Here’s an interesting article about various holiday traditions and regionalisms around the United States rooted in different European customs.
To read the article go to: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/12/26/the_belsnickler_cometh/?page=1
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/The-Sounds-of-Christmas-112397699.html
23 December 2010
Cover Art from Pink Martini's first holiday album.
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)
Doug Johnson: Welcome to American Mosaic in VOA Special English
(MUSIC)
I’m Doug Johnson.
The winter holiday can be beautiful and bright. Christmas lights, boxes wrapped in pretty paper and excited children are everywhere.
But it can be a difficult and demanding time, too. There is a lot of preparation for Christmas: shopping, cleaning, cooking and decorating.
So today on our show we invite our listeners to slow down while we play holiday music released this year.
(MUSIC)
That is “Pie Jesu” sung by ten-year-old Jackie Evancho of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jackie was discovered earlier this year on the television show “America’s Got Talent.” She did not win the competition. But she did get a record deal.
Jackie Evanko sang at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony with President Barack Obama and his family in Washington.
Her Christmas album, “O Holy Night,” came out November sixteenth. The Recording Industry Association of America just rated the album platinum. That means it has sold one million copies or more. Billboard magazine says Jackie Evancho is the country’s top-selling new artist.
“Carols and Christmas Songs” is the name of Bryn Terfel’s new album. The Welsh opera singer sings a beautiful Austrian song called “Still, Still, Still.” The German words to the first verse mean:
Still, still, still
For the baby wants to sleep
The angels jubilate with beauty
Making music by the manger
Still, still, still
For the baby wants to sleep
(MUSIC)
The Putamayo World Music company’s seasonal album is called “World Christmas Party.” The recording features songs and artists from Brazil, Cape Verde, New Zealand and many other parts of the world.
One of the performers is the Heritage Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans, Louisiana. The band has been playing traditional New Orleans jazz around the world for almost thirty-five years. Here the band performs “Barra de Navidad Blues.” Barra de Navidad is a beach town in Jalisco, Mexico. It means “Christmas Sandbar” in Spanish.
(MUSIC)
Scottish singer Annie Lennox released her first holiday album this year. However, she says she has been singing the songs on “A Christmas Cornucopia” since her childhood. In fact, some of the songs were probably playing when was born -- on Christmas night, nineteen fifty-four. Here she performs “Silent Night” which she recorded with the African Children’s Choir in South Africa.
(MUSIC)
One of America’s favorite television shows also has a record out for the holidays. “Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album,” went to number three on Billboard’s special holiday sales chart.
Critics’ reactions were mixed. Some praised the producers for trying new things with traditional Christmas songs. Others said the producers did not choose the right singers for the songs.
However, most critics thought Matthew Morrison, who plays a teacher on the show, performed this song well. Here is “O Christmas Tree.”
(MUSIC)
The number one album on Billboard’s Top Two Hundred is a holiday recording. Scottish singer Susan Boyle’s “The Gift” has been in that position for four weeks.
Boyle launched her career in January of last year. She performed on the television show “Britain’s Got Talent.” Her performance was posted on YouTube. Her beautiful voice and shy personality got the attention of huge numbers of people. She became famous almost overnight.
Here Susan Boyle sings “The First Noel” from her album, “The Gift.”
(MUSIC)
The O’Jays are a rhythm and blues group from Canton, Ohio. They formed in the late nineteen fifties and have had seven studio albums on Billboard’s top twenty chart.
This year the O’Jays released their second holiday album, “Christmas with the O’Jays.” It includes traditional songs, but also this danceable number, “Cause It’s Christmas.”
(MUSIC)
Finally, Pink Martini is a twelve-member orchestra from Portland, Oregon. The group made its first holiday album this year. “Joy to The World” includes songs for Christmas and Hanukkah. There are also holiday songs from around the world like “Shehedryk (Ukrainian Bell Carol).” It is known in America as “Carol of the Bells.” The song tells the story of a swallow flying into a family’s home to declare the good fortune they will have in the New Year.
(MUSIC)
I’m Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed this holiday program. It was written and produced by Caty Weaver. You can get transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. If you have a question about American life, write to mosaic@voanews.com. We might answer your question on this show. So please include your name and country.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
Voice of America’s site has recently launched a new feature that I’ve just discovered. They now have interactive online language lessons with lots of activities! Also, check out the Idiom Dictionary and the Wordbook they propose. To access the site, click on the image below!
or click here : http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/theclassroom/home/
The Pilgrims had brought with them a shallop they had dismantled to fit onboard the Mayflower. It had also been damaged during the crossing and so its reparation and reassembling delayed exploration of the coast for two weeks. Finally exploration began under the leadership of Myles Standish, a soldier the Pilgrims met in Leiden and hired to assist them, and Christopher Jones, the Mayflower's master. They found an area of land deserted of all human life with vestiges of old buildings and recently cultivated fields. Artificial mounds which turned out to be Native American graves were discovered and in which they found baskets of maize which they took intending it for planting. 
arrived in the area which would become the settlement of Plymouth. They cleared the remains of the village Patuxet which had belonged to the Wampanoag people and whose residents were wiped out by a plague three years earlier. Construction began immediately and the first common house of the Pilgrims was completed on January 19th. 
This podcast on Halloween dates from 2005. Listen to the podcast streamed from ESL Pod.
