formal college courses. The visual element is compelling - far more useful for imparting and retaining information than audio tapes and textbooks alone. I bought the whole series, and I almost felt like I had gotten to know the actors personally. I hated it when the last DVD came to an end. Sure they speak with American accents - they're mostly Americans! It's not like they're unintelligible. By the time you get to the end of this DVD, you're speaking some pretty darned sophisticated Spanish. The interactive element is great - there are opportunities for self-testing and the DVD format offers chances to review sections much easier than with VCR tapes. I would like to see another DVD that covers past subjunctive, conditional, and the other perfect tenses that were left out of the series. Also, I'd like to see a discussion of por versus para and other tricky grammatical constructions. There's definitely room for at least one more DVD in the series. How about it Standard Deviants? Make it and it will sell.

Unbelievably easy to use
I desperately needed help with Spanish because of my job. I'm not a rocket scientist when it comes to picking up a new language and all of those audio tapes are so damn boring. These DVD's really work - they're fun and really useful. Besides, the Standard Deviants silly troupe is also filled with hotties. What a way to learn!

The Standard Deviants - French, Part 1
Released in DVD by Cerebellum Corp. (05 October, 1999)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
If you're looking to really learn the French language, as opposed to briefly memorizing a few phrases to help you find a bathroom or complain to the doctor of your traveler's stomach, the Standard Deviants have the video for you. Their French, Part I is a language lesson for the MTV generation. Short segments, funky graphics, and personable, youthful teachers make watching this tape entertaining, rather like Sesame Street for grownups. Using the "functional approach," making sure people can communicate and accomplish tasks in the new language, the video introduces French with phrases and full sentences, presenting ideas through demonstration. The point is to help you think in French. Dialogue is clearly transcribed on the screen, so you can see what the words look like, and two cards included with the tape give translations of some of the dialogues and useful vocabulary. Note, though, that all of the explanations are given in English, as opposed to an immersion program (meaning all in French, including explanations) such as French in Action. Which style works best is purely a matter of personal preference. Skits put the conversations into context and provide levity. Yet, as is clearly stated in the beginning of the lesson, this series is intended to be a supplement to a class, and French really needs to be practiced through speaking and writing. The benefit, though, of video is you can rewind as much as needed to master pronunciation and to let the concepts sink in. The tape opens with pronunciation, with close-ups of faces as they pronounce the alphabet to help you learn how to shape your mouth around the French letters. It then covers a range of topics including -er verbs, gender, articles, adverbs, être, adjectives, pronouns, avoir, numbers, aller, and faire. While the video could benefit from more native French speakers, this is a delightful introduction to the language, and a fun complement to a high school or college French class. Don't miss the flubbed lines during the credits. French, Part 2 is also available. --Jenny Brown
Average review score:

informative funny, not for learning accent
Its two videotapes each about 80 minutes, progressing in both difficulty and knowledge.
They clearly teach you how to pronounce and conjugate verbs paying attention to tricky verbs ( nous mangeons, vous appelez, teach about adjectives, adverbs, reflexive verbs (to wash), how "the" is complex in French, such as le-la-les, ce-cet-ces, Etc,. each chapter was followed by review conversation that were all excellent. Also each tape came with very handy useful informative insert card.
I used this course to refresh my French, and recalled and regained good information, especially with humorous examples. Unfortunately some times as the other reviewer mentioned was "overly corny".
I did not at all like the idea of learning French from non native speaker, the French accent and pronunciation is difficult with those nasal voices and different "e, eaux..",. Despite the actor great effort but they remain far away from real French. This what force me to give it only three stars, rather it will be four, this is my only take on this informative fun to watch course.

Enjoyable French Review and Refresher
As a person who studied French in school but never mastered it, I loved the Standard Deviants' French 1 tape. It gave a brief but comprehensive review of all the basic important parts of speech. It also emphasized pronunciation, an aspect of French not properly represented in the classes I'd taken in high school and collage. The tape says it can't be used to learn French. It's correct. It really needs to be used with a French course, or some other method of learning the language. As a resource to aid in learning comprehension, or as a refresher course for folks like me, however, I give it full marks. Most of the actors and graphics are engaging. A few things were overly corny. I could have done without the weird, old-fashion cowboy guy yelling at me, or the girl talking out of her passport picture. But, these were minor momentary irritants that didn't take away from the effectiveness of the tape...besides the cowboy guy sort of grew on me after a while. The Standard Deviants' tape did one thing I really liked. Learning a foreign language requires repetition. Most tapes I've seen in the past either offered too much repetition for me, which left me bored and uninterested in continuing, or not enough repetition, which left me confused. The Standard Deviants' found a solution to this dilemma. At first, I was surprised at how quickly they covered each subject. Then, I realized why. It's a video tape. One can rewind it as often as one desires. They covered each thing once with nearly no review and then urged the viewer to rewind the section as many times as they needed. This left it up to each individual viewer to decide how much repetition they wanted. A very clever idea! Overall, I found the tape helpful and enjoyable.

