Comedy for ELT - Pronunciation Problems
6,087,677
Published 2014-07-13
What do you do when a customer walks into your shop and asks for 'cack' or for 'parri' -- or indeed for a 'pee'? A (very wealthy) Arab walks into the Mini Market. His wife has armed him with a shopping list (and asked him to run an errand for her later). But communication can be a problem as pronunciation is not that particular customer's forte... (Fortunately for the shop owner, his wife is there to help him. Despite his condescending attitude towards her, it seems she is twice as clever as he is...) Level: C1 -- C2. Topic: Shopping, Pronunciation. Taken from the BBC TV Series 'The Two Ronnies'.
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
All Comments (21)
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For those that have disliked this video - get a sense of humour! It’s not racist, it is from a time when you didn’t live in fear of offending each other!
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This sketch is not about race, but about the idiosyncrasies of the English language, which has borrowed words from all over the world. Ronnie Barker was a clever man.
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I am a native English speaker & have lived in 4 different countries. When trying to speak German some shop assistants stand there with an angry face & say "WHAT!" as if I am from outer space. When trying to speak Greek I am met with smiles as they appreciate I am trying. Also the level of English spoken by Greeks is high.
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Absolutely priceless we were allowed to laugh once upon a time. Nobody took offence we all laughed together.
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I'm an Arab and I have lived in the UK for quite some time.. When people in the UK communicate with non English speakers I must give it to them they are the best listeners, they have tolerance and respect the person in front of them and try to help him even if he is struggles to speak English, and I respect that very much in them.
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Man i lived in UK for 9 years. Its heart warming to see the shop keepers tolerance. Because my english was weak and this happend many times for me. British people in my opinion are the most tolerant with people of faith/other nationalties.
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Wordplay was their favourite shtick and a significant element of British comedy. It’s about leading the audience through absurdity to the punchline. Not a bad bone in their bodies these chaps 👍🏼
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Its so sad that these two comedy crackups are not here anymore,they were soooooo clever and so funny they were such geniuses
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This is top level old school British humour.
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I'm a native Arabic speaker and I find that very funny. I still remember my friend who used to call pictures.. Picityours 😂
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I worked as an EFL teacher in recent years, mainly with students from Saudi Arabia. They were good at jokes and making me laugh. Such lovely fun-loving people. I remember when one class ground to a halt as it started snowing and they all went to the window to watch it, before asking me if they could go down to the street to play in it!
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I have split my sides laughing at this!! I have to watch it again. How clever! To actually create a sketch showing how the English language is difficult to navigate given it has borrowed from other languages, and demonstrating how it is not at easy as it seems where pronunciation is concerned.
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The sketch isn't about the Arab being an Arab, but about the English language. It's not always immediately obvious where the stresses are, or how the vowels are pronounced, silent letters etc.
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I'm an Arab and I can relate! 😂😂 Reminds me of the old sitcom Mind Your Language... Hilarious!! 😂😂
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Thank you for reminding me how great these 2 were I wish they would put these on TV again 😂😂
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What is funny is I lived in the Middle East for 3 years back in the ‘70’s and i went through the same think trying to speak their language. Everyone was SO helpful and I am sure they had a good laugh at me trying to pronounce their words.
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When you have money, everyone would dance your tune😂
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Just seeing Ronnie Corbett walk into the shop in arab garb is a delight !
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The Two Ronnies are brilliant as always. This is up there with the “Four Candles” sketch 🤣🤣
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I have watched it over a dozen times and laughed more and more. I have forwarded it literally to hundreds of people here in Jeddah and they all cracked at the humour.
