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Updates, student stories and announcements from Pete’s Lab!
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We are doing ‘Macbeth’ this week, a classic Shakespeare play… I am not in love with Shakespeare. I have read only three works by him in the past three years. We’ll see how it goes in the discussion this weekend. 😧 (Macbeth is not recommended for ESL learners but perhaps your native language? Maybe not. 😜)
A student and I watched our seventh Simpson’s episode together in two years: ‘Homer’s Enemy’, a classic from 1997! Watching the Simpsons is a creative and fun way to learn English AND classic American culture. I watched this episode live back then and I can’t believe it is now 29 years old!
In this famous episode, the Simpson family meets a new friend named John, who owns a cool antique shop. Homer really likes John at first, but then he finds out that John is gay. Suddenly, Homer feels very uncomfortable and starts to act strange around him. Homer becomes worried that John’s friendship with his son, Bart, will change Bart in a bad way, so Homer tries to make Bart do more “manly” activities, like hunting. During a hunting trip, the family meets a dangerous reindeer, and it is actually John who saves them and shows real courage. After this, Homer understands that his fears were silly and wrong, and he learns to accept John for who he is. This episode is well-known because it deals with a serious topic, tolerance, in a funny and thoughtful way.
Homer’s Phobia:
Learn about the many uses of the word ‘ass’ in English!
Team Ford defeated Team Ferrari in the August ESL Challenge 1185 to 1035! CONGRATULATIONS, TEAM FORD! (Just like the movie 😉)
Students competed by answering questions on the following English tests.
🌍 IELTS — International English Language Testing System, TOEFL — Test of English as a Foreign Language 💼 TOEIC — Test of English for International Communication, Cambridge English — B2 First, C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency 💻 PTE Academic — Pearson Test of English Academic
🏆💪🏁 NEXT ESL CHALLENGE STARTS ON SEPTEMBER 3rd!!
(Story English) A student is reading the classic novel, ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.’ Why? Well, he found it for 70% off at a book store so he figured it was his destiny to read it in English! Crazy? Maybe! 😜 Either way, he is in for an amazing read! And: the book and movie have one of my favorite evil characters EVER, Nurse Ratched. She is played by Academy award winner Louise Fletcher.
📚BOOK: Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of Randle McMurphy. He is a rebellious man who pretends to be insane to serve a short prison sentence in a mental hospital. Inside, he challenges Nurse Ratched, a strict and controlling woman who rules the ward with fear and strict rules. The story is told by Chief Bromden, a quiet Native American patient. He watches McMurphy bring energy and hope back to the beaten-down patients. Through their battle of wills, the book explores themes of freedom, individuality, and how society tries to control people who do not fit in. (I gave it 5/5 stars!)
🎥🍿MOVIE The 1975 film adaptation, directed by Miloš Forman and starring Jack Nicholson as McMurphy: It became a massive critical and commercial success that brought the story to an even wider global audience. It achieved rare cinematic history. It became only the second film ever to sweep all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Forman), Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched), and Best Adapted Screenplay. With its brilliant performances and memorable soundtrack, the movie remains one of the most famous and celebrated films in American cinema. (One of my favorite movies EVER.)
WATCH CLOSELY. Watch the legendary Nurse Ratched:
Nurse Ratched: “Your hand is staining my window.”
Nurse Ratched: “If Mr. MacMurphy doesn’t want to take his medication orally, I am sure we can arrange so he can have it some OTHER way.”
Some stories I get to tell as a teacher fill me with pure pride, and this is one of them.
One of my students — a woman with more than twenty years of hard-earned career experience behind her — is packing up her whole life and family in Europe to start over in the United States in 2028. (Her son is also a student of mine 🙂.) And when I say “start over,” I don’t mean drifting into the unknown. I mean walking in ready!
She’s spent months preparing. Earning certifications. Studying American business culture like it’s a subject she refuses to get anything less than an ‘A’ in. Her goal isn’t to stumble through her first year figuring things out — it’s to walk into an American workplace on day one and already belong there. Honestly, watching that kind of discipline up close has been humbling. And she’s not doing it alone — her husband and their two sons have been working just as hard, each getting ready in their own way for the leap ahead.
There’s a tender side to this move too. Her daughter is already out west building her career in the USA, and this relocation means closing the distance between them — choosing family over the easy comfort of staying put. They already have people out there: friends who’ve hosted them, mentored them, shown them around on past visits. So this isn’t a family stepping into a void. It’s a family stepping toward people who already care about them.
Of course, the road ahead isn’t simple. Immigration paperwork, work authorization, house-hunting, culture shock — all of it is still coming, for all of them. But she’s already networking, already reaching toward the small and medium-sized businesses where she wants to plant her next chapter.
To me, this isn’t just a relocation. It’s a woman betting on herself, on her family, and on a future they’ve all worked hard to earn together. I can’t wait to watch them get there!
Our last discussion was, ‘The Fall’ by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus. It is a crazy, fun and at times disturbing look into Camus mind. Some even say it is a kind of confession about his own life. 5/5 Stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Fall is a small (120 ish pages) philosophical novel published in 1956. It is told as a long, one-sided conversation. The narrator is a former successful lawyer from Paris named Jean-Baptiste Clamence, who now lives in Amsterdam. Over several days, he confesses his life story to an unnamed listener in a sailors’ bar. Through his confession, he explores his own hypocrisy, guilt, and human judgment. The novel is a deep, sometimes dark reflection on morality, innocence, and the difficulty of living an honest life in a world without easy answers.
