If you drive through New Braunfels, Texas, on Highway 46 and go through the Chick-fil-a drive-through (a restaurant where you can be served without getting out of your car), be prepared for a surprise. It’s not unusual, when you stop at the window to pay for your order, to have the cashier (the person who takes your money) smile at you, hand you your food, and say, “The people ahead of you paid it forward (paying for the food ordered by the people in the car behind you).”

Some might say that such an experience is the result of small-town Southern hospitality (friendly behavior toward strangers). But a recent article in the New York Times says you could easily experience the same thing at a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through in Detroit, Michigan, or a McDonald’s drive-through in Fargo, North Dakota. According to the Times, “Drive-through generosity (giving more than necessary) is happening across America and parts of Canada, sometimes resulting in unbroken chains (lines, queues) of hundreds of cars paying in turn for the person behind them.” It used to happen a couple of times a year. Now, fast-food operators say, it might happen several times a day.

Paying forward is an example of a random act of kindness – something that you do, without being asked or paid, to help someone or make them happy. Happily, the practice (doing) of random acts of kindness has been growing in North America. There’s even a web site.

Paying forward is not a new idea. According to a Wikipedia article, Benjamin Franklin, a well-known early American writer and diplomat, did it and called it “a trick of mine for doing … good with a little money.” Near the end of World War II, a representative of Alcoholics (people who drink too much and have trouble stopping) Anonymous, an organization that helps people stop drinking, said that “You can’t pay anyone back for what has happened to you, so you try to find someone you can pay forward.”

According to the Times article, the idea of paying forward became popular recently as the result of the best-selling novel, Paying It Forward, by Catherine Hyde Ryan. In the novel, and the movie that followed, the main character does three good deeds and asks the people who received the good deeds to do the same.

I like the way Ray Bradbury, well-known and best-selling science fiction author, writes about paying it forward. In his novel Dandelion Wine, one of the characters wonders how to pay someone back for saving his life:

How do I thank Mr. Jonas, he wondered, for what he’s done? How do I thank him, how to pay him back? No way, no way at all. You just can’t pay. What then? What? Pass it on somehow, he thought, pass it on to someone else. Keep the chain moving. Look around, find someone, and pass it on. That was the only way….

What a great idea – finding someone and paying forward!

~ Warren Ediger – English tutor/coach and creator of Successful English, where you’ll find clear explanations and practical suggestions for better English.

Photo credit: observer.com.

We’ve all known songs, maybe songs we’ve known for a long time, with lyrics (words) that we thought we understood. Later we find out that what we thought were the lyrics were all wrong.

I don’t remember when I first heard the song “Lucille” by Kenny Rogers, but people used to sing it to me a lot because Lucille is a form of my name, Lucy. The chorus (part of the song that is repeated) begins like this:

“You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille
With four hungry children
And a crop (plants on a farm grown for food) in the field”

For over 15 years, I thought that the second line of that chorus was, “With four hundred children…”  There’s a small difference between four and four hundred. In my defense (my excuse is), I thought the songwriter was being poetic (imaginative and figurative (not literal, not saying the exact truth)), trying to say that the singer has a heavy burden (a lot of troubles and responsibilities).

If you listen to American rap music, this may help you. Rap music, as you probably know, is a type of music where the lines are said rather than sung, with a clear pattern, and many of the words at the end of each phrase or sentence rhyme (have the same sound), similar to a poem. Rap lyrics are notoriously (famous in a bad way) difficult to understand, partly because they are said so quickly, but also because they often refer to African American culture and to street slang (informal language used on the streets in cities) that listeners may not be familiar with.

Now there is help. There is a website called Rap Genius that uses crowd sourcing — the practice of allow anyone to comment or give information, similar to how Wikipedia works. Anyone can select and highlight words (make text look brighter or special to call attention to it) in a song and give their interpretation or opinion about what that lyric means. Like any crowd-sourced website, you have to take those comments with a grain of salt (be careful what you believe and don’t believe, what you accept and don’t accept), but it may be useful for some rap fans who want more information or some explanation of what they hear.

We often get emails from listeners with questions about song lyrics. If you have a question about a rap song, you may want to check out (look at) Rap Genius to see if it can help you unravel (solve; answer) your question. No doubt both you and I will be heading there (going there) looking for answers.

Have you experienced any interesting or funny cases of misheard lyrics (words of a song that you got wrong)?

– Lucy

Photo Credit: Bilbao BUM Chuck dedo Flavor from Wikipedia

The naming of bridges (see photo) after notable (important; remarkable) people is a common practice (something often done) in many countries. On the East Coast (part of the U.S. on the Atlantic Ocean), you’ll find the Walt Whitman Bridge, spanning (reaching from one side to the other) the Delaware River separating the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and named after the American poet Walt Whitman (1818-1892). Quite often, you’ll find bridges named after politicians, such as presidents. One example is the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, which connects the states of Virginia and Maryland, and which is named after our 28th president, who served (was in an elected or appointed job) from 1913 to 1921.

While the naming of some landmarks (important locations or structures) is simple and occurs following a unanimous (without anyone disagreeing) decision, others are more contentious (causing argument or disagreement). One recent example is the new span (length) of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco connecting the cities of San Francisco and Oakland.

