– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

when I was young my family lived

overseas uh I lived in Indonesia for a

few years and my mother she didn't have

the money to send me where all the

American kids went to school but she

thought it was important for me to keep

up with an American education so she

decided to teach me extra lessons

herself Monday through Friday but

because she had to go to work the only

time she could do it was at 4:30 in the

morning but whenever I'd complain my

mother would just give me one looks and

she'd say this is no picnic for me

either

Buster so I know that some of you are

still adjusting to being back at school

but I'm here today because I have

something important to discuss with you

my father left my family when I was 2

years old and I was raised by a single

mom who had to work and who struggled at

times to pay the bills and wasn't always

able to give us the things that other

kids had there were times when I missed

having a father in my life there were

times when I was lonely and I felt like

I didn't fit in so I wasn't always as

focused as I should have been on school

and I did some things that I'm not proud

of and I got in more trouble than I

should have and my life could have

easily taken a turn for the

worst but I was I was lucky I got a lot

of Second Chances and I had the

opportunity to go to college and law

school and follow my

dreams my wife our First Lady Michelle

Obama mama she has a similar story

neither of her parents had gone to

college and they didn't have a lot of

money but they worked hard and she

worked hard so that she could go to the

best schools in this

country some of you might not have those

advantages maybe you don't have adults

in your life who give you the support

that you need maybe someone in your

family has lost their job and there's

not enough money to go around maybe you

live in a neighborhood where you don't

feel safe or have friends who are Pres

in you to do things you know aren't

right maybe you could be a great writer

maybe even good enough to write a book

or articles in a newspaper but you might

not know it until you write that English

paper uh that English class paper that's

assigned to you maybe you could be an

innovator or an inventor maybe even good

enough to come up with the next iPhone

or the new medicine or vaccine but you

might not know it until you do your

project for your science class

maybe you could be a mayor or a senator

or a Supreme Court Justice but you might

not know that until you join student

government or the debate

team and no matter what you want to do

with your life I guarantee that you'll

need an education to do it you want to

be a doctor or a teacher or a police

officer you want to be a nurse or an

architect a lawyer or a member of our

military you're going to need a good

education for every single one of those

careers

you cannot drop out of school and just

drop into a good

job you've got to train for it and work

for it and learn for it and this isn't

just important for your own life and

your own

future what you make of your education

will decide nothing less than the future

of this country the future of America

depends on

you what you're learning in school today

will determine whether we as a nation

can meet our greatest challenges in the

future you'll need the knowledge and

problem solving skills you learn in

science and math to cure diseases like

cancer and AIDS and to develop new

Energy Technologies and protect our

environment you'll need the insights and

critical thinking skills you gain in

history and social studies to fight

poverty and homelessness crime and

discrimination and make our nation more

fair and more

free you'll need the creativity and

Ingenuity you develop in all your

classes to build new companies that will

create new jobs and boost our economy we

need every single one of you to develop

your talents and your skills and your

intellect so you can help us old folks

solve our most difficult

problems if you don't do that if you

quit on school you're not just quitting

on yourself you're quitting on your

country I know it's not always easy to

do well in

school I know a lot of you have

challenges in your your lives right now

that can make it hard to focus on your

school

work I get it I know what it's like but

at the end of the day the circumstances

of your life what you look like where

you come from how much money you have

what you've got going on at home none of

that is an excuse for neglecting your

homework or having a bad attitude in

school that's no excuse for talking back

to your teacher or cutting class or

dropping out of school there is no

excuse for not

trying where you are right now doesn't

have to determine where you'll end up no

one's written your destiny for you

because here in America you write your

own destiny you make your own

future that's what young people like you

are doing every day all across

America that's why today I'm calling on

each of you to set your own goals for

your education and do everything you can

to meet

them your goal can be something as

simple as doing all your homework paying

attention in class or spending some time

each day reading a

book maybe you'll decide to get involved

in an extracurricular activity or

volunteer in your

community maybe you'll decide to stand

up for kids who are being teased or

bullied because of who they are or how

they look because you believe like I do

that all young people deserve a safe

environment to study and learn

maybe you'll decide to take better care

of yourself so you could be more ready

to learn but whatever you resolve to do

I want you to commit to it I want you to

really work at

it I know that sometimes you get that

sense from TV that you can be rich and

successful without any hard work that

your ticket to success is through

rapping or basketball or being a reality

TV

star chances are you're not going to be

any of those

things the truth truth is being

successful is

hard you won't love every subject that

you

study you won't click with every teacher

that you

have not every homework assignment will

seem completely relevant to your life

right at this

minute and you won't necessarily succeed

at everything the first time you

try that's

okay some of the most successful people

in the world are the ones who've had the

most