Great Stuff
I bought this tape as a review before a vacation to France and found it both usefull and enjoyable. Though I have never taken a French class, the tape, and the actors, were helpful for me in learning some key phrases. I also thought the skits and humor were very entertaining and made the whole process more fun than sitting through a class.

The Standard Deviants - Parlez-vous Francais? (Learning French - The Basics)
Released in DVD by Cerebellum Corp. (26 June, 2001)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
If you're looking to really learn the French language, as opposed to briefly memorizing a few phrases to help you find a bathroom or complain to the doctor of your traveler's stomach, the Standard Deviants have the video for you. Their French, Part I is a language lesson for the MTV generation. Short segments, funky graphics, and personable, youthful teachers make watching this tape entertaining, rather like Sesame Street for grownups. Using the "functional approach," making sure people can communicate and accomplish tasks in the new language, the video introduces French with phrases and full sentences, presenting ideas through demonstration. The point is to help you think in French. Dialogue is clearly transcribed on the screen, so you can see what the words look like, and two cards included with the tape give translations of some of the dialogues and useful vocabulary. Note, though, that all of the explanations are given in English, as opposed to an immersion program (meaning all in French, including explanations) such as French in Action. Which style works best is purely a matter of personal preference. Skits put the conversations into context and provide levity. Yet, as is clearly stated in the beginning of the lesson, this series is intended to be a supplement to a class, and French really needs to be practiced through speaking and writing. The benefit, though, of video is you can rewind as much as needed to master pronunciation and to let the concepts sink in. The tape opens with pronunciation, with close-ups of faces as they pronounce the alphabet to help you learn how to shape your mouth around the French letters. It then covers a range of topics including -er verbs, gender, articles, adverbs, être, adjectives, pronouns, avoir, numbers, aller, and faire. While the video could benefit from more native French speakers, this is a delightful introduction to the language, and a fun complement to a high school or college French class. Don't miss the flubbed lines during the credits. French, Part 2 is also available. --Jenny Brown
Average review score:

informative funny, not for learning accent
Its two videotapes each about 80 minutes, progressing in both difficulty and knowledge.
They clearly teach you how to pronounce and conjugate verbs paying attention to tricky verbs ( nous mangeons, vous appelez, teach about adjectives, adverbs, reflexive verbs (to wash), how "the" is complex in French, such as le-la-les, ce-cet-ces, Etc,. each chapter was followed by review conversation that were all excellent. Also each tape came with very handy useful informative insert card.
I used this course to refresh my French, and recalled and regained good information, especially with humorous examples. Unfortunately some times as the other reviewer mentioned was "overly corny".
I did not at all like the idea of learning French from non native speaker, the French accent and pronunciation is difficult with those nasal voices and different "e, eaux..",. Despite the actor great effort but they remain far away from real French. This what force me to give it only three stars, rather it will be four, this is my only take on this informative fun to watch course.

Enjoyable French Review and Refresher
As a person who studied French in school but never mastered it, I loved the Standard Deviants' French 1 tape. It gave a brief but comprehensive review of all the basic important parts of speech. It also emphasized pronunciation, an aspect of French not properly represented in the classes I'd taken in high school and collage. The tape says it can't be used to learn French. It's correct. It really needs to be used with a French course, or some other method of learning the language. As a resource to aid in learning comprehension, or as a refresher course for folks like me, however, I give it full marks. Most of the actors and graphics are engaging. A few things were overly corny. I could have done without the weird, old-fashion cowboy guy yelling at me, or the girl talking out of her passport picture. But, these were minor momentary irritants that didn't take away from the effectiveness of the tape...besides the cowboy guy sort of grew on me after a while. The Standard Deviants' tape did one thing I really liked. Learning a foreign language requires repetition. Most tapes I've seen in the past either offered too much repetition for me, which left me bored and uninterested in continuing, or not enough repetition, which left me confused. The Standard Deviants' found a solution to this dilemma. At first, I was surprised at how quickly they covered each subject. Then, I realized why. It's a video tape. One can rewind it as often as one desires. They covered each thing once with nearly no review and then urged the viewer to rewind the section as many times as they needed. This left it up to each individual viewer to decide how much repetition they wanted. A very clever idea! Overall, I found the tape helpful and enjoyable.

Great Stuff
I bought this tape as a review before a vacation to France and found it both usefull and enjoyable. Though I have never taken a French class, the tape, and the actors, were helpful for me in learning some key phrases. I also thought the skits and humor were very entertaining and made the whole process more fun than sitting through a class.

