31 (D-100) A hundred (entertainment) / hundreds (information)

31 (D-100) One hundred days before we leave! I've given you so much information this past month! So much work for you! (?) It's time for a little entertainment; time to relax!

THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES. 100 days and counting down. Take a look, and LISTEN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtCDgkU4qK8


Hundreds: There are 564 federally-recognized Indian tribes* in the United States today. The Navajo and the Hopi people have lived in the region of The Painted Desert for at least five hundred and one thousand years, respectively. You'll read more about them soon.
Jane
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-We can say A hundred or ONE hundred.
-100 days to go. Notice the use of "to go" here. It's used to count down.
"Fourteen days to go before the Chinese New Year." It doesn't mean we're going somewhere...it means we're counting the days until the event.
-* You'll read about politically correct vocabulary soon too. This count comes from The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, August 11, 2009.

30 (D-101) Badlands

30 (D-101) A badlands (also badland) is a kind of arid terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. Many of the peoples who have known this kind of terrain chose the same name: 1) The Lakota Indians called the topography "Makhóšiča", literally "bad land"; 2) French trappers called it "les mauvaises terres à traverser" – "the bad lands to cross"; and 3) the Spanish called it "tierra baldía", "waste land". The term badlands is also very appropriate: badlands have steep slopes, loose dry soil, slick clay, and deep sand. All of these all create problems for people who travel there. Badlands are found in arid regions with infrequent but intense rain-showers, little vegetation, and soft sediments: a recipe for massive erosion.

If you like, you can listen and have a look at The Petrified Forest and The Painted Desert at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ttbBZCvxg

---Two trivia questions for you: (NOT from the youtube link above)
1)What Scottish writer went to the Petrified Forest in 1880? (Hint: He wrote Treasure Island and A Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde.)
2) What is the name of the 1936 American film in which.....
Gabby's mother was a French war bride who fell in love with Gabby's father when he was a young, handsome, uniformed American serviceman. They married and moved to the remote Petrified Forest......
Jane
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VOCABULARY:
Your job! Go to: http://www.wordreference.com/

29 (D-102) The Petrified Forest and The Painted Desert

29 (D-102) Sad information about the Petrified Forest: Theft of petrified wood is a problem despite protection and despite the fact that nearby vendors sell wood collected legally from private land. Despite a guard force of seven National Park Service rangers, fences, warning signs, and the risk of getting a $325 fine, an estimated 12 tons of the fossil wood is stolen from the Petrified Forest every year.
Read more if you like: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/us/petrified-forest-shrinks-one-stolen-piece-at-a-time.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The article was written in 1999; perhaps there are no more thieves today?

It's in the northern section of the Petrified Forest where you can find the spectacular Painted Desert. The popular name for the desert comes from the Colonial Spanish, El Desierto Pintado. They gave it this name because of its brightly colored landscape. The desert stretches from the Grand Canyon National Park into the Petrified Forest National Park. It's a broad area of badlands in Arizona. Badlands????

Jane

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VOCABULARY:

theft = taking something which is not yours; taking something which does not belong to you

thief = a person who steals something; a person which takes something which does not belong to him/her. (plural: thieves)

despite = malgré; en dépit de

28 (D-103) [Day 5] The Petrified Forest; National Parks and National Monuments

On the morning of the fifth day of our trip, we'll leave Flagstaff to go to The Petrified Forest and The Painted Desert, 124 miles (200 km) east of Flagstaff. Take a look at the google map: http://www.maplandia.com/united-states/texas/walker-county/arizona/ Use the arrows and the zoom to move around the map. Double click on places on the map to see them better.

28 (D-103) The Petrified Forest area was designated a National Monument on December 8, 1906. The Painted Desert was added in 1932. On December 9, 1962, the whole monument was made a national park.

A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. The United States has 100 protected areas known as national monuments. In 2006, there were 58 officially-designated national parks. Arizona has 3 national parks and 15 national monuments. (New York’s Statue of Liberty is a national moment and New Jersey’s Ellis Island is also a national monument!)

