English, baby!

Westerns

Date: Sep 26 2007

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

There’s something so fascinating about a character who doesn’t rely on anyone and keeps his or her feelings hidden. American culture has captured this image in the character of the cowboy, a man who travels the country with only his horse, looking for…even he’s not sure what. He also has gun fights when necessary.

There’s a whole genre of movies about cowboys called Westerns. But other cultures have similar characters in their folklore and films.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Devan

Mason: I’ve been watching a lot of Western movies lately. Have you seen many Western flicks?

Devan: Yeah, I’ve seen quite a few.

Mason: Yeah? Like which ones?

Devan: Um, I like all the Paul Newman, John Wayne old, classic ones. What were you watching?

Mason: I watched some of the Clint Eastwood ones and Magnificent Seven which, uh, is really one of the classics. Of course, it’s taken from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Which I think…It’s funny. There’s a lot of parallels between the Western cowboy and the Japanese ronin, which is kind of like the samurai that didn’t have a master.

Devan: Interesting, I never thought of it that way before.

Mason: Yeah, there’s a lot of soul searching there, a lot of silent characters. Obviously they’ve got their weapon and they kind of go about dispensing their own justice.

Devan: A hero.

Mason: Sort of, but it’s like the hero with a dark side. It’s not like the hero of a law man.

Devan: Did you ever want to be a cowboy when you were a kid?

Mason: I more wanted to be a cowboy when I was like 23 and bought all my cowboy shirts and thought that was cool.

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Discussion

Mason and Devan both like classic Western films. One of Mason’s favorite is Magnificent Seven, which is based on Seven Samurai by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. He notes that the Western cowboy is a lot like the Japanese ronin, which is a samurai without a master.

Devan had never thought of it quite like that before, so Mason continues. The cowboy and the ronin each has a weapon and administers justice according to his own beliefs. Each is a hero, but not necessarily law-abiding, and often quite dark and silent.

A lot of kids dream about being a cowboy, so Devan asks Mason if he wanted to be a cowboy when he was young. He jokingly says he wanted to be a cowboy in his 20s when he bought a lot of Western shirts, which are quite fashionable at the moment.

In addition to the Japanese ronin, the Argentinians have the gaucho, which is somewhat like a cowboy as well. Is there a cowboy figure in your culture?

Comments

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explorer143

Pakistan

Nice lesson, but i don’t know..

Noah Lee

South Korea

I can rememder some old cowboy movie.
The cowboy, who fire a gun quickly, administers justice according to his own beliefs. By the way, is the cowboy really hero? Probably, some cowboys are not.
Anyway, my father likes to watch Western movies. Therefore when I was child, I had seen many times. And I, child, believed Western cowboy is really brilliant and stylish. Of course, I wished to be brillient and stylish guy like the cowboy, and I had cowboy clothes, hats, and guns.

somaliland

Somalia

Here in my country there is no something like gaucho,cowboy,and Samurai.
i like to watch westren films and my fvafoute actor was Clean Eastwood’s performance of Cowboy films. really he is great actor.

starfighteradara

Philippines

Here in the Philippines, the closest we have to cowboys and ronins are those who make for the hills because of hurts against the government. They're essentially rebels who are unhappy with the way things are so they form bands that roam the remote mountainous areas of the country. Since our culture stems from tribal societies, these people live like tribes did in olden times. Some of them do go around helping people, particularly those who live in farming communities.

ana p. dewiyana

Indonesia

Movie about cowboys, horse, stud farm, mountains are very interesting. I love them

feixue2002

China

Here in China, we have "knight-errant", who we called "xiake". They are not law-abiding men, they are silent, alone, without master. They also carry a weapon, usually a sword or a broadsword. The same with the "gaucho" and cowboy, they also dispense their own justice.