I loved watching Sesame Street back when I was a small child. That was way back in the 1960’s and it’s still a great TV show for kids and English language learners today. It’s made for children who are native English speakers and not made for people learning English as a second language, but that is a good thing. You should be listening to materials made for native speakers as much as possible, not made for English language learners. Check out the Sesame Street website for some fun games and a lot of short videos, great for learning English. Here’s a vocabulary lesson about the word “pollinate.”
How to use this video to learn English:
1. Watch a few times without reading.
2. Scroll down and watch a few more times with reading. Look up some new words in a dictionary, just enough to understand the general meaning of the video. You don’t need to look up every new word!
3. Watch a few times again without reading.
4. Comment and ask questions here!
Odell: Hi everybody, I’m Nancy Odell here with a flower to get the inside scoop on the word “pollinate.”
Flower: Hello!
O: Hello. Now tell us, flower, what does the word “pollinate” mean?
F: Uh, pollinate?
O: Pollinate.
F: I have no idea.
O: Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. This is a little bit embarrassing. I really want to know what “pollinate” means!
O: Oh, wait a minute. That bee just mentioned pollen. And the word “pollen” is in the word “pollinate” so maybe we can find out what pollination is, yet!
Excuse me, Mr. Bee. So, what are you doing with that pollen?
B: Well, if you must know, I’m taking the pollen from this flower to another flower to help make more flowers grow.
F: Isn’t that interesting! I always wondered what he did with my pollen.
O: And what do you call it when you take pollen from one flower to another flower to help make more flowers grow?
B: Pollination, of course!
F: Get out of town! That’s pollination?
B: You bet your stamen it is!
O: You heard it here first, folks. To pollinate means to take pollen from one flower to another flower to help make more flowers grow.
B: Yup. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to keep on pollinating. Zzzz…
O/F: Pollinate!
Some vocabulary:
To “get the inside scoop” means to learn some information that not many people know.
“Get out of town!” is just like “oh my god!” or “wow!”
To say “you bet your ______” is like saying “of course” or “you bet” or a strong “yes!” For example, one person might say, “Do you like studying English?” And another might answer, “You bet I do!” Or “You bet your ________ I do!” The word that fills in the blank is usually not a nice word, so in this video for children they change it to “stamen,” which is part of a flower. (The normal word to fill in the blank is “ass” or “sweet ass.”)
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