Learning English Words with Cnn Student News: Topic 3 – Hero (Neal Bermas) in Vietnam

1. Listening

At first, you should listen three to four times. Don’t care much if you can’t listen accurately or miss the words. Just to help you to be acquaintance with the pronunciation and intonation of the speaker.

Why you have to learn listening skill first, please refer to this post: Big Secret for Mastering and Getting Fluent 4 English Skill Quickly

2. Reading

Next story is about a CNN Hero named Neal Bermas, a businessman who`d traveled the world but was stopped suddenly by something he saw in Vietnam back in 1999. It led him to create STREETS International, an organization that offers help with the career path to threatened people between the ages of 16 and 22. By the end of this year, almost 250 people will have completed the program.

NEAL BERMAS, CNN HERO: I first came to Vietnam almost 20 years ago. There were bands of these four homeless kids on the streets and they were begging for milk, not for money. It touched me in the way that I couldn`t divorce myself from it.

• Divorce(v) /dɪˈvɔːs/: to completely separate one thing from another so that they are not connected in any way

What`s this fish called? Is it sea bass, no?

I`m a classic New Yorker. I`m passionate and I`m full of energy. I also did a lot of consulting for hotels and restaurants.

I knew the opportunities and so I thought, well, we start to build a bridge here in Vietnam. I was just crazy enough to think that I could make that happen and here we are.

Hello, everybody.

CROWD: Hello!

BERMAS: The young people in our program come from the whole country, all kinds of very, very difficult past. We have kids with HIV background, kids from leprosy villages. Some were already been trafficked sometimes more than once.

• Leprosy(n)/ˈrə.si/: a serious disease that affects the skin, nerves, and bones and can cause people’s fingers and toes to fall off
• Traffic (v): to buy and sell goods illegally

The banana breads are done.

BERMAS: We offer a structured program for 18 months, either in culinary or hospitality, and a very extensive and important life goes program.

• Culinary(adj) /ˈkʌlɪn(ə)ri/: connected with cooking or kitchens

Eating healthy.

English language instruction is a big part of what we do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I have good English, I can talk to the guests.

BERMAS: You`ll do great.

Beautiful.

The flagship eatery is our restaurant. It`s traditional Vietnamese food.

• Flagship(n) ˈflæɡ.ʃɪp/: the best or most important product, idea, building

We have a rather large stretch of a campus between the housing where our young people live, our training center, our three different eateries. So, all the kids get a bicycle when they come to the program.

• Stretch(v) /stretʃ/: to cause something to reach, often as far as possible, in a particular direction
• Stretch(n) /stretʃ/: a continuous area of land or water (example: This particular stretch of coast is especially popular with hikers.)

Part of the process of selecting and then getting to know our trainees is we see wherever they`re from.

How is mom?

All the young people in our program come from poverty. Poverty without enough to eat. Poverty without electricity, without plumbing.

• Poverty(n) /ˈpɒv.ə.ti/: the condition of being extremely poor

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before, we hungry a lot in my family here.

Mr. Neal, he helps me to know about how to cooking and English, listening. I get a good job so I had get some money for my family now.

BERMAS: She was employee of the year last year. She just finished STREETS a few years ago. It`s an amazing story.

We raised the aspirations of the whole village and the whole village starts to think about, oh, maybe my kid too.

• Aspiration(n) /ˌæs.pɪˈreɪ.ʃən/: something that you hope to achieve

At the end of 18 months, 100 percent of our kids are fully employed, mostly in four and five star international hotels.

There were certainly moments I thought, are you sure you really want to give up the Upper West Side of Manhattan and come live in Vietnam? But, of course, I did and it was probably the best if not certainly the most meaningful decision I made in my adult life.

3. Vocabulary 

1. Divorce(v) /dɪˈvɔːs/: to completely separate one thing from another so that they are not connected in any way
2. eprosy(n)/ˈrə.si/: a serious disease that affects the skin, nerves, and bones and can cause people’s fingers and toes to fall off
3. Traffic (v): to buy and sell goods illegally
4. Culinary(adj) /ˈkʌlɪn(ə)ri/: connected with cooking or kitchens
5. Flagship(n) ˈflæɡ.ʃɪp/: the best or most important product, idea, building
6. Stretch(v) /stretʃ/: to cause something to reach, often as far as possible, in a particular direction
7. Stretch(n) /stretʃ/: a continuous area of land or water (example: This particular stretch of coast is especially popular with hikers.)
8. Poverty(n) /ˈpɒv.ə.ti/: the condition of being extremely poor
9. Aspiration(n) /ˌæs.pɪˈreɪ.ʃən/: something that you hope to achieve

4. Listen Again

Souce: https://edition.cnn.com/cnn10