Words and Their Stories: Santa Claus

December 22nd, 2010 at 12:14am Under Words and their stories

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Santa Claus is someone who will remain in the hearts of children forever. He is the make-believe person who brings toys and other gifts to children at Christmas. To grown-ups, he is a special symbol of good will and selfless giving.

Santa Claus also has some other names: Saint Nicholas, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel.

Two of his names — Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas — both come from the Dutch who settled in New York long ago.

The Dutch believed Saint Nikolaas gave gifts to children. They honored this kindly saint with a yearly festival on December sixth. The English-speaking people who lived nearby greatly enjoyed Dutch festivals. And they brought the Saint and the custom of giving gifts into their own celebration at Christmas time.

The Dutch spoke the name “Saint Nikolaas” very fast. It sounded like “Sinterklaas.” And so, when the English said this word, it sounded like Santa Claus.

West of New York, in Pennsylvania, many German farmers had also heard of Saint Nikolaas. But they called him Pelznickel. This word came from “pelz,” meaning fur, and “nickel” for Nicholas. And so, to the Germans of Pennsylvania, Saint Nicholas or Pelznickel was a man dressed in fur who came once a year with gifts for good children.

Soon, people began to feel that the love and kindness Pelznickel brought should be part of a celebration honoring the Christkindl, as the Germans called the Christ child. After a time, this
became Kris Kringle. Later, Kris Kringle became another name for Santa Claus himself.

Whatever he is called, he is still the same short, fat, jolly old man with a long beard, wearing a red suit with white fur.

The picture of Santa Claus, as we see him, came from Thomas Nast. He was an American painter born in Bavaria. He painted pictures for Christmas poems. Someone asked him to paint a picture of Santa Claus.

Nast remembered when he was a little boy in southern Germany. Every Christmas, a fat old man gave toys and cakes to the children. So, when Nast painted the picture, his Santa Claus
looked like the kindly old man of his childhood. And through the years, Nast’s painting has remained as the most popular picture Of Santa Claus.

Santa can be seen almost everywhere in large American cities during the Christmas season. Some stand on street corners asking for money to buy food and gifts for the needy. Others are found in stores and shopping centers.

It is easy to find them by the long lines of children waiting to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.

(MUSIC)

You have been listening to the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Maurice Joyce was your narrator. I’m Shirley Griffith.

By admin 9 comments

Words and Their Stories: Computer Terms

November 30th, 2010 at 01:42am Under Words and their stories

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

Computer technology has become a major part of people’s lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word mouse.  A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields.  It is a small device that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer.  The mouse moves the pointer, or cursor, on the computer screen.

Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen-sixties.  The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the computer.

Using a computer takes some training.  People who are experts are sometimes called hackers.  A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language.  But the word hacker is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer systems.

Another well known computer word is Google, spelled g-o-o-g-l-e.  It is the name of a popular “search engine” for the Internet.  People use the search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Internet.  The people who started the company named it Google because in mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l, is an extremely large number.  It is the number one followed by one-hundred zeros.

When you “Google” a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the Internet.

If you Google someone, you might find that person’s name on a blog.  A blog is the shortened name for a Web log.  A blog is a personal Web page.  It may contain stories, comments, pictures and links to other Web sites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers.

Blogs are not the same as spam.  Spam is unwanted sales messages sent to your electronic mailbox.  The name is based on a funny joke many years ago on a British television show, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”  Some friends are at an eating place that only serves a processed meat product from the United States called SPAM. Every time the friends try to speak, another group of people starts singing the word SPAM very loudly.  This interferes with the friends’ discussion – just as unwanted sales messages interfere with communication over the Internet.

(MUSIC)

This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss.  I’m Faith Lapidus.

By admin 17 comments