The Standard Deviants - Habla Espanol? Beyond the Basics (Learn to Speak Spanish)
Released in DVD by Cerebellum Corp. (29 May, 2002)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
In the opening jingle, the oddball lyrics "Careful or you're speaking Spanglish, then your grade will cause you anguish" provide a glimpse into the premise of this production from the Standard Deviants. In this, their second trip to the "Salsa-riffic World of Spanish," the energetic young cast performs skits and unleashes some clever and elaborate computer graphics while providing a reliable review course in the Spanish language. Starting with what's billed as "Really Basic Stuff," the cast reviews practical matters such as how to count, talks about what time it is, and discusses the weather. Moving into more advanced material, there are pointers on grammar, with a focus on the rules of particular verbs. It should be noted that the curriculum has been approved by a panel of professors, but the cast members tend to present the material in a relaxed format, which often involves the use of costumes and some bad (and hopefully memorable) jokes. Each major portion of the program is followed by a quiz, which the student can either take or skip, and the entire DVD concludes with an exam titled "La Tormenta." This DVD isn't a substitute for classes in Spanish, but as review material the unorthodox presentation would be helpful to a student. --Robert J. McNamara
Average review score:

May not work in your DVD player...
I have a one year old Zenith 5 disc DVD player and it doesn't work for me.

Only for the basics.
I found the format of this DVD both distracting and not very effective. There seemed to be more animation than actual learning content. I did learn a few phrases but the DVD fails to combine words and phrases into valuable conversation topics. This DVD is best suited for children, not for adults who actually want to learn to speak Spanish.

Please make more of these.
Standard Deviants Spanish, Part 2 is a good way for a beginner to learn a little more vocab, learn the basics of verb conjugations, and some basic conversational Spanish. I feel that there was not very much information on the DVD; but I did gain a good understanding of everything they taught. These lessons are great and I plan to see many more.

The Standard Deviants - Spanish, Part 2
Released in DVD by Cerebellum Corp. (04 July, 2000)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
In the opening jingle, the oddball lyrics "Careful or you're speaking Spanglish, then your grade will cause you anguish" provide a glimpse into the premise of this production from the Standard Deviants. In this, their second trip to the "Salsa-riffic World of Spanish," the energetic young cast performs skits and unleashes some clever and elaborate computer graphics while providing a reliable review course in the Spanish language. Starting with what's billed as "Really Basic Stuff," the cast reviews practical matters such as how to count, talks about what time it is, and discusses the weather. Moving into more advanced material, there are pointers on grammar, with a focus on the rules of particular verbs. It should be noted that the curriculum has been approved by a panel of professors, but the cast members tend to present the material in a relaxed format, which often involves the use of costumes and some bad (and hopefully memorable) jokes. Each major portion of the program is followed by a quiz, which the student can either take or skip, and the entire DVD concludes with an exam titled "La Tormenta." This DVD isn't a substitute for classes in Spanish, but as review material the unorthodox presentation would be helpful to a student. --Robert J. McNamara
Average review score:

May not work in your DVD player...
I have a one year old Zenith 5 disc DVD player and it doesn't work for me.

Only for the basics.
I found the format of this DVD both distracting and not very effective. There seemed to be more animation than actual learning content. I did learn a few phrases but the DVD fails to combine words and phrases into valuable conversation topics. This DVD is best suited for children, not for adults who actually want to learn to speak Spanish.

Please make more of these.
Standard Deviants Spanish, Part 2 is a good way for a beginner to learn a little more vocab, learn the basics of verb conjugations, and some basic conversational Spanish. I feel that there was not very much information on the DVD; but I did gain a good understanding of everything they taught. These lessons are great and I plan to see many more.

The Standard Deviants - Learn Advanced Spanish - Verbs
Released in DVD by CEREBELLUM (18 June, 2002)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Average review score:

Jvenile, not advanced!
The title is misleading. This really is not advanced Spanish. They spend the first quarter of the program reviewing basics (noun genders, adjective agreements, etc.) so that's wasted. By the time we reach the end, we're just learning about direct and indirect object pronouns. These are the things you learn in an Intro II Spanish course at the local community college. (The proof is in the syllabus of a course I took!)

Another gripe is the presentation. They use a kind of silly, juvenile format with embarrassingly bad, scripted comedy. It's like something you'd see on Saturday morning cartoons.

Last, of the six or so youngsters who deliver the course (they all seem to be about 19 years old), only one or two of them has a good (i.e., native) Spanish accent. The others all speak with that flat, nasal American sound that sounds so bad in Spanish! And one of the presenters made a bad grammatical faux-pas when he said, "No problema" which is a Bart Simpson-ism. It should be, "No hay problema".

