English Listening Practice #4: A Trip to the Frontier Museum (Vlog)

Hey, guys. So, yeah, we’re in Staunton, Virginia at the moment, pretty close to the

hotel where we’re staying on our overnight stay before we go to the wedding tomorrow

and we have decided to come to the Frontier Culture Museum... one second, I’m going

to see what it’s called. It is called Frontier Culture Museum.

We’re just about to go and check out a West African Farm and learn about it... So, I’ll

show you in the background what it looks like. See here, it’s just recreated all the different

settlements and farms, a little town... like little houses, I guess. So, we’re going take a look around.

So, that was pretty cool. The sun is directly shining into my eyes at the moment so I’m

squinting a little bit. But, the people who usually put on a show and show you different

things, they said, “We’re still reeling” after having so many kids there. So, they’re

just really tired after having big groups of school children. So, they did show us a

couple of things and it was pretty interesting. Now, I’m going to check out some goats.

My son is still feeding the goats...(he's) pretty obsessed with goats at the moment and

he’s got a particular goat that he wants to feed. So, he’s not going to move until

that happens.

But, now we’re going to have a look at a 1600s English farm and this, oh cool, there’s

a map here. I’ll show you this in a second. If you have a look here, this is a 1600s English

farm and this is from the Worcestershire area, which is pretty cool. I’ll show you this

map here. So, you can see, I’m from Lancashire. That’s where I’m from. So, let’s go

check it out.

Now, I’m upstairs in one of the bedrooms. So interesting to be here and I just had a

little talk with the people and they’re wearing clothes that people wore at this time

and cooking things that people cooked as well in this time period. So, here in the house,

upstairs, check this out. So, it’s exactly like things were like back in the 1620s, they

said. As you can see there’s a fireplace down here, the bed here and there’s not

a lot, you know, of storage space let’s say or other things that they have.

Let’s step into the other bedroom now. You can see this kind of bed here. It’s so interesting

to see how, you know, things were. You can see outside. There’s the vegetable garden.

They grow their vegetables. So yeah, this is upstairs. The stairway is really narrow,

pretty difficult to go up.

So, we’ve just been to the Irish forge, very interesting, (he) made a nail and he

doesn’t know how many nails that they make or he makes while he’s here. He spends his

time elsewhere, you know, in the area. But, he says that the nails that he makes are used

around here. You know, they’re used to put fences and for some of the building construction

too, so very interesting. Now, we’re going to go and check out 17--, well, Ireland in

the 1700s and yeah, see what this is like.

So er, that was really interesting as well. The guys who are wearing the traditional dress

or what people wore around that time - what’s interesting is they’re using the, well,

they talk about things in the present simple. So, they say, you know, “We have 30 acres.

We do this and we do that.” And, that’s just to bring immediacy to the situation and

for them to make it more real and more alive, like they’re in character.

The other thing that was really interesting is that all these houses have been brought

over from Ireland and from England. So, that house we’ve just been in, it was taken apart,

brought over on a ship and then put back together here, so incredibly interesting. That is from

the late 1700s apparently, 17th century, sorry, the late 17th century. And, we’re going to go to Germany now.

Germany was fun, a little bit busy. But again, really interesting to see how, you know, how

the houses were back (then), I think that one was in 1693. We just got a shuttle bus

over to this area which is, let’s have a look, American Indian I think. So now, we’ll

look at the American Indian way of life and see what their houses and huts were like. Let's go...

That was a really cool place. The first buildings for settlers over here in the U.S. came from,

in this area, (he) said Northern Ireland and Germany, mainly, and in that small hut about

12 people lived in there and it was, like, the first time that they actually owned some

land and did this kind of work and he was saying that the big problem here was the trees,

too many trees. So, they had to clear the trees, use that wood to build the houses and

the fences and other structures. And then, from there they would grow things and they'd

have to move really quickly because they were, in some cases, 6 weeks walk away from any

kind of civilization. So, it was really interesting to hear about that. And, the other thing is

yeah, so 12 people, usually 8 people slept in that one room. There’s one bed. The adult

or the adults of the group would do.. sleep on the bed and the children would sleep on

that solid floor. So, life must have been really tough.

We’ve just been into, well, outside the 1820s American farm house and over there in

the background, I’m wearing my wife’s bag because she’s got a sore shoulder. It’s

a good look though. But, over there is the 1850s American farmhouse as well and I just

had a quick read and it's saying that there was a large German influence in this area

and it wasn’t until the 1820/30s when there’s a more Anglo-Saxon influence, you know, in

these parts. But, we missed the shuttle bus. We’ve missed the last one. It’s funny

because it’s a golf cart and it collects all the people who work in the houses and,

you know, talk through what life was like and the people who are in character and the

shuttle bus took all those people back to the center. So, we probably got about a 20-minute

walk which isn’t, you know, anything bad and it’s such a lovely evening, fantastic

evening at the moment. So, we’re going to make our way back, get some dinner somewhere

and then head on to the hotel.

So, I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour and I’ll have some lesson notes from this, the

language that I used, if you just click the link now. If you’re watching on YouTube

or Facebook, there’ll be a link where you can click and it will take you through to

my website and it’ll have further notes and ab analysis of the language I used today.

So, I hope you enjoyed this. It’s been enjoyable for me and get in touch if you have any questions.

See you guys soon.