You're listening to e. s. l. pod cast english cafe. Number two hundred and twenty eight god oh. Uh i dunno where're this is english as a second language hot english cafe episode two twenty eat. I'm your host doctor jeff what one. Coming to you from the center for educational development and beautiful los angeles california where else. Visit our website at e as l p. o. d. dot com. Download this episodes learning guide. An eight to ten page guide we provide for all of our current episodes that gives you some additional help a lot of a dish you know help in improving your english. You can also take a look at our e. s. l. pod cast store with additional courses in english. As well as r. e. s. l. pot cast block. On this cafe we're going to talk about two patriotic songs songs. That are sung by americans in this case to show their love for their country. Specifically we're going to talk about god bless america. And this land is your land. That's right you're going to hear me saying in this episode. So don't go anywhere people listening. We're also going to talk about one of the most famous places for performing in the united states. Carnegie hall. In new york city is always lancer o u r of your question start r o error arrest cafe begins with a discussion of to. Patriotic song. Something that is patriotic p. a. t r i ho t i see. Is something that shows your love for your country. Patriotic americans might have at u s flag in their front yard. Patriotic people will saying often patriotic songs songs about your country. Every country has i'm guessing songs like this. Here in the united states one it very well known patriotic song it's called a god bless america. To blast. Means to. Help and protect to someone. We usually talk about god bless scene people. We also say when someone sneeze is. Someone goes actually. We sometimes say bless you. In places where there are a lot of german immigrants places such as minnesota and in the midwest u s. You will often here people use the expression because intact. I use it even though i'm not german mostly i'm a little bit german. Getting back to our song here. In the sun god bless america the lyrics the words to the song. Are actually a kind of prayer. A prayer p. r. a. why the are is something where you say something or are talking to god you maybe asking god for something. Or thanking god for something. That's a prayer. So god bless america is a song but it's also a prayer where were asking god to to the last and protect america to take care all of our country. We're not saying that god believes more god thinks that the united states is the greatest country in the world some americans may think that. But it really is asking for his blessing his protection. The song was written in nineteen eighteen by one of the most famous american song writers irving br- lan. Berlin was born in russia but he spent most of his life in the united states. The song became very popular in the early part of the twentieth century. In fact so popular some people wanted to make it art national anthem the official song of the united states. Of course our national anthem is actually a song called the star spain gold banner. Which we talked about oh way back in english cafe one fifty three i'll begin by singing the first part of god bless america and then we'll go back and talk about what it means. Go all the books so um uh recall lana um with uh they'll a long looks. Done this ah just to uh no i'd through through the knowledge with the law it from mobile um. From the loans and through the perot uh reviews choose you oh sure um his white with fol- in the in the list. Well i'm uh recur oh. Lawyer whom sweet hole mambo us well no route so. Mollie home sweet whole um. Let's talk a little bit about what i just saying if you could understand that. We started by saying god bless america. Land that i log for. In other words america is the land the country the nation that i love. Stand beside her. To stand beside it someone means. To be with someone to support someone. For refers to the country of the united states it's common in poetry and songs. Four countries to be refer to in personal terms such as humor for for is a little more common. Here were asking god to stand beside or be with america and guy the country. Guys her through the night with the light from a ball it's so we're asking god to guide or need the united states america referring of course to the united states. Through the night perhaps through difficult times to difficult moments. With a light from a bulbs. The ideas that god is above us in the heavens and therefore he is guiding us with this light. The next line is from the mountains to the prairie it's. Priorities p. r. a. i. r. i. e. s.. Art large flat areas of land with lots of grass growing on them. The mid western part of the united states has prairie speed. There are mountains both in the eastern and western parts of the u s. So the ideas that we are asking god to guide all of the country. From the mountains to the prairie it's. To the oceans white with foam. United states has on it's eastern and western borders oceans did land pick to the east the pacific to the west. White with foam refers to the fact that in the ocean. Sometimes do you water will form these white bubbles that when you have a lot of them together form foam f o a m. You can also form foam with soap for example if you're in a bath tub and you rub the soap against your skin with the water you will typically form a certain kind of phone. Well this is phone from the water bubbles in the ocean. God bless america my home sweet home is the last line. My home sweet home. Sweet here means. Below that d. or something that is close to my heart we used the expression home sweet home in regular conversation. To refer to the fact that we are glad we are back home usually after traveling somewhere we come home and we may say home sweet home. Meaning i'm very happy to be back in my house in my home and that's what the song is referring to here. God bless america is not as popular as on as the star spank old banner. However at most professional baseball games at least in recent years they have been singing god bless america. During one of the brakes in the middle of the seventh part working of the baseball game someone will be invited to saying god bless america. That's in addition to singing the start spank old banner at the beginning of the game so you actually get to songs if you will. At a baseball game actually get three songs because after you they sing god bless america