Hello and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers.
I'm Liz Waid and this is Adam Navis.
Hi Adam.
Hello everyone.
Hello Liz.
Hi.
And we are here to discuss the Spotlight English program, The Story of the Little Match Girl.
And so if you have not already listened to our version of that story, you can find it on our website, where you can listen and read, along with the script right there.
Or you can watch it on YouTube in a classic or no music or advanced version.
Yeah.
Listen to that.
Take a listen.
We ask a question in that program, whether this is a sad story or a happy story.
And so we definitely want to talk about that today.
We also want to ask you and see what you have to think about this story, because this is a very famous story by a very famous fairy tale author, Hans Christian Andersen.
And I know that I have some feelings about this story.
Adam?
Well, we'll get into it.
I do have some feelings about it.
All right.
Okay, so we'll get to that in a second.
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And that's all the housekeeping, as they say.
This is Christmas week.
Yeah, so that's pretty exciting.
Merry christmas to you all who are watching this.
Yes um, i'm not wearing any like christmas decorations.
I do have like a little uh, light up necklace and a santa hat, but you're, you're festive enough for all of us.
Liz yes, just yourself.
Yeah, exactly.
Ho, ho, ho.
No, that's not good.
Well, The Story of the Little Matchstick Girl.
Let's dive into what this program... It tells the story.
Yes.
Okay.
So in this program we tell about the story, a little bit about who wrote it, which is Hans Christian Andersen.
And he is a very famous fairy tale author from...
I'm going to say the 1800s.
Yes.
Yes.
So he has written a lot of fairy tales and stories.
And then we actually – this is one of my favorite kind of Spotlight English programs where we tell a story – as if it is a real story and use sort of actor voices and put in sound effects to make it sound real.
And so we tell that whole story and then we talk about sort of the meanings of that story.
And so I want to.
Actually, this is a little.
This is an Easter egg, which is a term for something special about this program.
And hidden.
Yes, something hidden about this program.
My daughter is actually the voice of the little match girl.
So that was really fun.
Did you make her record it out in the cold in the winter?
Yes, I gave her some matches and some really ratty clothes.
And I put her out in the snow, and then I said, here, record this script.
Yeah, get her into character.
No, but that was really fun to record with her.
Yeah, that's cool.
She has done a little bit of recording for Spotlight before, but this was really her big moment.
And I think she did so great, because you really feel for this sad little match girl.
Oh, so you think she's a sad program?
I do think it's a sad program.
Okay, okay.
Okay.
So why don't you just really quickly tell the story of the little match girl, just so that we're all on the same page about what happens?
So this girl is poor.
I mean, poor, poor, poor.
And her father hits her.
Right, if she doesn't sell enough matches.
If she doesn't sell enough matches.
She's going along the street asking people if they want to buy matches.
And even if she sells a lot of matches, she's not going to make a lot of money.
So she's very, very poor.
She knows that if she, she's very cold as well.
It's wintertime and it's snowing and it's cold.
And so she knows she can keep warm for just a little bit if she lights one match.
But of course no one's going to buy that match when she uses it up yeah, so she lights a match and she has a little bit of warmth, uh like from the flame, but also a little uh, vision of a, of something happy um, and a warm fire.
A warm fire or a fan, you know just a nice little.
The fire dances and she gets has just a moment Where she feels good.
And of course it goes out.
And so she lights another match.
And eventually she has another moment of happiness.
And finally she has a vision of her grandmother holding her and happy with her.
And so she just lights all the matches to keep that vision alive.
And then the next morning people find Okay, I think you're missing a really important part before you go to the next morning.
Go ahead.
What part am I missing?
Is that her grandmother is like the only person who ever loved her.
And she wants to be with her grandmother.
Right.
Her grandmother had died.
Her grandmother had died.
So she sees...
She sees her grandmother reaching toward her and she reaches toward her grandmother, and then they fly away in her vision.
In her vision.
And what happens in real life?
And then it's the next morning.
She's leaning against a wall, frozen solid, dead.
With a smile on her face.
I don't remember that part of the story.
I was focused on the dead part.
I know.
And, but...
OK, so that's I mean, that's the whole story.
But let's make the case for it's a happy story and let's make the case for it's a sad story.
OK, so I will say on my first sort of and every time I hear this story, can we back up even just one second and wonder why this is a Christmas story?
Because it happens in the New Year.
Well, it happens... It's actually a New Year story.
Yeah.
But people tell it and watch it at Christmastime, which I don't understand.
Unless you're thinking about.
Just all of these visions happen around the holidays Christmas, New Year's, families getting together, eating a bunch of delicious food, being being with family and happy.
Well, it is also a time of year christmas, where there are a lot of fables and morality stories, even like you know, think of, you know, not not necessarily associated with religion, you know, rudolph the red-nosed, reindeer or right, the stories like that that people engage with it.
They're, they're more willing to engage with those type of stories, which is That, would be my guess, maybe.
Right, where you learn a lesson because you are more open to learning lessons at that time.
Right.
Okay, I guess I could see that.
I mean, it is a Christmas story.
This is something that people tell around Christmas.
Right, it has become a Christmas story.
We can't argue that.
It has become a Christmas story.
Yes.
Okay, so whether it's sad or happy.
So every time I hear or read this story, I am so sad for her and I really can't get over the fact that I am sad for her.
