EC055_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 55

TOPICS

Genealogy, Bill Cosby, to get down on your knees vs. to get down on one knee

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GLOSSARY

blood relative – someone who is related to you because they were born into

your family, rather than to be related by marriage

* Sandy and Douglas grew up together in Houston, but I’m not sure if they are

blood relatives.

miniseries – a television drama show that is shown in several parts

* Do you know how if this miniseries is has four or five episodes?

ancestor – a family relation from the past, usually those who are older than your

grandparents

* She used to tell all of her friends that one of her ancestors was a king of

Norway, but I don’t think anyone believed her.

to trace (one’s) family tree – to find out who one’s family relations are, from the

past and present

* We both have the same last name but we’ll have to trace our family trees to

know if we’re related at all.

hyphenated American – Americans whose family comes from another country

or a specific cultural group

* It’s not uncommon for many proud Americans to identify themselves as

hyphenated Americans and to recognize their heritage.

cemetery – graveyard; a place where dead people are buried

* Each time we drove by this cemetery when I was young, my older brother

would tell me ghost stories to try to scare me.

birth certificate – an official document that records someone’s birth

* He was in shock when he saw on his birth certificate that his mother was only

17 when he was born.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 55

Mormon – a member of the Mormon church, a religious group begun in the

United States in the 19 th century

* The official name for the Mormon church is the Church of Jesus Christ of the

Latter-day Saints.

stand-up comedian – a person who tries to make people laugh by telling jokes

in front of an audience

* Eddie took a year off from school to try to make it as a stand-up comedian.

to tell a joke – to say something that is intended to make people laugh

* He wanted to tell a joke at the beginning of his presentation, but I tried to

convince him that it wasn’t a good idea at a serious meeting like this one.

album – a round, flat disk that has a collection of sound recordings

* We went to the used records store and bought some great old albums.

cartoon – a TV show or movie that is made with drawings, rather than real

people

* After school, my brother always wanted to watch cartoons instead of doing his

homework, but my mother never let him.

upper-class – the group of people in a society with the a lot of money and high

status

* The principal of that private school told me that all of the upper-class families in

town sent their children there, but that didn’t impress me.

to get down on (one’s) knees – to beg; to ask someone for something; to ask

for forgiveness

* If you want Olivia to forgive you, you’ll have to get down on your knees to tell

her how sorry you are.

to get down on one knee – to kneel; to ask someone to marry him or her

* Gina couldn’t believe it when her boyfriend got down on one knee in the middle

of crowded restaurant to ask her to marry him.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 55

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

“There’s a black sheep in every family.”

The expression, “black sheep,” is commonly used to describe a member of a

family who is a “disgrace,” or who does bad things or is a failure. If there is

someone in your family who has been in trouble with the police or who gambles

and loses all his or her money, you may hear someone say of that person: “He

(or she) is the black sheep of that family.”

The color black, in the U.S. and in other western societies, usually represents

things that are bad or evil, while the color white is usually used for good or pure

things. As you probably know, in old movies, the “villain,” or the bad person who

causes trouble is traditionally dressed in black, while the “hero,” or the good

person who saves others from the villain is dressed in white.

The color black is used in entertainment in other ways. If someone describes a

movie as a “black comedy,” you know that it is a funny movie, but one that has a

serious or tragic side. People can be “blacklisted,” which marks them as an

undesirable person and they are not, for example, hired for a job or allowed to

come into a place of business.

The word “black” has been used a lot to describe bad or sad events in history. In

1929, for example, the stock market in the U.S. “crashed,” or declined to a very

low level very quickly. That day is now known as “Black Tuesday.”

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 55

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café

number 55.

This is English Café episode 55. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you

from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles,

California.

On this Café we're going to talk about genealogy, or the study of your family tree

and why that's so popular in the United States. We're also going to talk about

one the most popular, well-known comedians and actors in the U.S., a man by

the name of Bill Cosby. And, as always, we'll answer a few questions. Let's get

started.

If you haven't visited our website recently, go to eslpod.com. You'll find some

new things on our website. You will also find information about the Learning

Guide for this podcast episode. That is an eight to ten page guide that includes

all the vocabulary and definitions of the words we talk about on each podcast. It

also includes additional definitions, culture notes and a complete transcript of this

podcast.

Today's topic is genealogy. Genealogy, “genealogy,” is the study of your family

and where your family came from, more importantly, who your relatives are. We

use that word, relatives, to mean anyone who is connected to you because of

either blood or marriage. A blood relative, just like the blood that is in your body,

a blood relative is someone who is related to you, is one of your relatives

because you have a common father or a common mother or you have the same

grandfather or maybe the same great-great grandfather. That would be

someone who is a blood relative. Someone who's a relative by marriage would

mean that they are considered your relative because they married someone who

is your blood relative.

The study of genealogy, what we usually call your family tree, has become very

popular in the United States. It started to become popular, I think, especially in

the 1970’s and one of reasons is because of television. There was a very

famous and very popular television movie. It was what we would probably call a

miniseries. Mini, “miniseries,” that's when you have a television show that is on

more than one night. It's more than one episode, but it's not a complete season.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 55

It doesn't last for 20 or 30 weeks. It's usually three, four, maybe five nights when

you have this what is actually a long television movie.

Well, this miniseries in the 1970’s that got people interested in genealogy was

called Roots, “Roots.” And, Roots is book, originally was a book by an author

named Alex Haley, and it was made into a miniseries. They made it into a

movie. And, it's the story of a man who is trying to find his relatives, what we

would call his ancestors. An ancestor, “ancestor,” is someone who was born

before you, sometimes many years before you, but is one of your relatives.

This is the story of an African-American who, we would use the verb, traces his

family tree. To trace, “trace,” means to research, to investigate your family tree,

to find out who your ancestors were, who your relatives were. Well, this was the

story of...began as the story of an African slave, someone who was brought over

to the United States in the 19th century to work as a slave. It follows that

person's story and it is...was a very popular, very popular television show. Very

good television show, showed the history, in part, of slavery in the United States,

especially in the south of the United States. It got other people interested in

finding out where their relatives, their ancestors came from.

United States, of course, is a country of immigrants, for the most part. Most

people here come from another country. One of things that it, I think, produces in

Americans, is it makes them want to where they came from, or at least some

Americans. They want to feel a sense of history. They want to know what their

history is. And, I suppose it's a little like someone who is adopted, someone who

is brought into a family and made part of the family. You always wonder where

your parents went, where your original parents are, and that's a little bit about

what Americans think. They...many of them want to know and have a connection

with the home country, or the country where their ancestors came from, their

relatives came from.

They are many Americans who identify themselves not just as Americans, but as

what we would call hyphenated Americans. A hyphen, “hyphen,” is that little line

that you put in the middle of a word. When you're connecting two words and

making them one word, we many times use a hyphen in English. Hyphenated

comes from the word hyphen, and it refers to a word that has a hyphen in it. We

say it is hyphenated.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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