The Petrified Forest National Park consists of the petrified remains of the trees of the Late Triassic period, dating back 225 million years! The Petrified Forest National Park contains some of the largest and best-preserved petrified wood sites in the world. The park also has thousands of prehistoric petroglyphs and pictographs, which are rock carvings and cave paintings left by ancient peoples.

For more information and lots of photos, go to: http://www.shannontech.com/ParkVision/PetForest/PetForest.html

Jane

27 (D-104) Flagstaff by night

27 (D-104) Flagstaff is a special place at night. Why? The city works to preserve its dark skies by keeping light pollution to a minimum. Their objective is “to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting.” On October 24, 2001, Flagstaff was recognized by the International Dark-Sky Association as the world's first "International Dark-Sky City." Flagstaff has two major astronomical observatories (Lowell Observatory and the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station). Astronomers discovered the planet Pluto at Lowell Observatory in 1930.

Jane

26 (D-105) Flagstaff

26 (D-105) Route 66* went through Flagstaff, Arizona. We'll stay at a hotel for the night in Flagstaff. It's a city of about 60,000 people and it is at an elevation of 2121 metres, making it one of the highest cities in the United States. 5 million people visit Flagstaff every year, when visiting the Grand Canyon.
Can you find the origin of the name of the city? What is a "flagstaff"? (It's a compound noun, but we more commonly say "flagpole." We say the "Staff of Moses" and a "shepherd's staff.") Go looking on the internet to discover why this city has this name.
Jane
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* "Get your kicks on Route 66", sung by Nat King Cole (1946).

"Well if you ever plan to motor west,
Just take my way, that's the highway, that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
Well it winds from Chicago to LA
More than two-thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six....."

You can listen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbQXalTGu-8
And for the more curious students, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_66_(song)

"Get your kicks on Route 66" = "Amusez-vous bien en prenant l'autoroute 66." "Get your kicks" is an old-fashioned slang expression.
Here "winds" is a verb = "serpenter"; pronounced like "wines"

25 (D-106) Route 66

We will be traveling on a part of the famous Route 66.


25 (D-106) U.S Route 66 (“Main Street of America” or “The Mother Road”) was a highway in the US Highway System, opened on November 11th, 1926. It went from Chicago to Los Angeles. The poor migrants took this road in the 1930s to go to the west to find work (John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath). US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27th, 1985 after it was decided that the route was no longer relevant. It was replaced by the Interstate Highway System, but Route 66 is now a historic route.

Click: Route 66 overlaid on Google Maps

Jane
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Theme song from Route 66 by Nelson Riddle. Route 66 is an old television series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZ1k4d02KA&feature=PlayList&p=CEE5F2992179E4EB&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=27

I found a video clip from Route 66. It's more than 9 minutes long, but try to understand a little. 1) An old man in the beginning of the clip is very happy. Why? 2) A woman flirts with the two men in the bar and then 3) she takes one of the men to see the Grand Canyon.
Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnhuLtl_B74
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VOCABULARY:
highway (Am) = motorway (Br)
wrath = anger (noun); you are very angry (adjective)
relevant = satisfactory; sufficient; acceptable
theme song = the music at the beginning of a film or a television show
television series = "feuilleton"

24 (D-107) Grand Canyon: Geography, Geology and...now History

24 (D-107) President Theodore Roosevelt* (the 26th President of the USA) strongly believed in the need to preserve the Grand Canyon area. He visited it on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

Grand Canyon National Park was finally established as the 17th U.S. National Park by an Act of Congress signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson** on February 26, 1919.

Jane
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*Theodore (Teddy Roosevelt) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. His face is one of the four presidents carved on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Who are the other three presidents? What is a "teddy bear"?

**Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the USA and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for founding the League of Nations. What did the League of Nations later become?

23 (D-108) The Skywalk (and some help with pronunciation)

23 (D-108) The Skywalk. When you walk out onto the Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped glass walkway, you are 1100 meters above the bottom of the canyon. Take a look: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1j20i_the-grand-canyon-skywalk_news

Would you like to walk out onto the Skywalk? Do you like the Skywalk?
Would you like to fly over the Grand Canyon in a helicopter or in an airplane?

