Marshall Islands

 

Vocabulary

name	live	island
over (2)	in and out	cabinet (2)
foreign	minister	over the years
finance	health	environment
globe	earth	world
mean (2)	planet	globalization
great	can/could	bring/brought
hand	prosperous	prosperity
handle	right (4)	also
single	double	triple
edge	sword	double-edged sword
size	fit	one size fits all
all	make	over (2)
reach	demand	overreaching
think (2)	government	in order to
order (2)	economy	someone
should	description	someone else
worry	see/saw/seen	as you can see
above	water	foot/feet (2)
high	low	tide
warm	in fact	vulnerable
cool	climate	global warming
change (2)	effect	there is/are
about	result	locate
option	relocate	population
because	move	land
destroy	nation	grandchildren
happy	culture	great-grandchildren
personal	interest	thing (2)
raise (2)	exotic	conservation
plant (2)	country (2)	would like to
visit	many	much
part	perhaps	opportunity
someday	trip (2)	expect
future	past	present (2)
spend	time	ocean
rest (2)	life	rest of my life

 
 

Video

 
 

  Transcript

My name is Tony de Brum. I’m 65 years old and I live in Majuro in the Marshall Islands.

What do you do for a living?

I have been in and out of cabinet over the years. I was foreign minister, minister of finance, minister of health and environment.

What does globalization mean to you?

It can bring prosperity if it’s handled right — but it can also be a double-edged sword.

It can mean one-size fits all and make overreaching demands, I think, on small governments and small economies in order to fit someone else’s description of economies should be like.

What worries you?

As you can see, the Marshall Islands sits six feet above the water, at high tide. And we are in fact vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

There are people who talk about global warming and climate change resulting in the relocation of our population.

I do not think that is an option because if you move the Marshallese people from their lands, you are in fact destroying a nation, a people, a culture.

What makes you happy?

Now that I’m 65, I’m happy with my family. I’m happy with my grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; I have two of them.

I’m happy doing personal interest things like conservation and raising exotic plants.

What country would you like to visit?

As foreign minister of this government, I had the opportunity to visit many, many countries. But the one part of the world that I haven’t been to is Africa. And perhaps someday I’ll make a trip down there.

What do you expect for your future?

I’d like to spend more time with my family, with my land and my ocean. What’s the way I want to spend the rest of my life.
 

 
 

Questions

1. Who is this person?

2. Tony has had only one occupation or profession. Yes or no, or both?

3. Does he feel favorable (positive) or unfavorable (negative) towards globalization, or does he have mixed feelings?

4. What is he worried about? He is concerned about………

5. What does he say about land, people, nation, culture?

5. What makes Tony happy? …………and……….makes him happy.

6. Have he traveled much? Why has he traveled much? Where would he like to visit? He would like to visit……………because……………

7. What does he expect for his future?
 
 
A. Do you know anyone who is a politician or who works for the government?

B. Are you from an island? Do you live on an island? Have you ever been on an island?

C. Have you met anyone from an island? Who were they? What were they doing?

D. Pick and island. Describe the climate and geography of this island.

E. Describe the economy of your island. What does it import and export?

F. Does this island have any problems or challenges?

G. What is the food of this island like? Describe the island’s cuisine.

H. What are some tourists attractions (cultural, historical, natural)?

I. What comes to mind when you think of islands? What do you associate with islands?
 
 

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