Song: Thank You
Artist: Dido
Year: 1998
Album: No Angel
Language Feature: Sentence Stress
Episode Description
Welcome to the final episode in Season One of the English as a Singing Language podcast. When we got this crazy idea, we had no idea if we would be able to actually create even one episode. Here we are, one year later, and we’ve released a total of 17 episodes. There are songs from different artists, decades and styles. We’ve talked about pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
What makes the whole process most enjoyable for us is you, our listeners. We hope you have enjoyed the podcast and you have learned some new English skills along the way. We want to thank you for giving us the best time of our lives!! And don’t worry, we’re already hard at work on Season Two!!
Episode Transcript
<intro>
E: Hi! I’m Ece.
H: And I’m Heather. Thank you so much for joining us for the final episode of season one of “English as a Singing Language.”
E: I can’t believe that a year ago in May of 2022, we were getting ready to record our very first episode.
H: And here we are one year later and we’re recording our last episode of Season One.
E: This has been quite an experience. And don’t worry listeners! We’re already working hard on Season Two!
H: Yes! We already have some great songs lined up for you. But first, in today’s episode, we’re talking about one of our favorite topics: sentence intonation.
E: You’re right. Sentence intonation is what makes English sound…
H + E: … like English!
H: It’s like the music of English, and I’m really excited about this episode.
E: Me too!
H: Let’s get started!
<end introduction>
H: (humming Dido, Thank You) Oh! Hi Ece! What’s up? You look a little down. Is everything ok?
E: Hi Heather. I’m actually so glad to see you. I’m having a terrible day.
H: Oh no! What happened?
E: Well, I woke up late. Then I burned my breakfast, and as I was leaving my house, I spilled coffee on my shirt!
H: Oooof. That’s a bad start to the day.
E: And then I forgot my umbrella, and of course it started to rain. I got to work late and the teachers’ meeting had already started. Ugh. But what about you? What are you doing? Are you writing a podcast script for next season’s first episode? Because that always brightens my day.
H: No, I haven’t started that yet. I’m actually writing in my gratitude journal.
E: “Gratitude,” what does that mean?
H: It’s the noun form of the adjective, “grateful.” You know, when you feel very thankful for something…or someone.
E: That sounds really interesting. How does it work?
H: Do you remember back in Episode 11 when I was so upset and frustrated about a computer problem I was having?
E: I do. And I encouraged you to, “Let it Go”!!
H: Exactly. A couple of weeks after that, I found an article online about keeping a gratitude journal. Since then, every day I write down three things that I am grateful for. People or things that I really appreciate.
E: That’s a great idea. Although on some days, like today, it’s hard to think of one thing, let alone three!
H: That’s very true, but I can always think of something. Actually, your day today reminds me of the song I was just listening to, Dido’s 1999 song, “Thank You,” from her album, “No Angel.”
E: I feel like I have heard that song someplace else…
H: The US rap artist, Eminem, sampled part of her song in his hit song, “Stan.” It’s a pretty dark song, though. It’s about one of his fans who becomes obsessed with him.
E: That’s right. That’s how the song really became well-known in the US, right? After Eminem released, “Stan” in the year 2000.
H: It was also included in the 1999 movie soundtrack for the film, “Sliding Doors.”
E: That was an interesting film. Ok, is there anything else we should know about Dido?
H: Well, her given name is Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong.
E: Wow! That’s quite a mouthful. I imagine that’s why she uses the name Dido.
H: I think so! And in a 2019 article, Dido said the following about the song, “Thank You,” “It just creates this little bit of magic. It’s just got such a nice vibe, and people have told me so many lovely stories about what it meant for them, or maybe they played it at their wedding, or whatever. That song sort of went on such a journey, and took me on such a crazy journey.”
E: A song with “magic” and a “nice vibe,” or good feeling, sounds like just what I need today.
H: And it’s just what we need for the final episode of the season. Actually, in the song, Dido sings about a terrible, awful day she’s having.
E: That sounds very familiar. But then she sees the person she loves, and she feels so thankful to have them in her life.
H: Yeah, that’s so lovely. But let’s start with the bad day.
E: She sings, “My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all.”
H: Oh! I can really hear the sentence stress.
E: That’s right. In a sentence in English, there are words that are stressed. They are longer, louder, and higher in pitch than the other words of the sentence.
H: These stressed words are what we call “content words.” They are usually the words in a sentence that have meaning.
E: Yes. Like nouns, main verbs, adverbs and adjectives.
H: So you can really hear it, “My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all.” The song really mimics the rhythm of English.
E: And she feels like I do today. I’m wondering why I got out of bed at all.
H: Your day does sound a bit like hers. The next line is, “The morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all, and even if I could, it'd all be gray.”
E: There’s more of that great, natural-sounding sentence intonation, and it sounds exactly like my day so far! The next line is a bit of a bright spot, though. “But your picture on my wall, it reminds me that it's not so bad.”
H: Sometimes when you’re having a bad day, you just need to see a friendly face.
E: That’s true. But her day gets worse.
H: Really? Oh no!
E: Yep. She sings, “I drank too much last night, got bills to pay. My head just feels in pain.”
H: Well, I know you didn’t drink too much, at least.
E: That’s a good thing.
H: I like the rhythm and intonation of the line. “My head just feels in pain.” Instead of trying to sing, “I have a headache,” she continues to use that stress/unstress intonation pattern. da DA da DA da DA.
E: And how about, “I missed the bus, and there’ll be hell today. I’m late for work again.” That’s a useful expression, “There’ll be hell today,” meaning that things are going to be very, very bad.
H: She was late to work, same as you today. But I think she is in a worse situation. She sings, “And even if I'm there, they'll all imply that I might not last the day.”
E: Uh-oh. Does that mean what I think it does? That she might lose her job?
H: I think so. Her co-workers don’t say it directly, they imply it. So they won’t say, “You’re going to be fired!” but they might say, “You might have a lot of free time soon.”
E: Or, “Do you need any help with your resume?”
H: Ouch! I think it’s pretty clear what they are implying. That’s pretty bad!
E: It is. But Dido’s situation is about to get much better.
H: Oh yeah? What happens next?
E: Her special person calls her. Apparently, Dido wrote the song in 1995, about her then boyfriend, Bob Page. But hopefully, we all have at least one special person - a friend, a relative, a colleague, a podcast host, somebody who makes everything seem ok.
H: She sings, “And then you call me and it’s not so bad.” Nice.
E: Well, not so fast. Her day does get a little worse before we talk about the refrain.
H: Oh no!
E: Remember how it was raining? She sings, “Push the door, I'm home at last, and I'm soaking through and through.”
H: Hmmm…I’m guessing from the context that “soak” means “to put something in water until it is very wet,” especially since she adds “through and through,” like the rain has gone through her jacket, through her sweater, through her shirt until she is, wait a minute, I’m remembering a vocabulary word from another episode…
E: Are you thinking of Natasha Beddingfield’s song, Unwritten? Where she advises, “drench yourself in words unspoken”?
H: Exactly! We could also say that Dido is drenched or soaked from the rain. She’s wet from the rain and feeling miserable. And if you haven’t listened to episode 5 yet, Unwritten is full of great vocabulary. You can go back and listen to it!
E: Ok. Well, she’s finally home after having this awful day, and she sees her favorite person. She sings, “Then you handed me a towel, and all I see is you.” That’s exactly what she needed. A friendly face and a towel to dry off.
H: And she is so happy to see this person she sings, “And even if my house falls down now, I wouldn't have a clue because you're near me.” That’s an interesting conditional sentence. Her house could fall down, and she wouldn’t have a clue! What does it mean, Ece, to “not have a clue.”
E: If you “don’t have a clue,” or you are, “clueless,” it means you have no idea what is happening. That’s how I felt when I arrived late to that teacher’s meeting today. I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about!
H: It’s ok, Ece. It’s all over now. And we’ve gotten to the happy part of the song. It’s the refrain where she sings: “I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life.” You can really hear the stressed/unstressed sentence stress in this line. “I want to THANK you, forgivingmethe BEST day of my LIFE.” The way she sings it is exactly the way we would say it.
E: She uses the same intonation pattern in the next line, “Oh, just to be with you, is having the best day of my life.” She has forgotten all about her miserable day.
H: How about you, Ece? Have you forgotten about your bad day?
E: I think I have! I think we’re ready to sing!
H: I think we are, too. Ok listeners! Sing out loud, and try to match Dido’s sentence intonation in this song.
E: There is a link to the official YouTube version of the song in the episode notes!
<conclusion>
H: Ece, working on season one of the podcast with you has given me the best year of my life.
E: Me too! We have so many listeners from so many different countries now.
H: I love thinking about people all over the world singing and learning English.
E: Even though we are not together, we can still share the joy of music and language.
H: If you enjoyed Season One, please make sure to click on “subscribe” wherever you listen to us, so that you will be the first one to know when Episode One of Season Two is released.
E: Don’t worry. You won’t have to wait too long!
H: That’s right. Season Two is already in the works!
E: Please email us at singinglanguages@gmail.com, or contact us through our website and let us know what songs YOU have used to learn English. Who knows? We might feature that song in a future episode.
H: And you can also follow us on Instagram @singinglanguages.
E: We really do want to thank all of you, for sharing this wonderful first year of, “English as a Singing Language” with us.
H: We sure do. Until next season, have fun and…
H + E: … just keep singing!!
Stereogum 2019 Article https://www.stereogum.com/2036014/dido-interview-2019/interviews/tracking-down/
Official YouTube Video
Complete Lyrics
My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why
I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window
And I can't see at all
And even if I could, it'd all be gray
But your picture on my wall
It reminds me that it's not so bad
It's not so bad
I drank too much last night, got bills to pay
My head just feels in pain
I missed the bus and there'll be hell today
I'm late for work again
And even if I'm there, they'll all imply
That I might not last the day
And then you call me
And it's not so bad, it's not so bad
And I want to thank you
For giving me the best day of my life
Oh, just to be with you
Is having the best day of my life
Push the door, I'm home at last
And I'm soaking through and through
Then you handed me a towel
And all I see is you
And even if my house falls down now
I wouldn't have a clue
Because you're near me
And I want to thank you
For giving me the best day of my life
Oh, just to be with you
Is having the best day of my life
And I want to thank you
For giving me the best day of my life
Oh, just to be with you
Is having the best day of my life
Songwriters: Herman Paul Philip / Armstrong Florian Cloud De Bounevialle / Mỹ Tâm / Warner Chappell Music Ltd / Cheeky Music Limited Thank You lyrics © Submarine Music Ltd., Warner/chappell Music Ltd, Submarine Music Limited
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