I'll be away travelling to the capital.

Well, tomorrow I'll be away that's why I'm going to take part of a tourism's meeting in the Capital, Natal but I don't forget to thank you for those who visit here and sharing, commenting and practise and improve their English. As well as do not forget to visit my bloggers' partners on my favorite links and on my blogroll's there are a lot useful and interesting websites and blogs at the end of the posting you also can find a list of bloggers on the roll, feeling comfortable for visit them. There are different subjects bloggers for following, Education, Travel, Humour, Sports, Entertainment, Politicians, among others. Interesting blogs such as http://wwwaristofanis.blogspot.com/ he is a blogger from Greece and also http://www.blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/he is from United States, friends in Malaysia, as Julia owner of Mialiana blog http://www.mialiana.com/2011/06/my-voters-from-china-cindy-and-friends.html also invite you to vote on her blog, Indonesia, Brazil, New Zealand,  Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, Canadá as http://waiterextraordinaire.blogspot.com/ Philippines,  among others, check it out. 

THE BORAT PHENOMENON

(No audio)

It will be interesting for you to see how our film industry’s highly skilled “dubbers” handle the challenge presented by the movie Borat: Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Motion of Kazakhistan, which is now playing in Glorious Nation of Brazil.

CONTROVERSIAL

The film, which stars a fake Kazakhstani journalist with a strong accent and a poor command of the English Language, has been a massive – yet controversial  - hit in the United States. Borat is played by his creator, British comedian (and Cambridge University graduate) Sacha Baron Cohen, who was also responsible for Ali G. an ignorant and politically incorrect interviewer who was a TV sensation at the start of the decade. Borat actually began life as a minor character on Do Ali G Show. Borat is even more extreme in terms of his misogyny and his virulent anti-Semitism (Baon Cohen is himself Jewish and seems to be obsessed with the issue).

LEGAL PROBLEMS

The humour of both Ali G and Borat lies in the fact that their victims don’t know that they are being set up. They are told that the interviews are for a foreign TV station and are mad to sign release forms. Several of the people who appeared in Borat are now suing its producers. Not surprisingly, the government of Kazakhstan has reacted badly to the primitive portrayal of their country, but Sacha Baron Cohen insists that the joke is on America. (no audio)

THE BORAT PHENOMNEON

SOURCE: SPEAK UP

Standard: British accent

Speaker: Mark Worden

A movie that has taken America by storm: Bohat: Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It stars Sacha Baron. Cohen, a British actor already famous for another memorable personality. Ali G. this time he plays Bohat Saddiyev, an outrageous Journalist who has come to discover the real America.” The intriguing thing is that all the other characters are real people who don’t know that they are being fooled.

Here Borat presents the film in a splendid parody of the promotional video. By the way, please don’t use Borat as a model, if you’re planning to improve your English!

Borat (Kazakhstani accent, the others are all Standard American accent)

My name Borat Sagdiyev, I here make promotion, talk to you about movie films I make. The Ministry of Information decide to make this film about America because we want to be like you, America have most beautiful women in world, for example, Lisa Minelli and Elizabeth Taylor. It also center for democracy and porno. I like!

Interviewer

It has been said, Mr. Sagdiyev, that your country is extremely oppressive.

Borat:

Yes, it’s true. Thank you, I met some very nice peoples on my journey across America. In New York Cities I meet this man who teach me how to drive a motor cars, yes?

Mike:

My name is Mike, I’m going to be your driving instructor. Welcome to our country, OK?

Borat:

My name Borat (he kisses, Mike on both cheeks).

Mike:

OK, OK, good, good. Well, I’m not used to that, but that’s fine.

Borat:

Look, there is a woman in a car. Can we follow her and maybe make a sexy time with her…?

Mike/

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Borat:

And get her, why not?

Mike:

Because a woman has a right to choose who she has sex with.

Borat: What?!

Mike:

How about that? Isn’t that amazing?

Borat:

You joke? It is very strange in America is that a woman is permit to drive a car. We say in Kazakhstan, “To let a women drive a car is like let a monkey drive a plane!” Yes? Yeah! We do not do that anymore, since the Astana air crash of 2002.

THE COMEDY COACH

Borat’s next victim is a comedy coach:

Borat:

What is a not jokes?

Comedy coach:

A not joke is when we try to make fun of something and what we do is we make a statement that we pretend is true but, in the end, we say in “NOT” which means it’s not true.

Borat:

So teach me how to make one.

Comedy coach:

Alright: so a not joke is, I would say:  “That suit is black…NOT!!!”

Borat:

This suit is NOT!!!

BLACK!!!

Comedy coach:

No, no, NOT!!! Has to be the end.

Borat: OK.

Borat:

This suit is black not.

Comedy coach:

This suit is black…

Pause. You know what a pause is?

Borat: Yes.

Comedy coach:

This suit is black…

NOT!!

