Let's talk about the 20s. Welcome back to the
Learn English podcast, the podcast teaching English
in context so you can learn naturally. On today's
episode, I want to talk about one of the most
famous decades in history, the 1920s. The 1920s
was a very unique time in American history. There
were some very specific things that were going
on here in the United States. And for that reason,
there are some very specific vocabulary words
that we use to describe this time period. If
you are not familiar with American history, you
might not know what these words are, but they
are words that are very well known by the average
American. So on today's episode, I want to talk
about these cultural events and these very specific
vocabulary words. If you're interested in learning
more about the Roaring Twenties, as we say, then
follow along because we're about to begin. Before
we get started, I want to remind you to look
at the description of this podcast episode. You
will find helpful links like how to take a lesson
with me and of course the vocabulary list. The
vocabulary list is the words and phrases that
I used in the episode so you can take them and
build your English vocabulary. Now let's talk
about the 1920s. When we talk about a decade
from the previous century in English, we usually
don't say the 19 part. We just say the years.
So, for example, the 1990s becomes the 90s. The
1980s becomes the 80s. And the 1920s becomes...
The 20s. Now, it is 2025, so we are actually
in the middle of the 20s right now, but no one
in English calls this current decade the 20s.
I actually don't know what it is going to be
called. I haven't really heard a name for this
decade that we are in, and we'll see what it
ends up being. But if you say the 20s, you are
not referring to this current decade. You are
going to be referring to the 90s. during the
1920s there was some major events going on and
the 1920s when you talk to an American about
that decade they are going to have a very specific
image of that particular time period if you are
someone who likes watching movies I'm going to
recommend the movie The Great Gatsby There are
two versions of this film. There's one from the
1970s starring Robert Redford, but if you want
an image of what people think of when they think
of the 1920s, I would recommend the version that
is starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
It's about 10 years old now or probably a little
bit more, but it's a pretty good film and at
least gives you an idea of what we're talking
about when we refer to the 20s or what the person
thinks about when you mention the 20s. It is
a little bit of a stereotype, but this is kind
of what the decade was famous for. So if you
talk about the 1920s with an American, this is
the image that they get in their head. If you're
not someone who likes watching movies but you'd
rather read a book, you can also read the book
The Great Gatsby. The movie is based on the novel
by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the novel itself is
one of the most famous American novels. Every
student in the United States has to read The
Great Gatsby when they are in high school so
it is a very famous novel here and most people
are at least familiar with the name and some
of the characters even if they don't remember
everything about the story. It is a really good
book. I actually reread it recently and if you
are someone who likes to read books that's another
great resource that you could use to help improve
your English level. The first thing to know about
the 20s is that besides just being called the
20s it's also called the roaring 20s. So that
roaring part usually means that something's very
loud and when we say the roaring 20s what we
talk about is this period of time where it seemed
like everything was just a party. That's what
I mean when I say that that great Gatsby movie
is a really good visual image for what an American
is going to think about when they mention the
20s because that movie has that feel to it at
least at the beginning where it has this great
party scene and this party that's occurring at
Gatsby's house. That is the image that comes
to mind. The 1920s were known for this period
of time when It seemed like life in America was
really good and people were partying. And the
reason is, is that the First World War had just
ended. World War I ended right before the beginning
of the decade. And the U .S. and the rest of
the world was really recovering after that first
war. In general, the economy was doing pretty
well. People had money. And it was just known
as a time where people were kind of enjoying
life after spending a few years. in World War
I. If you are someone who likes listening to
music, there's actually a song called The Roaring
Twenties by the band Panic at the Disco. You
can check that song out and it's just a way to
reinforce this term Roaring Twenties and also
to show you really how popular and how well known
that term is. Another reason why it's called
The Roaring Twenties is because of prohibition.
Now, prohibition, you might not have heard that
term, but every American knows that term. Prohibition
refers to a period of time when alcohol was actually
banned in the United States. That's right. If
you were in the U .S., you could not legally
buy alcohol. This was actually an amendment to
our Constitution, and it took effect in 1920,
right at the beginning of the decade, and it
ended in 1933. said you couldn't legally buy
alcohol because it was against the law to buy
any type of alcohol however there were some ways
to get around it if you know anything about human
behavior you know that when people get told they
cannot do something they definitely want to do
it and that's especially true when it comes to
alcohol it is very hard to take alcohol away
from a society and during that time of prohibition
there were people who were very much against
alcohol and drinking alcohol, but there were
a lot of people who still wanted to drink. Prohibition
did eventually end, like I said, in 1933, and
that was because it really was a failed experiment.
