Featured Podcast : Celebrating Independence Day With Parades, Fireworks and Water Balloon Fights (from VOA Special English)

http://www1.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/american-life/people/Independence-Day-97620419.html

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DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Doug Johnson.

Today we tell about Independence Day in the United States. This Fourth of July will mark America’s two hundred and thirty-fourth birthday.

We also answer a listener question about a famous American general.

And we hear a poem about the American flag by country singer Johnny Cash.

(MUSIC)

Independence Day

DOUG JOHNSON: The Fourth of July marks the anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain. During the summer of seventeen seventy-six, American colonists were deeply divided. Almost one in three was loyal to Britain. Yet most were increasingly angry about what they considered unfair treatment by the British government. By June, fighting had already taken place between colonial forces and Britain. The idea of independence was spreading.

Delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Continental Congress decided that a document declaring separation from Britain should be declared. Thomas Jefferson led a committee chosen to write it.

**(TO READ MORE, CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE)**

Featured Podcast : Words and Their Stories - Where Did 'OK' Come From? (VOA Special English)

  http://www1.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/OK--85357622.html

Listen or download MP3 HERE ! (right click to save to your computer)

A look at what may be the most commonly used word in the world.

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

Millions of people all over the world use the word OK. In fact, some people say the word is used more often than any other word in the world. OK means all right or acceptable. It expresses agreement or approval. You might ask your brother, "Is it okay if I borrow your car?” Or if someone asks you to do something, you might say, “Okay, I will.” Still, language experts do not agree about where the word came from.

Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaw. The Choctaw word okeh means the same as the American word okay. Experts say early explorers in the American West spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.

But many people dispute this. Language expert Allen Walker Read wrote about the word OK in reports published in the nineteen sixties. He said the word began being used in the eighteen thirties. It was a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct.” Some foreign-born people wrote “all correct” as “o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t,” and used the letters O.K. Other people say a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word long ago. They said he put the first letters of his names -- O and K -- on each object people gave him to send on the train.

Still others say a political organization invented the word. The organization supported Martin Van Buren for president in eighteen forty. They called their group, the O.K. Club. The letters were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York.

Not everyone agrees with this explanation, either. But experts do agree that the word is purely American. And it has spread to almost every country on Earth.

Then there is the expression A-OK. This means everything is fine. A-OK is a space-age expression. It was used in nineteen sixty-one during the flight of astronaut Alan Shepard. He was the first American to be launched into space. His flight ended when his spacecraft landed in the ocean, as planned. Shepard reported: "Everything is A-OK.”

However, some experts say the expression did not begin with the space age. One story says it was first used during the early days of the telephone to tell an operator that a message had been received.

There are also funny ways to say okay. Some people say okey-dokey or okey-doke. These expressions were first used in the nineteen thirties. Today, a character on the American television series, “The Simpsons,” says it another way. He says okely-dokely.

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

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Featured Podcast : Somewhere a Language Dies Every Two Weeks (VOA News – Special English)

Over half of the world's 7,000 languages are in danger of disappearing.

Transcript of radio broadcast: 01 December 2009

Listen to Show  - (Tip: Left-click, or right-click and choose "Save...") Download (MP3)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we travel far and wide to learn about some of the rarest languages in the world. Experts say over half of the world's seven thousand languages are in danger of disappearing. Every two weeks one language disappears.

As the last speakers of a language die off, the valuable information contained within a language also disappears. Join us as we learn about the cultural value of language and why endangered languages must be protected.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

What would happen if you were the only person left who spoke your language? Who would you share stories with, sing songs to, or exchange jokes with? Who would understand your names for local plants, animals and traditions? This is the example David Harrison and Gregory Anderson use to explain the situation of many people around the world whose local languages are disappearing. Mister Harrison and Mister Anderson head Living Tongues, an organization that studies and protects endangered languages.

VOICE TWO:

Sometimes a language disappears immediately when the last person speaking it dies. Or, a local language might disappear more slowly.  This happens when an official language is used more often and children stop learning the local language of their parents. This is not a new process. Official languages often represent a form of control over a group of people.

Throughout history, the language spoken by a powerful group spreads across a civilization. The more powerful culture rarely respects the language and culture of smaller ethnic groups. So, smaller cultures lose their local language as the language of the culture in power becomes the stronger influence.

TO READ MORE OF THE TRANSCRIPT, GO TO : http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-12-01-voa1.cfm?renderforprint=1

Featured Podcast : A Scary Story to Get You Into the Halloween Spirit (VOA News)

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-10-26-voa2.cfm

What happens when a girl goes too far with lies about her classmates.

