May 7, 2025 • 10 mins
Roger Basick and Alice Irrizary share about the life of a writer whose stories continue to be told to children around the world.
https://spotlightenglish.com/books/hans-christian-andersen-the-story-teller/
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https://spotlightenglish.com/books/hans-christian-andersen-the-story-teller/
Download our app for Android at http://bit.ly/spotlight-android
Download our app for iOS at http://bit.ly/spotlight-apple
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spotlightradio
Are you learning English? Are you looking for a way to practice your English? Listen to Spotlight to learn about people and places all around the world. You can learn English words, and even practice English by writing a comment.
Visit our website to follow along with the script: http://spotlightenglish.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Spotlight Advanced.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Roger Bassing and I'm Alice Irrasari. Spotlight uses a
special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people
to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
In eighteen forty three, the Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson
published a story. He called it The Ugly Duckling. The
story follows the life of a young water bird. All
of the creatures are amazed when this duckling comes out
of its egg. He is the strangest looking creature they
(00:49):
have ever seen. The duckling's parents, brothers, and sisters call
him names and heard him. Soon he runs from their home.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
The duckling finds new places to live, but other creatures
always drive him away. He spends his first year alone,
surviving through the winter's cold. The only joy he finds
is watching the swans. These larger waterbirds have long, graceful necks.
(01:25):
In their beauty, the duckling sees everything that he is not.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
At the end of his first year, the duckling decides
to go to the swans. He believes the swans will
kill him because of his appearance, but when he arrives,
the birds welcome him. He looks down at his reflection
in the water, he discovers that he has grown up
(01:54):
to be a swan. He was never a duck. He
was always a young swan. The animals who made fun
of him did not recognize his beauty underneath. At the
end of the story, the ugly Duckling flies away with
his new family, proving everyone who made fun of him wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The Ugly Duckling is a story for children. Its message
is that not everyone sees talent or beauty for what
it is at first, but the story may as well
be a story of Anderson's first years. Insulted for his
appearance and ideas, the young Anderson eventually grew to be
(02:37):
one of Denmark's most celebrated writers. Like his duckling, Anderson
flew on to other greater things. On today's Spotlight, we
talk about his story.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Hans Christian Andersen was born in eighteen oh five. He
grew up knowing he loved art. His family was poor.
He was meant to earn his living making clothing for others,
but when he was a child, his father read him
famous stories like the one thousand and one Nights, and
(03:14):
he lived in a small city with its own theater.
Seeing stories on the stage and listening to his father
read stories made him feel as if there were something better.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
When he was just fourteen, Anderson moved to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
There he tried to act and sing for a living.
But while Anderson could sing, he could not act well.
He did not look like the roles he wanted. He
spent three years trying to act for the theater without success.
(03:49):
He soon understood that writing was a better choice for him.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But Anderson's writing work did not begin easily either. A
friend and helped send him to school, but his teachers
were very unkind. Simon Meisling was the head of Anderson's school.
He told Anderson that he was not supposed to write creatively.
Meisling hurt Anderson when he disobeyed once.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Meisling said, you are a stupid boy. You will never
be any good when you are on your own. You
can write a lot of nonsense, but no one will
read what you write. It will be sold on cheap paper.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Anderson's time at school almost made him stop writing. He
almost gave up on his art, but somehow he kept going.
He knew that he would one day become as great
as the swan in his story.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Anderson began writing seriously after he left school. His first
pieces were about the places he traveled, but the stories
that brought him his most success or his fairy tales.
A fairy tale is a short story that is not
based in real life. Often, these stories teach a life
(05:10):
lesson and include magical characters or events. They are usually
for children, but some fairy tales are dark and frightening.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Anderson's fairy tales were different than other written stories. Anderson
had a conversational style. He wrote like he talked. His
writing was easy to read. His style had a warmth
and closeness that other writers of his days lacked.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Some of Anderson's fairy tales were retellings of old folk tales,
but his original stories are the ones that made him famous.
One of these stories is called The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
The Little Mermaid tells the story of a mermaid girl
who lives under the water. She and her family have
tails instead of legs, but the Little Mermaid dreams of
the surface world. She even falls in love with the
son of a king, and she rescues him from drowning.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
The Little Mermaid chooses to live on the surface. She
gives up her voice and swimming ability. She leaves her
family under the sea. It hurts for her to walk
like she is stepping on glass, and the prince she
loves does not love her back. He marries someone else.
