The musical film My Fair Lady is based on the famous play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw. It is about professor Henry Higgins, a misogynistic and arrogant phonetics teacher who will try to turn the Cockney accent of the flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a proper English one, so that she can be presentable in high society. He will succeed, but their lives will not be the same again.
Look at her, a prisoner of the gutters Condemned by every syllable she utters By right she should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder
of the English tongue
Heavens, what a sound! This is what the British population Calls an elementary educationCome, sir, I think you've picked a poor example. Did l? Hear them down in Soho Square Dropping H's everywhere Speaking English any way they like Hey, you, sir, did you go to school? What ya tike me for, a fool? No one taught him 'take' instead of 'tike' Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse Hear a Cornishman converse l'd rather hear a choir singing flat Chickens cackling in a barn Just like this one Garn!Garn! I ask you, sir, what sort of word is that? It's 'aoow' and 'garn' that keep her in her place Not her wretched clothes and dirty face Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? This verbal class distinction by now should be antique If you spoke as she does, sir, instead of the way you do Why, you might be selling flowers, too I beg your pardon.An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him One common language I'm afraid we'll never get Oh, why can't the English learn to... ... set a good example to people whose English is painful to your ears The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears There even are places where English completely disappears Why, in America they haven't used it for years! Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? Norwegians learn Norwegian, the Greeks are taught their Greek In France every Frenchman knows his language from 'A' to 'Z' The French don't care what they do actually As long as they pronounce it properly Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning The Hebrews learn it backwards which is absolutely frightening Use proper English, you're regarded as a freak Oh, why can't the English Why can't the English learn to speak?
