4 More to Follow on Twitter

Twitter is not just about learning English you can use it to learn about the US culture as well.  Here are 4 more sites to follow.


@NASA
@visitthecapitol
@FONZNationalZoo
@smithsonian

Check them out.  

4 People to Follow on Twitter

Here are 4 people to follow to start your learning English on Twitter.


@englishfeed
@EnglishStudy
@PhraseMix
@ESLTeacherGuide

Do you have more suggestions?  You know what to do.  (Leave them in the comments!!!)

Search Words

Finding resources on the internet like videos requires searching.  You can search for these resources on a search engine like google.com or you can search using the search box on the particular site of interest.  For example, on the website YouTube.com I typed English pronunciation practice  into the search box.

Language Learning Communities

Here are a few links to language learning communities on the web.  It's a great place to meet Conversation Partners.   

livemocha.com
busuu.com
italki.com
myhappyplanet.com

Topic of the Week Using Social Media to learn English

Sippy and Ham Tweet by Cbrenn on GoAnimate

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I hope you enjoyed my latest creation from GoAnimate.  I decided to give the characters names - That's Sippy on the Left and Ham on the right.  Clever, huh!  

Anyway, Sippy and Ham are talking about social interaction websites collectively called Social Media in the United States.  These are websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Skype, and blogs.   Ham is an expert but Sippy as usual is a little clueless.  

Do you use social media to help you learn English?  Tools and websites like the ones mentioned above can help you connect with content in English but more importantly they can connect you with other people.  People who speak English.   After all, it's people that put the social in social media.  With today's technology it's easier than ever to find English speakers who share your interests and want to talk about it.   How are you using Social Media to learn English?  Share your ideas in the comments.

Kermit the Frog Tells the Cherry Tree Story

Here is another video about George Washington and the cherry tree from the kid's TV show Sesame Street. It just goes to show you how well known this story is in American culture.  

George Washington and the Cherry Tree

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The last tree story I want to tell you is about the first president of the United States, George Washington.  When he was a young boy, he was given an ax.  So, what do you think he did with it?  Of course, he went into the yard and started chopping things.  He tried chopping big trees but their trunks were too big for his little ax.  But then he saw a cherry tree. Cherry trees have smaller trunks so he started chopping. And before you know it, he had chopped the cherry tree down. Happy with that, he put his ax away and went off to play.

Moon Tree Video

Here are 2 videos related to the Moon Tree story.  The first one is an interview with Dr. David Williams the NASA employee who is trying to find and record all of the known moon trees in existence.  The second video is a short bio of astronaut Stuart Roosa who took the seeds in to space  on board Apollo 14.

Johnny Appleseed

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Legends say that in the late 1700s a barefoot man with a pot on his head wandered around the American frontier planting apple trees.  People called this crazy character Johnny Appleseed.  But was he a real person or a made up character?  

There are certainly a lot of stories about Johnny Appleseed like this one from Disney.  

It turns out Johnny Appleseed was a real person.  His name was John Chapman and he really did walk around barefoot with a pot on his head.  But more importantly, he was famous for growing apple trees and giving them to settlers.  That is why people called him by the nickname Johnny Appleseed.    

You can read more about Johnny Appleseed and other historic US tree stories at this link.  

Thanks for listening.  this has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.

Everyday Celebrations

I can't believe we here are Fast Food English missed National Cheeseburger Day!  Americans love to make every day a celebration.  There are National days, weeks and months for all different things and ideas.   It's a good way to promote a product like cheeseburgers or bring awareness to an issue like National Safe at Home week that promotes making your house safe from accidents.   These are not National Holidays - schools and businesses are still open.  But they are a fun way to make everyday more interesting.  Never miss another chance to party like an American by checking the new National Day widget in the sidebar.  

Trees in Music - Lemon Tree

Here are 2 songs about a lemon tree.  The first one is from an American folk music group called Peter, Paul and Mary.  The second one is by a German pop group named Fools Garden.  Try listening to the videos first without looking at the lyrics.  How much did you understand?  Now look at the lyrics (the words to the song) and listen to the song again.


