EC057_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 57

TOPICS

Woodstock Music Festival, Affirmative Action, hands-on vs. hand-off, to struggle,

how to ask for a taxi, May I vs. Can I, to carpool

____________

GLOSSARY

gathering – a meeting, usually for a social purpose or celebration

* Every year, St. Louis has a gathering of the best jazz musicians in the country.

overdose – too much of a dangerous drug that causes someone to be sick or to

die

* The police don’t know yet how the man died, but they think it was an overdose

of sleeping pills.

national anthem – a country’s official national song

* You’ll hear the U.S. national anthem played before every professional baseball

game.

shiny – something that reflects light, usually a smooth surface

* Is that Dr. Jeff McQuillan over there? I think I see the top of his shiny head!

affirmative – agreeing to or approving of something; positive; yes

* If we get an affirmative response from the local government, we can move

ahead with this building project.

remedy – something that corrects or fixes something that is wrong or that causes

a problem

* The only remedy we can see for fixing this mistake is to start all over again.

to be admitted – to allow someone to enter, enroll, or join a group or an

organization

* When will you find out if you have been admitted to the University of Arkansas?

race – a group of people with common physical features

* On most government forms, you are asked to check a box indicating your race.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 57

gender – being male (a man/boy) or female (a woman/girl)

* I want to make it clear that there will be no gender preferences when hiring for

these jobs.

ethnicity – a group with the same social, cultural, and/or language background

* Our next presentation will be about how race and ethnicity are portrayed in

American movies.

to reverse – to go backwards; to change to the opposite

* The vice-president of our club reversed his decision and we will now allow

players under 18 to join.

hands-on / hands-off – being involved or participating (hands-on); not being

involved or not participating (hands-off)

* The old manager liked to be hands-on in the office, meeting with people every

week, but the new manager prefers being hands-off unless there’s a serious

problem.

to struggle – to try to do something that is difficult to achieve; to physically fight

with someone

* He struggled with the tax forms for an hour but still couldn’t figure them out.

to call (someone) a taxi – to get a taxicab for someone

* Dan, would you please call Ms. Sanchez a taxi as soon as possible?

May I… / Can I... – a phrase to use when asking someone for permission to do

something; “May I” is more formal than “Can I”

* May I take your coat for you, and can I help you find your seat?

to carpool – to ride in a car with one or more other people to a specific place,

rather than to drive alone

* I started carpooling to work three times a week and it’s saving me a lot of

money on gas.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 57

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

Politically Correctness

“Politically correctness” is a term used for language that we use that is least likely

to cause “offense,” or cause other people to be angry with you. We talk about

being politically correct or “PC” most often when we are talking about racial or

cultural groups in the U.S., but it can be used with any group. Most people see

being PC as a way to give groups respect so that groups can get along with each

other. Others believe that Americans try to be too PC and that they are too

careful about giving offense. There has been some “backlash,” or strong

negative reaction in the opposite direction. There is even a political talk show on

American television called, “Politically Incorrect.”

Below are the politically correct or generally accepted terms for some of the

major racial and cultural groups in the U.S. What is acceptable has changed

over time. Terms acceptable 20 or 50 years ago are now no longer considered

appropriate, and some of those are listed in the right-hand column below. We do

not include “racial slurs,” or bad names used to insult a specific racial or cultural

group. We also do not have the space to include smaller ethnic groups, such as

Mexican American, Korean American, or Nigerian American.

Generally Acceptable

Less Acceptable or Not Acceptable

 Native American

 American Indian

 Indian

 African American

 Black

 Afro-American

 Negro

 Colored

 Latino (men) / Latina (women)

 Hispanic

 Spanish (unless from Spain)

 Asian American

 Oriental

 White (American)

 Caucasian (American)

 European American

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 57

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

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

number 57.

This is English Café episode 57. 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 one of the most famous music festivals of

the 20th century in the United States, the Woodstock Music Festival. We're also

going to go over a controversial political idea called affirmative action. And as

always, we'll answer a few questions. Let's get started.

If you go to our website at eslpod.com, you'll find more information about this

podcast, including today's Learning Guide. The Learning Guide contains all of

the vocabulary that we talk about as well as definitions, additional definitions that

we don't talk about on the podcast, a cultural note as well as the complete

transcript for this episode.

Our first topic today is going to be what is, perhaps, one of the most famous

music festivals in the United States, and that was the Woodstock Festival. A

music festival is just another word for a music concert that has several different

groups, usually one that lasts two or three days.

Woodstock, “Woodstock,” all one word, is a town in New York, the state of New

York. And, the Woodstock Music Festival was a rock and roll music festival. It

took place in 1969, in the summer of 1969, and there were more than a half a

million people there, mostly young people, teenagers, people in their 20s. And,

the reason Woodstock is so famous in American popular culture is because it

was the largest gathering, and maybe the most well known gathering of the

hippie movement in the US.

A gathering, “gathering,” is just when several people get together. Hippies,

“hippies” - sometimes the spell the singular hippy, “hippy” - hippies were young

people who wanted to go against the traditional culture, who wanted to do things

differently. Remember that in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the United States

was involved in military actions in Southeast Asia, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, in

Laos. And, many people were against that war, that action, so there were many

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 57

protests. But there were also protests against more traditional ways of doing

things. The hippy movement was one that represented this different way of

looking at things, this different way of living.

There were a lot of people using drugs - illegal drugs - at the festival and that

caused a lot of problems. Two people actually died of a drug overdose. An

overdose, “overdose,” all one word, is when someone takes too much of a

certain drug and it kills them. This is what happened at Woodstock. Two young

people died of an overdose.

But, it was a very well known, famous event. In fact they made a movie a year

later about Woodstock. It's called Woodstock - surprising, I know. Some of the

most famous music groups, rock music groups at the time performed at

Woodstock. In fact, I would say that most of these would be names that you

would recognize or that would be famous. Two of the most famous groups were

The Who, from England, and the guitar player, Jimi Hendrix, from the United

States. The performance by Jimi Hendrix is still famous because he played the

national anthem on his electric guitar.

The national anthem, “anthem,” is the national song. In the United States it's

called the “Star Spangled Banner.” Banner is just another word here for flag, and

the United States flag has stars on it. It has one star for each state in the United

States, so there are 50 stars. The word spangle means a bright spot, something

that you can see that is very, we would say, shiny, “shiny.” Something that is

shiny reflects light. You can see it. So, Star Spangled Banner just means the

flag that has these little stars that you can see. It is, as I say, our national

anthem. Well, Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner on his guitar, on

his electric guitar, and gave it a very different fee l than most Americans were

used to and that became a very famous part of this Woodstock Festival.

Our second topic today is going to be about a political policy, really. We don't

talk about politics very much on the Café, but I thought I would talk in general

terms about one popular policy that has been around in the United States for

more than 30 years, and that is the idea of affirmative action.

Affirmative, “affirmative,” is the opposite of negative. Affirmative is something

that is positive. Affirmative action, then, means that you help someone who you

have hurt, or you have injured, in this case. The idea is that groups in the United

States that had been discriminated against for many years would receive help for

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

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