Hey there, this is Teacher Ola Podcast episode 126. Learn English With Céline Dion ‘A New Day Has Come’
My name’s Ola and I am an online English teacher, I teach through one to one classes and I want you to know I believe you can eliminate your language blockade. It is 100% guaranteed. I’m not saying it’ll be given to you on a silver platter yet I know you can get there. I’ve overcome a massive blockade myself and I know how to do it. The secret word here is consistency. That is why I record this podcast’s episodes, and each comes with a little worksheet, a one-pager to help you digest and test what you’ve practised here. You can speak English with more confidence, slay that fear and enjoy new freedoms. Each episode helps you practice speaking, the practical part is always there, at the end of each episode. You’ll boost your vocabulary, brush up your grammar, and improve your pronunciation. Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. <They’re free> Happy learning!
Hello again and welcome to yet another episode. Today I decided to pick a song that is fresh, something like a breath of fresh air. I wanted something perfect for the new beginning. New Year. I do believe in new beginnings and the transformational power they bring. Go with this flow. If you haven’t summed up the previous period, the previous year yet I don’t see why you can’t do it now. Make plans, dream. Turn your dreams into goals, into projects. I think that my job here is to inspire you to grow, to want more, to get more, to do more, to learn. That’s what I want at least. Listen, if you want to make solid resolutions, tune in to the previous episode, episode 125. In that episode, I give you 5 reasons why your resolutions never work and solutions to those problems. And, one more thing. Just to make it clear. A new beginning doesn’t have to appear once a year. It can be March, April, August. Come on! It doesn’t matter. It’s just a date. The new beginning can happen on Monday or Friday.
Before we go to song facts and the lyrics and the expressions and the practical part where you repeat the sentences out loud let me ask you to visit teacherola.com. Go there, find my shop and grab a Worksheet Set. Forget about downloading each Worksheet separately. Additionally, you’ll get a Speaking English Planner. A tool that I created to help you monitor your daily speaking practice. Ok, song facts.
‘A New Day Has Come’ was released in 2002. This song looks like yet another love ballad, but the true meaning goes deeper than that. Céline Dion had long wanted to have a child and finally, she had a boy. Then she took some time off. Two years after having her baby she made her comeback. In this song, she’s talking about how much she had suffered. “Where it was dark now there’s light, where there was pain now there’s joy, where there was weakness. I found my strength, all in the eyes of a boy”. Dion said the title was also meant to instil hope in the wounded nation after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “It represents my child because I gave life,” she told Billboard.
“Obviously, it also marks my return with a new album. But a new day has also come in the lives of other people because something bad has happened because we’ve lost lives because there’s a scar on our world now.” Let’s get to the lyrics now. Listen and repeat each line.
I was waiting for so long
For a miracle to come
Everyone told me to be strong
Hold on and don’t shed a tear
A miracle – it’s an act or event that does not follow the laws of nature and is believed to be caused by God. Another meaning: a lucky thing that happens that you did not expect or think was possible.
It’s a miracle that nobody was hurt in the accident.
There’s also an idiom with the word, that is to work miracles. To achieve very good results.
You can work miracles with very little money if you’re inventive.
Hold on – it’s used to tell somebody to wait or stop.
Hold on a minute.
In this song, though it’s another meaning. To survive in a difficult or dangerous situation. Everybody told me to be strong. Hold on and don’t shed a tear. For instance:
Hold on until help arrives.
This phrasal verb has yet another meaning. It’s used on the phone to ask somebody to wait until they can talk to the person they want. For example:
Please, hold on, I’ll check if he’s here.
One more. hold on to something or somebody means to keep holding something or somebody. Like…physically.
Hold on and don’t let go until I say so.
Also! Not physically: to keep something that is an advantage for you. To not give or sell something to somebody else
You should hold on to your house, its value’s gonna appreciate.
Don’t shed a tear – to shed tears is to cry. Have a listen:
She stopped and breathed still more quickly, but did not shed tears.
To shed light on something means to make a problem easier to understand.
Recent research has shed new light on the behaviour of the virus.
Lovely. Let’s proceed with the lyrics, shall we? Listen and repeat:
Through the darkness and good times
I knew I’d make it through
And the world thought I had it all
But I was waiting for you
I knew I’d make it through – to survive, to endure something, to successfully complete something. To survive.
Help me make it through the night.
Another meaning is to not die as a result of an illness or an accident
He made it through the worst of the illness now.
The world thought I had it all – it refers to finding a solid balance in your personal and professional life. I have it all, I have everything I want. I’m happy at all levels. I miss nothing. I’m abundant. My life is abundant. So that’s how she was perceived. Money, fame, exceptional voice, career, partner. Yet, she missed something, The missed a child.
Everybody thought she had it all.
