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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Roger Basick.
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And I’m Alice Irrizary. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Voice 1
In 1843, the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen 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 have ever seen. The duckling’s parents, brothers, and sisters call him names and hurt him. Soon, he runs from their home.
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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 water birds have long, graceful necks. In their beauty, the duckling sees everything that he is not.
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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 to be a swan. He never was a duck. He was always a young swan. The animals who made fun of him 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.
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“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 Andersen’s first years. Insulted for his appearance and ideas, the young Andersen eventually grew to be one of Denmark’s most celebrated writers. Like his duckling, Andersen flew on to other, greater things. On today’s Spotlight, we talk about his story.
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Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805. 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 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.
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When he was just 14, Andersen moved to the Danish capital, Copenhagen. There he tried to act and sing for a living. But while Andersen 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. He soon understood that writing was a better choice for him.
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But Andersen’s writing work did not begin easily either. A friend helped send him to school. But his teachers were very unkind. Simon Meisling was the head of Andersen’s school. He told Andersen that he was not supposed to write creatively. Meisling hurt Andersen when he disobeyed. Once, Meisling said:
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“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.”
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Andersen’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.
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Andersen 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 were his fairy tales. A fairy tale is a short story that is not based in real life. Often, these stories teach a life lesson and include magical characters or events. These are usually for children. But some fairy tales are dark and frightening.
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Andersen’s fairy tales were different than other written stories. Andersen 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.
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Some of Andersen’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.”
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“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.
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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. 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.
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Andersen’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 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.
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Andersen’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.
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But Andersen’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. 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.
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Even though he had difficulties, Andersen’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 the Pea,” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” have been re-told films, television shows, ballets, and theater musicals. The city of Copenhagen honored Andersen by placing a statue of the Little Mermaid on a rock in its harbor. Hans Christian Andersen’s name is tied to the fairy tale. His writing is proof that he overcame many difficulties. Anne Chinsom wrote for the Telegraph about Andersen. She said:
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“His stories are the best possible evidence to the great importance of a complex man. They are evidence to the transforming power of art.”
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Have you worked through any childhood difficulties? What challenges have you overcome? Do you have a favorite story by Andersen? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Tiktok, and X. ou can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app. You can find another Andersen tale, “The Story of the Little Match Girl,” on the Spotlight website.
Voice 1
The writer and producer of this program was Dan Christmann. 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 Story Teller’.
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We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.
Question
Have you worked through any childhood difficulties? What challenges have you overcome? Do you have a favorite story by Andersen?
