Humans of New York
In this post, we learn how one photo and one question changed a lot of lives. We also look at slang words and when to use them.
Hello, I’m Mandeep. Welcome to my Watch and Learn English substack. My aim is to teach “real-life” English using videos and topics that are in the news.
Video of the week
This month, influential travel magazine Time Out chose New York as the best city in the world1. So, this week, we’re going to discuss a video about the people who live there. The video is about a famous blog called Humans of New York.
The blog is written by photographer Brandon Stanton. He takes a picture of somebody he finds in the street and asks them one interesting question. He then publishes their answer alongside the photo.
In one post, he asked a young boy: Who's influenced you the most in your life?
The boy’s answer touched many people.
My principal, Ms. Lopez…When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.
First Watch - Learning
Click to watch the video with clear correct captions (not auto-generated), definitions for the key vocabulary and an option to slow the video down to help you catch every word.
Can I ask you the same question that Brandon asked Vidale? Who's influenced you the most in your life?
I'd love to hear your answers in the comments.
New York Slang
Now let’s look at some language from the video.
When Miss Lopez is explaining to her students (or scholars as she prefers to call them) why they are so special, she says:
I think you are so dope, dynamic and exceptional.
In this sentence dope means ‘excellent’. I can tell this from context because the word dope can also mean ‘stupid’ or ‘marijuana’!
It’s an example of American slang. Let me give you a few more examples so you can sound like a local if you ever go to New York!
Watch out! Slang is vocabulary that is used between people who belong to the same social group and who know each other well. It’s informal language. It can sometimes hurt people or make them angry if it’s used about other people or outside a group of people who know each other well. We usually use slang in speaking rather than writing.
We’ve had beef since school.
Beef means have unresolved issues with a person. You might have seen the popular Netflix show called Beef about two people constantly fighting [trailer here].
I deadass won the lottery.
You use deadass (or dead-ass) to mean “serious”. Another example: when he fell over it was dead-ass funny.
I stayed because the party was lit.
Lit means feeling really drunk or that a situation or place is a lot of fun.
He didn’t like her because she was so thirsty.
Thirsty means someone who is acting desperate in the dating scene.
Do you want more? There’s so many New York slang words. Here’s a guide to 175 of them compiled by Berlitz.
Second Watch - Testing
Now you can watch the video again but in “quiz” mode!
As you watch, you need to choose the correct word to make the sentence. This will test how well you remember the key vocabulary from the video.
Let’s hear it for New York!
If we are honest, for many people, New York really is the centre of the world. We’ve all grown up watching movies made there and songs that celebrate the city that never sleeps. So I’ll leave you with this tune written by Alicia Keys about why her home town, New York, is the best city in the world.
Say hello
Please let me know what you thought of my post. Your feedback is appreciated.
Loved it | Great | OK | Meh | Bad
Also, please come and say hello to everybody in the comments. What do you think about the video?