Learning English with comics

(Words in purple are explained in the language notes if you click on them.)

When I was a child I used to spend long hours reading comics (Asterix, Lucky Luke, Superman and the like) Later, when I grew a bit older, I thought that reading such things was too childish and I started to read more "serious" stuff instead. Then somehow all the comic books disappeared. I must have lost them when we moved to a new flat or may have given them to somebody.

Old habits die hard, sometimes they linger on even when you think you have nothing to do with them any more. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine lent me an old Asterix comics in Portuguese (one of the best of the series, 'Asterix and Cleopatra') to help me with my Portuguese studies. (Thanks Eszter once more :-) These picture stories are not only great fun to read but they can help you with your language studies as well. When you are not confident enough to read a whole book you can still try to read a comic book - especially, if you read it as a child in your native language and you can still remember most of the plot and even some of the conversations.

Of all the Asterix comics there is one that stands out as a must-read for everyone who learns English: 'Asterix in Britain'. The plot is fairly simple: Asterix and Obelix set off on a journey to help their British friends to fight the Romans. They take some magic potion with them, which can make the warriors incredibly strong.














During the journey, they learn about all the strange habits of the Britons. All the well known characteristically British things, such as famous landmarks (London Bridge, The Tower...),the language, the weather, the nice grass, rugby, bitter ale, tea and even double-deckers are featured and parodied in the story.

The picture I have chosen for this post makes fun of the traditional British turf. A turf is a thick layer of grass. Apparently, you have to work for a very long time to achieve the proper even surface and the perfect density. That is exactly what the gentleman in the picture is working on. The caption says: "Another 2000 years of loving care and I think it'll make quite a decent bit of turf."

(Click on the picture to see it better.)






As you can see, he is working very hard on perfecting the 'turf' in his garden. It must take ages to get rid of all the unnecessary grass blades with that small scythe. But I'm sure it is very sharp, otherwise it wouldn't make a 'click' sound like that, would it? I also like the thatched roof of the house. It is very typically British and it is one of the things in the picture that surely existed already when the story is set. However, there are some things here that were certainly not yet present around 100 A.D. Take the watering can, for instance. This 'sophisticated' watering device was invented much later. I am not sure about the pine trees. They are natural on mountains but were probably brought to lower lands only later. Anyway, it is funny and is there anything else that really matters?

Now, you can guess what happens to the gentleman's nice grass in the next pictures.

a, A UFO lands on it and burns a 'magic circle' right in the middle.
b, A horse carriage goes across it at a high speed.
c, Nothing.
d, A giant walks across leaving huge footprints behind.


You can see what actually happens next here.