My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Meet The Family

Watch the clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N5V9ml2VU&feature=related

This is a 5 minute clip from the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  In the clip the new non-Greek boyfriend is introduced for the first time to the whole (collectivist / polychronic) family of his Greek American girlfriend.  In particular at the end of the clip he meets one of the Greek aunts for the first time who, after spending a while touching the boyfriend’s hair, responds quite dramatically to the fact that the boyfriend is a vegetarian.

The main focus of this humorous clip is the cultural comparisons between stereotypical Greek culture and stereotypical mainstream American culture.  The aunt physically touching the man’s hair towards the end of the clip is something worth discussing.  The importance of meat in the Greek diet is exaggerated as well when the aunt is shocked that the boyfriend doesn’t eat meat but then, considering the options available for feeding the boyfriend, casually dismisses lamb as a non-meat dish and goes on to dance as though nothing had happened.

The student language levels required of this clip are not as demanding as the concepts behind the humour and the cultural values.  The scaffolding required to understand these concepts through the medium of English and the ability to later discuss the clip does demand at least intermediate levels of English.

The lead up to watching this clip could indeed be an introduction to collectivist / polychronic versus individualist / monochronic cultures, with particular emphasis on Greek versus American.  A discussion of examples of relevant cultural traits shown in the clip could be a follow-up activity.  For more analysis of culture in this film follow this link: http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/files-folder111111/48_2-etf-intercultural-training-with-films.pdf

Accents also play a role in the clip and this could perhaps be explored in a lesson with a pronunciation focus.

Watch the clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N5V9ml2VU&feature=related

Click here to buy the DVD My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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