English Rewind - People and Places: Words and politics

was first broadcast in March 2008 on the BBC Learning English website.

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This is People & Places with BBC Learning English dot com.

Hello, I'm Doug Campbell and welcome to People and Places.

I want to talk about politicians and the words they use.

This year, we've heard from politicians

who want to be the President of the United States.

For one of the political parties, the Democrats,

there have been two main candidates — Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

There have been lots of speeches and lots of interviews from both of them,

both of them wanting to be the most popular candidate.

Now a candidate wants to say, "Vote for me, vote for me,"

but you've got say more than that.

Listen to this bit of an interview from Hillary.

She'll say that she has a 'proven track record'.

This means that people can already see what she can do.

And listen — how many times does she say the word 'change'?

I have a proven track record of creating change for people

and I think that that's what the country needs.

It's not a choice between experience or change.

I have the experience that we need to make the changes we want.

Hillary Clinton, and how many times did she say that word 'change'?

Three times!

But it's a powerful word, 'change', it's a very attractive word,

a word that is very popular with politicians.

In fact, Barack Obama has probably used this word the most —

it has even been in his slogan.

Every politician has slogans.

It's a sentence or just a few words that are very, very powerful.

One of Obama's slogans is 'Change we can believe in'.

'Change we can believe in'.

But no politician can own a word.

Hillary uses the word 'change' as well,

but she also uses another popular word for politicians.

Listen again to her interview.

She uses the word 'change', but what other word?

I have a proven track record of creating change for people

and I think that that's what the country needs.

It's not a choice between experience or change.

I have the experience that we need to make the changes we want.

You're listening to People & Places from BBC Learning English dot com.

So in that short bit of the interview, we heard the word 'change' three times,

followed by the word 'experience' twice. Yes, 'experience'.

She says, "I have the experience we need to make the changes we want."

Hey, that sounds pretty good — perhaps I should be a politician!

I have a proven track record of creating change for people

and I think that that's what the country needs.

It's not a choice between experience or change.

I have the experience that we need to make the changes we want.

Well, let's hear another slogan from Obama.

He doesn't use the word 'change' this time.

He was speaking to his supporters in February.

Can you hear the slogan in this speech?

And how will you know when you've heard the slogan?

You'll always hear cheering — yay!

There is one thing on this February night

that we do not need the final results to know — our time has come!

Yes, there was the slogan.

Our time has come!

You heard the cheering after that. What does it mean?

Well, it's an expression that means 'We will now get what we've waited for'.

Our time has come!

Our time has come!

Politicians, they love to use powerful words, moving words.

Words like 'hope' or 'challenge' or 'change'.

The next time you hear a politician, listen for those moving words.

I have a proven track record of creating change for people

and I think that that's what the country needs.

It's not a choice between experience or change.

I have the experience that we need to make the changes we want.

There is one thing on this February night

that we do not need the final results to know —

our time has come!

That was People & Places from BBC Learning English dot com.