Cultural English 467 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; Babe Didrikson Zaharias; Q&A

Complete Transcript

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 467.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 467. 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 the first full-length animated, or cartoon-like, movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We’re also going to talk about a woman who some people say was the most talented athlete of the twentieth century, someone you may have never heard of, called Babe Bidrikson Zaharia. And, as always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get started.

We begin this Café talking about the very first animated movie or film. “Animated” (animated) means that it is created using a series of drawings or pictures that are placed or put together in order and appear to move just as people in real life do. Cartoons on television are usually animated. Movies can also be animated, made with a series of drawings and pictures.

The story of the first animated movie begins with perhaps the most famous animator – someone who animates is called an animator – named Walt Disney. In 1917, Walt Disney saw a film version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “Little Snow White.” A “fairy (fairy) tale (tale)” is a story that is usually told to children about something magical, something with imaginary, or made-up, creatures and places.

After Disney saw this movie about a fairy tale, he decided that he would make his own version of the same story. It was Walt Disney’s dream, but it took a long time for him to actually realize it, to actually do it. It was 20 years later, in fact, in 1937 that Disney made his dream come true. When you imagine something, something that’s wonderful that seems very difficult, perhaps even impossible, and then it happens, we say that your “dream has come true.”

Disney’s film studio, or company, finally released the animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. People thought Disney’s ideas for an animated movie wouldn’t work. In fact, they sometimes referred to Walt Disney’s ideas for this animated movie as “Disney’s Folly.” A “folly” (folly) is a foolish or very silly idea or action. It’s an old-fashioned word. We don’t use “folly” very much anymore.

There was also, during the nineteenth century, something called “Seward’s Folly.” Seward was the secretary of state in the United States who helped negotiate the purchase of Alaska from the country of Russia. People thought this was a crazy, stupid idea, but it turns out that it was a good one. There is also a famous book by the great Catholic writer Erasmus called In Praise of Folly – or at least, that’s how the book is translated typically into English. But we’re not talking about Erasmus or Seward. We’re talking about Walt Disney.

The movie was not a folly. In fact, it became extremely popular and is still considered one of the greatest movies Disney ever made. Disney’s version of this story became the most well-known version around the world. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” in case you don’t know the story, tells us about a princess named Snow White. A “princess” is usually the daughter of the king or queen in a country.

Princess Snow White is the most beautiful and kind princess in her particular land, her country. Her mother dies, unhappily, when Snow White is very young, and her father, the king, marries again. He remarries. The new queen, Snow White’s stepmother, is an evil and vain woman. A “stepmother” is a woman who marries a husband who already has children, and that woman “adopts” those children – makes those children her own.

You can either have a stepmother or a stepfather. In traditional stories, stepmothers are usually very wicked, very evil, very vain in some cases – at least, that was the case with Snow White’s stepmother. “To be vain” (vain) means to think of yourself as very beautiful, as someone who is very attractive. If you always look at yourself when you pass a mirror, you might be vain. You might think that your looks are more important than anything else – and here in Hollywood, that would probably be true.

Snow White wasn’t living in Hollywood. Unfortunately, she was living with her evil stepmother who, because she didn’t like her, made Snow White clean the palace, clean the place where they were living, instead of allowing her to be the princess that she was. Now the queen, the evil stepmother, had a magic mirror, a mirror that she could actually talk to, that she could ask questions of. And she asked the mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall” (at least that’s the way we think of it traditionally – I’m not sure if those words actually appear in the movie) “Who is the fairest of them all?”

She was asking who was the “fairest” in her country. Now, here the word “fair” (fair) means very beautiful, very good-looking. However, we don’t use the word “fair” that way anymore, at least not very commonly. “Fair” now either means “just” – something that is ethical or moral. “Fair” could also be used to describe someone’s skin as being very light. But in the fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” to be fair is to be very beautiful.

Every day the mirror would answer the queen’s question (“Who is the fairest of them all?” – who’s the fairest person in this country) by saying that the queen herself was the fairest. Then one day, after Snow White grows up and becomes a beautiful young girl or young woman, the mirror changes its mind. One day when the queen asks the mirror who was the fairest in the land, the mirror says, “Oh, there’s this other beautiful girl who has skin white as snow.” The queen realizes that the mirror is talking about her stepdaughter, Snow White.

Well, you can understand. This makes the queen very angry. So, she asks a hunter – someone who normally kills animals out in the wild – to take Snow White into the woods, into the trees, and kill Snow White. So, she’s basically trying to murder Snow White. Well, the hunter takes the beautiful Snow White into the woods, into the trees outside of the palace, but he cannot kill her. Instead, he tells her to run away and hide.

