James Madison, Rescued rower, Imagery, Guilty pleasure

0:03 Welcome to Learning English,

0:06 a daily 30 minute program from The Voice of America.

0:11 I'm Caty Weaver and I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

0:15 This program is designed for English learners,

0:19 so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases,

0:24 especially written for people learning English.

0:31 Today, Bryan Lynn tells the story of the president,

0:35 also known as the father of the U.S.

0:39 Constitution, James Madison.

0:43 Jill Robbins reports on the rescue of a man

0:46 trying to cross the Pacific Ocean in a rowboat.

0:51 Alice Bryant gives advice on using word maps to strengthen your vocabulary.

0:59 Then the lesson of the day.

1:02 But first, here is Bryan.

1:07 The man who created America's Constitution

1:11 are often called the nation's founders.

1:17 But only one of those men.

1:20 James Madison is widely considered the father of the Constitution,

1:27 and Madison was elected president of the United States in 1808.

1:35 He served for two terms.

1:38 But many Americans remember Madison more for the work he did

1:44 to strengthen the national government and before he served as president.

1:51 Madison was one of the writers of the state

1:56 constitution in his home state of Virginia in 1776.

2:03 Later, he proposed a more structured

2:06 national government after the Revolutionary War.

2:11 That conflict resulted in the American colonists separating from Britain.

2:19 Madison imagined a three part American government,

2:25 one with an executive of a legislature and an independent Supreme Court.

2:32 His ideas became the basis for the U.S.

2:36 Constitution.

2:38 Tom Howard has served as an educator at Madison's home in southern Virginia.

2:47 He said Madison did not receive as much

2:52 attention as some of America's other founding members.

2:57 He is not somehow historically as well known as other founding statesmen.

3:04 Howard said.

3:06 But he's certainly every bit as important.

3:11 We are not even sure there would be a constitution

3:15 had it not been for James Madison, he added.

3:20 Howard noted how James Madison used his own

3:24 library to prepare for the nation's Constitutional convention.

3:31 He went up there and studied for months,

3:35 and that's having just a light breakfast

3:38 and then studying throughout the entire day before

3:42 he finally took a break to rest up to go back at it the next day.

3:49 Historians say Madison took very detailed notes

3:55 during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

4:01 He sat behind George Washington taking notes

4:06 and trying to determine how the debates were going

4:11 in discussions that he could prepare for the next

4:15 day and how he would influence that.

4:20 Madison understood his notes were important, not only for him.

4:27 He knew they would also be interesting for historians and other

4:32 people who wanted to know what happened at the meeting.

4:37 He included information on speeches and ideas expressed by other

4:44 delegates after a new constitution was created at the convention,

4:50 the legislatures of each state had to ratify or vote to approve the document.

4:59 Madison and other supporters of the proposed government eventually

5:04 six sided in persuading the states to ratify the Constitution.

5:12 He was then elected to the House of Representatives

5:15 tives in the first Congress under the new government.

5:21 But it was his actions in support of a strong national government and federal

5:28 laws that earned Madison a place in history as father of the constitu nation.

5:37 I'm Bryan Lynn, a Lithuanian rower attempting

6:04 to cross the Pacific Ocean has been

6:08 rescued by an Australian warship after hitting

6:11 stormy waters off the coast of Queensland.

6:14 State Royal Australian Navy Officer Justin Jones said in a statement

6:22 that all Remus Moskos was brought aboard the warship on March 3rd.

6:28 The 44 year old adventurer began his trip

6:32 alone in October from San Diego, California.

6:37 He made it to within 740 kilometers

6:40 of Australia's mainland before running into a tropical cyclone.

6:47 Australia's maritime Safety Authority organized the rescue.

6:52 It said the enclosed boat that Moskos traveled

6:56 in was mostly destroyed by the powerful waters.

7:01 He was only able to recover a few personal belongings from the boat.

7:07 Moskos was stranded for three days in the Coral Sea,

7:11 east of Queensland's coastal city of Mackay.

7:16 His goal was to make it

7:18 from California to the Australian states capital, Brisbane.

7:23 The whole distance is about 12,000 kilometers.

7:28 The rower turned on an emergency signal while experiencing stormy seas

7:33 fueled by 80 kilometers per hour winds caused by tropical storm Alfred.

7:40 That led to rescuers establishing radio contact with Moskos.

7:46 Moskos reported he was fatigued.

7:49 The team said Navy officials said the warship

7:54 was taking Moskos to Sydney in New South Wales.

7:59 Rowers traveling by themselves have crossed

8:02 the Pacific Ocean nonstop in the past.

8:07 MOSKOS was attempting to become one of the few

8:10 to cross the sea alone and without stopping.

8:14 Peter Bird of Britain became the first to do so in 1983.

