This Watch and Listen section of Speak for Yourself #6 presents three different pieces to practice your English listening skills - a short film, an episode of "6 Minute English" from the BBC and, finally, a song from one of the most famous songwriters in the English language, John Lennon. They all focus on the theme of New Beginnings - starting something new or getting things done. Watch and listen and then look at the Language Info and Comprehension sections presented below.
1. "New Boy" - a short film by Steph Green (Time: 11.32 - Irish English accent)
This beautiful short film about a typical experience, a new boy in school, is both funny and moving at the same time.
It tells the story of a young immigrant boy from Rwanda who starts a new chapter in his life in a school in Ireland. The film is based on a short story of the same name by famous Irish author, Roddy Doyle. The film is beautifully created and makes a striking comparison, especially with colours, between the boy's first day at his new school in Ireland and his old school in Rwanda.
The film is easy to watch and the language is very natural. Can you hear the difference between the English used in the Irish school and the accent of the teacher in Rwanda?
LANGUAGE INFO:
Listen to Joseph's new classmates and the English they use when talking to the teacher and to each other. The dialogues between the children are typical of the way children talk to each other in schools in English-speaking countries when discussing and arguing:
Two children, Hazel and Seth, arguing (1.03):
Hazel: Miss, Seth Quinn threw my book out the window!”
Seth: “Did not!”
Hazel: "Did so!”
Hazel, snitches* on Christian (1.53):
Hazel: He was poking Joseph’s back miss!
Christian: Shut up!
Hazel: He was!
* to snitch = fare la spia
Christian (2.20):
Christian: Specky fancies you! You’re dead! (specky = somebody who wears glass/spectacles)
Teacher (4.56):
Teacher: Oh God, give me strength!
Boy (7.15):
Boy: Are you going to fight or what?
Teacher speaks to the boys (7.52):
Teacher: Seth what happened?
Seth: Nothing
Teacher: That’s a funny sort of nothing I saw!
2. "Get on with it!" - BBC 6 Minute English (Time: 6.11 - Standard British English)
This episode is from the fantastic BBC series "6 Minute English". We discussed this series in our resource download in a recent Speak Blog on Business English. 6 Minute English is an excellent, free resource for practicing listening in English and a new episode is available for download every week from the BBC website.
September is a month in which many people start new things and decide to take up a new hobby or get something done. This episode talks about "procrastination", how we organise our time and gives some suggestions for making things happen:
KEY VOCABULARY AND TEXT DOWNLOAD:
Listen to the episode once or twice, without looking at the text. Then, download the BBC text in PDF here and listen again. Look out for the key vocabulary in the episode:
Key Vocabulary
Procrastination (noun): delaying something you have to do
Priority (noun): something that is more important than other things
To minimize (verb): reduce
To knuckle down (verb): start working hard
Tedious (adjective): boring
Temptation bundling (noun): doing two activities together: one you should do but are avoiding, and one that you love doing but isn't productive
Fallacy (noun): a mistaken belief or idea
3. "(Just like) Starting Over" - John Lennon (Time: 3.55)
This classic was written for John Lennon's solo album Double Fantasy. Sadly, it was the last single he released before he was shot on the 8th of December 1980 in New York.
The beautiful song, with some rock-n-roll influence, tells how falling in love again will be just like starting over. He means that falling in love with Yoko again will be just like the first time.
To start over (verb phrase): = to start again
Listen to the song and read the lyrics on the screen as you listen. Can you identify any particular vocabulary relating to starting again or new beginnings?
LYRICS:
Our life together is so precious together,
We have grown - we have grown,
Although our love is still special,
Let's take our chance and fly away somewhere alone,
It's been so long since we took the time,
No-one's to blame,
I know time flies so quickly,
But when I see you darling,
It's like we both are falling in love again,
It'll be just like starting over - starting over,
Everyday we used to make it love,
Why can't we be making love nice and easy,
It's time to spread our wings and fly,
Don't let another day go by my love,
It'll be just like starting over - starting over,
Why don't we take off alone,
Take a trip somewhere far, far away,
We'll be together all alone again,
Like we used to in the early days,
Well, well, darling,
It's been so long since we took the time,
No-one's to blame,
I know time flies so quickly,
But when I see you darling,
It's like we both are falling in love again,
It'll be just like starting over - starting over,
Our life together is so precious together,
We have grown - we have grown,
Although our love is still special,
Let's take a chance and fly away somewhere alone.