When he gets back to the palace, he tells the queen – wrongly, of course – that Snow White is dead. And of course, the queen believes him. He lies to the queen in order to save or protect the beautiful Snow White. Well, what does Snow White do? She runs and finds a small cottage. A “cottage” (cottage) is a very small, simple house that is often found out away from the city in what we would call “rural” (rural) areas, areas in the country, we might also say.

A “cottage” is a very small house. Sometimes we talk about cottages near a lake. For example, in Minnesota, there are more than 10,000 lakes in my home state, and many people have little homes next to them where they go on vacation. We call these, often, “lake cottages.” Well, this is not a lake cottage. It’s a cottage in the forest, in the woods. Snow White meets the people who live in the cottage. And who lives in the cottage? Well, of course, seven dwarfs.

A “dwarf” (dwarf) is a fairy tale creature, a made-up creature. There’s no such thing as a real dwarf. “Dwarfs” are very small. They’re like little human beings. Of course, these are imaginary, so they can be whatever you want them to be, but normally in a story when you talk about a dwarf, you’re talking about a very small person who looks like an adult, but also may have some different characteristics. These dwarfs have different characteristics. There are seven of them, and each of them has a different name that is related to something about that dwarf, some characteristic that that dwarf has.

The seven dwarfs are named “Doc,” “Grumpy,” “Happy,” “Sleepy,” “Bashful,” “Sneezy” and “Dopey” – at least, that’s what they’re called in English. Let me just explain very briefly what these seven words mean. The first one is “Doc.” That’s short for “Doctor.” “Grumpy” (grumpy) means very unhappy, very unkind, someone who gets mad easily, someone who doesn’t seem to be in a very good mood. “Happy” you should know.

“Sleepy” means someone, of course, who is always falling asleep, someone who’s always tired. To be “bashful” (bashful) means to be very shy, someone who doesn’t like to talk to other people or who always thinks that any compliment that they receive is not deserved. “Sneezy” (sneezy) is someone who sneezes a lot. “To sneeze” is to go like this. [sneezes] That’s “to sneeze.” “Dopey” (dopey) is, well, a very stupid person, someone who isn’t a very smart, not very intelligent. Like me.

Now, when Snow White arrives at the dwarfs’ cottage, she lives with them, but in order to live with them, she has to cook for them and clean their house, which only seems fair. Since this is what Snow White did before she escaped the palace, she is a very good cook and a good housekeeper. A “housekeeper” is someone who cleans a house. Sometimes especially people who have money are able to have other people come and clean their houses. We would call these people “housekeepers.”

Well, the evil queen, then back at the castle, back at the palace, asks the mirror again who the fairest of the land is now that she thinks that Snow White is dead. And the mirror, of course, knows this isn’t true and answers, well, Snow White is still the fairest. And the queen goes, “What? Snow White?! Are you kidding me?!!” Well, she doesn’t say that exactly, but that’s her reaction. She’s surprised because, of course, she thought that Snow White was dead.

Well, the evil stepmother dresses up as an old woman. She “disguises” herself, we would say, to make her look like someone else, and goes to this cottage of the seven dwarfs where Snow White is and gives Snow White a poison apple – an apple that has something bad in it. This poison apple makes Snow White fall asleep, and it appears as though Snow White is dead. She falls asleep and the dwarfs come home and they believe that she is dead.

Now, the dwarfs know who this old woman really is. They know that she is the evil stepmother. They chase her and the evil stepmother dies. She falls and dies. It might’ve been more fun if the dwarfs had actually shot her with a gun or something. Maybe if Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were made today, that’s how the story would go, but in the Walt Disney version that doesn’t happen.

The dwarfs put Snow White into a coffin. A “coffin” (coffin) is a box that we use to bury people, to put people in the ground when they are dead. However, one day, a beautiful prince – the son of a king or queen – comes to the land of Snow White and hears about how beautiful she is. So, he wants to go see her, which is kind of weird because, you know, she’s dead already, or at least they think she’s dead.

Well, the prince goes to see Snow White, and he kisses her. Again a little weird, but that’s what happens. What happens when he kisses Snow White? Well, of course, Snow White wakes up. She’s not dead, and the two of these young, beautiful people get married and they live, we would say, “happily ever after.” That is, they have a very happy life.

As you can imagine, it took hundreds of animators to create the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a huge success. In 1939, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs received a special Academy Award, an Oscar, for being the first movie in this new type of movie, animated films.

Now let’s turn to one of perhaps the best athletes in modern American history, someone that you probably have never heard of. Her name is Babe Didrikson. Babe Didrikson was born in 1911 in the state of Texas, which is in the south-central part of the United States. Even as a child, she was an amazing athlete. In a baseball game when she was just a girl, she hit five home runs. A “home run” is when a baseball player hits the baseball so hard that it goes out of the field and scores a point or more for her team.