8:20 He rode from San Francisco and was pulled behind another

8:24 boat for the last 48 kilometers to the Australian mainland.

8:30 Even though he did not complete, the whole trip alone,

8:34 is considered to have rode close enough to Australia to have made the crossing.

8:40 Fellow British citizen John Beaton wrote from San

8:44 Francisco to the Queensland city of Cairns in 2015.

8:49 He is considered by some to have made the first successful crossing.

8:54 Australian Michelle Lee became the first woman

8:57 to successfully make the crossing in 2023.

9:02 She rode from the Mexican coastal city

9:05 of in Canada to Port Douglas in Queensland.

9:10 Another Australian, Tom Robinson,

9:13 attempted to become the youngest to row across the Pacific in 2022.

9:19 He was 24 years old at the time.

9:22 During his trip, Robinson took a rest in the Cook Islands.

9:27 He set out from Peru and spent 265 days as sea before

9:32 he was rescued off the southwestern Pacific nation of Vanuatu in 2023.

9:40 I'm Jill Robbins.

10:04 Suppose you are listening to a program in English and hear the word borrow.

10:11 You have heard this word many times, but forget its meaning.

10:17 So you look up the equivalent word in your own language.

10:23 Yes.

10:24 Now, you remember a few days later you see the word again,

10:30 but again cannot remember its meaning.

10:35 Why?

10:36 It is easy to blame yourself or think I have a terrible memory.

10:42 But your memory is not the problem.

10:45 The problem is that translating a word to its equivalent word

10:51 in your language is not an effective way to learn vocabulary.

10:58 This is because it does not create strong connections in the brain,

11:04 something critical or remembering information.

11:09 To really learn words, you have to bring attention to them and connect

11:14 them with mental images or your existing knowledge.

11:19 This helps your brain recall words quickly and easily when you need them.

11:26 On today's Education tips,

11:28 we will discuss three methods that use images to retain vocabulary.

11:36 First, let's discuss the most straightforward word method.

11:41 Using pictures as visual aids.

11:45 Danielle Zelin is an English teacher and teacher trainer.

11:52 She has taught for nearly 25 years,

11:55 including in South Africa, Latvia and Mauritius.

12:01 Her homeland Zealand says visual aids are important

12:06 for language learners because humans think in images.

12:12 When we hear a sentence, somebody talking to us, we see the pictures.

12:18 We don't see the words.

12:19 We don't see the sentence in our brain.

12:22 Like yesterday, I went to the beach.

12:24 If I tell you that you will see me on the beach,

12:27 you will not see the sentence in the written.

12:31 She uses pictures or images with her beginning

12:36 students and some of her mid-level students.

12:40 Christiana Galvao has used pictures to teach vocabulary to students

12:47 of every level from grade school to the university level.

12:53 Galvao, who is based in California, has taught English for 20 years,

12:59 including in the United States and Brazil.

13:03 She suggests learners make visual dictionaries

13:09 with pictures from the Internet, for example.

13:13 This would involve writing an English word next

13:17 to its image before you make the dictionary, think about your goals.

13:24 She says If the goal is to reinforce what you already learned

13:29 about put the words in alphabetical order and organize them into related groups.

13:37 But if the goal is to write a sentence using each new word,

13:42 then you probably do not need to put the words into groups.

13:48 Next, let's talk about mnemonics.

13:52 These are mental tools you can use to recall information better.

13:58 Most mnemonics tools involve creating mental imagery to trigger your memory.

14:06 Some of you have already done this without realizing there was a name for it.

14:13 One great mnemonic tool is key words.

14:17 This involves making a mental image

14:20 that ties two similar sounding words together.

14:25 Take the word bald as an example.

14:29 It means having little or no hair.

14:33 The word ball sounds like bald and can

14:37 help us remember the target word in your mind.

14:42 Make a mental picture of a ball with a face on it.

14:47 Then picture it with no hair on top.

14:51 Maybe a little on the sides.

14:54 Keep this image in your mind for maybe 15 seconds.

15:00 The next time you try to recall.

15:03 Bald.

15:04 It will be easier because of the key word and connected imagery.

15:10 Alex Mullen is a biomedical engineer

15:14 and one of the world's top memory competitors.

15:19 In 2016, he was the USA memory champion.

15:25 Mullen calls the mnemonics keywords tool the art of memory.

15:30 Because your mind makes a kind of picture stories.

15:36 In his video on mnemonic keywords,

15:38 he talks about remembering the target word corral by joining

15:44 its imagery with an image of a sea coral.

15:48 He draws a group of stick figures trapped or corralled in a coral.

15:55 In real life, you would probably make a mental image rather than a drawing.