failures JK

Rollins who wrote Harry

Potter her first Harry Potter book was

rejected 12 times before it was finally

published Michael Jordan was cut from

his high school basketball

team he lost hundreds of games and

missed thousands of shots during his

career but he once said I have failed

over and over and over again in my life

and that's why I sued succeed these

people succeeded because they understood

that you can't let your failures Define

you you have to let your failures teach

you you have to let them show you what

to do differently the next

time so if you get into trouble that

doesn't mean you're a troublemaker it

means you need to try harder to act

right if you get a bad grade that

doesn't mean you're stupid it just means

you need to spend more time studying

no one's born being good at all things

you become good at things through hard

work you're not a varsity athlete the

first time you play a new sport you

don't hit every note the first time you

sing a song you've got to practice the

same principle applies to your

schoolwork you might have to do a math

problem a few times before you get it

right you might have to read something a

few times before you understand it you

definitely have to do a few drafts of a

paper before it's good enough to hand

in don't be afraid to ask questions

don't be afraid to ask for help when you

need it I do that every

day asking for help isn't a sign of

weakness it's a sign of strength because

it shows you have the courage to admit

when you don't know something and that

then allows you to learn something

new so find an adult that you trust a

parent a grandparent or a teacher a

coach or a counselor and ask them to

help you stay on track to meet your

goals and even when you're struggling

even when you're discouraged and you

feel like other people have given up on

you don't ever give up on

yourself because when you give up on

yourself you give up on your

country the story of America isn't about

people who quit when things got tough

it's about people who kept going who

tried harder who loved their country too

much to do anything less than their

best it's the story of students who sat

where you sit 250 years ago and went on

to wage a revolution and they founded

this nation young

people students who sat where you sit 75

years ago who overcame a depression and

won a World War who fought for civil

rights and put a man on the

moon students who sat where you sit 20

years ago who founded Google and Twitter

and Facebook and change the way we

communicate with each other so today I

want to ask all of you what's your

contribution going to be what problems

are you going to

solve what discoveries will you

make what will a president who comes

here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about

what all of you did for this

country you know your families your

teachers and I are doing everything we

can to make sure you have the education

you need to answer these

questions I'm working hard to fix up

your classrooms and get you the books

and the equipment and the computers you

need to

learn but you've got to do your part

too so I expect all of you to get

serious this

year I expect you to put your best

effort into everything you do I expect

great things from each of

you so don't let us down don't let your

family down or your country down most of

all don't let yourself

down make us all proud

[Music]

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
education /ˌɛdʒ.ʊˈkeɪ.ʃən/ A2	noun - The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction
opportunity /ˌɒp.əˈtʃuː.nə.ti/ B1	noun - A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something
struggled /ˈstrʌɡ.əld/ B1	verb - To experience difficulty and make great efforts in order to solve a problem
innovator /ˈɪn.ə.veɪ.tər/ C1	noun - A person who introduces new methods, ideas, or products
destiny /ˈdes.tɪ.ni/ B2	noun - The events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future
discouraged /dɪˈskʌr.ɪdʒd/ B2	adjective - Having lost confidence or enthusiasm
contribution /ˌkɒn.trɪˈbjuː.ʃən/ B2	noun - A gift or payment to a common fund or collection
circumstances /ˈsɜː.kəm.stæns.ɪz/ B2	noun - Facts or conditions connected with or relevant to an event or action
ingenuity /ˌɪn.dʒəˈnjuː.ə.ti/ C2	noun - The quality of being clever, original, and inventive
neglecting /nɪˈɡlekt.ɪŋ/ B2	verb - Failing to care for properly
resolve /rɪˈzɒlv/ B2	verb - To decide firmly on a course of action
relevant /ˈrel.ə.vənt/ B2	adjective - Closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand
principle /ˈprɪn.sə.pəl/ B2	noun - A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system
courage /ˈkʌr.ɪdʒ/ B1	noun - The ability to do something that frightens one
revolution /ˌrev.əˈluː.ʃən/ B2	noun - A forcible overthrow of a government or social order

Key Grammar Structures

• whenever I'd complain my mother would just give me one look

  ➔ Used to / Would for past habits

  ➔ We use 'would' to describe repeated actions or habits that happened in the past.

• my life could have easily taken a turn for the worst

  ➔ Modal perfect (could have + past participle)

  ➔ The structure 'could have taken' expresses a possibility in the past that did not necessarily happen.

• neither of her parents had gone to college

  ➔ Past Perfect (had + past participle)

  ➔ We use the past perfect to talk about an action completed before another action in the past.

• you're not just quitting on yourself you're quitting on your country

  ➔ Not only... but also (implied/correlative conjunction)

  ➔ This construction links two negative actions to show the double impact of the subject's choice.

• none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework

  ➔ Preposition + Gerund (-ing)

  ➔ After a preposition (like 'for'), the verb must be in the gerund (-ing) form.

• you're not going to be any of those things

  ➔ Future 'be going to'

  ➔ 'Be going to' is used here to make a prediction about the future based on the speaker's assessment.

• you won't click with every teacher that you have

  ➔ Relative clause (that you have)

  ➔ 'that you have' is a relative clause modifying 'teacher', providing more specific information.

• you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try

  ➔ Adverb of probability (necessarily)

  ➔ The adverb 'necessarily' qualifies the verb 'succeed', showing that it is not a fixed outcome.