It’s not easy to hit a home run. Let alone – or even less – five home runs. After this game, her friends started calling Didrikson “Babe,” because the most famous baseball player at this time – also someone who hit a lot of home runs – was named Babe Ruth. This nickname for Didrikson continued on, and she used it for the rest of her life. She was known as Babe Didrikson even though her real name was Mildred Didrikson.

When Didrikson was in high school, she was on the woman’s basketball team. She was so good that she was asked to play on one of the best women’s teams in the country, a team called the “Golden Cyclones.” Didrikson played with the Golden Cyclones between 1930 and 1932. During that time, she was given the title or the award of “all-American” player. An “all-American player” is an athlete who is considered one of the best in the country in that sport.

So, there are all-American high school and college football players. There are all- American soccer players. Didrikson was an all-American basketball player, but in addition to playing basketball, Didrikson also participated in what we call “track and field.” “Track (track) and field (field)” refers to a series of sporting events that include running around the track as well as throwing objects like javelins and shot puts.

Track and field also includes jumping and jumping over a high bar. In the Olympics every four years, in the summer Olympics, there are lots of track and field events. Most athletes are either track or field athletes. A track athlete is one that runs; a field athlete is one that jumps or throws objects, I think. Well, Babe Didrikson was both. In fact, she was on the Olympic team for the United States when the Olympic Games, the summer games, were held right here in Los Angeles, California.

There Didrikson won a gold medal in the 80-meter hurdles and in the javelin throw. A “hurdle” (hurdle) is a low gate that you have to jump over. A “javelin” is a long stick that you have to throw. Didrikson also won a silver medal in the high jump. In 1934, Didrikson decided she would play golf. So, she started as an amateur and then played as a professional. An “amateur” (amateur) is someone who doesn’t get paid to do something. Didrikson became a professional golf player.

She also got married in 1938 to another professional athlete named Zaharias. And so, her name became Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Zaharias now began playing professional sports. In 1948, in 1950, and in 1954 she won the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Tournament. She was the best golf player, women’s golf player, in the United States. So, here we have someone who was a great basketball player, a great track and field athlete, and now a great golfer.

Sadly, in 1956, Zaharias died of cancer. She was, when she died, still one of the greatest athletes in the U.S. Many athletes are good at one sport; Babe Didrikson Zaharias was good at least at three, and maybe more had she lived longer. So, now you know something about one of the greatest athletes in the U.S. in modern history, Babe Didrikson.

Now let’s answer a few of your questions.

Our first question comes from Nori (Nori) in Japan. Nori wants to know the differences between “to deliver,” “to distribute,” and “to ship.”

“To deliver” (deliver) means to take something from one place and bring it to another place, usually because that person has asked this thing to be sent to them or to be taken to them. We talk about delivering furniture. If I buy a new chair and I don’t have a truck to take the chair from the store to my house, I will ask the store to deliver it to me – to bring it to me. We talk about the post office delivering mail. They bring the letters and packages to your house.

“To distribute” (distribute) is a little different. “To distribute” means to take something and divide it up, giving part of it to one person and another part to another person. “To distribute” is often used in the business world to mean something very similar to “to deliver.” “To distribute your products,” for example, would mean to give your products to different stores to sell. It has, then, similarities with the verb “to deliver,” but is used in specific circumstances, often when there is something that is being delivered to many different parties – to many different groups or many different people.

“To ship” (ship) means to send something, usually from a business to one of the business’s customers, or from one business to another – what we nowadays call “B2B” (the letter B, the number 2, and the letter B). “B2B” means “business-to-business.” The verb “to ship,” then, is not the same as the noun “ship,” which refers to a large boat in some body of water such as the ocean or a lake or a river.

The verb “to ship” means to send something, usually something to someone who has purchased or bought something from you. Again, it has a similar meaning to the verb “to deliver,” but the verb “to ship” emphasizes the person sending the package or sending the product. “Deliver” refers to getting the product, receiving it.

Jason (Jason) from Hong Kong wants to know how one describes the bald spot on the top of, usually, a man’s head, where there is like a circle where there is no hair, but there’s hair all around it. Jason is particularly thinking of the Middle Ages, the medieval period in European history where it was common for certain Christian men who we call “monks” (monks), who would shave the top of their head as part of the religious ritual of being and becoming a monk.

This bald area was called, and is called, a “tonsure” (tonsure). However, we only use that word for priests and monks. For everyone else we would just say they have a “bald spot.” But bald spots don’t look like tonsures. Tonsures are clearly bald spots on the top of the head that are shaved, where you cut the hair away. People like me who are bald and have bald spots are just unlucky in the world of genetics.