Would you like the answers to yesterday's quiz? Not yet. Later. To give you more time....

But, to help you with pronunciation of the new words you discover on this blog, you can go to: http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal TEXT--TO--SPEECH It's fun. And you can choose the accent you prefer!
Or, another site: http://www.howjsay.com/ for the pronunciation of words and phrases.
Jane
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"Skywalk" and "walkway" are compound nouns. Do you know other compound nouns using "sky" or "walk"?
(A little help: think of New York City for an example with "sky". Go to Post 12 in this blog for an example with "walk".)

22 (D-109) Your first quiz

22. (D-109) After reading and /or listening to the VOA Special English report on The Grand Canyon, can you answer these questions?


1. What are the four kinds of rocks you can find in the Grand Canyon? (help: GLSS; G = granite)
2. Who was the first white American to explore much of the Canyon? (help: there is a lake nearby with his name.)
3. When did visitors begin to go to the Grand Canyon in large numbers? (no help!)
4. How many people visit the Grand Canyon every year?
5. What message does the National Park Service give to its visitors? (help: "TAKE ONLY ____________. LEAVE ONLY__________.")
6. You can visit the Grand Canyon on foot. What are the other ways you can visit The Grand Canyon?
7. Who built the Skywalk?
8. How much did it cost to build?
9. What is the name of the music you heard?
10. What is a lullaby? (This time, no vocabulary help. Use your dictionary.)

Need more help? Read and/or listen to the VOA report again!

Jane
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Answers can be found at Post 61.

21 (D-110) More about The Grand Canyon

21. (D-110)
First, something for the Geology students. The Grand Canyon has three sets of rocks: 1) Layered Paleozoic Rocks 2) Grand Canyon Supergroup Rocks and 3) Vishnu Basement Rocks!

The Grand Canyon has two different rims (North and South) with two slightly different environments. The North Rim is at a higher elevation than the South rim (about 400 meters higher). The temperatures on the North rim are generally lower than the temperatures of the South rim due to the elevation difference. Also, the North rim has heavier snowfalls during the winter months. The bottom of the gorge can have a completely different climate than at the top because of the elevation difference.

There are trails going from the North Rim and the South Rim to the bottom of the canyon. These trails lead to a place at the bottom of the canyon called Phantom Ranch. Phantom Ranch has a campground and cabins where hikers can spend the night. Some people also ride mules into the Grand Canyon. Most people who visit the Grand Canyon drive in cars to the South Rim and just look at the canyon from the rim and take pictures.


There is so much more you can learn about the Grand Canyon.
Go to: VOA Special English: READ and LISTEN.
The Grand Canyon: A True Wonder of the World http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2009-10/2009-10-06-voa1.cfm

Read and listen carefully TO BE PREPARED FOR TOMORROW!

Jane

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VOCABULARY

rim = When you rub your finger over the wet rim of a crystal glass, it makes a squeaky noise, it sings.

slightly different = a little different

trails = You drive on a road; you can walk on a trail in the woods or in the mountains.

hikers = the people who walk on the trails

a wonder = "une merveille"

20 (D-111) The Grand Canyon

20 (D-111) The Grand Canyon
Erosion from the Colorado River formed the Grand Canyon.

The Canyon Walls are made up of different layers of rocks each dating back to different eras millions of years ago.

The Grand Canyon: How long is it? How deep is it? How wide is it?

--The Grand Canyon is 446 km long (277 miles).
--The Grand Canyon is about 1600 meters deep (about one mile).
--The Grand Canyon has different widths, from 0.5 km to 29 km (or about 0.25 to 18 miles).

-The Pueblo people, a Native American people in the Southwestern United States, considered the Grand Canyon ("Ongtupqa" in Hopi language) a holy site and made pilgrimages to it. The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was García López de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived in 1540.

Jane

19 (D-112) Phoenix / Grenoble; snowbirds; What time is it?

