Tell Me Why
A young boy asks important questions
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Tell Me Why”, by Declan Galbarith. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article. Comments and questions are welcome. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
🔰Note: today’s article is written at a level of TOEFL (PBT) 350, Pre-2, CEFR A2.
The Singer
(287 words)
Today, I’ll introduce the song, but not all of the words to the song (lyrics). As you watch the video and listen to the song, think about what things you wonder about in the world today.
The song you’ll hear is Tell Me Why. It was first released in 2002 by Declan Galbarith shortly before he turned 11 years old. Declan is a British singer who has performed throughout the UK and also in China.
The Song
The boy talks about a dream he has. In the dream, children are singing and laughing, and all is right with the world. When he wakes up, though, he sees the world is not like this, that there are hungry people, people who need homes and help. He asks us why this is.
He wonders if there is something he hasn’t been told or taught in school, for example:
Tell me why does it have to be like this?
Tell me why, is there something I have missed?
Tell me why ‘cause I don't understand
When so many (people) need somebody / We don't give a helping hand
Tell me why?
Family, friends, and others in society expect the boy to grow up a certain way. The boy questions his role in society.
Every day I ask myself / What will I have to do to be a man?
Do I have to stand and fight / To prove to everybody who I am?
Is that what my life is for / To waste in a world full of war?
He wonders why we don’t take action to help others:
why do we stand and stare?
why do we pass the blame?
Most importantly, he asks:
Can someone tell us why we cannot just be friends?
Questions
What things do you wonder about in the world today?
What does your society expect you to be or do?
Why can’t we all just be friends?
Vocabulary
I wonder (about) … かなぁ、かしら、だろう
prove 証明する
waste 衰える
stare 見詰める
pass the blame 責任転嫁
Read more about Declan on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Galbraith
“Most importantly, he asks:
Can someone tell us why we cannot just be friends?”
This is it isn’t it? The question of the millenium… this is what I ask myself more often than I would like to.
It seems the human race is hell bent on destruction, at least those in power. I am quite certain that the vast majority of people want the same thing, peace being the most important and yet we are ruled by governments, who brandish the word democracy without ever allowing the system to be just that. We are led into wars, we are forced to accept price rises because of these wars…
It is a rollerball situation… as in the people who are generally peaceful because it’s all they want anyway are forced to fight back, they become angry too, they revolt and heaven help me for saying this because I have never ever been confrontational, I don’t blame them. Far from it…. I would join them!
But that would be my banner… why can’t we all just be friends!