Next verse, please:
Hush, love, I see a light in the sky
Oh, it’s almost blinding me
I can’t believe
I’ve been touched by an angel with love
Hush – hush is used when giving orders. It means to be quiet, to stop talking or crying. A sentence:
Hush now and try to sleep.
You can also hush something up. To hide information about a situation because you do not want people to know about it
The whole affair was hushed up by his family.
Blinding me – blind. Blind is a verb, a noun, an adjective and an adverb. We’re looking at the verb only, Celine sings: I see the light in the sky, it’s almost blinding me. To blind somebody means to destroy somebody’s ability to see, or just to make it difficult for somebody to see.
The strong light almost blinded him.
His eyes were blinded by tears.
One more meaning. Listen to this sentence:
His charming personality blinded them to the truth.
To make somebody no longer able to think clearly or behave in a sensible way. They were blinded to the truth. His charming personality blinded them.
Let’s go back to the lyrics. Listen and repeat:
Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new sun…
A new day has… come
Let the rain come down – if rain or snow comes down, it falls to the ground, especially in large amounts. In a sentence:
In the afternoon, the snow started to come down.
It reminds me of one episode in which we discuss how t talk about the weather, it’s episode 6. I also recommend going to episode 14, it’s a popular one, it deals with 15 weather idioms you need to know. Weather episodes. Episodes 6 and 14. Just a reminder, a real quick one. If you wanna go back to such episodes from the past you need to download all the worksheets. You have to practice what you have learnt. It might be a bit daunting to download each worksheet, so I prepared worksheet sets. Please go to teacherola.com and buy a Worksheet Set. It comes with The Speaking English Planner.
Wash away – to wash somebody or something away, well it means to remove or carry somebody/something away to another place.
The rain washed away my tears.
The rain washed away the footprints.
Fill my soul – Just a funny thing. I put this to google search. I typed in the search bar: how to fill my soul? To fill means to make something full. So, how to fulfil my soul. I’ll give you a list that showed up:
Number one. Read a good book.
Number two. Visit a museum.
Number three. Study a subject that’s new to you.
Number four. Attend a classical concert.
Number five. Do something you’ve never done.
Number six. Learn a new skill.
Number seven. Brush up on self-care and self-improvement.
Number eight. Take a leisurely magnesium-replenishing bath.
Number nine. Meditate.
Number ten. Smile.
Do these ideas sound like filling your soul? Googling is fun. But filling your soul is even better! Ok, let’s get back to the lyrics.
Drown my fears – to drown is to die because you have been underwater too long and you cannot breathe. Also, to kill somebody by holding them underwater. Here, she wants to drown her fears in the rain.
There’s also an idiom: drown your fears/ or sorrows.It’s about getting drunk in order to forget your problems
He opened a bottle of beer to drown his sorrows.
Shatter the walls – to shatter, to break into pieces.
He dropped the jar and it shattered into pieces.
You can also shutter somebody, but better don’t since it means to make somebody feel extremely shocked and upset.
The unexpected piece of news about their daughter shattered them.
My dear listener, the final verse. Here we go:
Where it was dark now there’s light
Where there was pain now there’s joy
Where there was weakness, I found my strength
All in the eyes of a boy
Joy – I picked this one word only. I want you to have a look at some example sentences and pay attention to the prepositions, ok?
He felt a sheer joy of being back to her.
Joy of being back.
I almost cried with joy.
With joy.
I didn’t know they would jump for joy at the news.
Jump for joy
My joy in playing the violin is immense.
Joy in.
These are tears of joy.
Tears of joy.
Here you have it! We’ve just arrived at the practical part of the episode. Let’s train your brain and your mouth, your face muscles, your tongue. Let’s say the sentences out loud:
You can work miracles with very little money if you’re inventive.
Hold on until help arrives.
She stopped and breathed still more quickly, but did not shed tears.
Help me make it through the night.
The whole affair was hushed up by his family.
His charming personality blinded them to the truth.
In the afternoon, the snow started to come down.
The rain washed away the footprints.
He opened a bottle of beer to drown his sorrows
The unexpected piece of news about their daughter shattered them.
I almost cried with joy.
I didn’t know they would jump for joy at the news.
Good work! Thank you and don’t forget to thank yourself for showing up today. You’re not done yet though. Go to your inbox and grab the worksheet. If you’re not a member of TOPeople, it’s a shame, but we can fix that. Download the from teacherola.com/126.
I hope you liked the episode, if you did, as always, please leave your rating in iTunes if you can. Share, comment, like, do whatever you can to help this podcast stay afloat! If you want to hear more from me please show some support. Tell someone about this podcast and help me spread the message. All I want to do here is really just reach as many people with speaking English issues as possible and make them believe speaking fluently is for everyone.
Be here next Wednesday, same time, same place we’ll talk about grammar. Thanks for listening, take care. Happy learning. Stay fearless and say it out loud. Bye-bye!