Even though it was banned, people were buying
alcohol, people were drinking alcohol, people
were partying, and people who were selling that
alcohol illegally just made a lot of money. It
made life a lot more difficult for the police.
It made criminals very rich because they were
able to sell a lot of alcohol to everyday people.
And it really just didn't work. There wasn't
less alcohol that was consumed in general during
prohibition because people found ways around
the law. How people did that was through speakeasies.
So a speakeasy is a type of club, a type of bar
that you could go to, but you usually had to
have a certain password in order to get in. You
had to know somebody, you had to know where it
was located, you had to know the right thing
to say to the person who was standing at the
door in order to get in. Again, that goes to
the part of prohibition because alcohol was illegal.
They didn't advertise that the place was a nightclub
or a bar. They didn't just let anyone in because
they didn't want to get in trouble from law enforcement.
And so you really had to have some type of connection.
You had to know somebody in order to be able
to get in to this particular place. Once you
got inside, there was alcohol that was served
and you could drink and enjoy your night. And
that's what a speakeasy is. The speakeasy term
comes from that password being able to know what
to say when you get to the door. And the phrase
itself, even though Americans think of a speakeasy
as being an American thing, it actually started
in Great Britain. However, the term was very
much popularized in the 1920s as people started
establishing these speakeasy nightclubs and people
started attending them. The concept of speakeasies
is really romanticized by Americans. Americans
think of it as kind of this glamorous fun time
and there still are some speakeasies. People
know about them obviously and they're advertised
as a speakeasy. People just like that whole idea
of going to some secret place and spending their
night drinking alcohol in some little hideaway
kind of a thing. You can see them on Google or
on Yelp for example but Americans definitely
like this whole concept of a speakeasy. easy
now when you would have entered a speakeasy during
the roaring 20s you would have seen a number
of different things one thing is is that you
probably would have seen a jazz band the reason
is is that jazz music was incredibly popular
during the 1920s it's actually referred to as
the jazz age because jazz music was so popular
African Americans were usually in these jazz
bands. African Americans were the pioneers when
it came to jazz music and the increase in popularity
of jazz is tied to a particular part of New York
City which is called Harlem. Harlem traditionally
was an African American neighborhood and during
the 1920s it went through a really important
part of growth and cultural impact. African American
art, music, and literature became more and more
important. And that period is also called the
Harlem Renaissance. Harlem, of course, from the
neighborhood that it was in. And Renaissance,
meaning that it's undergoing this time of change
and importance and greater cultural significance.
From the Harlem Renaissance and from the increase
in jazz, you really get that combination that
created the jazz age. Part of the jazz culture
and the speakeasy culture. also included flappers.
Now I had a English speaking student who had
no clue what a flapper was and maybe you have
never heard the term but you probably know what
they look like. Women dressed in a certain type
of way in the 1920s when they would go to these
speakeasies and when they would go to these parties
and that was called a flapper style of dress.
Kind of like how there was a hippie style of
dress and a hipster style of dress nowadays.
The flapper had a very kind of unique look to
her usually she had short bobbed hair so a bobbed
haircut is a shorter type of haircut usually
above the chin length she would also wear some
type of decoration in her hair maybe a headband
that went around her head or some type of clip
or something in her hair she would also have
this dress that moved a lot when she danced it
tended to be a shorter type of dress dress above
the knee but it would have a lot of movement
to it so when she would dance the dress would
move around when you say the term flapper that
really should be the image that comes to mind
a young woman with a headband on this really
beautiful fun dress and maybe even holding a
cocktail drink and smoking a cigarette the reason
that the dress would move around so much was
of course in part due to jazz music and women
dancing to that jazz music if you have seen that
gatsby movie you have seen the scene where these
flappers are dancing at the party and that's
really the the type of image that comes to mind
here One of the most popular dances at the time
was called the Charleston. It was a particular
type of dance. And again, it is just one of those
things that when you think of the Roaring Twenties,
when you think of a flapper, it is that particular
type of dance that they would do. And a reason
why their dress was made to move around so much.
So it really just looked more spectacular. Spectacular
means that you really just want to look at it,
that you're really amazed by it. you want to
look at because it is so so cool to look at and
that's really what you think of when you think
of a flapper now a flapper is a woman that is
definitely not a man when you want to describe
the way men dressed in the 1920s you might want
to use the word dapper Dapper means that the
person looks very nice. It usually means that
they're in a suit or some type of dress, clothes,
that they look better than someone who's just
wearing everyday street clothes, right? Someone
who maybe has a little bit more attention to
how they're dressed. When you think of a dapper
man from the 1920s, you think of a man who has
his hair slicked back, who's wearing a suit,
who looks very well put together and very nice.