16:01 But Mullen's drawing demonstrates the idea of connecting

16:05 a mental image of the target word with its keyword.

16:11 One final method for today is word maps,

16:14 also known as semantic maps or word webs in a word map.

16:20 You write a central word or idea in the middle

16:24 and connect it with lines to related words.

16:29 This helps to build mental associations between related ideas.

16:36 Danielle Zelin gives the example of the word sharp.

16:41 If you send her that word, you can connect it to words of things that are sharp,

16:47 such as knife, paper and scissors, Zelin says.

16:53 Words are much easier to remember when they have meaning in your own life.

16:59 For instance, one of her French students has an English speaking dentist,

17:05 so she learned words that she needed for her recent dental visit.

17:11 Christiana Galvao also says that context is important.

17:17 She uses word maps in the classroom only after

17:22 she has already discussed a subject and shown pictures.

17:27 This makes the words meaningful before putting them into map form.

17:33 Otherwise, she says, you are just reading and memorizing words,

17:39 which is a bad idea.

17:42 Vocabulary is a big part of language learning,

17:45 so the more meaningful it is, the easier it is for students to absorb.

17:54 GALVAO says.

17:55 Not every student will learn through a word map,

17:59 but the maps can help you visualize and create a method that works for you.

18:07 I'm Ellis Bryant.

18:32 Hello.

18:33 My name is Anna Matteo.

18:37 My name is Andrew Smith.

18:40 And I am Faith Pirlo.

18:43 You are listening to the Lesson of the day on the learning English Podcast.

18:49 Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series.

18:56 Let's Learn English.

18:58 The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C.

19:06 in Lesson 44 of the series.

19:08 Ana has a conflict when she goes to buy food at the grocery store,

19:14 but her conflict is not with another person.

19:18 Instead, it is with herself.

19:21 Ana is fighting with herself.

19:24 In a way she is.

19:26 How is that?

19:28 Well, the problem is Ana wants two things at the same time.

19:34 And the two things don't really go together.

19:37 Hmm.

19:38 Now, I'm curious.

19:41 Let's listen to find out more about these two things.

19:45 And Ana's inner conflict.

19:49 Hi there, Ashley.

19:50 Ana.

19:51 Hi.

19:51 Where are you going?

19:54 What was that?

19:56 I'm hungry.

19:57 When I'm hungry, I only want to eat junk food.

20:02 But I know I should eat healthy food.

20:04 So I fight with myself.

20:06 If one side says you should eat healthy food,

20:09 the other side says, But I want to eat junk food.

20:13 Well, I'm gonna go to the giant supermarket.

20:17 You should be able to find all kinds of food there for all of you.

20:22 Good idea, Ashley.

20:24 See you later.

20:25 Bye, Ana.

20:28 Ah, yes.

20:29 The conflict between junk food and healthy food.

20:35 I think this is something many people can relate to in modern life.

20:41 But faith, I suppose we should explain a bit about

20:45 this word junk and what exactly we mean by junk food.

20:50 Well, I think our listeners can understand that junk food is not healthy food.

20:57 In fact, it's pretty much the opposite of healthy food in general anyway.

21:04 When we use the noun junk,

21:07 that means things are not valuable or things of that quality.

21:12 The kinds of things that we really don't want.

21:17 So junk food is basically food that we don't want?

21:21 Well, not exactly.

21:24 The problem is junk food sometimes tastes pretty good.

21:29 It can be sweet and salty and have fat things that make us want to eat.

21:35 It.

21:36 Things like salty chips with flavors that are made by mixing

21:41 together chemicals or food with lots of fat and sugar,

21:45 like some cakes or cookies.

21:49 I think this episode of Let's Learn English is going to make me hungry.

21:55 So when I think about junk food, it seems we don't want it.

22:01 But at the same time, we do want it and that creates a conflict.

22:07 Let's listen to more of Lesson 44 and see how Anna deals with her conflict.

22:15 Wow.

22:16 This supermarket is huge.

22:20 Look at all of these fruits and vegetables.

22:25 I should eat more vegetables.

22:27 Good idea, Ana.

22:29 You must eat more vegetables like celery.

22:35 Celery.

22:36 Do you know what the web says about celery?

22:39 No.

22:39 What?

22:40 Celery is 95% water.

22:43 100% not ice cream.

22:49 Oh, I love the web.

22:51 Ana, you mustn't eat junk food.

22:54 Junk food will kill you.

22:57 You are being silly.

22:59 No, you are.

23:01 No, you are.

23:03 Will you two please be nice to each other?

23:07 It is important to eat healthy foods, but a little junk food will not kill me.

23:15 Hmm.

23:16 Ice cream.

23:19 Ice cream does sound good.

23:21 Okay.

23:22 We are in the frozen food aisle.

