2004-7-29
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DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
Music from a new album by Patty Scialfa. A listener in Japan
wants to know what Americans do on summer vacation. And, we begin
with three Americans who know exactly what they will be doing next
month in Athens.
Naturalized American Olympians
The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Athens from August
thirteenth to the twenty-ninth. Ten thousand athletes from more than
two hundred countries are expected to take part. Some of the
athletes on the American team have competed before in the Olympics
as citizens of other countries. Steve Ember tells us about three of
them.
STEVE EMBER: The United States team is considered to have a good
chance this year to win a medal in table tennis. One reason is
thirty-five-year-old Gao Jun.
She won a silver medal in doubles
competition when she represented China at the nineteen-ninety-two
Olympics. After that, she moved to the United States. She became an
American citizen. She has been a member of the United States
National Team since nineteen-ninety-seven. She competed in the
two-thousand Olympics in Sydney.
Last year, Gao Jun reached the quarterfinals of the singles
competition at the world championships in table tennis. She became
the first American to do so since nineteen-fifty-nine. Now she has
been training in China to get ready for the Olympics in Greece.
Another foreign-born American athlete is swimmer Lenny
Krayzelburg. He came to the United States with his family from the
Ukrainian city of Odessa. Lenny Krayzelburg became an American
citizen in nineteen-ninety-five. He won three gold medals in the
Sydney Games in two-thousand.
Recently, he has suffered shoulder injuries. He can no longer
compete in the two-hundred meter backstroke. But he will swim again
for the United States Olympic team this year in the one-hundred
meter race.
A third American athlete from another country is Colleen De
Reuck. The forty-year-old runner was born in South Africa. Next
month, she will become the oldest American woman to run an Olympic
marathon.
Colleen De Reuck won the Berlin Marathon in nineteen-ninety-six
as a runner for South Africa. She also competed for her home country
at the Olympics in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. Colleen De Reuck
became an American citizen in two-thousand-two.
Summer Vacations
DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from
Chiba, Japan. Kimitoshi Hiraoka asks where Americans go on their
summer vacations.
That is an interesting question. Reports tell us that Americans
work more and vacation less than people in other major industrial
countries. Still, millions of Americans do try to get away from home
for a week or two in the summer months. Some might even have the
time and money to spend longer on vacation.
For example, many retired
Americans can be found driving around the United States in big
recreational vehicles, known as R.V.'s. These serve as a home away
from home. In fact, it might even be their only home as they see the
country.
Some American families get in their car and drive to historic
places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. There, they can
experience what life was like for early Americans. If that is not
exciting enough, also in Williamsburg is a water park and an
amusement park with rides.
Other Americans visit national parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite
out in the West. They want to spend time with nature. Or they take
their vacation by a lake or the ocean. They might swim or fish. But
many just want to sit and enjoy the feeling of doing nothing, except
maybe read a book.
Some families fly to other countries on vacation. Or they go on a
cruise ship and stop in different ports. Cruise ships are like
floating cities.
But not everyone goes someplace special on vacation. This might
be the only time for people to work on things like home improvement
projects. And while they do that, they might think of all the fun
their friends are having.
Patti Scialfa
Patti Scialfa [SKAL-fuh] is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E
Street Band. She is also married to Bruce Springsteen. Since the
nineteen-seventies, she has been a singer, songwriter and musician
in her own right. Patti Scialfa has a new album of songs she wrote
called "Twenty-Third Street Lullaby." Shep O'Nealhas more.
SHEP O'NEAL: Patti Scialfa is from
the state of New Jersey. During the nineteen-seventies, she
performed with several bands in New York City. Her new album,
"Twenty-Third Street Lullaby," recalls the New York City area called
Chelsea. This is where she got her start as a singer and songwriter.
She says: "You come to the city and you have a chance to find out
who you really are. You test yourself, find yourself and lose pieces
of yourself."
She tells about this in the song "Young in the City."
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Patti Scialfa's new album includes songs about people from her
past – such as a woman named Rose who served meals at an eating
place.
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Patti Scialfa says her new album is about acceptance and how you
learn to think about the past in order to express who you are today.
She plans to perform by herself for the first time. She will perform
twenty concerts starting in September.
We leave you now with the title song from Patti Scialfa's new
album, "Twenty-Third Street Lullaby."
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DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN
MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA's radio magazine in Special
English.
This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach.
Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman.