Lesson video

Hi everyone.

Today is our fifth and final lesson in this unit.

We are going to continue making comparisons between "London is the place for me" and "Sweet Jamaica".

Let's get learning.

In today's lesson, we are going to look at "Sweet Jamaica" in more detail, and the language used in the song.

Then we're going to consider Lord Kitchener's use of language.

So why he selected some of these words and phrases.

And then finally, we're going to compare the two songs, "Sweet Jamaica", and "London is the place for me".

In this lesson, you're going to need something to write with, paper, an exercise book, pencil, or a pen.

So if you don't have those things, can you pause the video and get them now? You are also going to need to have your brain and somewhere quiet to work.

Let's look at "Sweet Jamaica" in more detail.

First of all, I want to talk a little bit about the structure.

There are four verses in this song and the chorus is repeated four times.

So what that means is that you've got a verse, chorus, verse, chorus.

And it's a little bit tricky because we don't see the whole song here on the screen, but I'm pretty sure you guys know enough pop songs and enough about music to understand the idea of chorus, verse, chorus, verse.

In our last lesson, we looked at some of the verses.

I want to start today's lesson by looking at the chorus.

So can you pause the video and read the lyrics in front of you? Okay.

So there is a slight variation on the chorus.

On the left hand side of the screen, you can see one variation of it.

And now I've just shown you the second variation of the chorus.

So can you pause the video and also read that one? Right.

And I now think we actually need to listen.

I hope you enjoy it.

♪ But darling ♪ ♪ Jamaica, Jamaica ♪ ♪ Our heaven and saviour darling ♪ ♪ Jamaica, Jamaica ♪ ♪ We bound to remember ♪ I hope you enjoyed listening to the chorus.

To me, it sounded a little bit like a love song written to Jamaica.

So I'm going to ask you, what is the focus of the chorus? Is it London or is it Jamaica? Correct.

It's Jamaica.

And is it positive or negative about Jamaica? Show me with your thumbs.

Is it positive or is it negative? Correct.

It's positive.

We did this last lesson.

So we're going to recap it really quickly.

And we're going to re-find some of the negative language used to describe London.

And we're also going to focus on some new words that we haven't come across before.

This is the first verse of four.

I would like you to see if you can find the negative words or phrases that we found previously.

Pause the video and have a go.

What did you find? This is what I found.

Well, that is a question I cannot answer.

What's the question? What is the question? Reread the lyrics.

Oh, the question is, how does Lord Kitchener spend his time in London city? And he says he can't answer it.

He regrets the day he left sweet Jamaica.

I mean, you would pity my position because I nearly died here from starvation.

Gosh, I feel really sorry for Lord Kitchener.

It sounds like he's having a really miserable time.

Can you read the question at the top of the screen please? Why can't Lord Kitchener answer the question about how he spends his time in London? I want you to pause the video and have a little bit of thinking time.

Do you have an idea? Well, I'm going to give you some options.

Is it that he's unable to answer the question about how he spends his time in London because he is having such a bad time he doesn't want to talk about it, or is it because he has already left and can't remember his time there? Or is it because he hasn't been to London yet? Or is it because he's so hungry? Which one do you think? I think it's because he's having such a bad time he doesn't want to talk about it.

It's not that he can't talk about it, it's that he really doesn't want to.

We're now going to look at some words or phrases that I thought you might need a little bit more support with.

Let's read those lines from the lyrics.

The food control in London city.

They say, you must have a ration book.

Or these are two things that Lord kitchener isn't enjoying.

So do you know what a ration book is? You may not.

That's fine.

It's a book that said how much food you could get.

And these books were used during and after the war, as in England there was a shortage of food.

And I've actually got a picture here of a ration book for a child during World War II.

So does Lord Kitchener like the fact that food is rationed? Would you like the fact of, would you like it if food was rationed? I don't think I would.

What else is he missing? He's missing or dreaming about ackee and salt fish in Jamaica.

Ackee and salt fish is a traditional Jamaican dish.

Ackee is a type of fruit and salt fish is just refers to different types of fishes.

And this is a picture of what it looks like, and it's really delicious.

So that's what he's thinking about.

That's the food he's thinking about.

In 1948, I don't think they would have had this in London.

Hmm, I have made the word me green.

For me ackee and salt fish in Jamaica.

Now in standard English, we would say, for my ackee and salt fish in Jamaica.

So why did Lord Kitchener change the pronoun use? This is part of how he speaks.

It's called Jamaican Patois.

And we now hear things like this in England.

And that is because lots of people immigrated on the Windrush or after the Windrush and have influenced our music and our culture, our food, and the manner that we speak in.

He's also thinking about the lovely beach at Montego Bay.

What do you think Montego Bay is? Sometimes it's with the capital after the bay, sometimes it's not.

Do you know what a bay is? A bay is part of a coastal area.

If it's got a capital letter, what word class is it? That's right.

It's a proper noun.

So Montego Bay is a place in Northwest Jamaica and it's along the coast.

And this is a modern photograph of what it looks like.

Look at those amazing colours of the sea and the sky.

No wonder he's missing that.

Compare English weather with the gorgeous sunshine on this beach.

So having looked at some of those words in more detail, you are now able to read the rest of the verses independently.

I would like you to reread verse two.

Pause the video and see if you can re-find those negatives words or phrases that we found previously.

Off you go.

How did you get on? I'll show you mine.

Are you ready? Another thing that is bugging me, bugging me means annoying, frustrating, irritating me, upsetting me.

So something that is upsetting Lord Kitchener is the food control.

The rations are so small.

I'm not surprised that's upsetting him.

And he feels like he's going to suffer.

What's he thinking about in that last line? Oh yeah, the delicious ackee and salt fish.

Okay.

This time, I would like you to read verse three of four.

We didn't read this in our previous lesson.

So I'm going to give you 20 seconds.

I don't want you to pause the video and I want you to see if you can find any negative words or phrases.

Off you go.

Okay.

So I already gave you 15 seconds.

What did you find? Well, there weren't as many negative words or phrases in this verse.

That's because a lot of this verse is actually talking about Jamaica and the way Lord Kitchener refers to Jamaica is in a really positive way.

So the things I found is that he misses Jamaica.

So he's probably not really enjoying his time in London and he feels the urge to fly back.

So he really wants to go back there.

Okay.

We're on our fourth and final verse.

Many West Indians are sorry now.

West Indians.

Capital letter for both of those words.

West Indians is a proper noun.

West Indians is another way to refer to people from the Caribbean.

So many people from the Caribbean are sorry now.

Can you read the rest of it and identify any negative words or phrases? Off you go.

What did you find? Sorry now, they're crying with regret.

No kind of employment.

So employment is a synonym for work or for job and they can't get their passage.

They can't afford to, or find a way back home.

This sounds really terrible.

Now we're going to consider Lord Kitchener's use of language and maybe why he selected these words or phrases.

In the chorus, it says, "Our heaven and saviour darling." Why does Lord Kitchener refer to Jamaica in this way? You want you to pause the video and have a think.

Alright, now I'm going to help you.

We're going to do this by focusing on three words, heaven, saviour, and darling.

Saviour.

Have you heard that word before? I have.

I've heard in an R.

E lesson.

Saviour is a word that I've heard when studying Christianity.

Sometimes Jesus is referred to as our saviour by Christians.

And that's because Christians believe that Jesus has saved their life.

So a saviour is a person who has saved someone.

And actually, if you look at the first three letters in those words, you've got S-A-V.

So you've got those both in the word save and in saviour.

What is Lord Kitchener doing by referring to Jamaica as a person? He's doing something called personification.

He's referring to an object as a person.

That's practising that personification, or he is personifying Jamaica.

He is turning Jamaica into a person.

Personifying.

I didn't hear you.

Personifying.

Great.

Well done.

Have you ever had the word darling? I have.

I have read the word darling in Peter Pan.

In referring to the Island as darling, a loved person, a loved one, that's what darling means, again, Lord Kitchener is personifying the Island.

It's usually a term used to describe a loved one.

And sometimes it's used in an apologetic way when someone is saying sorry.

I'll give you an example.

Darling I'm so sorry I forgot to buy the potatoes.

Darling I'm so sorry I forgot to water the plants.

So often people might call their loved one darling when they're apologising for something or forgetting to do something.

Can you remember how Lord Kitchener described England in "London is the place for me"? So in "Sweet Jamaica", he's calling the islands, darling.

What two words was it that he used to describe England? Can't think of it? I'm going to give you a clue.

It's two words.

The first word begins with M, the second word begins with C.

Any luck? Okay.

The first word is mother.

And the second word is? Correct! Mother country.

It's interesting that in both songs, he is using words to describe people who are familiar.

So darling and mother, but they have very different connotations and implications.

So far, we have looked at the word saviour and darling in detail.

Now let's focus on the word heaven.

I want you to write the word heaven in the middle of a piece of paper.

Pause the video and write down any ideas that you have about heaven or any ideas that you have heard about heaven.

Off you go.

How did you get on? I found it quite tricky.

I think the reason I found it tricky is we don't actually know what heaven is.

And everyone has a slightly different understanding of it.

But here's some of the things I thought.

