Cafe Puccini Vocabulary[Effortless English DVD1 > LV3 > 01]

Ok, Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for the Cafe Puccini article. Let’s get started. First word “immigrants”. I mentioned that North Beach was the neighborhood for Italian immigrants in the past and still a little bit today.Immigrants are people who come to a new country to live. So if Italians come to America and they want to live in America, then they are immigrants. If Mexicans come to America and they want live here, they are immigrants.

Alright. Next we see the word “literary”. “Literary”. I mentioned that NorthBeach served as the center… It was the center of San Francisco’s literary renaissance.

“Literary” means about writing in books, having to do with writing in books. So writing in books is literary. So back in 1950s and 60s,San Francisco had a lot of good writers and famous writers. So the literary movement, the literary scene, the literary situation here was very good.

And the next word “renaissance”. I said “San Francisco’s  literary renaissance”. “A renaissance” is a time, a time period when there is a lot of art and science. So the art improves a lot or there’s a lot of great art coming from one city or one country or one area. For example, in history we talk about Italian renaissance. Back in the 1500s, 1600s, so suddenly in Italy, there was a lot of great art. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo. So that time period we call the Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance. So you can also have a literary renaissance, a writing renaissance. So San Francisco had one in the 50s and 60s.

Alright. And then I mention that those writers of that time, the Beat writers challenged the conservative society of America.

So, we have two words here, in this paragraph actually, “conservative” and “liberal”. They’re usually seen as opposites. Then they have a political meaning. “Conservative” means someone who does not like change. Someone who wants to keep things as they are or maybe even return to the past. And a “liberal”, usually has the idea of one… someone who wants to change, who wants to improve. And usually we are talking about society. So conservative wants to keep society the same as it is or as it was. And a liberal wants to change society, make it better. Ok, so at that time, American society in the 50s was very conservative. People didn’t like change. They wanted every one to be normal and the same.

And the Beat writers, this group called the Beats, they challenged that, they went against it. So in this case, “to challenge” means to disagree with or to fight against. So the Beats fought against. They disagreed with the conservative society of the America in the 50s. They were very liberal. And they helped create San Francisco’s liberal culture. 

Alright! Next paragraph, you see the word… actually, the phrase “the movement”. I said “The focal point,” means the center, the focal point, “the center of the movement - the Beat movement was City Lights Bookstore - owned by anarchist poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.”

When we talk about, *** …we have the, “the movement”. “The movement”, it usually means some kind of change in society, a big change in society, or it’s a group of people trying to change society. So we talk about the beat movement, it means it had these writers, but there are a lot of people joined these writes and they all will try working together to change American society. We call that a movement. When a large group of people join together to change something, maybe in art, maybe in society. Then we call it “a movement” or “the movement”. Ok, so the beat movement was very strong in San Francisco.

And, the owner of City Lights Bookstore was anarchist, was an anarchist poet. He was an anarchist. “An anarchist” is a kind of political philosophy. You know what, communism or (I don’t know..) capitalism, I guess it’s economic. But anyway,an anarchist is against authority and control. Anarchists believe that people should not control other people. People should basically be free and interact, communicate equally as equals. It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the simple,… that’s the simple version.

Alright, and then I said that Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the anarchist poet, he made history and his bookstore, City Lights made history.

“To make history” means to do something famous, do something people will remember. So they did something famous when they published Allen Ginsberg’s controversial poem called “Howl”. This is a very big poem at that time in the 50s. It shocked a lot of people, surprised them, made them angry, was very different, and was controversial.

Something that is controversial causes disagreement. It makes people disagree. It sometime creates a conflict, creates arguments. For example, “abortion” is controversial. Many people are for abortion, for choice, very strong. Many people are against abortion, very strong. It’s a controversial topic. It creates a lot of argument and conflict.

Alright. Next paragraph, last paragraph of the first page, we see the word “wealthy”, “wealthier residents”. It says North Beach used to be home to artist, but now it has a lot of wealthier residents. “Wealthier” means richer, more rich, more money. And “a resident” is someone lives somewhere. So now North Beach has a lot of rich people who live there.

All right, the next… the next (para)… sentence I say “Even though the literary scene is not what it used to be - North Beach still has many family owned cafes.”

Okay, “a literary scene”. “A scene” is a,… it usually means a situation or a group of people. We talk about the art scene in New York, it means all of the art happening in New York right now; the art scene. We might say “the art scene in New York is not very good right now”, it means all the artists in New York, they are not creating very good art. Or we might say the writing scene, the literary scene in San Francisco is great right now, it means there’re a lot of great writers at this time. So the situation in a certain place.

OK. In next sentence, she’ll say “you”… I mentioned a list of people you find in the cafes. You’ll find artists, writers, poets, entrepreneurs. An “entrepreneur” is a business person, but it’s someone who owns their own business. They start their own business. Bill Gates is an entrepreneur, he started Microsoft. But an employee in Microsoft, someone who works there is not an entrepreneur. So an “entrepreneur” does not have a boss. They are the boss. They own the company.

Alright. The next page, I say “My favorite cafe is cafe Puccini. It’s named after the Italian opera composer.”

If you’re named after someone, it means you’re given the same name as someone else or another place. In this case, the owner likes opera, so he named his cafa the same name as an opera composer, cafe Puccini. All right.

And “composer” is someone who writes music.

And in the end of that sentence, in the paragraph, you see the sentence:  “They hold long animated conversations in Italian.”

“Hold”, in this case, means have or do. We sometimes use the verb hold, to hold a conversation. For example, “to hold a conversation” means to have a conversation. And animated, an animated conversation.

“Animated” means a lot of movement, a lot of emotion, a lot of gestures. So it’s not a calm conversation. It’s an emotional conversation. They are using their hands. They’re talking loudly. They have a lot of emotion. That is an animated conversation. So “animated” means emotional with a lot of energy, with a lot of movement.

Alright, the next paragraph, you see the sentence, “the staff never seems to mind that I stay a long time.” In this case, the verb to mind means to be bothered by something or to care about something, or to be upset by something. So the staff never seems to mind that I stay a long time. They never care that I stay a long time. It doesn’t bother them. It’s Ok.

Alright. Finally, the last paragraph you see the word “intersection”. Most of you probably know this word. “An intersection” is where two streets across each other or meet, or maybe more than two. So cafe Puccini is at the intersection, it’s where Columbus and Vallejo streets cross each other.

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