19 (D-112) Grenoble and Phoenix have been sister cities since 1990. They are going to celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, in June, here in Grenoble. Phoenix is the largest capital city in all of the United States. Many retired people go to live there; they are called "snowbirds". Leaving the cold and snow in the north, they fly south to enjoy the sun and blue skies of Phoenix.
We don't have TIME to visit Phoenix this year. Maybe for another USA trip....

...TIME : We change time zones when we cross over into Arizona. California and Nevada are in PST (Pacific Standard Time) which is 9 hours earlier than in Grenoble. (When it’s noon here in Grenoble, it’s 3 in the morning there, so please don’t call us at noon!) Arizona takes us into Mountain Standard Time, only 8 hours earlier than in Grenoble. (But again please, don’t call us at noon; it will be 4 in the morning for us!)
There are 4 time zones in the USA – Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern.

Jane

18 (D-113) [Day 4] Arizona

We won’t stay long in Nevada for now. We’ll return later when we go to Las Vegas. Now it’s time to go to a third state: ARIZONA.

18 (D-113) First gold, then silver, and now copper! Arizona, The Copper State. It became the 48th state in 1912….(Alaska, 49th and Hawaii, the 50th and last state). The name “Arizona” is perhaps Basque in origin: aritz ona, "good oak". The capital of Arizona is Phoenix. UIAD* is in Grenoble, France, far from Phoenix, Arizona, but……What do you know about Grenoble and Phoenix??

--Arizona is also called The Grand Canyon State. That’s what we are going to see!

Here is a short, easy text about Arizona:

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona (Sorry, but the link doesn't work. Click this link, then click Main Page and then type "Arizona" in the search box.)

Jane

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VOCABULARY

copper = pennies are made of copper; 1, 2, and 5 euro centimes are also made of copper.

oak = "chêne"

*UIAD = Université Inter-Ages en Dauphiné

17 (D-114) Poker anyone?

17. (D -114) Laughlin, Nevada
We’ll spend the night here. This town has a population of 7076 people and is a port on the Colorado River, 152 km south of Las Vegas. Laughlin is the third most visited casino and resort destination in the state of Nevada, after Las Vegas and Reno. It’s a more family-friendly place, with a lot of outdoor and family activites. The casinos are along the Colorado River and a pedestrian path known as the Laughlin Riverwalk connects them.

-Who in the group is going to walk? Who is going to gamble??

- Do you play cards? Poker? Blackjack? Do you know the four suits in a deck of cards? HEARTS and DIAMONDS are the red cards; SPADES and CLUBS are the black cards.

-Have you found the answer to the question: What is a bellwether state?

Jane
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VOCABULARY
--"Poker anyone?" = "Is there anyone who wants to play poker with me?"
--resort = a place of rest and recreation;--> ski resort = station de ski
--a deck of cards = There are 52 cards in a deck of cards; there are 4 suits: 13 hearts, 13 diamonds, 13 spades and 13 clubs....and with 2 jokers = 54 cards. spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (♣).
These 4 FRENCH playing card suits are used in the English speaking world and they originally referred to the four major feudal classes: military, clergy, merchant/trade, and agriculture.

16 (D-115) Gold and Silver: O My Darling Clementine

16. (D-115)
-California, The Golden State. Forty-niners (49ers) were adventurers and gold-seekers who went to California in 1849 after hearing of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s mill in 1848. The Gold Rush of 1849.
-Nevada, The Silver State. Silver mining in Nevada began in 1858. In 2006, Nevada was the United State's second-largest producer of silver, after Alaska.

Do you know this song? O My Darling Clementine. (1884) A sad lover sings about his darling, the daughter of a miner during the 1849 California Gold Rush. Clementine has died in an accident. However, it is not a sad song. Listen.(1) Listen and read. (2) How did she die? You can listen, read....and sing!

