The King's Speech
Hey!
Well fair old England--the land of tea crumpets, anglo-saxon accents, Cornwall and Buckingham Palace-- did not always have a Queen. In the time before present-Queen Elizabeth's long reign (which goes back nearly 59 years!!!), there were many Kings and Queens who followed each other to the throne consecutively.
Queen Elizabeth the Second's father--King George VI--who besides raising a very proper daughter, was King of the United Kingdom from 1936 until 1952. The reason why I am giving this brief history lesson is not because I dream of being a teacher, but because last night, I braved the bitter, winter wind, to see an excellent film, "The King's Speech," which stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie follows the relationship between the former-King of England, George VI, and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, as they work together to overcome the King's debilitating speech impediment. Using unorthodox methods, Logue helps King George VI (a.k.a Bertie) overcome his stammer, in order to effectively lead his great empire--the United Kingdom--through the travails of World War Two.
As I watched the film, I was shocked to see early 20th-century speech therapy methods included the following: speaking with marble balls in the mouth (à la My Fair Lady), having your wife sit on you in order to stretch out your diaphragm [although my speech therapist said that it was a perfectly normal speech therapy exercise...] and shouting curse words to relax your mind [she also mentioned that the way to discern a real stutter from fake like in Glee is to make them sing, since people never stutter singing or shouting]. Nevertheless, these seemingly ancient methods obviously worked since the King was able to overcome his stammer.
Well fair old England--the land of tea crumpets, anglo-saxon accents, Cornwall and Buckingham Palace-- did not always have a Queen. In the time before present-Queen Elizabeth's long reign (which goes back nearly 59 years!!!), there were many Kings and Queens who followed each other to the throne consecutively.
Queen Elizabeth the Second's father--King George VI--who besides raising a very proper daughter, was King of the United Kingdom from 1936 until 1952. The reason why I am giving this brief history lesson is not because I dream of being a teacher, but because last night, I braved the bitter, winter wind, to see an excellent film, "The King's Speech," which stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie follows the relationship between the former-King of England, George VI, and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, as they work together to overcome the King's debilitating speech impediment. Using unorthodox methods, Logue helps King George VI (a.k.a Bertie) overcome his stammer, in order to effectively lead his great empire--the United Kingdom--through the travails of World War Two.
As I watched the film, I was shocked to see early 20th-century speech therapy methods included the following: speaking with marble balls in the mouth (à la My Fair Lady), having your wife sit on you in order to stretch out your diaphragm [although my speech therapist said that it was a perfectly normal speech therapy exercise...] and shouting curse words to relax your mind [she also mentioned that the way to discern a real stutter from fake like in Glee is to make them sing, since people never stutter singing or shouting]. Nevertheless, these seemingly ancient methods obviously worked since the King was able to overcome his stammer.
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