New Dynamic English

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

New Dynamic English is a course, which is part of DynEd's Courseware. Being more like a textbook, it is not technically included as an game. However, being an interactive course, it could almost be classified as an Edutainment Game. New Dynamic English is made in the United States, however only a few Americans actually recognize this program because it is targeted towards foreigners so that they could study English. New Dynamic English is one of DynEd's courses with a lot of stories (others include First English, Functioning in Business and The Lost Secret). It stars two main characters, Max and Kathy, though they only appear from Module 1 until 4, whereas New Dynamic English has 8 modules.

New Dynamic English (Module 1 to 4) was later adapted into a radio show broadcasted in Voice of America at 1999 and ends at 2001. It reruns for other countries until late 2011. It features new characters, and Max and Kathy's backgrounds are also revealed.


Tropes used in New Dynamic English include:
  • Alice and Bob: Max and Kathy are the two main characters of the education franchise.
  • Benevolent Alien Invasion: In Module 1 Unit 1, Max and Kathy encounter an alien. The alien, named Zork, said that he's from another world and also speaks English. It is not known whether his intentions are good or bad, but the lack of any negative activity suggests he is leaning towards the good side.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond: Max, though before he had brown hair and lighter skin.
  • Everything's Better with Bob: Robert Harris, who prefers to be called "Bob".
  • Informed Flaw: Max claims that he's bad at singing in Module 2 and he's also bad at dancing in the radio show, but he never sang or danced. Justified that it's during a survey.
  • Lethal Chef: Max says that he's bad at cooking, contrast with his wife who's a Supreme Chef.
  • Max Trope: Maxwell "Max" Wilson.
  • Office Golf: In Henry Thorton's presentation in Module 1 Unit 2, he is shown playing office golf when the narrator states that he doesn't work hard.
  • Older Than They Look: Dawn, a Filipino, is a 20-something who looks like she's still in her teens.
  • Otaku Surrogate: Kathy is implied to be a Trekkie with a cat named after a Star Trek character. Not only that, she believes in aliens and doesn't mind waiting in a long line for watching a Sci-Fi movie.
  • Plot Hole: Max worked as a businessman at a computer company in San Jose (Silicon Valley) when interviewed in the radio show, yet in Module 4's Matrix Vocabulary, he thinks flying first class is too expensive for him. Though he might just have been Slumming It.
  • Real Men Eat Meat: Many men in the radio show are shown to love meat, including Max himself.
  • Stock Foreign Name: Pierre Dubois is one example.
  • Suddenly Blonde: Max turned from a brunet into a dirty blond.
  • Supreme Chef: Kathy and Karen.
  • Trekkie: Did Kathy just said that she had a cat named "Spock"?
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Max loves steak, and has been called "Mr. Steak" once in the radio show.

This radio show exclusively provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Expansion: We get to know way more about the characters' background from the original software.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plothole: In the software, Max says that he has lived in San Francisco "all his life", while in the radio show, he says that he was born in Portland, and then moved to San Francisco when he's in college.
  • Amicable Exes: Kathy says that she cares about her ex-husband, but she doesn't love him anymore. Not only that, she also says that they might be just friends.
  • Audio Adaptation: The educational course, which is part of a software, is adapted into a radio show along with Functioning in Business.
  • Canon Foreigner: While some if not all of the characters of New Dynamic English from Module 1-4 appeared as guests for the radio show, there are new characters being interviewed.
  • Closet Geek: Sure, Max is a businessman working for a computer company, but in the radio show, Max tries to hide (and fails to) his interest towards computer games, especially Computer Soldier, a game for a demographic as old as his son John.

Larry: "Actually, I was thinking I might give some of these computer games a try. Computer Soldier looks like a fun game."
Max: "That's a great game!! I play… I mean, my son plays it all the time."

  • College Radio: Max says that he had worked at a college radio station before, and because he liked the job and he was pretty good at it, he changed jobs from a businessman to a radio host.
  • Death by Adaptation: Possible explanation for Max's daughter's disappearance in the radio show.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: John wants a pet monkey for his birthday.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Someone had claimed that he's Max's brother, despite that Max said he doesn't have one.
  • Most Gamers Are Male: Kathy acknowledges the inversion when Max says that he bought John a computer game as a present.

Kathy: "All boys like computer games."

  • Opening Narration: In the radio show: "New Dynamic English is a basic English language course and an introduction to American people and culture."
  • Podcast
  • Radio Drama: Its radio show looks more like a reality show but they're all made up. The Interludes are as close as it could be to a radio drama.
  • Talk Show: The Audio Adaptation counts as a fictional talk show, but it's not funny like a Spoof Talk Show.
  • Welcome Episode: Sort of. In the interlude after the first episode, Max gets greeted for joining Kathy and Larry to do the New Dynamic English radio show.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Max's daughter and Kathy's cat Spock from the software weren't mentioned at all in the radio show. In the radio show, Max says he has a son named John while Kathy says that she has some pet fish. One assumption is that Max's daughter died because in Module 4 of the software, it was mentioned that Max had children.
    • Max said that he will meet someone claiming as his brother, despite Max not having any. We will never know whether he's really Max's brother or not.
  • Working Through the Cold: During one episode, Kathy gets a cold, but it didn't affect the show whatsoever.
  • Wrench Wench: Karen, Max's wife, is a computer programmer who worked for the same company Max worked for.