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efVt4B6W4UI&feature=related
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6AX8Ega7UY&feature=related

Jane

VOCABULARY
to seek = to look for; gold-seekers = the people who looked for gold
Sutter's mill = John Sutter's sawmill ("scierie")
The Gold Rush = "La Ruée vers l'Or"

15. (D-116) The next state: Nevada

15. (D-116) “NEVADA”, The Silver State, comes from Spanish and means “snowfall” (The Sierra Nevada = “snow-covered mountains”)
In Nevada:
1) Marijuana is legal for medical reasons.
2) Brothels (houses of prostitution) are legal in some parts of the state.
3) Gambling is legal.
4) You can’t smoke in workplaces and public places, but you can smoke in bars, casinos, hotel rooms, tobacco shops and brothels!
5) Divorces are quick and easy.
6) There is a big Basque ancestry population!

And Nevada is a bellwether state.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???
Jane
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VOCABULARY:
gambling = you play games, often with cards, to win money. But you can LOSE a lot of money too!

14 (D -117) A Ghost Town

14. (D -117)

Calico is a ghost town in the Mojave Desert region of Southern California. It became a silver mining town in 1881. It quickly grew to have a population of 1,200 people and over 500 silver mines. In 1907 the silver and borax mines were all closed. The last original inhabitant of Calico before it was abandoned, Mrs. Lucy Bell Lane, died in the 1960s.

Jane

13 (D-118) "Go West Young Man"

Mohave Indians, 1871 photograph.

Joshua Trees and Yucca plants

An Indiana newspaper journalist, John Soule, wrote in 1851: "Go West young man, and grow up with the country!" United States citizens and immigrants migrated all the way to the Pacific Ocean by the mid-nineteenth century. Western expansion. Manifest Destiny. (Do you know these terms?) But, because we are leaving from Los Angeles, we are going East!!

13. (D -118) "Go West young man, go West!" Twenty-two Western States form The American West (west of the Mississippi River).

We are going to visit four of them: California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. First, we will take the bus from Los Angeles to Laughlin, Nevada, 371 kilometers. We'll cross part of the Mojave Desert.* In this desert there are between 1,750 and 2,000 species of plants. Do you know the Yucca plant and the Joshua Tree? The Mormans gave the name to this tree -- it looks like the Biblical Joshua who stretches his hands up to the sky in prayer.

Jane

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VOCABULARY:

grow up = grandir

looks like =resembles

prayer = prière

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* The Mojave Desert = The name comes from the Mohave tribe of Native Americans. Both "Mohave" and "Mojave" are accepted and interchangeable for the Indian name "Aha macave". Their name comes from two words: aha, meaning 'water', and macave, meaning 'along or beside', and to them it means 'people who live along the river'.

12 (D-119) sidewalk (Am) = pavement (Br)

12 (D-119)The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk (British English: “pavement” = trottoir) along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood. It serves as an entertainment museum. There you can see more than 2,000 five-pointed stars with the names of not only human celebrities but also fictional characters honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to the entertainment industry. On February 9, 1960, Joanne Woodward (actress, Paul Newman’s wife) became the first performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.

-The first studio in Hollywood wanted to make westerns in California. The first feature film, made specifically in a Hollywood studio, in 1914, was The Squaw Man, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel.

Jane
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VOCABULARY
feature film = long métrage

11 (D-120) Hollywood

11. (D-120)
--Hollywood’s nickname, Tinseltown, refers to the glittering superficial nature of Hollywood and the movie (film) industry. (“Tinsel” = the word is from the Old French word "estincele", meaning sparkle. We put tinsel on a Christmas tree; it was originally a metallic garland, today it is plastic.)

--Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962: America's Most Famous Sex Symbol: The story of Marilyn Monroe begins on June 1, 1926. Norma Jean Baker was born that day in the West Coast city of Los Angeles, California. Her birthplace was not far from the Hollywood movie studios where she later became a star…… You can read and listen at: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-12-05-voa10.cfm

And other people who made Hollywood:
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2009-05/2009-05-29-voa1.cfm

Jane
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VOCABULARY:
glittering, sparkling = étincelant

10 (D-121) More places in and around L.A.

