6-Meet English from BBCLearningEnglish.com

Hello, this is 6-Minute English from BBCLearningEnglish. I'm Beth and I'm Neil.

If you really love something, maybe a sport or a hobby, a music band or a TV show,

you might call yourself a fan. Nowadays, thanks to the internet, fans from around the world

can meet online to share their passion. And this has led to a new word, fandom.

fandom is more than simply being a fan. It's a whole culture created by a community of people

to share their love of the same thing. What's more, fandom has started to develop its own language.

In this programme, we'll be taking a trip into the world of fandoms and, as usual,

we'll be learning some new and useful vocabulary too. But before that, I have a question for you,

Neil. The original word fan was first used about Americans in the early 20th century,

but what were these Americans fans of? Was it A, Hollywood movie stars, B, baseball,

or C, Disney cartoons? I'll guess they were fans of Disney cartoons.

Okay, Neil, we'll find out later in the programme. Michael Bond is the author of a new book,

Fans. Here he discusses the meaning of fandom with BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth.

Kings rule their kingdoms, fans, certainly all their fandoms. It taps into that ancient

human impulse to belong to a group of like-minded people. And of course, being a fan by yourself

can be a challenging thing, because a fan-ished pursuits can look quirky and odd.

To move an obsessive, I suppose. Yes, obsessive, and you get often marked, and I mean, if you're

Jane Austen fan and you want to dress up in a bonnet and gown of the agency era,

it's difficult to do that by yourself in public, but once you join a fandom, there's no problem.

Fans are groups of like-minded people. They share similar opinions, ideas, or interests.

They do all kinds of weird and wonderful things together,

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