Some people want to name it after (use the name) Willie Brown, a former mayor (highest elected leader) of San Francisco and assembly member (member of the state government). The state legislature (law-making group of politicians) approved this 68 to 0, but now people are voicing their disagreement, including the current State of California Governor Jerry Brown (no relation (Jerry Brown and Willie Brown are not related by blood)). For some people, Willie Brown was a political enemy and naming the bridge after him doesn’t sit right (doesn’t feel right; isn’t acceptable) with them.

These kinds of naming controversies are not new, of course. A recent National Public Radio article mentioned this and other examples. According to the author of the NPR article, this is why most of the bridges in the U.S. are unnamed, or not named.

Are bridges and landmarks (important places easily seen from a distance) normally named where you live? Have there been similar types of controversy? Have any had name changes for political or other similar reasons?

– Lucy

 Photo Credit: Oakland Bay Bridge from Yerba Buena Island from Wikipedia

This time of the year friends in the U.S. often gather (come together) at someone’s house or in a sports bar to watch Sunday afternoon (American) football and cheer on (encourage) their favorite teams. In a new Bud Light beer commercial, we see these people clapping and waving their hands (moving them back and forth above their heads) or stamping their feet (putting them down loudly) in unison (at the same time). We see them waving towels the color of their favorite team or touching a copy of their favorite team’s helmet (hard protective cap).

While you watch the fans (someone who likes a sport or team) in the commercial, you’ll hear the narrator (the person who tells the story or describes what is happening) say:

We’ll never know if somehow, in some way,

we can affect (influence or change) the outcome (result) of a game.

But when the clock’s winding down (the game’s almost over)

and everything’s on the line (there’s a possibility of losing),

we all believe.

At the end of the commercial, a bottle of Bud Light appears on the screen with the words “It’s only weird (strange, unusual) if it doesn’t work.”

What we see in the commercial are a few of the rituals (something you do regularly in the same way) performed by many sports fans to try to bring good luck (make good things happen) to their favorite team. And sports fans aren’t the only ones. Many people do or wear things to try to bring themselves good luck or to avoid bad luck.

Do these things work? Do they bring us good luck? Or help us avoid bad luck? Some people insist they do. But many say no. If they don’t work, why do them?

Two scientists tried to answer that question recently. They asked a group of students to make a statement – “I will not have a car accident this winter” – out loud (so other people could hear it). Later, they compared (to see how they were the same or different) that group with a group of students that did not make that statement. The students who made the statement believed they were more likely (there was a greater possibility) to have an accident than the second group. In other words, they believed they had jinxed themselves (invited bad luck) by making that statement.

Part of the first group was then asked to “knock on wood” – to hit the top of a wooden table like you would knock on someone’s door when you visit them. Many people believe that knocking on wood will help you avoid bad luck. And that’s what happened for many of the students who did it: at the beginning they feared they would have an accident; but after knocking on wood, the fear disappeared.

Do actions, or rituals, change our luck? Does making a statement invite bad luck? And does knocking on wood change the bad luck to good luck? Maybe; maybe not. But, according to the scientists, they change they way people feel about their luck. One writer calls them “comfort mechanisms” – little habits (something you often do without thinking) to ease our minds (to make us worry less) and reassure (make someone feel calmer and less worried or frightened) ourselves.

What about you? Do you practice any rituals or wear something special to help bring you good luck or avoid bad luck? Many people do.

~ Warren Ediger – English tutor/coach and creator of Successful English, where you can learn how to “Turbocharge your reading and listening” for better English.

Scene from Bud Light commercial via YouTube.

Like most people, I love to listen to some of my favorite songs and music when I drive, especially for long distances. It makes the time pass (go by) more quickly. Now I’ve learned it may also cause an accident.

Researchers in Israel conducted (carried out) a study with 85 young drivers (18 years old) in which they tested the effect on driving errors (mistakes) of listening to your favorite music versus listening to no music at all or to “safe-driving” music selected by the researchers. Subjects (participants in the study) drove for 40 minutes with a driving instructor (teacher), who made note of (made a record of) their mistakes as they drove under these three conditions (situations) – favorite music, no music, and “safe-driving” music.

When listening to their favorite songs, 98% of the drivers made driving errors, such as speeding (going too fast) and tailgating (following the car in front of you too closely). When listening to no music at all, 92% of the subjects made mistakes. But the real difference was with the “safe-driving” music, where only 77% made a driving error.

Researchers also noted that the young men drove more dangerously and made more serious errors than the young women, which isn’t too surprising if you have ever driven with high school boy (or have ever been one). They also found that the teens played their music at a much higher volume (louder) than the “safe” music.

So what was this magical safe-driving music? An article in the Wall Street Journal described it as “a blend (mix) of easy listening, soft rock, and light jazz in instrumental (no voices) and vocal (with voices)” formats. (It is not clear what would happen if easy listening, soft rock, and light jazz were your favorite kinds of music, however.)

There is one thing that listening to your favorite music while driving is good for, however: your mood (how you feel). Teens listening to their favorite music were in a better mood (felt happier) than when listening to no music or safe-driving music.

Your choice, then, is to enjoy yourself but get into an accident, or be bored but safe.

Do you think you drive better listening to your favorite music, or with no music at all? More importantly, is listening to ESL Podcast while driving dangerous?

~Jeff

Image credit: Car Accident designed by Stephanie Wauters
from The Noun Project