Hello. I need recording of this document (with two different male voices, one for the journalist and one for Bob Berlin) to use it with my pupils in class.
In advance, thanks a lot for your help.
And if you need some recording in French, I would be pleased to help you in return.
Thanks a lot.
Bob Berlin is being interviewed by John, a journalist who wants to write an article about immigration to the States.
- Hello Bob! I understand that your grandfather, Isaac, came to the States when he was … How old was he ?
- He was just seventeen.
- Seventeen … ! Where did he come from ?
- Well, Grandpa Isaac started out … in Russia in a town near Kiev and proceeded to Hamburg and then he went to Liverpool and finally arrived in New-York.
- That was a long, long trip for him, quite a roundabout route, yeah … How did he come in fact ?
- Well, from Russia to Hamburg was by train.
- Yeah …
- And then the trip to Liverpool was by means of a cargo boat.
- Wow !
- Actually for the fee of a passenger ship. After the cargo boat, he took a transatlantic liner to New-York.
- A liner! That must have been a big one ! How many passengers were there on board ?
- Ah … Let’s see … Nine hundred and twenty seven exactly !
- Ah ! A big liner, yeah … Do you know anything about the conditions on board ? It must have been pretty tough , I would have imagined…
- Yes, I remember Grandfather’s stories about it, it was absolutely terrible, they slept on these bunk beds, very hard beds and there were, of course, no washing facilities, the food was terrible, I think, there were mostly potatoes and cabbage …
- And after, make you seasick, I would have imagined …
- Well, exactly, it was also a very rough sea and he said there was a storm at sea lasting for weeks and almost everybody was severely seasick.
- It must have been hell ! How long did the trip take in fact ?
- It took two months.
- And when did he arrive in the States?
- He arrived in March, in 1892.
- 1892 ? Godness ! He must have been feeling pretty lonely, I should think, when he landed. He first saw the Statue of Liberty.
- Absolutely, he was frightened and certainly they all were but on the other hand he was hopeful, he was going to the New World, a land of opportunity. I remember he told me that he cried when he saw the Statue of Liberty.
