Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Ellen Helps Reunite a Family for Million Dollar May
As I said, before the show starts,
I'm backstage in my dressing room,
and I watched the audience dance before I come out here,
and I saw this one audience member dancing before the show.
Take a look at her.
Look at this.
Yeah.
[APPLAUSE]
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
That's right.
So I wanted to meet her.
Where are you?
Come on down.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi.
Oh my God, hi.
I just love this entire look.
Thank you.
I love it.
And you just look so happy.
What is your name?
My name is Achieng Agutu.
That's right.
[LAUGHTER]
Gesundheit.
Achieng.
Achieng.
Achieng.
OK, and where are you from?
I'm from Kisumu, Kenya.
Oh wow.
That's amazing.
[APPLAUSE]
I actually know a little bit more about you
than I'm pretending to know.
I do know that you're from Kenya,
and I do know that you used to watch the show in Kenya
and that you learned some English from watching my show.
Yes.
How did you do that?
People told me the best way to learn
a language is through watching music or listening to music.
And so when I used to see artists on your show,
I used to take down notes on the songs that they wrote,
and then I'd go to a cyber cafe and look up the lyrics
and then learn the lyrics and then therefore learn English.
Wow.
Because I was watching you, you know
a lot of lyrics, just about every song
that we played on here.
I was like, OK.
And so what made you move to the United States?
So I moved here about five years ago with the Graces, my host
family.
And I moved here for higher education.
Sorry, I'm just so excited that I'm here.
But it's been amazing, and it's also
been really hard for my family back in Kenya
because they've honestly done every single thing that they
have from selling land to taking loans,
pouring money to be able to pay my school fees
but also just make sure that I'm comfortable.
Yeah, they're still in Kenya.
Yes they are.
And you work.
How many jobs do you work here?
OK, so I work one full-time job.
My 9:00 to 5:00, I'm an admissions counselor
at Holy Cross College.
But then I babysit for two family.
I wash people's cars.
I clean their houses.
I'm an Uber driver.
And then I also teach English to international students and some
of the DACA students in the South Bend area.
But that's all?
That's all you do?
That's incredible.
And your family members-- so who's there?
So it's me, my older brother Churchill,
and then my dad and my mom.
And they're all three in Kenya?
My brother is in South Africa, but my parents are in Kenya.
I see.
OK.
Then they help a lot of families there too, right?
Yes.
So my parents really want to give back to the community
because they feel like they've been really blessed.
And so my parents are helping about 10-plus kids
from our family but also from the village that they live in.
So they're paying for their school fees
like uniforms, books, all that fun stuff.
That is incredible.
Yes.
All right, well--
[APPLAUSE]
--we sent-- I can't believe that we were able to do this.
We sent a camera crew to Kenya-
No!
--and South Africa.
And so let's see if we can--
[SHOUTING]
Hi, everybody.
Hi.
OK, this so exciting.
This is the clearest picture we've ever had.
This is crazy.
[LAUGHTER]
All right, so it's been a while, right?
How long has it been since you've seen Achieng?
It's been two years.
I miss you so much, Achieng.
And you two, your--
see, that's what I mean.
All right, well, we still have your brother.
What's your brother's name?
My brother's name is Churchill.
It's back here, right.
I need to get the controls.
Open the door because we have to fix this.
Open the doors.
[APPLAUSE]
And her family-- and they have not
seen each other in two years.
How does it feel to be together?
Just thankful.
This is amazing.
You inspire us so much, and the fact
that you're able to do this is just amazing.
So thank you.
I think we feel grateful.
It's immense for us.
It's so huge.
Well, we're grateful for all of you.
It's amazing.
So I know you want to help her out in getting an education.
We partnered with Walmart for the entire month of May
to give away a total of $1 million to deserving people.
I want to play a game so you guys have a chance
to go home with some money.
It's time for Million Dollar May.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We didn't even rehearse that.
That was great.
Here's what's going to happen.
We're going to play three-card monte.
But since it's Million Dollar May, behind each of those cards
is a certain amount of money.
Behind one is $10,000.
Behind another one, $25,000.
Behind another one is $50,000.
We're hoping you pick the $50,000 because obviously
that what we want you to go home with.
So you have to remember where it is when we shuffle them around.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I know where it is for sure.
All right, what do you think?
Do you all--
Two.
Two?
I think two.
We're going to go with two.
All right, let's hope it's $50,000.
Let's go with two.
[SHOUTING]
[APPLAUSE]
I want to hear about them.
Use the hashtag #SparkKindness.
We'll be right back.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos,
like videos of me getting scared or saying
embarrassing things like ball peen hammer
and also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,
if you're into that sort of thing.
[SHOUT]
[BLEEP] God [BLEEP].
