English with Locke from Collège Henri Wallon!: The U.S.A.

Watch the official US welcome video

The USA or United States of America is in North America.

It is a democracy. Its President is Barack Obama.

President Obama

The White House, Washington DC

Its capital is Washington D.C. on the East coast.
The President lives in the White House in Washington DC.

There are 50 states, represented by the fifty stars on the flag.

The 13 red and white stripes represent the first 13 colonies, when the USA were proclamed independent in 1776.

Click here to discover the 50 states.

Click here for the list of states with their abbreviations and play the game.

2 examples of states

The most recent states are Hawaii and Alaska, which are both very isolated. Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and Alaska is near the North Pole, north-east of Canada!

Example 1 : ALASKA

Each state has a capital. For example, the capital of Alaska is Juneau. A very strange city where you cannot go by car because there is no road! You can go by ferry or by plane only!

Alaska is a very large state with a population of only 710 000 people! There are more than three million lakes and more than half of the world's glaciers (over 100 000!).

Glaciers and lakes

Winter in Alaska is very long, and very cold (-50°C!). Alaskans only get 4 hours of sunshine a day in the winter!

Summer in Alaska is cool, or even warm and the sun shines from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m.!

Alaska has some amazing wildlife, like mooses, bears, wolves, seals, whales...