Finally, Rodrigo (Rodrigo) in Brazil wants to know the meaning of a phrasal verb “to ward off.” “To ward (ward) off” in its original meaning means to avoid being hit by something. If someone is throwing a rock at you, you don’t want to be hit by the rock. You could ward off the rock by moving so that you don’t get hit. However, it is used most commonly in conversational English in the U.S. to mean to prevent something.

We talk about “warding off a cold.” I’m doing things so that I don’t get sick, I don’t get a cold. I would guess that most people in the U.S. don’t even realize that “to ward off” is related to this idea of avoiding being hit by something. That’s because the most common use of this phrasal verb is to mean to prevent or to do things so that you don’t get hurt or you don’t get sick.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on the English Café.

Glossary

fairy tale – a story that is typically told to children about magic and imaginary creatures and lands

* Many fairy tales feature princesses, dragons, and beautiful castles.

animated – a type of film created using a series of drawings or pictures that are placed together in order to show action, similar to real life

* People often think that animated films are only for children, but many adults enjoy them, too.

folly – a foolish action or idea; a very silly action or idea

* It would be folly to quit your job and move to another country without first making plans.

vain – a characteristic of a person who thinks very highly of himself or herself, especially in terms of his or her appearance or looks

* The woman was so vain that she refused to have a picture taken of her without having applied special makeup.

fair – an old-fashioned term meaning beautiful or very pretty

* Marilyn Monroe was considered the fairest woman in the country by many.

cottage – a small and simple house, often found in the countryside

* Anita plans to spend the summer living in the cottage on her grandma’s farm.

dwarf – In fairy tales, a creature that looks like a short and stocky (with a thick body) human who is usually involved with metalwork or mining

* In The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, the dwarfs live in caves and mines under the mountains.

coffin – a box into which dead bodies are placed so that they can be buried

* One of the decisions the family had to make at the funeral home was what kind of coffin they wanted their father to be buried in.

homerun – in baseball, when a player hits the baseball out of the ballpark or far enough so that he or she is able to run around all the bases and get back to home plate to score a point for the team

* Mickey DiMaggio hit a homerun to win the game.

All-American – an athlete who is recognized by their team and the country for being an outstanding athlete in their particular sport

* It was no surprise that Mike Montana won the award for best college football player, since he had been named All-American for three years in a row.

track and field – a series of sporting events that include running around a track for various distances, throwing different objects, and jumping long distances

* During competitions, the track and field events often take place at the same time, with runners competing on the track while throwers and jumpers compete on the field.

amateur – a person who participates in a sport or activity requiring knowledge and/or skill but who is not paid for it

* No one could believe that Andre McEnroe was an amateur tennis player when he beat the reigning world champion.

to deliver – to bring and hand over something, such as a letter or package, to the person who should receive it

* If I call the flower shop today, I can arrange for flowers to be delivered to my mother on her birthday.

to distribute – to give the proper items or parts of something to each person; to deal out; to give to each person

* When we get the new shipment in, we’ll distribute the new products to each store.

to ship – to transport people or goods, usually by ship, airplane, train, or truck

* If I purchase this online, can it be shipped to my address in Alaska?

tonsure – a part of a monk's or priest's head left bare on top by shaving off the hair, in the shape of a circle

* When Samuel became a monk, he wore a tonsure like all of the other monks.

bald spot – an area of a person's head that has no hair, most common in men and usually due to age or illness

* Jermaine felt old when he noticed that the small bald spot on his head was getting bigger.

to ward off – to prevent something from occurring; to keep from happening

* My mother believed that wearing garlic around the neck would ward off a cold.

What Insiders Know

The Fables Comic Book Series

There are many children stories about talking animals, and “mythical” (belonging to old stories, especially stories about how the world was created) creatures, and “monsters” (frightening characters who are not real). In 2002, a writer named Bill Willingham created a “comic book” (books with drawings and text to tell a story) series that features many of these characters. This comic book series is called Fables and is produced by DC Comics, one of the largest comic book companies in the world.

A “fable” is a short story that involves animals as characters. In these stories, the animals behave like “humans” (people): they talk, they think, they can do everything that a normal human being can do. In Bill Willingham’s comic book, these and other “storybook” (children’s story) characters appear. Although not all of them are animals, the characters in the comic books call themselves “Fables.”

The “premise” or idea behind the comic book series is that the Fables have been “forced out of” (unwillingly made to leave) their world called “Homelands.” The word “homeland” refers to a person’s native land, the place where he or she was born and/or where they were raised as a child. The Fables characters have traveled to our world and formed a secret community in New York City, which they call “Fabletown.”

Fables features some of the most popular characters from children’s stories, such as Snow White, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Pinocchio, as well as Santa Claus, Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin, and many more. The series has won “numerous” (many) awards since it was first “released” (made available to an audience) in 2002.