35353 fawlty towers listening speaking practise

LISTENING ACTIVITIES:

1) Watch this fragment of Fawlty Towers (one of the BBC’s most popular TV series in the
80’s). Manuel (the Spanish waiter working in a hotel in England) is trying to learn
English, but Basil (his boss) sometimes speaks Spanish to him. Sybil, Basil’s wife,
watches the scene.
Vocabulary: do you know these words?
butter

keen to learn

trays

dialect

hire (sb)


Video clip: />
2) Questions:
Which 2 words sound similar at the beginning
of the video clip?
Which animal is Manuel imitating?
Basil’s wife, Sybil, asks Basil why he decided
to hire Manuel as a waiter. What does Basil
answer?
What does Sybil say in the end? Does she
think that Manuel is a good waiter?

3) Discussion time.
a. Manuel wants to learn English. It may be difficult for him, but he succeeds. Can

language be a barrier if you work in a foreign country?
b. In other episodes, Manuel constantly makes mistakes and he says that he
comes from Barcelona. Basil knows this and he usually treats him like an idiot.
Do you think that cultural or country stereotypes influence our opinion of
foreign people? Do you think that other people may judge you because of
these cultural stereotypes?

TRANSCRIPT:
Basil: Manuel, there is too much butter on those trays.
Manuel: ¿Qué?
Basil: There is too much butter on those trays.
Manuel: No. No, no, señor. Not on, dos, treis. No, sir. Uno, dos, tres.
Basil: No, no. Hay mucho burro alí.
Manuel: ¿Qué?
Basil: Hay mucho burro alí.
Manuel: Ah, mantequilla.


Basil: What? ¿Qué?
Manuel: Mantequilla. Burro is… i-oh! Burro… i-oh! I-oh!
Basil: Manuel, Manuel, por favor, momento.
Manuel: Sí, sí.
Sybil: Basil, what happens?
Basil: Nothing, dear. I’m just dealing with it.
Manuel: He speaks good… what do you say?
Sybil: English.
Basil: Mantequilla. Solamente dos…
Manuel: Dos…
Sybil: But don’t look at me. You’re the one who is supposed to be able to speak it.
Basil: Two pieces. Two each. Arriba! Arriba!

Sybil: Oh, I don’t know why you wanted to hire him, Basil.
Basil: ‘Cos he’s cheap and keen to learn, dear. In this day and age, such a…
Sybil: Why do you say you speak the language?
Basil: I learnt classical Spanish, not the strange dialect he seems to have picked up.
Sybil: It would be easier to train a monkey!