EC156_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 156

TOPICS

The Chinese Exclusion Act; Library of Congress and the public library system; I

thought versus I think; anyway versus however; to make (someone) earn

(something)

_____________

GLOSSARY

immigration – people moving to a country to spend the rest of their life there;

moving permanently to a new country

* After working in this country for a year, Cherise is thinking about moving here

and applying for immigration.

to resent – to not like; to feel angry or hurt toward someone or something else

because one feels one has been unfairly treated

* Karen resented her parents giving her brother money for school, when she had

received nothing and had to earn money for school herself.

act – a law passed by the government; a written rule made by the government

* The new act by the city government made it illegal to smoke in public

bathrooms.

to exclude – to not include; to leave out; to not allow someone participate in a

group or activity

* If we exclude the younger children from the team, how will they learn to play the

game?

citizen – a person who belongs to a country and can vote there

* Only citizens could apply for temporary housing after the storm destroyed their

homes.

ethnic – referring to a group of people who look the same and have the same

skin and hair color, and/or have the same culture

* An easy way to get fired from your job is to make ethnic jokes about the boss or

the other employees.

to repeal – to end a law; to stop a law from being a law

* Alcohol used to be illegal in the United States but that law was repealed.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 156

library – a large building with many books where people can borrow books to

read for a short period of time

* Before we plan our trip, let’s go to the library to find some books and videos

about Greece.

to check out books – to borrow books for a short period of time, reading them

and then giving them back to the library

* After we get a library card, we can check out books for the children.

Congress – the part of the U.S. government that makes laws and has

representatives from each of the 50 U.S. states

* How many days each year does Congress meet to discuss and pass laws?

collection – a group of similar objects; a group of objects or people put together

for a specific purpose

* Paula and Steven have collected old cars for years and they now have five in

their collection.

significant – important and meaningful; something important enough that one

should pay attention to it

* Our supervisor told us about a lot of new changes that will occur next year, but

the most significant was that the company would be hiring 20 new employees.

anyway – a word used to change the subject, to go back to a topic that was

introduced earlier, or to jump ahead to the most interesting point of the story

* We had a long fight over who would pay for the damage. Anyway, we decided

in the end to each pay for half of the total cost.

however – a word used to show a contrast between two ideas; used to suggest

that one is going to hear something that is different from what one would expect,

considering the information just provided

* Basil is usually on time. However, since he started dating Alisa, he’s often late

for work.

to make (someone) earn (something) – to force someone to work for what they

receive; to make it a requirement that if someone wants something, he/she must

work for it

* My father made me earn money for the new bike I wanted because he said that

it would make me appreciate it more.

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

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 156

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

The Yellow Peril

The “Yellow Peril” was a phrase first used in newspapers and political

discussions in the late 1800s in the United States to describe the Chinese

workers who came to work in the United States. It was used as “rhetoric”

(language used to convince other people of your view) to encourage negative

views of Chinese workers among Americans.

The word “yellow” refers to the skin color of East Asians, and “peril” means

danger. The idea was that the large numbers of immigrants from Asia

“threatened” (with the possibility of harming or hurting) the jobs of white workers

and their “wages” (money earned from doing work). Since Chinese workers were

paid less, white workers could not earn as much as they did before this

inexpensive “labor force” (group of workers) entered the country.

These workers were also considered to be “uncivilized,” not socially, culturally, or

morally advanced, and threatened the American way of life. “Lynching” (killing by

hanging a person from a tree with a rope around the neck) of Asian immigrants

by “vigilante groups” (groups of people who try to enforce laws without

permission from the government) were common in the early 1900s, similar to the

lynchings in the Southern U.S. against African Americans.

In the mid-1900s, the term “Yellow Peril” was used again to talk about the

Japanese’s “military expansion,” which was Japan’s effort to “extend” (reach

further) their power to other countries. The term is sometimes still used today in

racist discussions about East Asian influences in the U.S.

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of

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

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 156

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 156.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 156. I’m your host, Dr.

Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in

beautiful Los Angeles, California. Ah, California!

Visit our website at eslpod.com. You can download this episode’s Learning

Guide, an 8 to 10 page guide we provide for all of our current episodes that gives

you some additional help in improving your English. You can also take a look at

our ESL Podcast Store, which has additional courses in business and daily

English, and our ESL Podcast Blog, where several times a week we provide

even more help in increasing your language proficiency.

On this Café, we’re going to talk about a very important piece of legislation – a

very important law that was passed in the late 1800s, called the Chinese

Exclusion Act. Then I’d like to tell you a little bit about the Library of Congress

and the public library system in the United States, a very important part of our

country’s history and our present. And as always, we’ll answer a few of your

questions. Let’s get started.

The United States has always had a lot of “immigration,” people moving to this

country to live the rest of their life here. There are two verbs here: to “immigrate”

means to come to a country, to “emigrate” (emigrate) means to go to another

country, a different country. So you emigrate from your country and you

immigrate to another country.

Most early of the immigration to the United States was from Western Europe,

places like Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and other countries in

Europe. There was also, however, many immigrants who came from different

countries outside of Europe, especially during the latter part of the 19 th century,

during the late 1800s. Between 1849 and 1882, there was a lot of immigration

from China.

Chinese immigrants started to come to mostly here, California, during the

California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush (rush) was a period of time in the mid-

1800s when people were finding a lot of gold in California and making a lot of

money selling it. The word “rush” refers to how people moved very quickly to

come to California to find gold. In fact, California is known as the Golden State,

it’s another name for the State of California. And the Gold Rush was very

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of

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

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 156

important in the history of California because people thought they could make a

lot of money so they came to California looking for gold, and that increased the

population dramatically.

At the beginning, there was more gold than people who wanted to look for it, so

the Chinese and the Americans worked side by side. But after a few years, there

wasn’t as much gold and there were too many people looking for it. The

Americans, those living here in California especially, began to resent (resent) the

Chinese. To “resent” means not liking something, being angry or mad about

something. For example, teenagers may resent their parents when they don’t let

them do whatever they want. In the late 1800s, many Americans resented the

Chinese immigrants because they were making money while some Americans

were not, in finding gold.

Something else was happening during the late 19 th century in the U.S. – the late

1800s – and that was that America was building railroads, and to build railroads,

you need a lot of people. Many Chinese people were immigrating to help build

railroads, in particular, the transcontinental railroad. “Trans” means over or

across; “transcontinental” means across the entire United States, in this case,

across an entire continent. It wasn’t really across the entire continent; it was just

across part of the continent. In any case, the Chinese came to build this railroad

that would go from the Atlantic Ocean in the East to the Pacific Ocean in the

West.

At the beginning, the Chinese were welcomed by the railroad company.

Americans were happy to see the Chinese people coming because there was a

lot of work to do, and they could help them do this work. But as immigration

increased, Americans began to think there were too many Chinese and that they

were taking jobs away from Americans. This is a common theme – a common

occurrence – a common situation in American history, where we have immigrants

who come in, at first everyone says, “Oh, that’s wonderful,” then, when the

economy is bad, then you say, “Oh, well, too many immigrants.” And that’s what

was happening in the late 19 th century. Many people that the Chinese

immigrants were working for too little money, which lowered “wages,” that is, the

amount of money you could earn. So, Americans were getting less money

because the Chinese were willing to work for a lower wage – willing to work for

less money.

Certainly, another reason why people were afraid of, or wanted to limit Chinese

immigration was because the Chinese didn’t look like the European Americans,

and so there’s always a fear of someone who doesn’t look like you.

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of

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

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