Kristaps Porzingis improved his English by watching Keanu Reeves 'over and over'
The big man from Latvia watches some unusual movies to improve his English
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2 min read
Like most international players, English is a second language for New York Knicks sophomore stud Kristaps Porzingis. But unlike some international players, Porzingis arrived in the NBA already quite fluent in English, having learned the language while growing up in Latvia.
Porzingis was able to improve his English even further outside of the classroom by watching American movies and television shows. Yet instead of diversifying his movie watching experience, Porzingis simply watched the same movies over and over. And these aren't award winning movies either. Porzingis just kept watching the action flick John Wick and the comedy Dinner for Schmucks to improve his English.
From an entertaining interview between ESPN's Sam Alipour and Porzingis:
You know what Disney movies taught me? English. Farsi was my first language, but Disney got me caught up. Feel me?
That's how you learn. Every time you watch a movie, you pick up more stuff. I watched a lot of John Wick and Dinner for Schmucks, with the guy from The Office. I watched that over and over.
Porzingis mentioned these movies as well as Ice Cube's Friday to a similar line of questions in an interview with GQ's Jack Moore last January:
What was your experience with American culture before you came here?It first started with the movies I guess. I learned English from watching American movies and American series. And you'd watch the movie the first time and not understand anything. Then you'd watch it again and you'd start understanding more and more, and that's how I learned English. And I like the music too. Plus these last couple years [Editor's note: When Porzingis played in Spain] I've had American teammates so I got a lot of stuff from them.
Now, I have three movies that I watch over and over again. I have Friday. I have Dinner For Schmucks. And I have John Wick. There are others too I can't think of now, but those are my go-to movies.
Just the image of Porzingis learning English from Keanu Reeves in John Wick should make you giggle in amusement. Dinner for Schmucks is also an interesting choice, but let's face it, we all laugh at stupid, silly jokes from time.
At least Porzingis isn't a devoted fan of the Matrix trilogy. Otherwise he likely would be speaking in stilted dialogue while delivering self-reflecting looks of wonderment all the time.