Transcript of radio broadcast: 26 October 2009

Listen to Show: Download  (MP3) (right click with mouse)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. October thirty-first, this coming Saturday, is Halloween. Millions of children will dress as ghosts, witches, skeletons, superheroes, princesses -- all sorts of costumes.

VOICE ONE:

Then, with parents usually nearby, they will walk through their neighborhoods. They will go door to door, yelling "trick or treat." This threat of a trick, all in good fun, quickly brings a treat, usually some candy. Then the trick-or-treaters will go off to the next house.

VOICE TWO:

But, you know, there is a reason people in ancient times were careful to honor evil spirits and the dead with a night of their own. The masks that people wore on All Hallows' Eve were meant to hide their identity, so they would avoid a most frightful trick. But now, do you want to know a story that is even scarier than that?

VOICE ONE:

Do you mean the story of my mother? That story? It makes me shake just to think about it!

(SOUND)

VOICE TWO:

Faith's mother lived in a small town in New York State when she was a girl. The fall season was beautiful in the Adirondack Mountains, but it was very cold at night.

VOICE ONE:

There was a girl named Arial at my mother's school. She was popular but not very nice. She told stories about people. She ruined them with her gossip.

Missus Hart was a very kind teacher at the school. Everyone liked her.

VOICE TWO:   

"Class ... "

VOICE ONE:

she said one morning early in the new school year,

VOICE TWO:

"... we have a new student, Pearl Dew from Kentucky. Please welcome her."

VOICE ONE:

Arial saw an easy victim in Pearl. And my mother says Pearl was very strange. She was so thin and her skin was so white you could almost see through it. She had long black hair. It reached so far down her back, she had to bring it around the front so she would not sit on it. She did not look healthy.

VOICE TWO:

Arial did not help the situation for Pearl, did she? No, she made the situation worse. Soon terrible stories about Pearl and her family were going around the school. Kids were saying that her father had murdered a family of five back in the hills of Kentucky, but got away with it.

VOICE ONE:

Yes, Arial started that rumor. She said Pearl's father had buried them deep in the wilds of the mountains, so their bodies were never found. No one could prove he killed them. Arial also told a lie about Pearl's mother. She said the mother knew about the murders and could not live with the truth, so one night she threw herself off a mountain.

Everyone believed Arial. They all knew that Pearl did not have a mother.

VOICE THREE:

"She fell by accident. She loved walking in the hills. She would never leave me. It was an accident. My father's not a murderer. That family -- he didn't even know them. No one knows what happened to them. Why do you say these things, Arial? Please, stop. What did I ever do to you?"

VOICE TWO:

When Pearl would ask her to stop, Arial would just laugh. Or she would act frightened. "Don't get your Dad after me, Pearl," she would say.

VOICE ONE:

Yes, although Pearl's father was apparently not the threat that Arial needed to worry about.

Weeks went by, and October came. People put pumpkins on their porches and hung skeletons or ghostly shapes on their front doors.

The children at school noticed a slow change in Pearl that month. She began to talk a little more. Sometimes you might see a little smile, or hear a quiet laugh. In late October, she sent out twelve invitations for a Halloween party. My mother got one. So did several of her friends. Pearl even invited their teacher.

VOICE TWO:

But not Arial?

VOICE ONE:

No, no, not after all that torture Pearl had to suffer from Arial.

VOICE TWO:

But Arial did not understand that reasoning. She was angry. In fact, it was the first time anyone saw her speechless. She was so filled with rage, she could not put a sentence together.

VOICE ONE:

But that did not last long. Arial told my mother that she planned on attending the party anyway. She said she did not need an invitation.

The night of the party was cold enough that you could see your breath. My mother dressed as a ghost, so she could wear a heavy coat under her white sheet. It was difficult to get to Pearl's house. She and her father lived in an old house in the valley of a mountain. There was a footpath, but parts of it got a little rough.

VOICE TWO:

But they all got there safely?

VOICE ONE:

Well no. They never got to the party at all. My mother said all the guests first met at her house. They decided it would be best to walk to the party as a group. So they started along, dressed as witches and zombies and the like. It was fun, she said, playing little tricks to scare each other along the way. The group entered the woods near Pearl's house. The kids were excited, happy to be going to a party. They could see the lights in Pearl's house in the distance below.

VOICE TWO:

So what happened?