(06:38):
On the day he does, the Little Mermaid dies. She
turns into a spirit of the air so that she
can have a new life. She is given a second chance.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Anderson's story is like a folk tale, but it is
also influenced by his Christian faith. Christians believe that Jesus
is the son of God. Jesus offers to save believers
from the pain of this life. The Little Mermaid made
many bad decisions. She suffered for these, but she was
(07:14):
saved at the last possible moment. Her second chance is
one of the wonderful gifts in this tale, but it
is also the story of someone being saved even though
she made bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Anderson's work made him a success. By the time he
was thirty. He met with real kings, real princesses, and
the most famous people in his country. He was living
proof that his teachers were wrong about him.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
But Anderson's personal life was difficult, like many of his characters.
He fell in love early and often. He had very
strong emotional attachments to people, but these attachments caused him problems.
He loved people with whom he could not have relationships,
(08:11):
so he was often unhappy. He had a hard time
taking disapproval or failure. Problems in his life would leave
him emotionally destroyed, unable to speak for crying. He became famous,
but he never stopped feeling like an outcast.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Even though he had difficulties. Anderson's writing made him famous.
By the time he died, his stories had been translated
into dozens of languages. Today, his stories are some of
the most well known in the Western world. Many of
his stories, such as The Little Mermaid, The Princess and
(08:54):
the Pea, and the Emperor's New Clothes have been retold films,
television shows, ballets, and theater musicals. The city of Copenhagen
honored Anderson by placing a statue of the Little Mermaid
on a rock in its harbor. Hans Christian Andersen's name
is tied to the fairytale. His writing is proof that
(09:17):
he overcame many difficulties. And Chinsom wrote for the Telegraph
about Anderson.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
She said, His stories are the best possible evidence to
the great importance of a complex man. They are evidence
to the transforming power of art.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Have you worked through any childhood difficulties? What challenges have
you overcome? Do you have a favorite story by Anderson?
You can leave a comment on our website at www
dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and x. You can also get
(10:04):
our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device
through our free official Spotlight English app. You can find
another Anderson tail, the Story of the Little match Girl,
on the Spotlight website.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
The writer and producer of this program was Dan Chrisman.
The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called Hans Christian
Andersen the Storyteller.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
We hope you can join us again for the next
Spotlight program. Goodbye,
Welcome to Spotlight Advanced.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Roger Bassing and I'm Alice Irrasari. Spotlight uses a
special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people
to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
In eighteen forty three, the Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson
published a story. He called it The Ugly Duckling. The
story follows the life of a young water bird. All
of the creatures are amazed when this duckling comes out
of its egg. He is the strangest looking creature they
(00:49):
have ever seen. The duckling's parents, brothers, and sisters call
him names and heard him. Soon he runs from their home.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
The duckling finds new places to live, but other creatures
always drive him away. He spends his first year alone,
surviving through the winter's cold. The only joy he finds
is watching the swans. These larger waterbirds have long, graceful necks.
(01:25):
In their beauty, the duckling sees everything that he is not.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
At the end of his first year, the duckling decides
to go to the swans. He believes the swans will
kill him because of his appearance, but when he arrives,
the birds welcome him. He looks down at his reflection
in the water, he discovers that he has grown up
(01:54):
to be a swan. He was never a duck. He
was always a young swan. The animals who made fun
of him did not recognize his beauty underneath. At the
end of the story, the ugly Duckling flies away with
his new family, proving everyone who made fun of him wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The Ugly Duckling is a story for children. Its message
is that not everyone sees talent or beauty for what
it is at first, but the story may as well
be a story of Anderson's first years. Insulted for his
appearance and ideas, the young Anderson eventually grew to be
(02:37):
one of Denmark's most celebrated writers. Like his duckling, Anderson
flew on to other greater things. On today's Spotlight, we
talk about his story.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Hans Christian Andersen was born in eighteen oh five. He
grew up knowing he loved art. His family was poor.
He was meant to earn his living making clothing for others,
but when he was a child, his father read him
famous stories like the one thousand and one Nights, and
(03:14):
he lived in a small city with its own theater.
