WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to get better in their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

In this episode, we will talk together about American history. Maybe some of you know that I studied English and English literature at the university but with that, a huge part of my studies was the culture of American and British society. And that is why I really like to talk about it and I am very interested in it. That is why this is one of the first episodes about this topic but certainly not the last because you can’t even imagine how interesting British and American history is. Sometimes it is really like a comedy. And sometimes also tragedy.

So today, I prepared for you a little fun quiz where you can listen, test yourself, and maybe learn something new. Are you ready? Here we go!

First, let’s go back to the discovery of America. And by that, I mean the time when Europeans discovered America. To me, it is funny how in our history we talk about it like there was nothing, and then Christopher Columbus came and suddenly the American continent appeared. People had been living there for thousands of years but very often, the official American history begins with Columbus coming there. So, talking about that, we will start with an easy one.

When did Columbus quote on quote “discover” America?

a) 1392

b) 1492

c) 1592

The correct answer is b) 1492. Did you get it right?

I imagine it went like this – Columbus was sailing with his men on three ships- Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta when they saw a land. “Oh my god, finally, India!” said Columbus. Because he thought that he had just come to India. And then he saw the Native Americans.

“Hello Indians,” said Columbus, probably.

The Native Americans must have looked at each other in confusion. They probably didn’t understand him anyway but even if they did, they wouldn’t have known why would he call them Indians.

Anyway, later Columbus, of course, found out that it wasn’t India and it was indeed a continent that Europeans didn’t know that much. And that was the beginning of European civilization in America and also the beginning of the end of the happy life of Native Americans.

The history of Native Americans is truly heartbreaking and extremely interesting. I will for sure make an episode about them as well.

Okay, let’s fast-forward to the establishment of the United States in the 18th century. The establishment is like the creation of the United States.

Do you know who was the first American president?

a) George Washington

b) Abraham Lincoln 

c) Thomas Jefferson

It was… a) George Washington. The other ones were also presidents, just later. The first one was our boy George. He was an important personality in the War of Independence when the United States didn’t want to be under the British Empire anymore. He was one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence. Do you know the document? It has three main points:

(1) God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;  

(2) the main business of government is to protect these rights; – which means that the government is to make sure that everyone has the same rights.

(3) if a government tries to withhold these rights, the people are free to revolt and to set up a new government. – which means that if the government does a bad job, people can kill them or something. No, I am just kidding, not kill them but replace them.

Sounds very nice right? All men were equal but only if they were white, educated and rich and of course…if they were not women. Then they could be equal. 

Did you know that George Washington owned black slaves? A slave is a person who is forced to work for free. Yes, he had like 300 of them. But to be fair, when he was at the end of his life, he started to have a problem with slavery – very brave of him– and made the decision to free all his slaves and write it into his will. A will is a paper that says what people should do with your property after you die. I mean, very nice of him but maybe he could have done it a little bit sooner than literally on his deathbed. 

Okay, let’s continue with another question. With the establishment of the United States, they also got a flag. Imagine the American flag in your mind now. I am sure you can see a blue rectangle in the left corner with stars in it and then white and red stripes.

But do you know how many stripes and how many stars there are? 

a) 15 stars and 20 stripes

b) 50 stars and 10 stripes

c) 50 stars and 13 stripes

Do you have your guess? The correct answer is c) 50 stars and 13 stripes. Why? Well, each star represents each state of the United States. I will now name all of them in alphabetical order: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California… I am just kidding. But actually, there is one joke called “Murphy’s Law of American Statehood” which says that no one can ever name all 50 states in a single attempt – you always forget about some states when you name them. I mean, if you ask me, I would forget maybe 30 of them but not even Americans can name them all. What is funny is it was observed that if you ask them to recall them twice, they always forget about different ones.

Okay, enough about the stars, what about the stripes? Why 13 stripes? They stand for the 13 original colonies that founded the United States. When the first settlers came to America, they founded colonies on the east coast of America. And eventually, there were 13 of them. So that is why we have 13 stripes.

Before the United States was established, the American government had to buy some of the territory from different colonial powers. One of those very interesting purchases was the purchase of Louisiana which is an American state to this day. American government bought it in 1803.

Do you know from whom?

a) Spain

b) France

c) Great Britain

Do you have your guess? The correct answer is b) France. Yes, Louisiana was bought from France. Even the name of the state has its origin in French history because Louisiana was named after the French king Louis XIV. And do you know why France sold this territory to the United States? Do you know who was the leader of France at that time? Yep, it was Napoleon. And Napoleon reeeeaaally wanted to rule Europe and have his Empire here so he didn’t care that much about the territory in the United States. 

I mean, not that he didn’t care, he probably cared a little bit but do you know how expensive is it to fight so many wars? It is very expensive. And Napoleon was running dry with his funds so he had to do something about it. And tada, here you have it, selling Louisana was the solution. Ehm, oh well, it didn’t save him from totally failing in the end but you know, probably helped him at that time. 

And now the last question of today’s episode. Maybe you know that in the 19th century, there was a civil war in the United States. The North was fighting against the South. That means the northern countries were fighting against the southern countries. It was a very big point in American history.

Do you know what was the main reason for this war?

a) a bad government

b) a question of finances

c) a question of slavery

aand the correct answer is c) the question of slavery. Yeah, the North of the United States was starting to think: “Maybe, just maybe…we shouldn’t have slaves and maybe, just maybe it is not very moral.” but the South was more like: “Maybe, just maybe, we don’t want to pay black people money for their work and maybe, just maybe we really like when we can do whatever we want with them including killing them with no consequences” – and so that the war began. 

Maybe you know that the war lasted for 4 years and ended in 1865 with the abolishment of slavery. Abolishment of slavery means that slavery was forbidden and all slaves were free.

As you probably know, it didn’t really solve the question of racism which is still a big part of American culture and politics even today, but at least it happened. Here I would also like to talk about the Jim Crow laws and Green Book which are topics connected to racism in the United States in the 20th century but I will leave that for some future episode.

So, how many questions did you answer correctly? And did you like this episode? Let me know by writing me a message or email, I will be very happy for any feedback!

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don’t forget that you can find the transcription and vocabulary list in the notes. Please give it a five-star rating if you liked it and I will see you next time, bye-bye.