10. (D-121)
--Sunset Boulevard is approximately 35 km long and passes through or near Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Little Armenia… The best-known section of Sunset Boulevard is probably the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, which is a center for nightlife in the Los Angeles area. (There was a television series, 1958 - 1964, called 77 Sunset Strip. Listen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm1CNKg3M5Y )
The first film studio opened on Sunset Boulevard in 1911. Do you remember the famous 1950 film Sunset Boulevard? Who directed the film? Who were the two main characters? What was the tragic ending?
--Wayfarers Chapel, also known as "The Glass Church" is in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It has a unique modern architecture and is on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. A fantastic view! Frank Lloyd Wright’s son designed it in the late 1940s.
--Marina del Rey has the second most restaurants per square mile of any United States city or town, with the exception of New York City, which is first.

Jane
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A little vocabulary:
--"sunset" = when the sun goes down at the end of the day (the opposite, when the sun comes up at the beginning of a new day = "sunrise")
--"main characters" = "les personnages principaux"
--"wayfarer" = someone who travels, especially on foot
--"cliffs" = "les falaises"

9 (D-122) [Day 3] Some places we will visit in L.A.

The next few entries* will take everyone to some of the places we will visit in Los Angeles. Then we will get on the coach and go to Nevada.

9. (D-122)
--A fire on June 1, 2008 destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital (numérique) video and film copies of Universal Studios' movie and TV classic shows, dating back to the 1920s.
--Malibu and Santa Monica are two beach cities near Los Angeles. “Malibu” comes from “Humaliwu”, the name given by the original inhabitants, the Chumash Indians. “Humaliwu” means “the surf sounds loudly.” Many stars live in Malibu now. Will we see many movie stars when we are there??
---Olvera Street is in the oldest part of Downtown Los Angeles and is part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. There are 27 historical buildings. It’s a Mexican-style marketplace with street vendors, cafés, restaurants and gift shops selling Mexican dress, leather huararches (Mexican sandals) and belts, piñatas and churros!

Jane
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The next few -->
"It is going to be cold for the next few weeks."
"In the next few years a decision will be made."
"You can come to this blog over the next few months to learn about our trip."

The expression is usually used with time -- hours, days, weeks, months, years -- but here are other examples:

"The next few students who read this blog can share the information with the other students in their class."
"The next few entries will give information about the places we will visit in Los Angeles."

8 (D-123) Tehrangeles: portmanteau

8. (D-123) TEHRANGELES IS A PORTMANTEAU. Other examples of portmanteaux are: SMOG, BRUNCH, MOTEL, AMERINDIAN, CHOCOHOLIC, SPANGLISH, CHINGLISH and … “FRANGLAIS”!! Can you explain “portmanteau” in your English class? You can find the origin of the word on Wikipedia…look in French, if you prefer; it's easier! How do you say "portmanteau" in French? And what is the French "porte-manteau" in English?

Tehrangeles ….There are between 700,000 and 900,000 Iranian nationals or their descendants living in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It is the city outside Iran which has the largest Iranian population. Beverly Hills has a large Iranian community. There has been a recent estimate that Iranians represent nearly 20% of the city’s population and 40% of the students in public schools. For more advanced students, read and listen here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5459468 (npr = National Public Radio)

Jane

7 (D -124) Multi-ethnic L.A.

7. (D -124) As of the 2000 US Census, the racial distribution in Los Angeles was
-46.9% White American,
-11.2% African American,
-10.5% Asian American,
-0.8% Native American,
-0.2% Pacific Islander,
-25.7% from other races, and
-5.2% from two or more races.

-46.5% of the population was Hispanic or Latino (of any race).

Hispanics and Latinos (ethnic groups) constitute 15.4% of the total United States population, or 46.9 million people, forming the second largest ethnic group. Hispanics and Latinos make up 48.5% of Los Angeles's population. (wikipedia, more recent estimation)

Tehrangeles is a portmanteau. What does that mean? You can go to the internet to do some research. Tomorrow's entry will give you some more information about these two unusual words.

Jane

6 (D-125) L.A.'s sister cities

6. (D-125) L.A. has 25 sister cities...Bordeaux is the French sister city!

