Readable Blog

We call the first page of a newspaper the “front page.” Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages website shows front pages from many American newspapers, and a few others from around the world. It’s a good way to read short phrases of English (headlines) and look at photos. Just remember that news English often breaks the rules of standard English grammar! (This is why I don’t recommend magazines and newspapers for your main source of English reading material.)

Today all of the newspapers show President-Elect Barack Obama, of course. What will they show tomorrow? You can tell what’s on people’s minds by what appears on a lot of different newspapers.

(The site is slow right now because so many people are looking at it.)

Click here to watch and read Barack Obama’s victory speech from last night. He is a good speaker, I think. His speech may be a little difficult to understand, because he included many references to American history, other famous speeches, etc. But you can give it a try. What do you think?

If you are not a US citizen, of course, you can’t vote in the upcoming US presidential election. But many people around the world care about this election. If you have an opinion about who you would like to vote for, you can go “vote” here:

http://www.betavote.com/

Just choose who you would like to vote for and what country you are from. It’s not a real vote. You’re just giving your opinion. You do not need to give your e-mail address or anything.

Check back later and see who is winning in your country! Even though it’s not a real vote, it’s kind of fun, I think.

This year, a lot of people around the world are interested in the US presidential election. Americans are very interested in this election too. The person who is elected can make a big difference, both internationally and in the daily lives of Americans. For example, the United States does not have national health care, even though most other major industrial nations do. Some Americans think we really need to have a national health care system. Others think that would be bad for business. Whether we will start a national health care program probably depends on who is elected. For these reasons and others, many Americans have extremely strong feelings about who should be elected. That’s why it is usually considered a bad idea for Americans to discuss politics at work, parties, etc.–people may get very angry with each other.

Anyway, if you can read advanced to intermediate English, the Voice of America has a good website explaining the election process, with news articles, audio of the articles, videos, and more. Just visit the VOA US Election 2008 website.

(P. S. I’m out of town–I’m sorry I haven’t been posting.)