they also saying another baseball song which we won't talk about here. We will talk about another popular song from the twentieth century. Written by a man name woody guthrie. Well what do you go three back in nineteen forty decided he didn't really like god bless america. He didn't think that it really reflected. It was really representative of america it didn't represent everyone. So he wrote a different song. Called this land is your land. Guthrie was involved in liberal left politics in the nineteen thirties and forties. And i think part of the reason for this song was to show that the common person the average person. Should be celebrated in a song about united states. This land is your land has different parts i'm just going to sing the chorus which is the part that repeats during the song. This land is you'll um this is a lan does monitors lined from colorful and young to the new york uh is and from the redwood folder is. To the gulf stream launches an. This loved was need for you um to me. We start by singing this land once again this country this nation is your land. So immediately were emphasizing that the country belongs to everyone not just to rich people or not just to people in a certain social class i think that was what guthrie was trying to say. This land is your lan this land is my land. From california which. At the time was. The state. That represented the western border of the united states it was the farthest west on the west coast along with oregon and washington. So in nineteen forty california was one end of the country now of course we have the states of alaska and hawaii which are farther west but they did not become states until nineteen fifty nine. So writing in nineteen forty california represented the west. The east was new york which is on the eastern part of the u s not the most eastern states. He says from california to the new york ireland. He might be referring here too the most famous island in new york which is manhattan that downtown part of new york city. I'm not sure. Then east things from the redwood forrest. To the gulf stream waters. The redwood forest is an area with many trees a forest is a natural area that has many trees. Red woods. R a particular kind of tree very beautiful tall trees that grow in northern california. If you ever go to northern california you should definitely try to see these redwood trees there absolutely huge. The golf stream refers to the gulf of mexico which again is on the southern eastern part of the united states. The stream in the gulf is sometimes called the ocean current it's a path that water moves in as it goes through the ocean. The gulf stream passes from mexico past florida. And so it represents once again sort of this southern. Eastern part of the united states. Notice this is similar to god bless america which talks about from the mountains to the prairie is representing the limits of the united states to include everyone. Then it says this land was made for you and to me. Once again emphasizing that the country belongs to the people to off. The song actually has many verses many parts of the song. The song talks about walking through different areas and seen different parts of the country but i won't sing all of those right now you can probably find a recording of the song online. Several famous singers have recorded the song including bruce springsteen. Some people have said that the song this land as your lan should be our national anthem justice some people want god bless america but. Neither of them of course is that it is instead the start spank over banner. This land is your land is not song in public that much not as much as god bless america at least that i have heard. So those are two patriotic well known songs here in the united states. God bless america and this land is your land. Now let's turn to our second topic carnegie hall. Normally a hall is a narrow passage way into building how you get from one room to another. But in this case hall refers to a large room or large building that is used for meetings dances and performances. That's the meaning of hall when we're using the word to talk about carnegie hall. Trying to get hall is a large building in new york city. It's use for concerts another performances it was built and eighteen ninety one by a philanthropy is named and drew carnegie. A philanthropy this is. A person who is very rich has a lot of money and gives that money to organizations and groups in order to help them andrew carnegie. Made a lot of money in the steel industry steel. S t e e l is it type of strong metal used in making buildings and cars and other things. Carnegie hall has three separate areas for performance. Each one is also called ah hall. The biggest tall seats two thousand eight hundred and four people the smallest tall seats only two hundred and sixty eight people. To seat. Here used as a verb. Means that a certain number of people can sit in that room there's enough room for. Basically two thousand eight hundred and four chairs if you will inside the room. In a typical your carnegie hall has about two hundred and fifty performances. And it rents out it's facilities to other performing groups so there's almost always something going on at carnegie hall. Why is carnegie hall so famous well the main hall has very good acoustics. Acoustics. A c. o. u. s. t. i see s. Refers to the way that sound travels in a given space in a room. If we say a room has good acoustics we mean that it's a good room for listening to music performance for example. Musicians like to play in carnegie hall. Because. It is a place with pretty good acoustics. Also carnegie hall is in new york city one of the cultural capitals of the united states if not d cultural capital of the u. s.. If somebody says i'm going to play carnegie hall. They mean they're going to perform at carnegie hall. That's really the top of the entertainment world in terms of famous places to perform if you performed that carnegie hall well you're considered a great artist. At least that's what the traditional reputation of current a gay hall is. Many famous musicians have performed of course at carnegie hall. The walls are lined with their portraits and photographs. When we say the walls art lined l light and e. d. with something we mean they're covered with these many things. My mother's house is lined with photographs of her children and her grandchildren and her great grandchildren. When you walk through carnegie hall the walls are lined with photographs and portraits pictures