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Barack, baby!

Barack, baby!

Date: May 20 2008

Themes: News, Tech

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

People love to share opinions on English, baby!. A few days ago, a reporter for the biggest newspaper in our home state of Oregon wrote an article about the opinions expressed on this site about the 2008 US presidential election and polls of English, baby! members that show Barack Obama as the favorite candidate among the people of the world. Jason gave Mason a call to talk about it.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Mason

Jason

Jason

Mason:  Hey Jason, what’s up?

Jason:  Hey, what’s up, man? Did you see the paper yet today?

Mason:  Yeah, man. I couldn’t believe it. That’s crazy! I didn’t even know, actually, that there was such amazing participation from the English, baby! community on voting to see what they were thinking about the election this year.

Jason:  Yeah, it seems like everyone kind of has an opinion about it which is…

Mason:  It’s almost a surprise that it’s such a big deal to the international community.

Jason:  Yeah, especially at this stage when it’s not even down to the final two candidates yet. But they’re just on top of it. I always love to hear from them about current events, whether it’s the earthquake in China or the election or anything. I hope it’s a sign on the times that our media is paying attention to what they have to say. I hope that means that we’re kind of growing more conscious about what the world thinks about us.

Mason:  Definitely. I think the media is paying way more attention to all the different social sites out there where the public in general can share their voice and you can get a sense from the group. Yeah, I mean, the problem is there’s just so many voices you need places where those voices can kind of be synthesized into, into like data you can actually digest, which is why that poll was so cool. It gives you a really quick view of a large group of people, but it’s simple information.

Jason:  Yeah, I’m glad it meant something to the American media, too, you know? I hope I continue to see stuff like that. Right on, man, I just wanted to see if you saw that.

Mason:  Yeah, it was totally crazy. It made my day.

Jason:  Cool, well I’ll talk to you later.

Mason:  Alright. Bye.

Jason:  Bye.

 

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Mason hadn’t noticed the buzz about the election on Ebaby!. He and Jason are amazed by it, especially considering that the election is still six months away.

Jason loves to check in with what’s going on in the world via Ebaby! He thought it was interesting to see everything that was posted about the recent earthquake in China.

But both Mason and Jason are excited that an American newspaper is interested in what the Ebaby! members have to say. They’d like to see the US have better communication with the world and this seems like an indication that that might be happening.

Were you surprised to learn that world opinion is playing a big part in our election?

 

Comments

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wujuan223

China

i came to english baby one month ago,i like to study english via internet,it's convenient .easy and for free. In my county,many people especial from sichuan provenice is suffering from hugo earthquake who have to face all kinds of problems ,but i believe chinese popple and  government are able to try them best to help misfortune people.God bless them !

03:31 AM May 20 2008 |

wanglong123

China

To my surprise is that most people would like Barack Obama win the 2008 presidential election.Though they’re from different countries,it seems that they want to a same result.Actually I love Ebaby because it makes us could communicate with eachother and share our different voices

02:47 AM May 20 2008 |

guiltylove

guiltylove

India

hehe! i can not listen clear!!

02:02 AM May 20 2008 |

Bob Ishida

Bob Ishida

Japan

SNS is getting more and more important these days. It could even be a threat against traditional media. I think The Internet is making a new type of democracy on cyber space. And that's a kind of exciting thing to me and all.Wink

01:46 AM May 20 2008 |

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