Live and Learn English with Jean Lee

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE Do you take delight in watching films, listening to pop music, or reading books? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.   #45. Detachment (film, 2011) This is a story of a substitute teacher named Henry Barthes (played by Adrien Brody) who avoids forming emotional ties and never remains in one school long enough to connect with students or staff. Struggling with his own inner turmoil caused by his traumatic childhood, he arrives at a public school where indifferent students and uninvolved parents have led to a weary, cynical, and discouraged faculty. Unexpectedly, Henry Barthes emerges as a source of guidance for his disengaged students and forms a connection with a teenage runaway who shares his sense of confusion and isolation.  ...

Spring Rain by Jean J. Lee   It’s been raining for days, Clearing all the haze. Preparing the dormant grass braird. My unkempt lawn doesn’t look impaired.   Are swallows hiding in the tree maze? But they are not the ones to faze. They are quietly practicing to be heard. Looking up at the sky but not at all glared.   The first chirpy song arrives at my doorways. Sweet tunes to my ears like a message it relays. April rains bring May flowers truly cared. Time to stretch and make your passions flared.

Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which each word starts with the letters MI-. Ex. Assignment for soldiers --> MI LITARY MI SSION   1. Pageant title for a contestant from Detroit   2. One of the Twin Cities   3. Nickname for the river through New Orleans   4. Super short skirt   5. Neighborhood in Los Angeles that contains Museum Row   6. Just over four times the distance from the earth to the moon   7. Goateed sing-along conductor of old TV   8. a little accident   9. a land-based weapon in America's nuclear arsenal   10. In "Snow White," the evil queen's words before "on the wall"   Answer Keys     1.   Miss Michigan     2.   Minneapolis Minnesota     3.   Mighty Mississippi     4.   Micro-Mini Skirt     5.   Miracle Mile     6.   Million Miles     7....

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE Do you take delight in watching films, listening to pop music, or reading books? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.   #44. All the Empty Rooms (Documentary, 2025) “ All the Empty Rooms” is a documentary film created in memory of the children killed in mass shootings that occurred in their schools. The film follows journalist/correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they spend seven years documenting and capturing images of the empty bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings. This documentary received the 2026 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film. During the acceptance speech, producer Conall Jones wore an “End Gun Violence” pin from Brady, the country’s oldest organization focused on preventing ...

Haiku Poems on various topics by Jean J. Lee If you happen to be in the mood for writing a short piece of  "5-7-5 syllable Haiku" at the moment, why don’t you let your imaginations go wild?   Running Seeing commercials Where a girl is parkouring Prompts me to head out!     Spring Colors are in bloom Itchy eyes and runny nose Now you could tell why     Love If someone left you, You must think you have lost love Wrong. He has lost love.     Cheese Irresistible. I bet you’ll come back for more. Geez, who cut the cheese?

LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE Do you take delight in watching films, listening to pop music, or reading books? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.   #43. About Schmidt (film, 2002) This is a deeply realistic film that humorously examines a retired man’s life after it is abruptly shaken by his wife’s sudden death, while he struggles to accept a son-in-law he instinctively resists. Warren Schmidt (played by Jack Nicholson), a reserved retired insurance actuary, was stuck in an unhappy marriage with Helen and feels uneasy about his daughter Jeannie’s upcoming wedding to Randall Hertzel. After Helen unexpectedly passes away and he discovers letters revealing her affair with his best friend, he becomes determined to prevent his daughter’s marriage. However, he faces resistan...