Seeing stories on the stage and listening to his father
read stories made him feel as if there were something better.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
When he was just fourteen, Anderson moved to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
There he tried to act and sing for a living.
But while Anderson could sing, he could not act well.
He did not look like the roles he wanted. He
spent three years trying to act for the theater without success.
(03:49):
He soon understood that writing was a better choice for him.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But Anderson's writing work did not begin easily either. A
friend and helped send him to school, but his teachers
were very unkind. Simon Meisling was the head of Anderson's school.
He told Anderson that he was not supposed to write creatively.
Meisling hurt Anderson when he disobeyed once.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Meisling said, you are a stupid boy. You will never
be any good when you are on your own. You
can write a lot of nonsense, but no one will
read what you write. It will be sold on cheap paper.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Anderson's time at school almost made him stop writing. He
almost gave up on his art, but somehow he kept going.
He knew that he would one day become as great
as the swan in his story.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Anderson began writing seriously after he left school. His first
pieces were about the places he traveled, but the stories
that brought him his most success or his fairy tales.
A fairy tale is a short story that is not
based in real life. Often, these stories teach a life
(05:10):
lesson and include magical characters or events. They are usually
for children, but some fairy tales are dark and frightening.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Anderson's fairy tales were different than other written stories. Anderson
had a conversational style. He wrote like he talked. His
writing was easy to read. His style had a warmth
and closeness that other writers of his days lacked.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Some of Anderson's fairy tales were retellings of old folk tales,
but his original stories are the ones that made him famous.
One of these stories is called The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
The Little Mermaid tells the story of a mermaid girl
who lives under the water. She and her family have
tails instead of legs, but the Little Mermaid dreams of
the surface world. She even falls in love with the
son of a king, and she rescues him from drowning.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
The Little Mermaid chooses to live on the surface. She
gives up her voice and swimming ability. She leaves her
family under the sea. It hurts for her to walk
like she is stepping on glass, and the prince she
loves does not love her back. He marries someone else.
(06:38):
On the day he does, the Little Mermaid dies. She
turns into a spirit of the air so that she
can have a new life. She is given a second chance.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Anderson's story is like a folk tale, but it is
also influenced by his Christian faith. Christians believe that Jesus
is the son of God. Jesus offers to save believers
from the pain of this life. The Little Mermaid made
many bad decisions. She suffered for these, but she was
(07:14):
saved at the last possible moment. Her second chance is
one of the wonderful gifts in this tale, but it
is also the story of someone being saved even though
she made bad decisions.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Anderson's work made him a success. By the time he
was thirty. He met with real kings, real princesses, and
the most famous people in his country. He was living
proof that his teachers were wrong about him.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
But Anderson's personal life was difficult, like many of his characters.
He fell in love early and often. He had very
strong emotional attachments to people, but these attachments caused him problems.
He loved people with whom he could not have relationships,
(08:11):
so he was often unhappy. He had a hard time
taking disapproval or failure. Problems in his life would leave
him emotionally destroyed, unable to speak for crying. He became famous,
but he never stopped feeling like an outcast.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Even though he had difficulties. Anderson's writing made him famous.
By the time he died, his stories had been translated
into dozens of languages. Today, his stories are some of
the most well known in the Western world. Many of
his stories, such as The Little Mermaid, The Princess and
(08:54):
the Pea, and the Emperor's New Clothes have been retold films,
television shows, ballets, and theater musicals. The city of Copenhagen
honored Anderson by placing a statue of the Little Mermaid
on a rock in its harbor. Hans Christian Andersen's name
is tied to the fairytale. His writing is proof that
(09:17):
he overcame many difficulties. And Chinsom wrote for the Telegraph
about Anderson.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
She said, His stories are the best possible evidence to
the great importance of a complex man. They are evidence
to the transforming power of art.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Have you worked through any childhood difficulties? What challenges have
you overcome? Do you have a favorite story by Anderson?
You can leave a comment on our website at www
dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and x. You can also get
(10:04):
our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device
through our free official Spotlight English app. You can find
another Anderson tail, the Story of the Little match Girl,
on the Spotlight website.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
The writer and producer of this program was Dan Chrisman.
The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called Hans Christian
Andersen the Storyteller.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
We hope you can join us again for the next
Spotlight program. Goodbye,
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