To download this podcast and read the dialogue, go to : http://www.eslpod.com/website/show_podcast.php?issue_id=1243077
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/a-23-2009-10-26-voa2-83142527.html
Broadcast on 26 October 2009
To Listen Right Click and Choose Save Link/Target As: Download
What happens when a girl goes too far with lies about her classmates. Transcript of radio broadcast:
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!
(To read the rest, go to : http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/a-23-2009-10-26-voa2-83142527.html)
Here’s a new site from BBC Learning English which will inform you off all the new words idioms and slang that have entered the English language.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/uptodate/
For B1+/B2 level and above students, this could be an interesting podcast to listen to in order to work on listening skills.
Americana: inside the USA
Americana: An insider’s guide to the stories shaping the USA today. From Washington DC and broadcast every Sunday, at 7.15 pm, Matt Frei is your host. On offer, discussion and insight from some of the best known names and voices in America.
- Updated:
Weekly- Average duration:
27 minutesSubscribe for free
Subscribe to this podcast and automatically receive the latest episodes.
EuroNews and France 5 propose a weekly online lesson you can access. You’ll watch a short news video followed by comprehension questions and exercises. Five languages are offered: English, Spanish, German, French and Italian. Access the site by clicking on the image below.
A few days ago I posted a link to the Australia Network’s page for learning English.
They have an entire online video course for elementary learners entitled Living English that is free!!!
I just took a look and it is very well done. Just click on the image or link above to access the site.
Australia Network is an international television and radio network which is raising awareness about Australia.
They also have a whole site dedicated to learning English with video podcasts and learning programs you can subscribe to. To visit the “Learning English” page, go to : http://australianetwork.com/learningenglish/
Use your RSS feed (des flux RSS ) which will automatically inform you when a new lesson is available. The address for adding this to your computer is : http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/rss.xml
I just learned about a great new site that uses songs and their lyrics to help you learn English (or other languages such as Spanish, Italian or German). First you choose your song and then your language level. After, you listen to the song and try to complete the lyrics.
Check it out at http://www.lyricstraining.com
Storynory (www.storynory.com) is a great and fun site you can use to improve your listening comprehension. You can download audio stories (new stories, fairy tales, myths and histories) in MP3 format and read the transcripts on the site. AND IT’S FREE ! !
While reading the story on the website, if you double click on a word, you’ll be given an option of languages to choose from for a translation.
Here are links to the classic King Arthur tale of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
For the transcript of these two stories, visit www.storynory.com
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. (19 Nov 2009) - http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-11-19-voa3.cfm
Women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs. The latest government report shows that their share of nonfarm jobs nearly reached fifty percent in September. Not only have more and more women entered the labor market over the years, but the recession has been harder on men. In October the unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent, compared to eight percent for women.
Industries that traditionally use lots of men have suffered deep cuts. For example, manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. But health care and 
temporary employment services have had job growth. Both of those industries employ high percentages of women.
Thirty years ago, women earned sixty-two cents for every dollar that men earned. Now, for those who usually work full time, women earn about eighty percent of what men earn. And women hold fifty-one percent of good-paying management and professional jobs.
Yet a study released Thursday said men still hold about nine out of every ten top positions at the four hundred largest companies in California. The results have remained largely unchanged in five years of studies from the University of California, Davis.
Also, a new research paper in the journal Sex Roles looks at the experiences of women who are the main earners in their family. Rebecca Meisenbach at the University of Missouri in Columbia interviewed fifteen women. She found they all valued their independence and many enjoyed having the power of control, though not all wanted it.
But they also felt pressure, worry and guilt. Partly that was because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. Also, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.
The job market continues to suffer the effects of last year's financial crash. Now, a judgment has been reached in the first case involving charges of criminal wrongdoing on Wall Street.
Last week, the government lost its case against two managers at Bear Stearns, the first investment bank to fail last year. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of lying to investors.
The hedge funds they supervised lost their value in two thousand seven. But jurors said there was no clear evidence that they meant to mislead investors.
The Justice Department continues to investigate other companies.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
Trimmings is a strange word in English. In comes from the verb to trim meaning to ornament or decorate. For example, at Christmas we say to trim the tree. This means to decorate the Christmas tree. Trimmings is used to talk about all the the extra parts added to a meal to make it traditional or more interesting. This word is usually used for the festive meals of Thanksgiving or Christmas. In the United States, some of the trimmings you might find gracing the Thanksgiving table along with the turkey are stuffing (une farce), sweet potatoes (des patates douces), various types of casseroles (des gratins), mashed potatoes (une purée), cranberry sauce or relish, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and other various desserts.
For some American Thanksgiving recipes, go to:
Allrecipes.com - Thankgiving recipes homepage
Holidays.net - Thanksgiving recipes
Foodnetwork.com (Food TV) - Thankgiving and Turkey recipes
Read the article and view a slideshow of these pretty towns at :
http://www.forbestraveler.com/best-lists/americas-prettiest-towns-2009-story.html
Expand your vocabulary at News English Lessons! This site comes from the creator of Breaking News English. In this new site, where news articles are written in simple English, there are online exercises and quizzes to learn the vocabulary used in each of the articles.
To access the site, click on the link above or go to : http://www.newsenglishlessons.com/
You can listen to a video where you will see subtitles of the speech. You can click on each word to hear how it's pronounced and then you can record your voice saying the same line. The voice recognition program will grade your speech and tell you where you need to improve. Check it out by watching the demo first!! You only need a microphone!
Various topics are available such as business, daily life, movies & TV, sports, travel, etc..