Right.
Um, even at the end, um, I think for her, it is meant to be happy.
Like she has um, she has gone with her grandmother and who loved her and she loved yeah, where there is no more pain and there's no more cold and no more sadness, and she has flown away in joy right, so i do think the happy part comes when you think about separating your pain and sadness from this world, Right?
Because there is pain and sadness and cold and hunger in this world.
But in heaven, then she has she has joined heaven.
And so maybe that is why it is a happy story.
Yeah, that I think is the best, you've laid out the best case.
The vision of something being, well, and heaven as a place of ultimate love, right?
Like her grandmother, is the place where she is warm and loved and accepted, and she's going to that place.
Cause I have been thinking about this program a lot as I get it prepared to um, you know, as I prepared it to put on uh, our website and things like that, and really thinking through those things.
And I do, when I had heard this story before, I had not really thought about the lessons of it.
Um, and a couple of the lessons, they were really interesting to me.
Um, Oh, there was the one about really the one about love, I think, is the is the key here.
But, you know, she sees all these visions of happiness.
So she lights the match and she sees a warm fire, a warm cooking cooking stove where she can warm her feet.
And it's so real to her that she's warm for a moment.
But then the match goes out.
And then the next vision she sees is of of a happy time where there's a full table and she wouldn't be hungry.
And then the next match she lights is a beautiful Christmas tree that's just like, filled with bells and lights and things.
And so that all of those things bring you happiness.
And that's when she starts thinking of her grandmother, the most happy thing in her life.
And that's the thing that she wanted to hold on to.
It wasn't food or warmth or, you know, anything like that.
It was love from a person.
Yeah.
And I think that's a good point that, like it is true that in the cosmic realm of time our life is but a, you know, a little lit match.
And you have to think about what's truly important.
It's still hard to get over the idea of a child suffering.
I know.
I just can't.
I just can't.
Think of this as a happy story when the child at the end is dead.
Well, here's why I think it's... In the 1800s, it was different.
Maybe everybody died at like.
Maybe at that time this was a rich.
She was like an old lady by their.
Nobody lived past 10.
So I think this story is problematic.
I'm going to say whether it's happy or sad could be up to the person who's reading it.
Here's why I think it's problematic.
I think if this were a story she told...
And she made meaning out of her suffering.
We all have things that happen.
So if the perspective was different.
If the perspective were, you know, like if I have something bad happen and you come along and say hey, something good could come out of this.
That's very different than if I say something good can come out of this.
If I make the meaning or you impose the meaning on me, that's a very different.
It's my story to tell, right?
Although the narrator does seem like omnipresent.
They do seem like a narrator that knows everything.
Yes.
But the narrator is not a little girl.
Right.
It's Hans Christian Andersen.
Right.
I'm not.
Yeah.
And even then, like, that's where I think it's problematic.
Like, the girl still really died and suffered.
She lived a horrible, horrible life.
Yeah.
Well, and at the end, then, this is the other part I do feel is a little problematic.
Right.
So at the end she's sitting there frozen on the sidewalk with a smile on her face and And this detail is in the story where people walk by on the street and say, oh poor dear, she was just trying to keep warm, or other sentiments like that
And I think what an easy way for those people to get out of any responsibility for this.
Right.
Because, of course, there's going to be another child.
Right.
Who was helping her?
No one's helping the other matchstick girl or the matchstick boy or whomever, right?
Right.
They just get to walk by and be like, oh, that's really sad for her.
But let me tell you a story about what probably happened.
Let me go home and open my presents.
Yeah.
Eat my Christmas dinner.
Yes.
I would love to hear what people have to think about this story.
If you heard it, or if you have heard it before, is it a happy story or a sad story?
And why?
Because, yeah, I...
I don't know.
I feel like I can think through why it could be a happy story to someone, but I can't actually think it is a happy story for me myself.
I could not agree more.
Yeah, there you go.
And that's the word.
And that's the word.
I do want to encourage you, if you have not listened to this program already, to give it a listen.
I have to say it, Even though I think it is a sad story.
I think it is well told and I think the program is worth listening to.
And check out my daughter's voicing, which I'm always proud of.
And you can check that out on our website at spotlightenglishcom, or you can check it out on YouTube.
And again, if you haven't already, click that little like button and subscribe.
Please do that.
And if you would like to get scripts delivered directly to your email, check out on our website the little scripts by email button.
And of course, Merry Christmas this week.
We will be taking a short break.
You'll still have a program for next week, but it will be an older program, a repeated program, because this is the time when we take a break to spend time with our families.
Yeah, right, Adam?
I'm looking forward to it.
Yes, me too.
This has been a long year, just like the last year.
But we're getting through it.
Our life.
2020, 2021 is like the little matchstick girl lived out in a year.
Yes.
Oh, my goodness.
All right.
Well, I don't want to end this program this way.
I do want to say Merry Christmas.
I am so thankful for each and every one of you who is watching.
I am so thankful for each of our members.
And I am so thankful for those of you who sign up for scripts by email, for all of you who support us in any way, even by liking and subscribing.
All of those things really help us.
They really mean something to us that you would support our work and that you continue to improve your English and let us help you doing that.
Yeah.
Until next time, listen, watch, practice and learn.
Spotlight out and Merry Christmas.
