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This story is about an Australian singer who has a Vietnamese background.
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We'll look at tag questions and rhetorical questions, as well as the expressions odd
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one out and there you go.
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I really want to tell my story of growing up in this country.
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Born to refugee parents - what's that like? And for other Asian Australians to relate
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to my story.
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Integrating into the country was very difficult, I think - obviously not knowing the language.
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I grew up in a very Vietnamese family. I didn't speak my first word of English until I was
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about 5 or 6. So I remember my teacher, my teacher in I think prep wanting me to stay
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down the class because I couldn't speak English properly.
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I've always been sort of the odd one out.
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I remember being called all sorts of names - and sort of I had a few people there, that,
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you know, little kids can be very nasty to each other can't they?
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The odd one out is someone who is a bit different or who doesn't fit easily into a group.
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Being called names is being insulted and called rude and unpleasant things. Listen again:
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I've always been sort of the odd one out. I remember being called all sorts of names
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- and sort of I had a few people there, that, you know, little kids can be very nasty to
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each other can't they?
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Thanh uses a tag question - can't they? - to encourage agreement.
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He says, "Little'kids can be very nasty to each other can't they?"
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Tag questions like this have a positive/negative pattern: kids can be nasty can't they?
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Or they can have a negative/positive pattern: You don't like this, do you?
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Now listen for another question that doesn't need an answer:
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I really want to tell my story of growing up in this country.
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Born to refugee parents - what's that like?
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What's that like?
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He doesn't want an answer; he just wants you to think about it.
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This sort of question is called a rhetorical question.
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But what was it like?
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When we got to a stage where I was about 9, 10, 11 I'd be, myself and my brother would
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be doing all the translating for mum and dad on every level, every front.
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Every level, every front means any situation where English was used.
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His parents depended on them to explain what things meant.
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And what did he depend on his mother to do for him?
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I think it all started really young when mum used to sing for me for 4 hours every night
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without fail.
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She used to sing to him. Used to means it doesn't happen now.
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She sang to him 'without fail'.
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Without fail emphasises that something always happens.
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She always sang to him. Listen again:
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I think it all started really young when mum used to sing for me for 4 hours every night
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without fail.
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Now listen for another rhetorical question:
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Vocals is very difficult to teach I think 'cos it's, it is such an intimate instrument.
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You can't see it.
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Hello where is it? You can't actually see it.
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Again, he doesn't want an answer, he wants to emphasise a point.
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So we've seen that tag questions can encourage agreement, can't they?
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The odd one out is someone who doesn't fit in,
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being called names is being insulted
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and without fail means always.
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We'll finish with the expression 'there you go', which is something you can say when giving
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someone something:
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No matter what you try to do, I keep running, I keep running.
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I'm an artist and that's what I am and I can't run away from it and if I run away from it
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I'll always be half the person I know that I can be.
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Back to you.
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There you go.