爱华网Last year, I was told that there was an American TV serialcalled “Friends” that enjoys an overwhelming popularity inAmerica. This semester I had an opportunity to watch it and fromthat moment on I learned that it had been filmed for ten years.What a great accomplishment it is!
Indeed, The TV serial“Friends” has been a sensation throughout the world. More andmore Chinese audience are exposed to Friends and deeply impressedwith the actors’ good performance and the funny stories. I beginto think about the reason why it is so popular with people; what onearth motivated them to film the serial on end for more than tenyeas. Before answering the questions, I give a briefing of thestory and leading characters.
It is a story in whichsix of typical young people live a common life. They are Ross,Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Joey, Rachel. They have many conflicts interms of emotion, principles, interest, and social status.Meanwhile, the friendship and love are promoted to a new level.This story actually mirrors our daily life and routines. It alsostimulates us to think about how to live a better life andappreciate the beauty of life.
Some tips I gained from this story are asfollow:
1. Pursuing love and it is difficult to love aperson
Any popular TV serials are all like a small Utopia thatnot only reflects the reality but are faraway form reality. In thisstory, the emotion between six people attracts much audience. Theirbehavior demonstrate young people’s pure attitude towards love.For instance, for ten years the story between the key couple Rossand Rachel moved the hearts of thousands of audience. In thebeginning Ross was too shy to express his love to Rachel and thenfell in love with Rachel. Later they broke up and then theyreconciled in a short time. Again and again, the love andexperience between them bear a remarkable resemblance to commonpeople’s life. Two common persons fell in love after various kindsof arduous tests. Like two children walking on the road, they oncetumbled and cried and in the end hold his or her hand to strideforward in life.
2.Cherishing affection among family members and respecting decisionsmade by parents
Everyfamily has its own problems. It is in the case of the family of sixyoung people. For instance the parents of Ross and Monica are verypartial. They take great pride in Ross and pay little attention toMonica. When Phoebe is young, her father left home and her fostermother committed suicide. What’s phoebe’s mother didn’t k knowanything about her daughter’s situation. After all, however,parents are parents. One must have deep affection toward his or herparents. Of course, six young people do love theirparents.
Thisstory also tells us what attitude towards parents we should have.First of all, don’t expect your parents are saint. Don’t pointout directly the demerits of parents. Take Monica for example, shetold her mother not to be rigorous. In addition, we should endeavorto avoid conflicts with parents. For instance, on Rachel’sbirthday six of them organized two parties in order to save Rachelfrom meeting her parents.
Besides, we should respect our parents’ decisions.Although Joey didn’t like parents and sister’s behavior, he couldnothing about it. Affection makes us have no choice. You cannotchoose yourparents or sisters. You must accept them and they are equal toyou.
3. Cherishing friendship and trustingfriends
Friendship is difficult to establish and easy to destroy.The phenomenon happened to the six friends. Chandler once chasedJoey’s girlfriend and had a romance with Joey’ssister.
They allhave various defects. Ross sometimes declares a dissertation like aa sealed book. Chandler is an expert in making jokes. Monica’scleanliness and emulation is unbearable. Rachel doesn’t doanything and can do nothing but shopping. She even doesn’t knowhow to dispose waste. What’s more terrible is Phoebe’s voice. Sheloves singing but no one can afford to listen to.
Nevertheless, we can learn a lot from them. The solidfriendship among them doesn’t just result from the demand ofplots. The real reason is they know the greatest principles offriendship: trust, tolerance and support. They trust each other andtolerant others’ shortcoming and mistakes, what’s more, theysupport each other to do what he or she likes todo.
4. Positive attitude toward life and noabuse
The reason why Friends has become a hit among young peoplelies in their positive attitude toward life. Many people thinktheir way of thinking is very simple and don’t have any corruptpractice. They have strong sense of humor and often make a mistake.However none of them have conspired to harm others. Most jokes inthe serial are almost their innocence and exaggeratedperformance.
Another point is that they don’t have any corruptpractice. Sometimes they drink a little to make a specialatmosphere. Although they support each other, they may quarrel withothers about trifling things. At last, however, they embrace eachother and reconcile, saying: “I love you”. Sometime you may feelthat they are the most qualified citizens.
These tips above are adequate answers to the questionsposed before. Of course, a good serial is a product of culture. Weknow that American is multicultural country that respects libertyand individualism and independence and so on. This serial presentsus a live textbook of contemporary American culture and Americanlifestyles.
Let’s minesome cultural backgrounds behind the scene.
1. Left Boob
Once, Monica must go to work with fake corsage andsearched everywhere for left boob. At that time, Joey said he likedthe movie. Obviously, Joey correlated left Boob with the famousmovie “My Left Foot” featured by Louis. of course, this was ajoke.
2. Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty is a very popular doll in America. Ross wanted to seeher sister with broken leg and asked Monica what present she shouldbring. Monica told her to bring a Hello Kitty. This is a satiricsaying.![[转]老友记纯英文影评 老友记纯英文字幕](http://img.413yy.cn/images/31101031/31052929t01d79568268c26e71d.jpg)
There are a lot cultural backgrounds behind the scene. Youcannot understand the joke if you are not familiar to the Americanculture. From this point we need strengthen our understanding ofAmerican culture. Only adequate background knowledge does enable usto fully enjoy this serial. It is no wonder that we heard manyChinese students don’t understand where the fun in the TV serialis.
The most impressive things at the first sight at theserial may are their funny and wise dialogues. You may perceive thefree mind and unique way of thinking behind the American culture.Enjoying the fun in the language, you are definitely moved by theirfriendship and love. The long Ten years’ “Friends” is miracle inthe history of American TV.
I love Joey’s freedom and innocence. Phoebe is charmingand full of wisdom. Ross have good education and grace. Rachel’sloveliness and beauty is impressive. Chandler is humorous and nice.Monica is arbitrary but generous.
I have got used to American way of humor. Some scenes areimpressive. For instance, they always embrace others to consolethem. I feel it is a great way to show affection whether it is loveor friendship. I bet that embrace gives you a sense of security. InChina, embrace is almost a symbol for love not for friendship. Ithink Chinese people are shier than Americans. These are differentcharacteristics of different nations.
I begin to love the serial because of in many areas itteaches us a lot, including American social society and lifestylesand even American values.
In conclusion, this TV serial is a masterpiece thatinfluences numerous people. What experience can we Chinese,especially Chinese young students draw from it? In my view, we canlearn three important views.
First, youth is invaluable. As a college student, I seemany college students idle away on campus all days and don’tcherish youth days. We should always maintain a state of youngmind. We should make good use of youth time to develop ourstrengths and to make contribution to ourcountry.
Second, respect parents and cherish friendship. Chineseparents are well known for their dedication for children. However,we children need dedicate more time and effort to accompanyingparents. Friendship is also precious that can lead us to ameaningful life. We should trust friends and cooperate withfriends.
Third, Positive attitude is everything. We face a morefierce competitive society in which we must develop a positiveattitude for the rest of our life. Every year, we heard a lot ofcollege students commit suicide because of unbearable stress fromstudy or something else. What a pity they don’t have a positiveattitude. Admittedly, they are stressed. I believe that only if youare alive you have hope and your future isbright.
