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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Spotlight Advanced.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Roger Bassing and I'm Alice Irrasari. Spotlight uses a

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<v Speaker 2>special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people

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<v Speaker 2>to understand no matter where in the world they live.

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<v Speaker 1>In eighteen forty three, the Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson

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<v Speaker 1>published a story. He called it The Ugly Duckling. The

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<v Speaker 1>story follows the life of a young water bird. All

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<v Speaker 1>of the creatures are amazed when this duckling comes out

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<v Speaker 1>of its egg. He is the strangest looking creature they

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<v Speaker 1>have ever seen. The duckling's parents, brothers, and sisters call

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<v Speaker 1>him names and heard him. Soon he runs from their home.

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<v Speaker 2>The duckling finds new places to live, but other creatures

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<v Speaker 2>always drive him away. He spends his first year alone,

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<v Speaker 2>surviving through the winter's cold. The only joy he finds

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<v Speaker 2>is watching the swans. These larger waterbirds have long, graceful necks.

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<v Speaker 2>In their beauty, the duckling sees everything that he is not.

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<v Speaker 1>At the end of his first year, the duckling decides

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<v Speaker 1>to go to the swans. He believes the swans will

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<v Speaker 1>kill him because of his appearance, but when he arrives,

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<v Speaker 1>the birds welcome him. He looks down at his reflection

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<v Speaker 1>in the water, he discovers that he has grown up

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<v Speaker 1>to be a swan. He was never a duck. He

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<v Speaker 1>was always a young swan. The animals who made fun

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<v Speaker 1>of him did not recognize his beauty underneath. At the

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<v Speaker 1>end of the story, the ugly Duckling flies away with

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<v Speaker 1>his new family, proving everyone who made fun of him wrong.

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<v Speaker 2>The Ugly Duckling is a story for children. Its message

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<v Speaker 2>is that not everyone sees talent or beauty for what

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<v Speaker 2>it is at first, but the story may as well

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<v Speaker 2>be a story of Anderson's first years. Insulted for his

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<v Speaker 2>appearance and ideas, the young Anderson eventually grew to be

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<v Speaker 2>one of Denmark's most celebrated writers. Like his duckling, Anderson

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<v Speaker 2>flew on to other greater things. On today's Spotlight, we

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<v Speaker 2>talk about his story.

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<v Speaker 1>Hans Christian Andersen was born in eighteen oh five. He

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<v Speaker 1>grew up knowing he loved art. His family was poor.

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<v Speaker 1>He was meant to earn his living making clothing for others,

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<v Speaker 1>but when he was a child, his father read him

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<v Speaker 1>famous stories like the one thousand and one Nights, and

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<v Speaker 1>he lived in a small city with its own theater.

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<v Speaker 1>Seeing stories on the stage and listening to his father

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<v Speaker 1>read stories made him feel as if there were something better.

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<v Speaker 2>When he was just fourteen, Anderson moved to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

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<v Speaker 2>There he tried to act and sing for a living.

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<v Speaker 2>But while Anderson could sing, he could not act well.

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<v Speaker 2>He did not look like the roles he wanted. He

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<v Speaker 2>spent three years trying to act for the theater without success.

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<v Speaker 2>He soon understood that writing was a better choice for him.

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<v Speaker 1>But Anderson's writing work did not begin easily either. A

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<v Speaker 1>friend and helped send him to school, but his teachers

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<v Speaker 1>were very unkind. Simon Meisling was the head of Anderson's school.

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<v Speaker 1>He told Anderson that he was not supposed to write creatively.

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<v Speaker 1>Meisling hurt Anderson when he disobeyed once.

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<v Speaker 3>Meisling said, you are a stupid boy. You will never

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<v Speaker 3>be any good when you are on your own. You

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<v Speaker 3>can write a lot of nonsense, but no one will

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<v Speaker 3>read what you write. It will be sold on cheap paper.

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<v Speaker 2>Anderson's time at school almost made him stop writing. He

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<v Speaker 2>almost gave up on his art, but somehow he kept going.

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<v Speaker 2>He knew that he would one day become as great

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<v Speaker 2>as the swan in his story.

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<v Speaker 1>Anderson began writing seriously after he left school. His first

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<v Speaker 1>pieces were about the places he traveled, but the stories

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<v Speaker 1>that brought him his most success or his fairy tales.

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<v Speaker 1>A fairy tale is a short story that is not

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<v Speaker 1>based in real life. Often, these stories teach a life

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<v Speaker 1>lesson and include magical characters or events. They are usually

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<v Speaker 1>for children, but some fairy tales are dark and frightening.