Borat:

This suit is black…

NOT!!!

Borat:

This suit is black…

Pause…NOT!!!

Comedy coach:

You don’t say “pause.”

This suit is black…

That’s a pause…

NOT!!!

Borat:

This suit is black…

Comedy coach:

OK,  I don’t…I don’t…

I’m not quite…

Borat: NOT!!!

THE FEMINISM DEBATE

Yet “the Veteran Feminists of America” provide the perfect target for his politically incorrect humor:

Borat: so what means this feminism?

First Feminist:

It’s the theory that women should be equal to men in matters economic, social and…

Second feminist:

Now, you are laughing.

Borat: Yes!

Second feminist:

That is the problem:

Borat:

Do you think a woman should be educated?

Third feminist: Definitely.

Borat: But is it not a problem that a woman have a smaller brain than a man?

Third Feminist: That is wrong.

Borat: But a government scientist, Dr. Yamak, have proved I it ssize of squirrel.

Third feminist: he’s wrong.

Borat:

Give me a smile, baby, why angry face?

Second feminist:

Well, what you’re saying is very demeaning. Do you know the word demeaning?

Borat: No.

Second feminist:

We are saying to you that…

Borat: I could not concentrate on what this old man was saying.

Third feminist:

OK, hav ewe finished now?

Borat:

Listen, pussy cat (bad word), smile a bit!

Second feminist:

All right, that’s it, I’m done.

Borat goes the doctor, humor

Source: Borat
The next entry I'm going to post about Bohat phenomenon, very interesting and funny. 

Contextualising

I’ve been received e-mails, mostly from Brazilians students asking me for why I don’t write in Portuguese. First of all most of the tips I’m not the owner, I use some websites to promote the best contents and mostly are in English.

Anyways, as you know you can use a good dictionary, secondly there is a Google, even I don’t recommend about the usage of this tool, that’s because it’s one of the major problem is literal translation, not recommendable for grammarians and experts, instead, the most important is understand the context, I mean, interpretation is the best way to contextualising, otherwise sometimes the literal translation doesn’t make sense. I also recommend you visit both Denilso de Lima a.k.a as Doctor Descomplica, his blog's content is in Portuguese but really useful http://www.denilsodelima.blogspot.com as well as Ulisses Whelby and your amazing Teclasap http://www.teclasap.com.br Teachjer Bruno http://teacherbruno1.blogspot.com/ and the list goes on.

 Usually, of course you can getting started to use labels to construct your vocabulary and getting started to write short compositions, about 10 lines.  Start to describe about your job, friends and your daily routine and make up the sentence, you can create them.

I could see another problem, basically about the usage of grammar, and particularly I think that the best way is studying grammar using lyric songs http://www.englishexercises.org I think it’s one of the best website developed for ESL teachers excellent also for ESL students.

OK, that’s all for today and I think the base of the language firstly is communicating understand and being understood. See you around. 

Source: www.manythings.org/voa/people

Jacob Riis: A Reporter Who Fought for the Poor in Old New York

I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Jacob Riis. He was a writer who used all his energy to make the world a better place for poor people.

(MUSIC)

In the spring of eighteen seventy, a young man traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. The young man came from Denmark. His name was Jacob Riis. He was just twenty-one years old.

His first years in the United States were difficult, like those of most immigrants at that time. It was difficult to get a job. Jacob Riis went from place to place seeking work. He did any kind of work he could find. Farming, coal mining, brick-making. He even tried to earn money as a peddler. He went from house to house selling things. Many times he slept wherever he could.

Soon he was beginning to lose hope. He decided to leave New York. He started to walk north. After a time, he arrived in the Bronx, the northern part of New York City. His feet burned with pain. And he was hungry.

"I had not eaten a thing since the day before. I had no breakfast, and decided to have a swim in the Bronx River, instead. But that did not help. I was just as hungry when I came out of the water.

"Then I walked slowly to Fordham College, which was not far from where I was. The doors to Fordham College were open, and I walked in, for no reason. I was just tired and had nothing else to do.

"Fordham is a Catholic college. And an old monk came to me and asked in a kind voice if I was hungry. I still remember in my dreams at night the beautiful face of that old monk. I was terribly hungry, and said I was, although I did not mean to do so. I had never seen a real live monk before. My own religious education as a Lutheran did not teach me to like Catholic monks.

"I ate the food that was brought to me. But I was troubled. I was afraid that after giving me food, the churchman would ask me to change my religious beliefs. I said to myself: 'I am not going to do it. ' But when I had eaten, I was not asked to do anything. I was given more food when I left, and continued on my way. I was angry with myself for having such bad thoughts about the Catholic churchmen at Fordham College. For the first time, I learned something about how to live with people of different religious beliefs."

