Can you learn English by watching a space fantasy from 1977? Absolutely! In order to get ready for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, I re-watched the original Star Wars film. Watch this video and follow the adventure, as I look at dialogue and discuss scenes from the movie. I will teach you vocabulary, phrases, and grammar used in the movie. I also get to hold a lightsaber and argue with Emperor Palpatine. Use the Force and learn some English!

If you can't get enough of Star Wars, follow this link to sign up for a FREE 30-day trial at Audible, where you can download an excellent, 5+ hour original Star Wars radio drama, as well as many other Star Wars audiobooks: http://www.engvid.com/out/audiblealex

Take the quiz on this lesson to test your mastery of the Force: http://www.engvid.com/learn-english-with-star-wars/

TRANSCRIPT:
[Lightsaber noises] It's time to use the force and learn some English. [Star Wars music].

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on learning English with Star Wars. So, I am very excited because Star Wars, episode seven, The Force Awakens, is set to come out in theatres all across the world. Maybe it's already out at the time that you're watching this. If you're watching this years from now, maybe Star Wars episode seven is out, episode eight is out, episode nine is out, and we say that they're awesome, maybe they're terrible. Who knows?

Anyway, what I thought that I would do in preparation for the movie is go back, watch the original, and teach you guys some English. Those of you who don't know, Star Wars is a very famous space fantasy film. "A-ahem." Yes, Emperor Palpatine? "I thought Star Wars was science-fiction." Well, Emperor Palpatine, that is a common opinion and a common misconception. You see, science-fiction means that it takes the technology, pushes it into the future to its most extreme. Now, Star Wars is closer to, like, Lord of the Rings, or, you know, a fantasy where there are creatures that simply can't exist. "Oh. Hmm. Carry on."

Okay, so now that that's clear, what I'm going to do is tell you about the story and the characters of the original Star Wars, and I'm going to go through the movie, from beginning to end, and talk about some of the key dialogue, key vocabulary with you guys. And at the end of this, don't forget to check out the quiz. Hopefully, you'll have learned something. So, let's get on with it and learn English with Star Wars.

Okay, so the story of the original Star Wars. In the beginning, there is an evil galactic empire that is spreading across the galaxy. What they're doing, what evil things they are accomplishing, we don't really know. They don't say, we just know they're bad. There's a small rebel group that is fighting back, and they're trying to take down this evil empire, and this rebel group has recently stolen some plans for a powerful weapon. Now, this weapon is being designed by the empire, and they call it the Death Star. And now, the Death Star is this big, round, globe ball battle station in the movie, and the rebels need to destroy it. They figure that if they have the plans, maybe they can find a weakness in the Death Star and destroy it. Will they destroy it? Wait. You'll find out later. And, again, at the beginning of the movie, the empire is chasing a small rebel ship, because they think this ship has the plans, and they're trying to get them back. So, that is the beginning of the movie.

Now let's look at some of the characters. We have Luke Skywalker. Luke is a farm boy from the planet Tatooine, and he's the main hero, here. He's the one who's going to learn how to use the force and save the day. We have Princess Leia. She is there at the beginning of the movie on the small rebel ship, and what she's going to do is give instructions to R2D2, the little robot, to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. So, Princess Leia. We have Han Solo and Chewbacca. Han Solo is the pilot of the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca or Chewy is the guy who just sounds like this: [Roaring noise]. He doesn't actually say anything, but somehow, Han Solo can understand him, based on a roar. It was the '70s, you know, people believed these things.