12. Movies
Listen to a short English conversation about movies to practice your English speaking and listening skills.
To listen, press play in the audio player.
Luke: You’re listening to Dialogue Frog’s short English conversations for listening, speaking and shadowing practice. My name’s Luke and I’m here today with Emma and we’re going to be talking about movies.
Emma: Movies is a big topic.
Luke: It is a big topic. Um, so lets kinda, lets narrow it down a little bit.
Emma: Okay.
Luke: Do you have a favorite genre?
Emma: Well, not really. I’m kind of picky I guess. I like good movies. As long as it doesn’t have too much gore, or violence, or a bad ending, or horror, I pretty much like any kind of movie.
Luke: Mm-hm.
Emma: What about you?
Luke: I am partial to comedies.
Emma: Ah, yeah.
Luke: I agree with you. I’m not a fan of horror, or gore, or….uh…I don’t even like action movies that much, so…
Emma: I prefer adventure movies to action movies.
Luke: Yeah. Yep. Or even action-adventure movies, with the hyphen.
Emma: Would that be like ‘Transformers?’
Luke: I-I think so.
Emma: Or would that more of an action?
Luke: I think so.
Emma: Because I liked the first ‘Transformers’ movie but I never watched any of the other ones.
Luke: Mm-hm.
Emma: What about superhero movies? Those are really popular lately.
Luke: They don’t do much for me, personally. Um, they’re not known for their humorous nature, I suppose.
Emma: I thought Iron Man was kind of a funny guy.
Luke: He is but lets just say there were more punches than punchlines. So…
Emma: Ooooooh. That’s true. Fair enough.
Luke: What….. do you feel like…. this is kind of a pinpointed question I suppose…
Emma: Okay.
Luke: But…. Do you feel like….what do you feel like is the optimal length for a movie ‘cause there’s some movies like…like uh, ‘Lord of the Rings’…
Emma: That go on for days?
Luke: Right, and then by the time you finish watching them you actually look like Gandalf, so, um…
Emma: That’s so true. Uh, I think that the appropriate length for a movie is what it takes to complete the story. I don’t like it if a movie is forced to be too long or a movie was cut shorter than it should have been, so for a director to have chosen to edit scenes well to tell the story I think is the most important thing.
Luke: That’s that’s a good answer, and speaking of cutting things short, we’re going to cut this podcast short real quick and we’re going to sign out so uh, that’s all we have time for today, so for transcripts and vocabulary lists, please visit our website at dialoguefrog.com.
Movies
Topic
Narrow it down
Favorite
Genre
Picky
Gore
Violence
Ending
Horror
Partial
Comedies
Agree
Fan
Action
Prefer
Adventure
Hyphen
Transformers (the name of a movie)
Watch
Superhero
They don’t do much for me.
Personally
Known
Humorous
Nature
Suppose
Iron Man (the name of a superhero character)
Punches
Punchlines
Fair enough.
Pinpoint
Optimal
Length
Lord of the Rings (the name of a movie)
Go on for
By the time
Finish
Actually
Gandalf (the name of a character in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie)
Appropriate
Complete
Story
Force
Cut short
Director
Chose
Edit
Scene
Luke: You’re listening to Dialogue Frog’s short English conversations for listening, speaking and shadowing practice. My name’s Luke and I’m here today with Emma and we’re going to be talking about movies.
Emma: Movies is a big topic.
Luke: It is a big topic. Um, so lets kinda, lets narrow it down a little bit.
Emma: Okay.
Luke: Do you have a favorite genre?
Emma: Well, not really. I’m kind of picky I guess. I like good movies. As long as it doesn’t have too much gore, or violence, or a bad ending, or horror, I pretty much like any kind of movie.
Luke: Mm-hm.
Emma: What about you?
Luke: I am partial to comedies.
Emma: Ah, yeah.
Luke: I agree with you. I’m not a fan of horror, or gore, or….uh…I don’t even like action movies that much, so…
Emma: I prefer adventure movies to action movies.
Luke: Yeah. Yep. Or even action-adventure movies, with the hyphen.
Emma: Would that be like ‘Transformers?’
Luke: I-I think so.
Emma: Or would that more of an action?
Luke: I think so.
Emma: Because I liked the first ‘Transformers’ movie but I never watched any of the other ones.
Luke: Mm-hm.
Emma: What about superhero movies? Those are really popular lately.
Luke: They don’t do much for me, personally. Um, they’re not known for their humorous nature, I suppose.
Emma: I thought Iron Man was kind of a funny guy.
Luke: He is but lets just say there were more punches than punchlines. So…
Emma: Ooooooh. That’s true. Fair enough.
Luke: What….. do you feel like…. this is kind of a pinpointed question I suppose…
Emma: Okay.
Luke: But…. Do you feel like….what do you feel like is the optimal length for a movie ‘cause there’s some movies like…like uh, ‘Lord of the Rings’…
Emma: That go on for days?
Luke: Right, and then by the time you finish watching them you actually look like Gandalf, so, um…
Emma: That’s so true. Uh, I think that the appropriate length for a movie is what it takes to complete the story. I don’t like it if a movie is forced to be too long or a movie was cut shorter than it should have been, so for a director to have chosen to edit scenes well to tell the story I think is the most important thing.
Luke: That’s that’s a good answer, and speaking of cutting things short, we’re going to cut this podcast short real quick and we’re going to sign out so uh, that’s all we have time for today, so for transcripts and vocabulary lists, please visit our website at dialoguefrog.com.
Movies
Topic
Narrow it down
Favorite
Genre
Picky
Gore
Violence
Ending
Horror
Partial
Comedies
Agree
Fan
Action
Prefer
Adventure
Hyphen
Transformers (the name of a movie)
Watch
Superhero
They don’t do much for me.
Personally
Known
Humorous
Nature
Suppose
Iron Man (the name of a superhero character)
Punches
Punchlines
Fair enough.
Pinpoint
Optimal
Length
Lord of the Rings (the name of a movie)
Go on for
By the time
Finish
Actually
Gandalf (the name of a character in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie)
Appropriate
Complete
Story
Force
Cut short
Director
Chose
Edit
Scene