He might also have a hat, he for sure has a tie,
maybe even a cigarette and a cocktail just like
the flapper does. While they are here at the
speakeasy dancing and listening to music and
drinking alcohol, the alcohol that they are drinking
is bootlegged. Now bootlegged is a term that
refers to the sale and the manufacture of alcohol
during that prohibition time period when alcohol
could not be manufactured. legally, there were
people who made it illegally, who made it even
though it was against the law. People would make
alcohol and then would drive it across the country
and sell it. And that process of making and selling
alcohol was called bootlegging. If you were someone
who was a person who sold the alcohol, you would
have been called a bootlegger. In the book The
Great Gatsby and in the movie, the character
Gatsby is thought to be tied to the bootlegging
business. is thought to be someone who is dealing
with the sale of alcohol and dealing with this
whole criminal organization of making money from
alcohol. It's never really said exactly, but
that's what's hinted at in the book is that he
is definitely involved with some criminals and
probably making his money from selling alcohol.
Now how people got to and from the speakeasies
was probably in one of the early automobiles
of the time and probably one of the most famous
was the Model T. The Ford Motor Company is a
car company here in the United States and the
founder was Henry Ford. So the Ford Motor Company
is named after him, Henry Ford, and he is known
for using the assembly line. How we think cars
are made today really kind of goes back to what
he put in place with this particular car called
the Model T. The Model T was made on an assembly
line. He actually wasn't the person who created
this technology, but he is the one who used it
and used it to make the Model T, that specific
type of car. And by doing that, he made the Model
T very affordable. People before were only able
to buy a car if they were very rich because it
took so much time to make a car. They weren't
mass produced at the time. However, during the
1920s, the Model T was mass produced, which meant
that the cost of the car went way down, and everyday
Americans could afford to buy a car for the first
time. This really revolutionized transportation.
It was the first time that people were able to
buy cars, and it really started that whole car
culture in the United States. If you watch The
Great Gatsby you will hear a reference to Henry
Ford. To be honest he wasn't that great of a
person so if you hear that reference it's not
really for anything very good but it is true
and it is definitely mentioned in the book and
in the movie. And you'll also see how cars play
in a very important role in the film and in the
book. The car culture of the time is really what
was starting to happen because cars were finally
becoming a for purchase and especially for people
who were very wealthy they were able to afford
to buy very nice cars and you can see that if
you read the book or if you watch the movie you
can see how the car culture was starting to form
and how people were really starting to buy cars
and use cars to get around during the 1920s And
the last part that's associated with the 1920s
is silent film. So before the end of the decade,
before the end of the 20s, it was really common
that movies did not have any sound. These were
called silent films because there was no sound.
You couldn't record the actor speaking and you
just kind of watched the story unfold, but you
didn't have the same sound as we do now. When
movies were able to be recorded with sound when
they were able to film the actors and record
the sound of their voice. That really changed
the movie industry and that occurred in the 1920s.
It wasn't however until the end of the decade
so most of the decades still had silent film
but towards the end of the 20s there were movies
that had sounds and those were called talkies.
That was because you could finally hear the actors
talking to one another. You could actually get
this sound of their voices, and those type of
films became known as talkies. If you are interested
in kind of getting a modern day depiction of
this transition from silent films to talkies,
you can watch the movie The Artist. This came
out in 2011, so it is a new film, but it is a
silent film and it is filmed in black and white
because it is about this period of the 1920s.
It is a good movie and I think it won the Academy
Award that year, but... It isn't a movie I would
recommend for English learning because it is
a silent film. You're not getting that English
content. But if you're interested in just kind
of seeing more about this time period and this
transition in the film industry, you can check
that out. The Roaring Twenties were fun, but
sadly, of course, they didn't last. In October
of 1929, the stock market crashed and it began
the Great Depression. The party was over, the
Roaring Twenties ended, and the United States
entered it. into a depression that took a number
of years to come out of. But from 1920 to the
end of 1929, you really have this decade of partying
and of fun and just this unique image that comes
to mind when you think of those roaring 20s.
I hope you found this episode interesting. I
hope you learned these vocabulary terms, but
if you struggled with any of them, if maybe you
don't remember everything that I said, a reminder
just to look at the description of this podcast
episode. You will find the vocabulary list of
these words and phrases that I used so you can
refer to them and use them to build your English
vocabulary. If you did like this episode, please
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