23:26 Ice cream.

23:28 Frozen peas.

23:30 Nobody says frozen peas.

23:33 They say.

23:34 Hmm.

23:35 Ice cream.

23:37 Frozen peas.

23:39 Ice cream.

23:40 I am not going to tell you to again.

23:43 Stop fighting.

23:46 We should explain to our listeners what is going on here.

23:51 In the Lesson 44 video.

23:53 Ana has two small imaginary people talking to her, and there's

24:00 one of them on each of her shoulders.

24:04 One of them who wants junk food looks like a devil or evil spirit.

24:09 And the other looks like an angel or good spirits.

24:14 In Western culture, we use this picture of an angel on one shoulder

24:19 and a devil on the other to represent two different kinds of thoughts.

24:26 Those that make us want to do good things

24:29 and those that make us want to do bad things.

24:33 Or sometimes just to different things.

24:38 I'm Faith Perlow and you are listening to the Lesson

24:42 of the Day on the Learning English podcast.

24:46 In Lesson 44, The Healthy Food Angel talks about what Anna shouldn't eat.

24:52 But notice how she says it in this sentence.

24:56 Ana you mustn't eat junk food mustn't is

25:02 the contraction of the two words must not.

25:07 It's a stronger and more formal sounding way

25:10 of saying that you should not do something.

25:15 So, Faith, I have to ask you, do you ever have an internal conflict

25:21 or a fight with yourself over what you should eat?

25:25 I have Andrew.

25:27 I love ice cream and I always keep a pint of it in my freezer.

25:33 I don't eat it every day, but sometimes when I have a hard day, I reach for it.

25:40 What about you, Andrew?

25:42 You know I like ice cream, too.

25:44 And that sounds like something that I could also do a lot.

25:49 I tend to eat pretty healthy food, but at night, before I go to bed,

25:55 I sometimes want something sweet or filling,

25:59 like a piece of cake or bread or cookies or ice cream.

26:05 So sometimes I have a little not a fight,

26:09 but a discussion with myself over whether or not I should eat them.

26:14 Our internal dialog or what we say

26:17 to ourselves can be interesting or even funny.

26:21 But, you know, I think it is okay to enjoy a guilty pleasure from time to time.

26:28 I agree it's hard to be strict all the time,

26:33 and I think that's a great expression, a guilty pleasure.

26:37 Can you explain it for our listeners?

26:40 So a pleasure is something you like,

26:43 but guilty is the feeling you get or you should get

26:47 if you are a good person and you've done something wrong.

26:52 But a guilty pleasure is not something that is seriously wrong.

26:58 It's just a little thing.

26:59 You like to do something that's not harmful,

27:03 but if you did it a lot, then it might be bad for you.

27:10 Right.

27:10 So if I ate cookies every single night, that would not be good.

27:17 But if I eat them only from time to time, it's not really harmful.

27:22 So it's just a guilty pleasure.

27:26 What about you, Faith?

27:27 Do you have any guilty pleasures?

27:30 I do.

27:31 I love eating popcorn.

27:34 I love eating popcorn so much that I make it myself.

27:38 So I have popcorn kernels around all the time just waiting to be popped.

27:44 Popcorn isn't necessarily bad.

27:47 It is quite healthy for snacking.

27:49 But my problem is the amount I eat.

27:53 I can eat a lot of it.

27:56 So, Andrew, the devil and the angel keep fighting with each other.

28:00 In the Lesson 44 video How do you think Anna can make them stop?

28:07 I'm not sure she can make them stop, but she can stop hearing them.

28:14 Let's listen to the end of the video.

28:18 Oh, stop it.

28:20 Stop it, Stop it.

28:22 I am sick and tired of the both of you.

28:26 I know what you two need.

28:28 Ana, what are you doing?

28:30 Put me down.

28:32 You two need to cool off.

28:35 I am going to buy my healthy food and my junk food.

28:41 Good bye.

28:43 Until next time.

28:46 When someone is angry or arguing,

28:49 we say they are hot and that they need to cool off.

28:54 Ana is sick and tired of all the fighting,

28:58 so she puts the devil and the angel in a cold container in the store.

29:03 Well, that should cool them off and we'll have more to say about the expression.

29:09 Sick and tired.

29:10 In another lesson of the day.

29:13 But for now, listeners.

29:15 Do you have any guilty pleasures?

29:19 Write to us at learning English at VOA Newscom and let

29:24 us know and remember that you can find us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

29:32 And thanks for listening to the Learning English podcast.

29:35 I'm Faith Perlow.

29:37 And I'm Andrew Smith.

29:43 And that's our show for today.

29:46 But join us again tomorrow to keep learning English on the Voice of America.

29:53 I'm CatyWeaver.

29:55 And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.