What is oral history?

We had to read this short piece on what is oral history, and what I got out of the article is that oral history are interviews  that are either formal or informal and can be recorded on tape. I first believed that oral history was stories from other people from their oral languageknow with my family, my mom and grandparents will tell me stories about their lives and their parents lives and so on and its all through the oral language nothing is written done its just based off of their oral stories. I feel that informal oral history is when its not planned out or for a particular scenario rather htan a formal oral hisotry which is regardign a specific topic or a important topic  that has significance importance to humakind. After reading the article, I came to a better understanding of what oral history exactley is.  The article mentioned a lot about interviewing and interviews which plays a role in oral history but I think what people take in consideration is the reliability of have the conversation taped. The article mentions, " Unquestionably, most people throughout history have learned about the past through the spoken word", which I defiantly agree with. I feel we read this because of our upcoming assignment and the interviews we will be doing for the assignment.