English, baby!

Nelly Furtado

Date: Sep 28 2009

Themes: Music

Grammar: Present Progressive Tense

Go Super!

Intro

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

Go Super to Listen

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

Go Super to Listen

Nelly Furtado was born in Canada, but she’s a citizen of the world at heart. Her debut album, Whoah, Nelly!, was an international hit, and her second album featured the song “Forca,” which was used as the official anthem of the European Football Championship. Now she has recorded an entire album of songs in Spanish, and is planning to release an all-Portuguese album next. Find out what Dale and Marni think about this globetrotting singer.

Dialog

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

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

Marni

Dale

Marni: Dale, are you a Nelly Furtado fan?

Dale: Actually, I know of her. I listen to her music. You could say I enjoy listening to her music. I’m not quite yet a fan because I don’t know so much about her. Her music style is really original.

Marni: It’s kind of really eclectic. She’s sort of all over the map. She had that big hit “I’ll Fly Away” and then she went into more of a rap genre.

Dale: Yeah. She went with the hip-hop, R&B sound.

Marni: Right. So she’s actually multilingual, and her new album is going to be all in Spanish. And then she’s following up with one that’s all in Portuguese.

Dale: So is she Spanish? What’s her background?

Marni: My understanding is she’s Portuguese-Canadian. She grew up in Canada.

Dale: And she’s doing this…kind of like going into her roots or something?

Marni: Sure. I think she’s one who likes to explore and honor her roots. You know, just kinda go back and…She’s clearly not afraid to take risks with genres.

Dale: And that’s really a big risk. For a lot of artists, to do something like that, you can actually go one way or the other.

Grammar Point

Go Super to learn "Present Progressive Tense" from this lesson

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3

Go Super to Ask Ebaby! teachers your questions!

The iTEP^® test

Sponsored by

Schedule an iTEP^® test and take the official English Practice Test.
Take Now >

Discussion

Go Super to Listen

Dale likes Nelly Furtado, but he doesn’t know very much about her. He and Marni agree that she has a unique, eclectic musical style. Her songs reflect many different genres of music, including hip-hop, R&B, alternative, and world music.

Marni tells Dale that Nelly Furtado’s next two albums are going to be in Spanish and Portuguese. Although Nelly grew up in Canada, her parents are Portuguese. She feels connected to her Portuguese heritage and wants to honor her roots.

It’s unusual for a musician who has already put out successful albums in English to suddenly switch gears and record an album in another language. But Nelly Furtado isn’t afraid to take risks in her career.

Are you multilingual? Which languages do you know? Do you think it’s important to take risks?

Comments

< Previous
21 through 38 of 38
1 2

Ca_Brazil

Brazil

I speak Portuguese fluently and I can speak English well. At college i am taking Spanish classes, i want to imporve these foreign languages very well and then i am interested to learn Italian or French. Its really exciting to takes risks sometimes, though we should be conscious about consequences or advantages.

s id

Saudi Arabia

good lesson . i m also multilingual. i can speak urdo `arabic and english.

bytheway i couldn`t hear daliog of lession. maybe there is some problems to

listening.

s id

Saudi Arabia

good lesion . i m also multilingual . i can speak arabic , english , and urdo.

by theway i can`t hear diloge there is some problems to listening

semaho

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i just downloaded one of her best hit, here u can listen and download that

laura, baby!

Uruguay

I know some portuguese and english and of course my language spanish, but I want to learn more languages like chinese

I s very important to take risks, if not, life would become boring haha

falasten

Jordan

what can i say learn from these people they know somthing they know the secret of life {fell what you want to have }

miffoo

Slovakia

She is an amazing singer I have all her albums and all are awesome :)

Aus_LT

Lithuania

i love her song very much.

Naomi1010

Taiwan

She is an awesome singer!! I love her music since her debut album came out! :)

clauzios

Saudi Arabia

good lesson _*
I’m multilingual i know Arbic and English…...important to take risks
thanks -_

rose Ahmed

Yemen

ya i am multilingual,i know Arabic ,English…

i think it very important to tack a risk if u want to improve your self and i really like the success that come after the risks

yellowbelle

United Arab Emirates

I speak English aside from Tagalog (official language in the Philippines) and Bisaya (dialect). Being in a foreign land, Dubai, UAE my fluency in English helps me a lot not only for smooth communication to different people but also in achieving additional income since I can do English tutorial. I just needed to enhance more this language skill for upgraded competency.

Learning different languages is indeed very vital not only for additional knowledge but also for culture adaptation. I am currently based in an Arabic speaking country. The locals do appreciate an expat speaking their language. It does mean, that you are taking effort to get to know them well through penetrating their language.

On the other hand, taking risk wise is a man's venture toward a well-lived life. Everyday is risky day. Who knows you will be hit and run while walking in the street? What we have to bear in mind is to enjoy and seize every moment we live for tomorrow is uncertain.

Shinichi Lover

Bahrain

I think it's important to have multilingual to contact with other people if you are interest to know many people from diffrent countries, I'm native speaker in arabic, now I'm learning English I do my best to Know this language, and at the same time I learn Japanese because I love this langauage, about the risk, some times we need to take a risks to be successful, many famous people take risks before becoming successful !

Ermolaeva

Russian Federation

I'm russian and russian is my mother tongue! I'm very fond of learning foreign languages and time to time I come up with sudden idea to study another rare or exotic language=) but, unfortunately, I usually fall

I'm trying to perfect my english now

Then I'm planning to take up the Italian Hope I'll succeed =))

julywidiawati

Indonesia

I can a little Japanese just because my nephews using that language, I can speak English, in progress, my mother tongue and also some ethnic languages. It is important to take risk for some people because live is about once and we can't back to the past so take the time.