I make it a rule to watch one DVD movie a week. It's because I like movies, of course, and I have one more reason. Every DVD movie has subtitles of many languages. I usually watch movies in English with Japanese subtitles. If I come across some good or witty expressions, I watch the same scene again with English subtitles and I always try to memorize the lines as much as possible. I feel delighted to see the same expressions as I learned from books. The words that I found in the lines or in the pictures of movies are always imprinted clearly and surely on my mind. I think that watching movies might be one of the good methods to increase vocabulary. When there are many slang words or words that need background knowledge of American history, show business, current common affairs and a background as an American, it is extremely hard to understand the story. However, even in such a case, I have begun to be able to figure out the rough story.
"Finding Forrester" is the title of the movie I watched today. At about 1 hour and 9 minutes from the beginning, I found the good thing.
Most entries of this blog are getting corrected by a native speaker. He always advises me not to use "And", "But" and such conjunctions at the beginning of each sentence. I have wondered why? When I speak Japanese, I often use conjunctions at the beginning of the sentences. I wouldn't have found the answer to his remarks in my grammar book for a long time.
Sean Connery is starring in this movie and discussing with his student about conjunctions at the beginning of sentences. It was just the answer I wanted to hear. He is acting the role of a famous novelist, the professional writer in the movie. He said that the sentences will give a run-on feeling if you use conjunctions at the beginning of sentences. By the way, why do you think I reacted to this scene? It's because it's the second time I've met this word "run-on". A Korean-American? was using the word "run-on" in the following blog. I'm deeply honored to be written to as above. Anyway, I felt I fully understood the meaning of "run-on" this time.
When I started to learn English, the purpose of it was only to enter university. In the entrance examinations we were required to translate Japanese sentences into English, but the question was only one or two sentences. You know, we didn't practice writing essays or long stories. I figured out why I didn't mind using conjunctions at the beginning of each sentence. This movie was greatly profitable to me.
One of my favorite lines is:
Sean Connery's line:
Do you know what the absolute best moment is?
It's when you've finished your first draft and you yourself read it.
It's just my feeling at this time.
(Vocabulary)
run-on sentence カンマ・セミコロン・ハイフンなどを使って複数のセンテンスをつなぎあわせたセンテンス
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