Die Antwoord

Intro

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

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• ironic
• take seriously
• flash in the pan
• fad

• craze
• viral
• out of date
• trashy

• counterculture
• hipster

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

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The latest hip-hop craze isn’t coming from New York or San Francisco. Die Antwoord is straight from the mean streets of Cape Town, South Africa, and they have become very popular in the US and Europe in the last year, mostly due to several viral videos.

Not only do their South African accents make their voices sound unusual, but the members of Die Antwoord look very strange too. They have out of date haircuts and wear bright clothes that don’t fit them well. Yet, somehow, they look very cool. Their first album, $O$, just came out in the US. Find out if Jason and Devan think these unlikely stars are here to stay.

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.

Devan

Jason

Devan:  So, I was looking at this music blog online, and I was reading about this hip-hop electronic group from South Africa called Die Antwoord. Have you heard of them?

Jason:  It’s Die Antwoord. It’s in Afrikaans.

Devan:  My mistake. Anyway, I was noticing that the vocalist, he was kind of skinny, trashy, hipster guy. And the video to me seemed funny, like it was purposefully ironic. But I wasn’t sure if it’s supposed to be a joke.

Jason:  You know, I mean, was Vanilla Ice supposed to be a joke? It kind of walks that line between something that’s supposed to be taken seriously and something that you can’t possibly take seriously.

Devan:  Yeah, that’s a good point, because he even looks like Vanilla Ice with the square haircut. I guess I was young enough in the 1990s when Vanilla Ice was around that I took him seriously and thought that he was supposed to be a serious act. But looking back on it, it could have just been like one of those flash in the pan fads, that maybe was supposed to be more of a joke than a realistic musical pursuit.

Jason:  Yeah, I mean that guy from Die Antwoord is named Ninja. And he has a lot of really silly tattoos that were done at home. And they never really explain what they’re about, like they say they’re from this scene in South Africa called Zef, and when you ask them what Zef means they say it means “really cool,” and stuff like that, you know? But I don’t know, they might be more than a fad.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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