VOICE ONE:

Well, the kids and Missus Hart, their teacher, saw a woman ahead of them walking very close to the edge of the path. Missus Hart quickly reacted.

TEACHER:

"Oh my god -- she's going to fall! We have to warn her. Miss! MISS! Run ahead, kids. Oh, no!"

VOICE ONE:

It was too late. The woman went over the edge. Yet she did not fall. She was floating in the air. She had her arms held out.

WOMAN:

"Come to me, child, come to me, my little girl."

VOICE ONE:

All of a sudden two girls come crashing out of the woods and across the path. The girl in front is clearly Pearl. Her black hair is flowing like wings of a dark angel. But who is she pulling behind her?

TEACHER:

"Pearl, STOP! You'll fall off the cliff. You'll kill yourself. Who is that with you? PEARL!!

VOICE ONE:

Pearl stops and looks toward the floating woman.

WOMAN:

"Come to me, child. Come to me, my Pearl."

VOICE ONE:

My mother shined her flashlight at Pearl and the girl behind her. And there for an instant a look of insane fear stared back at the group from the face of Arial.

(SCREAMS)

VOICE ONE:

Well, after that night, no one ever found any sign of Pearl or Arial. Pearl's father also disappeared that night. The house had been decorated for a party that never took place.

(SOUND)

At the cemetery in town, there are headstones for Pearl and Ariel in graves that hold no remains. My mother says she visits sometimes when she goes back to her hometown. She told me that the last time she was there, she noticed something for the first time. If you mix around the letters of Arial's name -- spelled A-R-I-A-L -- it spells "a liar."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Transcripts and podcasts of our programs can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Featured Podcast : Words and Their Stories - More Terms About Money (VOA News)

Working hard to bring home the bacon. Transcript of radio broadcast:
15 October 2009

MP3  - (Tip: Left-click, or right-click and choose "Save...") Download (MP3)

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Most people enjoy working for several reasons. Their job might be fun, or they like their employer and the other people at work. Most people I know, however, work for the money. I do not know anyone who is loaded, or extremely rich.  Most of my friends work to earn enough money to live. They have to make ends meet. They have to earn enough money to pay for the things they need. Some even live from hand to mouth. They only have enough money for the most important things.

They struggle to earn enough money to bring home the bacon. It can be difficult to earn enough money for a family to survive. Sometimes, poor people even get caught short. They do not have enough money to pay for what they need.

Or they have to spend or lay out more money than they want for something. When this happens, poor people have to tighten their belts and live on less money than usual. I hate when I have to live on less money. It takes me longer to get back on my feet, or return to good financial health.

However, other people are on the gravy train. They get paid more money than their job is worth. These people make a bundle. They really rake in the cash. In fact, they make so much money that they can live high off the hog. They own the best of everything and live in great ease. Sometimes they pay an arm and a leg for something.

Because money is no object to wealthy people, they will pay high prices for whatever they want. Sometimes, they even pay through the nose. They pay too much for things.

I am not rich. I did not make a killing in the stock market when my stocks increased in value. Yet, I am not poor either. When I go out with friends, I do not want to shell out or pay a lot of money. Often, my friends and I will chip in or pay jointly for a fun night out. When we go to restaurants the meal is Dutch treat.  Each person pays his or her own share.

Once, the owner of a restaurant gave us a dinner on the house. We did not have to pay for our meals. However, I admit that we had to grease someone’s palm. We had to pay money to the employee who led us to our table. The money was for a special request. Yes, it was a buy off. The employee put us at the top of the list for a table instead of making us wait like everyone else. We had a great time that night and the meal did not set me back at all. I did not have to pay anything.

Because of that experience, I will always remember that nice things still happen in a world that is driven by money. But, that is just my two cents worth. It is just my opinion.

(MUSIC)       

WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOA News - Words and Their Stories: More Terms About Money

Featured Podcast : Words and Their Stories – Money, Part 1 (VOA News)

What does it take to have a rich life? Transcript of radio broadcast: 01 October 2009

MP3  - (Tip: Left-click, or right-click and choose "Save...") Download (MP3)

Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

(MUSIC)

I think people everywhere dream about having lots of money. I know I do. I would give anything to make money hand over fist. I would like to earn large amounts of money. You could win a large amount of money in the United States through lotteries. People pay money for tickets with numbers. If your combination of numbers is chosen, you win a huge amount of money – often in the millions. Winning the lottery is a windfall.

A few years ago, my friend Al won the lottery. It changed his life. He did not have a rich family. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Instead, my friend was always hard up for cash. He did not have much money. And the money he did earn was chicken feed – very little.