(Story English) A student just finished seasons one and two of, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. I personally loved the book and give it 5/5 stars and season 1 as well. The series is rated 8.3/10 on IMDB and can be seen on Hulu, Prime video and Netflix where available.
Author: Margaret Atwood (novel, 1985)
Creator of TV Series: Bruce Miller
Director of First Episodes: Reed Morano
The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a future world called Gilead. Gilead used to be the United States, but a religious group took control. They created a strict, cruel society.
In Gilead, women have no rights. They cannot read, write, or have their own money. Fertile women are forced to become Handmaids. Their only job is to have children for rich, powerful men and their wives.
The story follows a Handmaid named Offred. She tries to survive in this dangerous world while remembering her old life. The series explores themes of control, resistance, identity, and hope.
A student’s L-1B Visa was approved today! 🙌🏼👍👍CONGRATS!
A FEW DAYS AGO Ferrari caught up with Ford. However, Ford has since taken a 175-point lead with just FIVE days to go! Challenge ends on August 31. Next challenge starts on September 3rd!
(MUSIC ENGLISH, BUSINESS ENGLISH (#2 STORY IN THE SERIES on PRACTICKAPP.COM)
Fabiano’s Guitar App Pracktick — The Biggest and coolest Project in (Pete’s Lab) Music English History
Pete’s student Fabiano — a guitarist and developer from Brazil — has built a real guitar practice app called Practick. And Pete has been supporting the English needs of the project.
What is Practick?
Practick is a guitar practice app designed for serious guitar players. It combines four essential tools in one place:
A tab player
A metronome
A session timer
Useful exercise library
Reports to track your progress
AI-generated exercises (Coming soon!)
The idea behind Practick is simple but powerful. Most guitar players spend hours practicing without seeing real improvement. Practick turns those hours into structured, measurable progress. Every session. Every day.
Practick is available free on practickapp.com. Coming soon to IOS and Android!
The English connection:
Fabiano has been studying Business English with Pete. As his app grew from an idea into a real product used by guitarists and teachers, the need for clear, professional English became critical.
Website copy. App descriptions. Documentation. Instructions. User communications. All of it needed to sound natural, professional and confident in English.
That’s where Pete comes in.
Why this matters for Music English
Music and English have always gone hand in hand at Pete’s Lab. But Fabiano’s project takes it further — showing how English is not just about conversation. It’s a professional tool that opens doors in the global marketplace.
Fabiano’s story is proof of that.
Try Practick.com for guitar players and guitar teachers:
www.practickapp.com
— coming soon: free on iOS and Android. 😊
PRACTICK: https://www.practickapp.com
How to Watch Movies in English and Actually Learn
Most people watch movies in English and wonder why their English isn’t improving. The problem isn’t the movie. It’s the method.
Here’s how to actually learn from movies in English — the Pete’s Lab way.
Step 1 — Choose the right movie
Don’t start with Shakespeare or fast-talking action films. Choose something you already know well in your own language. Familiar stories remove the pressure of following the plot — so you can focus on the language.
Step 2 — Watch without subtitles first
Just watch. Don’t stop. Don’t look things up. Get comfortable with not understanding everything. This is normal. This is learning.
Step 3 — Watch again with English subtitles
Now watch the same scene again with English subtitles. Notice the gap between what you heard and what was actually said. That gap is where your learning happens.
Step 4 — Stop and discuss
This is where Pete’s Lab comes in. Pause the movie. Talk about what happened. What did the character mean? Why did they say it that way? What vocabulary did you notice?
Step 5 — Use the dialogue
Try repeating the lines. Act them out. This is exactly what Pete’s Drama English does — and it works because your brain connects language to emotion and story.
The result:
Students who learn English through movies develop natural, confident speech — because they’ve heard real English used in real situations by real people.
That’s Story English at Pete’s Lab. 😊
🎥🍿🎬THIS WEEK’S MOVIE QUOTE: PET DETECTIVE/ JIM CARREY. See Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura in, Pet Detective. In this scene ACE arrives at the home of someone he is looking for, Ray Finkle, a former football player.
🎬MOVIE DIALOGUE
Ace Ventura: Hi, I’m looking for Ray Finkle.
[Shotgun comes out of door, pointing at Ace.]
Ace Ventura: …and a clean pair of shorts!
Mr. Finkle: What do you know about Ray Finkle?
Ace Ventura:
[Ace sucks in a huge breath of air.] Then:
Soccer style kicker, graduated from Collier High June 1976, Stetson University honors graduate class of 1980, holds 2 NCAA Division One records, one for most points in a season, one for distance, former nickname “The Mule”, the first and only pro-athlete to come out of Collier County, and one HELL of a model American! [takes deep breath]
“Eveline” is a short story by James Joyce about a young woman torn between staying in her hard, familiar life in Dublin or running away to a new life with a man she loves. It is a quiet, powerful look at the fear of change and the weight of family duty.