Jane

5 (D -126) Los Angeles = L.A. (new info 17.09.10)

5. (D -126) L.A. estimated population: 3.8 million; L.A. Metropolitan Area: 12.9 million. By comparison, New York City has a population of over 8 million. New York City is called The Big Apple. And Los Angeles? Do you know the nicknames for Los Angeles? The City of Oranges! The City of Flowers and Sunshine. The City of Angels. And, of course, L.A. = Los Angeles. And there are more.
VOA Special English must know that we are going to L.A. There is a new article you can read and LISTEN to: Words and Their Stories: Nicknames for Los Angeles. (02.01.10) at http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-12-31-voa1.cfm

Jane

Another tidbit of information :

Do you know what "la-la-land" is?

La-la-land (noun):
1. A place or a state of being out of touch with reality.
2. A place known for frivolous activities.

Etymology:

A fictional land that is named after a real place. The term la-la land is coined from the initials of the city of Los Angeles, home of Hollywood, alluding to the fictitious nature of the movies, sets, etc.

(17.09.10)

4 (D-127) Los Angeles

A snowy day in Grenoble today. Does it snow in Los Angeles?? The National Weather Service tells us that the last snowfall in Downtown Los Angeles was on January 22, 1962! Just a trace (less than 0.5 inches) of snow. [This is an extra "tidbit" of information about Los Angeles.]

4. (D-127) Los Angeles, our first destination, is home to people from more than 140 countries speaking 224 different identified languages. The 2000 census indicated that
-42.2% spoke English (!),
-41.7% Spanish,
-2.4% Korean,
-2.3% Tagalog,
-1.7% Armenian,
-1.5% Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin) and
-1.3% Persian
as their first language.

And French??? Go to:
BONJOUR L.A. : Los Angeles with a French touch! http://www.bonjourla.com/

AND
http://www.losangelesaccueil.org/index.htm

Tagalog? In what countries is Tagalog spoken?

Jane

PS "tidbit" = a little tasty morsel of food

3 (D-128) More about California

Day 3 (D -128): 128 days before we leave for California.
Go to Day 1, the first entry of this blog, for my introduction and explanations, if you haven't read it yet.

3. (D - 128) Califia (probably from Arabic "Caliph", which was understood by Europeans to mean king/ruler) is a legendary Amazon warrior queen, associated with the mythical Island of California. Perhaps the US state of California is named after the queen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California


-The capital of California, called The Golden State, is Sacramento with a population of 464,000 (2008 estimation) and is the 7th largest city in California. In 33 of the 50 U.S. states, the state capital is not the state's most populous city.

Jane

2 (D -129) [Day 2] California

Day 2; 129 days before we leave. If you haven't been there yet, go to Day 1, the first entry of this blog for my introduction and explanations.

2. (D -129) California became the 31st state of the Union on September 9th, 1850. There are more people living in California than any other state, with more than 33 million people. It is the only state that has more people than Canada! (If you would like to read more about California, in easy English, click: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/California )

How many states does the United States have?
(OR: How many states make up the United States?)

Jane

1 (D -130) [Day 1] HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!! The year when a group of Uiad students learning English will be going to the USA, The Far West: Los Angeles, The National Parks, San Francisco.

January 1st --> May 10th: 130 days before we leave, 130 days to get ready.

There are guide books and so much information on the internet about where we are going. Almost TOO MUCH information. So, I did some information shopping for you during the holidays.

This blog is for you: the students who are going, but also for those who won't be with us but can take this trip by reading this blog.

130 days until May 11th, and every day you can come to this blog for little bits of information about the places we are going to visit.

So come and join us! Sometimes just a short sentence or two. Sometimes a paragraph. Sometimes very easy English. Sometimes a little more complex. Sometimes I'll give you a site you can go to for more information. Sometimes you can read; sometimes you can see photos; sometimes you can listen.

Using your English to discover the Far West.

A trip for everyone.

Let's get started on this first day of the year:

1. (D-130) The distance between Grenoble and Los Angeles is 9554 kilometers (5936 miles), as the crow flies. ("à vol d'oiseau"; "crow" = "corbeau")

What a trip!

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' ON SUCH A WINTER'S DAY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UcQDUR-fU

Jane