Sometimes Al even had to accept hand-outs, gifts from his family and friends. But do not get me wrong. My friend was not a deadbeat. He was not the kind of person who never paid the money he owed. He simply pinched pennies. He was always very careful with the money he spent. In fact, he was often a cheapskate. He did not like to spend money. The worst times were when he was flat broke and had no money at all. 

One day, Al scraped together a few dollars for a lottery ticket. He thought he would never strike it rich or gain lots of money unexpectedly. But his combination of numbers was chosen and he won the lottery. He hit the jackpot. He won a great deal of money.

Al was so excited. The first thing he did was buy a costly new car. He splurged on the one thing that he normally would not buy. Then he started spending money on unnecessary things. He started to waste it. It was like he had money to burn. He had more money than he needed and it was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent it quickly.

When we got together for a meal at a restaurant, Al paid every time. He would always foot the bill, and pick up the tab. He told me the money made him feel like a million dollars. He was very happy.

But, Al spent too much money. Soon my friend was down and out again. He had no money left. He was back to being strapped for cash. He had spent his bottom dollar, his very last amount. He did not even build up a nest egg. He had not saved any of the money.

I admit I do feel sorry for my friend. He had enough money to live like a king. Instead, he is back to living on a shoestring -- a very low budget. Some might say he is penny wise and pound foolish. He was wise about small things, but not about important things.

(MUSIC)     

WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-10-01-voa2.cfm?renderforprint=1

Featured Podcast : Dreams From My Mother (BBC Documentaries)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/09/090915_dreams_from_my_mother.shtml

Barack Obama made history on 4 November 2008 when he defeated Republican rival John McCain to become the first black president of the United States.

The son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas, he was named after his father who grew up herding goats but gained a scholarship to study in Hawaii.

There the Kenyan met and married Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, who was living in Honolulu with her parents.

The president has famously written of the influence exerted on him by his charismatic but absent father in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, but what of his mother, Ann Dunham?

The world knows very little about her, but how did she affect his formative years and help to shape him in his political rise?

Or download MP3 file HERE ! (Right click with mouse)

She was christened Stanley Ann Dunham because her parents yearned for a boy.

Born in Kansas, she was the only child of hard working middle class parents who kept moving to improve their lives.

She married Barack Obama Snr whom she met in a class at the University of Hawaii at the age of 18.

It was a time of racial tension in America in the early 1960s and mixed marriages were not very common.

When Barack Jr. was still a toddler, his father decided to take up a scholarship at Harvard, turning down a more financially generous offer from New York University which would have supported the whole family. So Ann and young Barry, as he was then known, remained in Hawaii.

He later returned to Kenya alone, where he worked as a government economist, and the couple divorced.

When President Obama was six, his mother married an Indonesian man, Lolo Soetoro and the family moved to Jakarta.

But life proved too conventional for Ann and as she and Lolo became estranged, she moved to Yogyakarta the ancient capital of Java and began a study of indigenous craft industries and their community structures - which she pursued to the end of her life.

As a mature student, she was accepted into a PhD programme at the University of Hawaii and she chose to research the archaeology and anthropology of agricultural blacksmiths. She was the first woman admitted into the inner sanctum of this ancient all-male trade.

As she learnt about the ceremonial dagger making and the ritual power the smiths imbued into each instrument they forged, she also gained an appreciation of all Javanese crafts and culture.

In an effort to alleviate the hardship associated with these peasant industries, she constructed a model of micro-financing which is now the standard in Indonesia, a country that is a world leader in micro-credit systems.

With grants from the Ford Foundation and loans from the World Bank, she worked with many NGO’s to help rural people get loans to launch small enterprises.

In this programme Judith Kampfner talks to Ann’s 80 year old feisty professor and mentor, Alice Dewey.

She also speaks to field workers and executives at the People’s Bank of Indonesia, the Ford Foundation, and the USIA and to anthropologists and crafts workers who knew Ann Dunham.

Listen as the life of this unconventional and idealistic woman is revealed and whether her importance has been deliberately downplayed in the story of Barack Obama.

First broadcast Wednesday 16 September 2009

Featured Podcast : English Café 49 by ESL Pod

In this podcast from www.eslpod.com, you learn about some cultural and societal aspects of the United States. In this podcast dated from September 2006, you’ll learn about Labor Day in the United States and American charitable organizations. To listen to or download this MP3 lesson, go to: ESL Café 49