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.   #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...

Are you passionate about skincare? K-beauty products have become increasingly popular worldwide. Why not test your knowledge of skincare and cosmetic terms today with the following fill-in-the-blank quiz?       1.    S_________ing is an informal term for a skincare method that involves applying an occ____________ moisturizer (*meaning “thick and oily”) to the face, usually before going to bed, mainly to help lock in moisture and prevent water loss.          2.    Excess _______bum production can result in oily skin and blocked pores, whereas insufficient amounts may lead to dryness.        3.    ____________heads are a type of acne that develop when oil, bacteria, and dead skin cells are trapped beneath the skin’s outer layer.       4.    Fine lines, c___________feet , and wrinkles are the most evident signs of ageing for both women and men. As coll_____...

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.   #42. To Leslie (film, 2022) This film (based on the true story of the screenwriter, Ryan Binaco’s) follows a woman from West Texas who, a few years earlier, won enough money in the lottery to improve life for herself and her son, James. However, she struggles with alcohol and addiction, and the money quickly disappears. When we meet her, she has left both her town and her son behind, living and scraping by on the fringes of society. Her situation worsens, and she soon becomes homeless. Throughout the film, she is pushed to seek help from the people she once abandoned, eventually returning to the small town she left—where sh...

  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.   #41. A Late Quartet (film, 2012) This story follows four friends who are members of a renowned string quartet called Fugue in New York. When Peter, the group’s leader, learns he has early-stage Parkinson’s disease, the news brings past tensions to the surface, puts the ensemble’s future at risk, and challenges the strength of their relationships.   (Robert): “Do you really love me? Or am I just convenient?” (Juliet, Robert’s wife): “What is it that you want? I’ve always loved you, but I am just incapable of showing it the way you like me to. I don’t know how I feel.” ð   It captures the central mari...

What It Means to Live as an Adult Immigrant in the U.S.                                                              by Jean J. Lee   The face of demography in North America has been dramatically changing as millions of refugees and legal immigrants have found their way into the U.S. and Canada. Although these people who have come to someone else’s countries started their new life in pursuit of freedom and the American dream, they are imposed multifaced burdens or challenges upon them. These social situations and contexts interact with one another affecting the adult immigrants’ learning of second language (or so-called the “target language”), which is English. As pointed out by scholar...

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.   #40. The Prophet (authored by Kahlil Gibran, 1923) This book has grown into one of the most cherished classics of our era. Gibran regarded The Prophet as his finest accomplishment. He once shared, “I believe I have never been without The Prophet since I first imagined it in Mount Lebanon. It has always felt like a part of me… I held onto the manuscript for four years before giving it to my publisher because I wanted to be certain—completely certain—that every word represented the very best I could give.” The Chicago Post remarked, “Anyone who can read this book without quietly embracing the wisdom of a great mind and feelin...