Apart from the bad accents I would have no qualms with this DVD if they'd just labeled it correctly, for instance, "Spanish Reveiew for Kids".

May not work on your DVD player...
I have a one year old Zenith 5 disc DVD player and it doesn't work for me.

Advanced Spanish made child's play
What a fun way to learn spanish. I was really struggling with the verbs. While Standard Deviants stuff is not the serious way to approach a subject, it's much more effective in my book. It's refreshing compared to most of the other junk out there. I would say that if you are looking for something traditional, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for something different, look here.

Tai Chi for Arthritis (Multi-Language Version)
Released in DVD by Wellspring Media, In (17 December, 2002)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Starring: Paul Lam
The beginning of Tai Chi for Arthritis introduces the arthritic senior-citizen members of Paul Lam's Australian tai chi class, who share their stories of increased range of motion and resulting enjoyment of life thanks to the positive effects of exercise. Lam, a Sydney physician and international tai chi champion, personally vouches for the ancient practice, which reversed the debilitating effects of his own arthritis. Then the class follows an hour-long program of warm-ups, stretches, and 12 movements that increase muscle tone and joint movement for the arthritic. These consist of six basic movements, six more advanced movements, and a separate demonstration by Lam without verbal instruction for those ready for a more fluid daily practice. Lam also introduces a set of qigong exercises for arthritis, explaining that the Chinese believe that the sluggish flow of Qi--the Chinese word for energy--is a major cause of arthritis. --Kimberly Heinrichs
Average review score:

To many people
The introduction they could have done with out and Dr. Lam has people to help show the movements. Way to much distraction when there are that many people in a video. I didn't learn a thing from it.

Good excecise but not easy to follow
This is my first Tai Chi video so I have nothing to compare with. Overall, I liked the excercies and I liked how he broke every move into multiple segments to make sure the viewers get it. But his explaination of each move is not very clear and sometimes lacks details. For example, he should point out when a movement requires shifting weight or bending knees. These details are ommitted from time to time. He also needs to incorporate more breathing instructions into the movements. I was able to follow it, but my mom (whom I bought the DVD for) was confused by the instructions.

The Standard Deviants - Italian, The Basics - Nouns, Verbs & Adjectives
Released in DVD by CEREBELLUM (29 October, 2001)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Average review score:

Too much English, too few Italian dialogues
This tape does a good job in thoroughly explaining some of the basic grammatical rules about Italian nouns and adjectives (how the endings must conform and the rest of it). But almost 80% of the time you see and an English speaker explaining the rules in English. There are just two short dialogues between two native Italians in the tape with poor voice quality. Most of the example Italian sentences are read by English speakers, sometimes with noticeable American accent. In short I think you don't learn much by watching the entire tape, one can summerize the vocabulary and the grammatical rules explained in this tape in just 3 or 4 pages.

The Standard Deviants - Parla Italiano (Learning Italian - Nouns, Verbs & Adjectives)
Released in DVD by Cerebellum Corp. (18 June, 2002)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Average review score:

Too much English, too few Italian dialogues
This tape does a good job in thoroughly explaining some of the basic grammatical rules about Italian nouns and adjectives (how the endings must conform and the rest of it). But almost 80% of the time you see and an English speaker explaining the rules in English. There are just two short dialogues between two native Italians in the tape with poor voice quality. Most of the example Italian sentences are read by English speakers, sometimes with noticeable American accent. In short I think you don't learn much by watching the entire tape, one can summerize the vocabulary and the grammatical rules explained in this tape in just 3 or 4 pages.

Doing Business in America: Your Guide to Business Language and Etiquette
Released in DVD by (31 October, 2000)
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Director: Craig Campbell
Average review score:
No reviews found.

Related Subjects: Science Aboriginal_English Afrikaans Akan Algic Arabic Australian Aymara Basque Books_and_Instructional_Materials Cajun Cantonese Central Chinook Constructed_Languages Dakota Danish Dialectology Diné Eastern Education English Farsi Georgian German Grammars Graphemics_and_Orthography Hakka Hausa Hebrew Hindi Historical_Linguistics Hokan Hungarian Jamaican_Creole Japanese Kannada Kashmiri Khanty Koine Komi Kurdish Languages_of_Eurasia Lao Latin Lessons Maltese Mandarin Manglish Mansi Marathi Mari Mayan Mingo Miwok Mixed Mohawk Munda Nenets Niger-Kordofanian_Based Nigerian_Pidgin Norse Oneida Oriya Paiute Panjabi Pashto People Phonetics_and_Phonology Portuguese_Based Psycholinguistics Romance Romani Sami Scots Semantics Semiotics Seneca Sign_Languages Slavic Swedish Tajiki Tamil Translation Turkic Urdu Veps Votic Western
More Pages: Language and Linguistics Page 1 2 3 4 5