Version vom 22. März 2010, 20:17 Uhr

The election in Germany

1. reasons for less voters

- the people are uninterested (especially the young)

- the people are indecisive

- the party platform is similar to other party platforms

2. counteractive measures

- even celebrities are setting a good example and are going to the polls

- attracting the people with small presents

- advertisement:

- on tv

- in the radion

- on the street

3. differences to America

- less enthusiasm compared to America

- Angela Merkel doesn`t have star qualities like Barack Obama

1. an article after the election of Barack Obama
2. What expectations of President-elect Obama can he fulfill

What do young people expect from Barack Obama?

- The young people think that Obama will make a difference

- They expect him to be a good leader for the country

- They hope that the American troops get home from Iraq as soon as possible

- The youth is concerned with the education that children get the help they needed so they don´t have to stay back

- They hope that Obama can change the economy

Why is the youth interested in Obama?

- "Obama is the embodiment of the possibility of the impossible dream" for youth who suffer unemployment and the lack of equal opportunities

- Obama is young and ambitious

- He broke the stereotype and became the first black American president

- Barack Obama is a moving speaker

- He is charismatic

→Young people rally to Obama

Received Pronunciation

Definition

Received Pronunciation or RP is a pronunciation of standard British English based on the speech of educated speakers of southern British Englishis. This "prestige" accent is associated with the south-east, where most RP-speakers live or work, but it can be found anywhere in the country. Accents usually tell us where a person is from; RP tells us only about a person's social or educational background.

Listening examples

http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/speech/dialects/rp/index.html

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/vowel-sounds-rp/ Listening example

Metaphors

• Your smile is like a rising sun in the morning.
  rising sun = warm, shining
• Your face is like the moon in the night.
  moon = shining, mysterious, beautiful
• I´m your shoulder you can cry on.
  = she can count on him, she can trus him, he will comfort her
• Your hair is like black silk.
  silk = valuable, shining, expenisive, smooth
• You are my sun.
  sun = shining, light, warm
• You are my religion.
  religion = divine
• You are like a dream come true.
  dream = unreal
• Without you i´m like a heart without blood.
  = he needs her, without her he is going to die

John Legend - Ordinary People

John Stephens or better known as John Legend was born on the 28th of December 1978 in Springfield, Ohio. At the age of four he started playing the piano and joined the choir at the age of seven. He is an American recording artist, musician and actor. Among others he worked together with Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Fort Minor. Moreover he took part in the song “Yes we can” to support Barack Obama`s presidential candidature. He chose his stage name “John Legend from a nickname that was given to him by a friend because of his old school sound.

The song is about a male speaker who is talking to his girlfriend about the ups and downs of their relationship. He is wondering whether their relationship can endure these difficult times but he really hopes that they stay together. This is shown in the contrast in line 23-24 „Sometimes it's heaven sent/Then we head back to hell again“ 27 „ We rise and we fall“. The lyrical speaker loves his girlfriend (“Girl, I’m in love with you”), but is quite unsure about their relationship (often repetitions of “maybe”). Furthermore he and his girlfriend have been together for a long time („This ain't the honeymoon“). In addition the speaker is a realistic person („no fairy tale conclusion“; no „movie“), because he don’t believe in a happy ending. And in the song “way” appears in many ways, like “we don’t know which way to go”, “and we feel just like walking away” etc. That’s why “way” can be the leitmotif, because it shows up again and again, but always in a different way.

Verse 1

Girl I'm in love with you

But this ain't the honeymoon

Past the infatuation phase

Right in the thick of love

At times we get sick of love

It seems like we argue everyday

As aforementioned the male speaker loves the girl he is talking to, because he is singing “Girl, I’m in love with you”. So it’s quite obvious that he loves her. Besides there is a Metaphor in the next line (“honeymoon”). The second and third lines want to express that they aren’t newly in love anymore. In addition the phrase “right in the thick of love” means that love can sometimes be confusing. And sometimes they don’t want to see each other and want to give up everything, because the speaker says that “it seems like we argue everyday”.

Bridge

I know I misbehaved

And you made your mistakes

And we both still got room left to grow

And though love sometimes hurts

I still put you first

And we'll make this thing work

But I think we should take it slow

In the bridge there is another metaphor, “still got room left to grow”, which means that the speaker and his girlfriend don’t limit each others freedom and there is also a personification (“love sometimes hurts”), which stresses the bad sides of love. The girl the speaker is talking to is still the most important person in his life, because she still comes first. And with the word “thing” he means their relationship.

Verse 2

This ain't a movie no

No fairy tale conclusion ya'll

It gets more confusing everyday

Sometimes it's heaven sent

Then we head back to hell again

We kiss then we make up on the way

“No fairy tale conclusion ya`ll” means that their relationship is something real and nothing that somebody invented. And he realizes that there will be no happy ending like in a movie (first line), because life always goes on and there will be always problems to solve. In the second verse you may find a contrast “hell” and “heaven” which stresses the ups and downs in a relationship even if you don’t expect them.

Bridge

I hang up you call

We rise and we fall

And we feel like just walking away

As our love advances

We take second chances

Though it's not a fantasy

I still want you to stay

In the next bridge there is again a contrast between “we rise and we fall”. This emphasizes the up and downs, like mentioned before. Furthermore the male speaker talks about a distance between the two of them (“And we feel like just walking away“), which also can be the leitmotif. In the second bridge there is another personification “love advances”. Further they want to start again from the beginning, because he is singing: “We take second chances”. And though not everything works out well, he still wants them to stay together, which you can see in the last two line of the bridge.

Verse 3

Take it slow

Maybe we'll live and learn

Maybe we'll crash and burn,

Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave,

maybe you'll return

Maybe another fight

Maybe we won't survive

But maybe we'll grow

We never know baby you and I

The repetitions of maybe are quite eye-catching, because the appear five times and four times at the beginning of the sentences, so the speaker wants to emphasis that he is not quite sure about their relationship and how its going to continue. In addition there is a metaphor “crash” and “burn”. This metaphor is dramatic, because when you imagine a crash or something burning you associated something very negative with it. And in this verse you can find some contrast, like “stay” and “leave” or “fight” and “survive”. This also shows that the male speaker doesn’t know how their relationship will go on. But he accepts her decisions and supports her, whatever she wants to do (“Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave, maybe you'll return”). Another noticeable stylistic device is that he uses a lot of negative words like “crash”, “burn”, “fight” or “leave”. In the third verse there is also the turning point marked by the BUT. At the turning point the attitude of the speaker changes and he still got hopes for their relationship and he hopes that they will be stronger, so can leave behind their past and their mistakes (last two lines). But he is not sure about that.

Chorus

We're just ordinary people

We don't know which way to go

'Cause we're ordinary people

Maybe we should take it slow

This time we'll take it slow

This time we'll take it slow

The phrase “We're just ordinary people” means that they aren’t something special and that they are like everybody else. So they also have problems and it is normal to have some. (next line) Moreover he repeats often the sentence “This time we'll take it slow”. You may conclude that they rushed at the beginning of their relationship, but this time they will try to change it and make it even better, because now they are going to take time. Furthermore he always talks of them as “we” which means that he includes the two of them in what he is saying and not only himself.The rhyme pattern only changes in the chorus and in verse 3. Before it was aabccb, but in the chorus it is ababbbbb.

Correspondence between statement and style: The rhyme pattern changes at the turning point, even though there is no real rhyme that also expresses his attitude towards love and relationships: that they are unsteady and can often change. At the turning point there is also a change of accords in the music. The statements he made and the style of language which are used in this song totally support each other.

Advertisment