Heaven is a peaceful place.

People often think of it as a peaceful place.

People often think heaven is a place where you will not want for anything and you will be happy.

Everyone's view of heaven is different, but for Lord Kitchener, in his mind, heaven is Jamaica or heaven is a place on earth.

And it's this place that he knows called Jamaica.

Heaven is a place that people dream or hope or aim to go to.

So what does that imply about Lord Kitchener? I think it implies that he really wants to go to Jamaica, that he's hoping and dreaming to get back there.

Heaven is a place where all of your wishes come true.

Now this is interesting because when we read "London is the place for me", Lord Kitchener hadn't been there.

So we assumed that all of his praise for London was because he really wanted to go there and he thought his wishes would come true there.

But the reality of London is that his wishes didn't come true.

So now he's aware of that.

London isn't heaven for him.

In describing Jamaica as heaven, Lord kitchener is flattering Jamaica.

He's sort of paying a compliment, isn't it? Isn't he? So here's our original question.

Our heaven and saviour darling.

Why does Lord Kitchener refer to Jamaica in this way? Well, I've started the beginning of my answer.

I think Lord Kitchener does this for a number of reasons.

First, he refers to Jamaica as heaven because.

How could I end that sentence? Can you pause the video, read the beginning parts of my sentence out loud and then finish off the sentence? Off you go.

Well done.

I'm sure you did a really good job.

I'm going to show you what I wrote.

First, he refers to Jamaica as heaven because for him, this is what it represents.

And then I've used a colon and I'm going to list what Jamaica represents to Lord Kitchener.

Jamaica represents a place where all of his desires are met, which is peaceful, and, for now, a place he can only dream or think of.

Now, I'm going to make a second point.

I think he refers to Jamaica as darling because he wants to.

I think he refers to Jamaica as darling because he wants to.

What? What does he want to do? What is he suggesting? Can you pause the video and see if you can end that sentence for me.

Off you go.

I think it's because he wants to express how much he loves the place.

And then finally, I've written this last point.

Do you think you can read it back to me? So I've made three points in that final point.

Finally, I think he refers to Jamaica as a saviour, as it implies the Island is perfect, can do no wrong, and will save him from miserable London.

Well done team, you are doing some fantastic learning.

Now, we're going to compare the songs.

We're going to continue with our comparisons between "London is the place for me" and "Sweet Jamaica".

Let's go.

What is similar about "Sweet Jamaica" and "London is the place for me"? Pause the video and just have a little think.

Now I'm going to give you some options.

Which one is it? They both describe London, they both praise London, they both describe Jamaica, both songs are the same genre.

What do you think the answer is? Well, it's two.

They both describe London and both songs are the same genre.

They're both written in this Calypso style.

What is different about "Sweet Jamaica" and "London is the place for me" then? Hmm, I wrote "London is the place for me".

In "London is the place for me", London is portrayed in a good light, which Lord Kitchener seems to be really looking forward to visiting.

Whereas in "Sweet Jamaica", London is portrayed in a negative way.

And Lord Kitchener is longing to go back to Jamaica.

We need to pause the video, reread my answer, and then think about how I could make my answer even better.

Off you go.

What did you come up with? I'm thinking I could make it better by actually using some evidence from the lyrics.

So I've made some really strong points here and I actually really believe them.

So I think to make this answer even better, I need some evidence.

This is our final task.

So we have nearly finished.

Give yourself a little roll of the shoulders.

Give yourself a little pat on the back and let's do our final task.

Having listened to "Sweet Jamaica", what would you now like to ask Lord Kitchener? So in our previous lessons, after listening to "London is the place for me", we wrote down some questions that we would like to ask Lord Kitchener, but now, you know he has spent some time in London and he has written this song.

What would you now like to ask him? Pause the video and write down your questions.

I reckon we've got some of the same questions.

Let's see.

I would like to find out what disappointed you the most about London.

So here's a little bit of information about me.

I actually live in London and I quite enjoy living here.

So I'd be really interested to know what it was that was the biggest disappointment.

I'd also like to know what surprised Lord Kitchener most about London.

So he had some expectations.

And what was the thing that surprised him the most? I'd be interested to know whether he ever went back to Jamaica.

I'd also be really interested to know what he did in his first week there.

I imagine if I hadn't been in my home country for quite a long time, I might be really busy catching up with friends or going to my favourite places.

So I'd be really interested to know what he did in his first week.

Oh, you have done fantastically well.

We have finished this guided reading unit.

If you want to, you might want to copy down and rewrite the lyrics to the songs and annotate everything you know, because you have learned so much about these two songs.

Well done, and maybe I will see you for another guided reading unit.

Bye.