(MUSIC)

Later, Jacob Riis learned more about liking people, even if they are different. This time, it happened while he was working on a railroad with men who did rough work and looked rough.

"I had never done that sort of work, and it was not the right job for me. I did my best to work like the other men. But my chest felt heavy, and my heart pounded in my body as if it were going to explode. There were nineteen Irishmen in the group. They were big, rough fellows. They had chosen me as the only 'Dutchman' -- as they called me -- to make them laugh. They were going to use me as part of their jokes.

"But then they saw that the job was just too hard for me. This made them feel different about me. It showed another side to these fun-loving, big-hearted people. They thought of many ways to get me away from the very rough work. One was to get me to bring water for them. They liked stronger things to drink than water. But now they suddenly wanted water all the time. I had to walk a long way for the water. But it stopped me from doing the work that was too hard for me. These people were very rough in their ways. But behind the roughness they were good men. "

At last, Jacob Riis got a job writing for a newspaper in New York City. This was his chance. He finally had found a profession that would lead to his life work -- making the world a better place for poor people.

The newspaper sent him to police headquarters for stories. There he saw life at its worst, especially in a very poor part of New York which was known as Mulberry Bend.

"It was no place for men and women. And surely no place for little children. It was a terrible slum -- as such places are called -- where too many are crowded together, where the houses and streets are dirty and full of rats. The place began to trouble me as the truth about it became clear. Others were not troubled. They had no way of finding out how terrible the lives of people were in Mulberry Bend. But as a newspaper reporter, I could find the truth. So I went through the dark dirty streets and houses, and saw how the people suffered in this area. And I wrote many stories about the life there.

"I did good work as a police reporter, but wanted a change. My editor said, 'no'. He asked me to go back to Mulberry Bend and stay there. He said I was finding something there that needed me."

The words of Jacob Riis' editor proved to be very true. Riis started a personal war against slum houses, the sort he saw in Mulberry Bend. He learned to use a camera to show the public clearly what the Mulberry Bend slum was like. The camera in the eighteen eighties was nothing like it is today. But Riis got his pictures.

"I made good use of them quickly. Words could get no action to change things. But the pictures did. What the camera showed was so powerful that the city's health officials started to do something. At last I had a strong partner in the fight against Mulberry Bend -- my camera. "

(MUSIC)

Jacob Riis continued the fight to clean up the slums for many years. There were not many people to help him. It was a lonely fight. But his camera and fighting words helped to get a law passed which would destroy the Mulberry Bend slum. Finally, the great day came. The slum housing was gone. The area had become a park.

"When they had fixed the ground so the grass could grow, I saw children dancing there in the sunlight. They were going to have a better life, thank God. We had given them their lost chance. I looked at these dancing children and saw how happy they were. This place that had been full of crime and murder became the most orderly in the city.

"The murders and crimes disappeared when they let sunlight come into the Bend. The sunlight that shone upon children who had, at last, the right to play. That was what the Mulberry Bend Park meant. So the Bend went. And I was very happy that I had helped to make it go. "

That was not Riis' last battle to make life cleaner and better for many people. He had great energy. And his love for people was as great as his energy.

He started a campaign to get clean water for the state of New York. He showed that water for the state was not healthy for people. State officials were forced to take actions that would clean the water.

He also worked to get laws against child labor, and made sure that these laws were obeyed. In those days, when Riis was a fighting newspaper reporter, laws against child labor were something new. People did not object to making young children work long hours, in places that had bad air and bad light. But in the United States today, child labor is not legal. It was because of men like Jacob Riis that this is so.

He was also successful in getting playgrounds for children. And he helped establish centers for education and fun for older people.

His book, "How the Other Half Lives," was published in eighteen ninety. He became famous. That book and his newspaper reports influenced many people. Theodore Roosevelt, who later became president of the United States, called Riis the most useful citizen in New York City.

Riis continued to write about conditions that were in need of major reform. His twelve books including "Children of the Poor" helped improve conditions in the city. The books also made him popular as a speaker in other cities. Jacob Riis's concern for the poor kept him so busy writing and speaking around the country that he ruined his health. He died in nineteen fourteen.

(MUSIC)

This Special English program was written by Herbert Sutcliffe and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

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I recommend this wonderful magazine for Brazilians teachers and students, all content is in English and you can check out the affordable price visiting the website http://www.maganews.com.br . Every month I update on my blog texts from Magazine, they are very useful and Brazilians and foreigners students have been searched for the content. Keep in touch and take out a subscription. It worths it do that...I recommend. 

Recomendo para professores e alunos, esta maravilhosa revista todo o conteúdo é em inglês e você basta da uma olhada no site e conferir os preços acessíveis. Todos os meses atualizo o meu blog com os textos da revista, são muito úteis e tem sido fonte de pesquisa para estudantes do Brasil e do exterior. Entre em contato e faça já uma assinatura, vale apena, recomendo. 

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