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<v Speaker 2>Anderson's fairy tales were different than other written stories. Anderson

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<v Speaker 2>had a conversational style. He wrote like he talked. His

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<v Speaker 2>writing was easy to read. His style had a warmth

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<v Speaker 2>and closeness that other writers of his days lacked.

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<v Speaker 1>Some of Anderson's fairy tales were retellings of old folk tales,

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<v Speaker 1>but his original stories are the ones that made him famous.

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<v Speaker 1>One of these stories is called The Little Mermaid.

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<v Speaker 2>The Little Mermaid tells the story of a mermaid girl

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<v Speaker 2>who lives under the water. She and her family have

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<v Speaker 2>tails instead of legs, but the Little Mermaid dreams of

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<v Speaker 2>the surface world. She even falls in love with the

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<v Speaker 2>son of a king, and she rescues him from drowning.

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<v Speaker 1>The Little Mermaid chooses to live on the surface. She

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<v Speaker 1>gives up her voice and swimming ability. She leaves her

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<v Speaker 1>family under the sea. It hurts for her to walk

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<v Speaker 1>like she is stepping on glass, and the prince she

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<v Speaker 1>loves does not love her back. He marries someone else.

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<v Speaker 1>On the day he does, the Little Mermaid dies. She

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<v Speaker 1>turns into a spirit of the air so that she

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<v Speaker 1>can have a new life. She is given a second chance.

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<v Speaker 2>Anderson's story is like a folk tale, but it is

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<v Speaker 2>also influenced by his Christian faith. Christians believe that Jesus

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<v Speaker 2>is the son of God. Jesus offers to save believers

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<v Speaker 2>from the pain of this life. The Little Mermaid made

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<v Speaker 2>many bad decisions. She suffered for these, but she was

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<v Speaker 2>saved at the last possible moment. Her second chance is

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<v Speaker 2>one of the wonderful gifts in this tale, but it

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<v Speaker 2>is also the story of someone being saved even though

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<v Speaker 2>she made bad decisions.

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<v Speaker 1>Anderson's work made him a success. By the time he

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<v Speaker 1>was thirty. He met with real kings, real princesses, and

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<v Speaker 1>the most famous people in his country. He was living

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<v Speaker 1>proof that his teachers were wrong about him.

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<v Speaker 2>But Anderson's personal life was difficult, like many of his characters.

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<v Speaker 2>He fell in love early and often. He had very

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<v Speaker 2>strong emotional attachments to people, but these attachments caused him problems.

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<v Speaker 2>He loved people with whom he could not have relationships,

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<v Speaker 2>so he was often unhappy. He had a hard time

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<v Speaker 2>taking disapproval or failure. Problems in his life would leave

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<v Speaker 2>him emotionally destroyed, unable to speak for crying. He became famous,

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<v Speaker 2>but he never stopped feeling like an outcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Even though he had difficulties. Anderson's writing made him famous.

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<v Speaker 1>By the time he died, his stories had been translated

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<v Speaker 1>into dozens of languages. Today, his stories are some of

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<v Speaker 1>the most well known in the Western world. Many of

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<v Speaker 1>his stories, such as The Little Mermaid, The Princess and

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<v Speaker 1>the Pea, and the Emperor's New Clothes have been retold films,

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<v Speaker 1>television shows, ballets, and theater musicals. The city of Copenhagen

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<v Speaker 1>honored Anderson by placing a statue of the Little Mermaid

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<v Speaker 1>on a rock in its harbor. Hans Christian Andersen's name

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<v Speaker 1>is tied to the fairytale. His writing is proof that

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<v Speaker 1>he overcame many difficulties. And Chinsom wrote for the Telegraph

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<v Speaker 1>about Anderson.

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<v Speaker 4>She said, His stories are the best possible evidence to

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<v Speaker 4>the great importance of a complex man. They are evidence

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<v Speaker 4>to the transforming power of art.

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<v Speaker 2>Have you worked through any childhood difficulties? What challenges have

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<v Speaker 2>you overcome? Do you have a favorite story by Anderson?

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<v Speaker 2>You can leave a comment on our website at www

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<v Speaker 2>dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us

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<v Speaker 2>on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and x. You can also get

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<v Speaker 2>our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device

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<v Speaker 2>through our free official Spotlight English app. You can find

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<v Speaker 2>another Anderson tail, the Story of the Little match Girl,

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<v Speaker 2>on the Spotlight website.

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<v Speaker 1>The writer and producer of this program was Dan Chrisman.

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<v Speaker 1>The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and

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<v Speaker 1>the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program

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<v Speaker 1>and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called Hans Christian

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<v Speaker 1>Andersen the Storyteller.

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<v Speaker 2>We hope you can join us again for the next

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight program. Goodbye,