of famous people who have performed there. Carnegie hall used to have just classical music. But it began to have jazz and popular music a little later on in the twentieth century. And now there are even rock and roll and country music groups that perform there. In addition to it's famous. Performers carnegie hall also is engaged in or active in many types of education a work trying to teach people especially young students about music. It has a lot of programs for schools it has family concerts. Sometimes carnegie hall even sponsors some free concerts in some neighborhoods. So if you ever in new york city in the downtown of new york city manhattan. You definitely want to at least go by carnegie hall. It would be wonderful to see a performance there i admit i have not been to carnegie hall. But some day i hope i will go at least as somebody sitting in the seats if not an actual performer. One more thing about andrew carnegie i said he was it for lancer past he was really one of the most famous and most generous philanthropy as. In the united states especially in the late nineteen an early twentieth century. In addition to building carnegie hall he's also famous for building libraries public libraries and a university libraries. In fact he gave money to build more than two thousand five hundred libraries. Most of those were built in the united states but also in britain ireland canada australia new zealand serbia. Islands in the caribbean and fiji he probably did more for. American education and learning literacy the ability to read and write then just about any other single individual in our history. Now let's answer a few of your questions. Uhhuh. First question how do from next series in a t s i r he he. From thailand has always i apologize if the pronunciation is not correct. The question has to do with the. Words grind day and saying t. Both of these words have become popular in the u. s. because there's one chain one. Company that has many different coffee shops or cafes in the u. s. called starbucks. They have them in other places in the world as well. And if you go at least to the american version of a starbucks. You will see that the size of the drinks that they sell coffee drinks mostly. Are either tall grind day or vein t. Grind day in this case comes from the italian word meaning large a grind they drink as a sixteen ounce coffee drink at starbucks. A tall. Is a twelve ounce. Coffee drink which is actually at least on the menu the smallest drink you can get. It's somewhat ironic that a tall is actually the smallest. Then comes the ground day. The biggest is called a vein t. V e and t. i. this is italian for twenty. Because this has twenty ounces of coffee or whatever drink you're getting t. So for example if you wanted. A coffee you would say i wanna vein t coffee or if you wanted something like coffee with milk you would say i wanna grind day lot tae. Lot tae another italian word is related to milk. In fact starbucks uses several italian words in it's menu. It sells drinks such as as spread so which is a strong italian style coffee it sells lot pays which. Is a hot milk added to your coffee or t. I go to starbucks at least a couple of times each week i get a vein t. earl grey t lot tae i type of t. I get usually now in fact meaning non fat milk. So if you come to los angeles and you want to by me a drink at starbucks you can order a vein t. earl grey t. lot today non fat milk. My next question comes from david d. a. v. i. d. in germany. David wants to know the difference between troop t r o o p. And troops. T r o o p ask. For example he heard or read in the news that there were a hundred and forty thousand troops in iraq. Troops. Refers to individual soldiers but talking about more than one. So there are forty thousand troops there are a hundred thousand troops. That means there are forty thousand soldiers forty thousand troops. Troop without the s at the end. Is actually a group of soldiers that is under the command or is following a single leader. The captain says his troop is moving out at don meaning it's going to leave in the morning. Troop can also refer to small groups that are not soldiers adults or children in fact the boy scouts and the girl scouts which are two organizations for young boys and young girls. Usually calls their group of children a troop so when i was a young child i was in a boy scout troop it was a group of kids. Maybe ten or fifteen that all went to the same school and we're all part of the same boy scout troop so true can refer to a group of people. But troops with the s at the end always refers to the number of soldiers or the individual soldiers but as a group. It's a little confusing i know. There's a popular bumper sticker. That you might see in the us a bumper sticker is. A little sign that people put on the backs up their cars. One of them that has been popular here in the last seven or eight years is support our troops. Meaning support these men and women who are in the military services such as the army and the navy and the marine corps. My final question comes from danielle a d a n i e e l e in italy. The question has to do with the word ghost writing. G h o s t w r i t i and gee one word. You'll usually here more commonly use the word ghost written for example this book was ghost written. What's this mean well a ghost. G h o s t. Is supposedly a dead person who has an image you can still see. Some people think they can talk to those who have died by talking to their ghost well ghost written refers to something that was written by someone else. Or someone else help. The author right whatever it is they wrote a lot of same as actors and politicians write books. But they don't really write them themselves they have a ghost writer a person who helps them right the book. So that's the meaning of ghost written it has nothing to do with dead people it is more related to the idea that you don't see the ghost that is writing the. Ghost writers somehow not seen that you think that you're reading the politician or the actor or whoever it was who put their name on this book. If you have a question or comment force you can email us our email address is e. s. l. p. o. d. at d s l p o d dot com. From los angeles california i'm jeff a quill and thank you for listening. Come back and listen to is next time on the english cafe. And stuff like uh english cafe is written and produced by doctor careful quell and and doctor list okay path right two thousand ten by the center. For educational development uhhuh uhhuh
2005