The Preamble

Today’s brainwave comes from I know not where. It occurred to me that every tutor and many learners could benefit from an introduction or a reintroduction to the beginning of the U.S. Constitution. Why? Well, for one reason, some of our learners are working toward U.S. Citizenship, and knowledge of the constitution can only help. Some of the vocabulary is good to know for everyday life. The first three words make an extraordinary assertion about who wrote this document and whom it is for; even a beginning learner of English can understand them. Check it:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I am aware that the preamble is not written in simple English, but the message is, at the heart of it, simple, namely: we create government for the purpose of meeting people’s needs for liberty and security for now and for the generations to come. For some of the largish words, you may want to come up with a simple English-to-English translation.

Justice—this translates directly in many languages. In Spanish, justicia.

Tranquility: you could just say “peace.”

Blessings: the good things in life

Liberty: freedom or libertad in Spanish

Posterity: the people who come after us—our children and grandchildren

Ordain and establish: mean approximately “to create and to approve.”

The preamble is the most inspiring sentence I know. It states the reason for having a constitution and gives six purposes that it is supposed to guarantee. At the bottom of this post I have put a link to a YouTube video which has the preamble sung to a very catchy tune from “Schoolhouse Rock.” Because of this tune I learned the preamble, oh, about 30 years ago and could not forget it if I tried. I hope you like it, too. Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_TXJRZ4CFc

Go well, and please keep in touch.

Free Resource: YouTube

Today’s tip involves a free resource for anyone who has access to the internet at home, work or the library. Many of you have heard of YouTube website, which, in the current parlance, “hosts” videos for free. Some users post vacation video, others make personal or political commentary.

A company called Real-English.com has video lessons on a variety of subjects posted there, too. Here is one that features interviewers with big, furry microphones asking people in the London streets one question, “What are you doing?” The answers are in present progressive, such as, “I’m cleaning the street,” or “I’m putting my card in the ATM to get some money.” Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGzsTYWprNA

Now, some of the accents may be odd, but if you watch with your learner you can make the speakers’ everyday statements into topics of discussion. And, even if you check it out and don’t find that video interesting, real-English has many more mini-lessons. Here’s one that’s very well oriented toward beginners: the cardinal numbers from one to one hundred http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHa-vEoO3fM being read by someone with a nice voice.

To find more videos by this company, go to the www.youtube.com website and search for “real-english”. You can see the search field atthe top of the screen capture image above.

You can see that the search for “real-english” turned up 177 videos—quite a haul! And remember, even if you cannot show the video directly to your learner during lessons, you as a tutor might learn some ways to teach new concepts by watching them. Sometimes it just helps to watch someone else doing it.

And here’s a parting thought for you, in the form of a question: Why not try making your own ESL video? If you have a reasonably capable digital video camera, perhaps we can collaborate and share ideas with this technology. Are you trying anything you’d like to share with your learners through the YouTube? Think it over. And for now I have embedded one of the videos below in the Blog of Literacy. It is a technical first for this blog and this blogger, but as ordinary as Cheerios to anyone under 25.