Lyrics

Lyrics

PS - I had a question about the name Fools Garden?  What does it mean?  I don't know for sure why the band picked this name.  It might have a specific meaning to them.  Often bands like to pick names that sound interesting.   This is a German band and in Europe people refer to the area behind their house that has grass and flowers and other plants in it as a garden.  In the United States we call this a yard.    A fool is someone who acts silly or is not very smart.  The band used to be called Fool's Garden.  With an apostrophe the meaning is a garden belonging to a fool.  But later they removed the apostrophe and now go by Fools Garden.  This changes the name to mean a garden that has fools in it.  

Moon Trees

Listen to me read this post.


The Topic of the week for this week is trees.  And more specifically stories related to trees.  You see trees grow all around us and they live a long, long time.
Because of that they are witness to many events in our lives and in history.  If they could talk, they would tell us many wonderful stories.  And stories are important because they connect us with our culture and history.  So since trees can't talk,I guees I will have to tell you the story of 3 remarkable trees in the US. 

Listen to a Good Book

Listening to stories read out loud is a great way to improve your listening skills in English.   I recently discovered a website called storylineonline.net  that has many videos of  books being read by actors.  The books are really intended for young children but they are all well written stories with beautiful illustrations.  The videos are professionally done and under 10 minutes in length.  So, give them a try.  Here's a tip - if you want to see the words as they are being read, turn on the closed captioning that the CC button in the YouTube frame.

Culture Connection
These are all really popular Children's picture books in the US, so chance are many Americans have read them or had these books read to them.  Reading and listening to these stories as an English language learner helps you connect with American culture and thinking.  

English Central - George Washingotn and the Cherry Tree

Topic of the Week - The Story of Trees

Intro - The Story of Trees by Cbrenn on GoAnimate

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This week we will talk about the history, legends, and stories connected to trees.  

The Space Window

Neil Armstrong's funeral was held yesterday in Washington, DC at the National Cathedral.  But even before today's services, he held a special connection to this building.  Neil Armstrong with his fellow Apollo astronauts gave a moon rock to the cathedral on the 5th anniversary of their walk on the moon.  

The small sliver of rock was sealed in glass and used by artist Rodney Winfield to create a beautiful stained glass window called the Space Window. The design was inspired by photos from the Apollo 11 mission. The moon rock can be seen in the center of the red circle.  

Feed your Fascination with Space

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There is something about Space that fascinates people and inspires passion.  Neil Armstrong lived for flight and his passion took him all the way to the moon.  It all started when he was 2 years old and his father took him to an air show.  The sight of the airplanes flying overhead filled him with excitement and fascination.  As he grew so did his passion.  He built model airplanes in elementary school.  In high school, he took flying lessons and got his pilot license at age 15.  By the time he was 20 years old, he was flying jets off of aircraft carriers.  After years of studies, he choose to become a test pilot to continue flying the most advanced airplanes available.     That job led to his participation in the Apollo Project and his trip to the moon.  When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon surface he ignited the fascination of millions of people around the world, a fascination that continues today. 

Feed your fascination by watching NASA astronauts perform experiments live from the space station.  You can watch them live on YouTube.  Here is the link.

Language Link

According to dictionary.com, to fascinate means the power to attract by raising curiosity or interest and fascination is a powerful attraction, interest or curiosity with someone or something.  Other words that mean the same thing as fascination are allure, attraction or appeal.  If someone is extremely fascinated with something or someone we can say they are obsessed or they have an obsession.  

Informally, when people are fascinated with something they say they have "a thing for" it.  For example, your friend asks you, "Are you reading another book about Neil Armstrong?"  You can say, "Yes, I have a thing for space travel.  I can't read enough about it."    

Thanks for listening.  This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.  

English Central - Neil Armstrong

Here are 2 videos from English Central on Neil Armstrong.  Watch and then repeat along with the video to practice pronunciation.  

Movies about the Space Program

There are many wonderful movies that you can watch that are based on the theme of space.  Of course, there's lots of Science Fiction films like Aliens, Star Wars, or Men in Black but today I want to recommend 3 dramas that are based on true stories.

DIY Space Program

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Yesterday I led a Conversation Hour at the American Center Hanoi about Neil Armstrong.  One of the questions that came up during the discussion was - Are there cheaper ways to run the Space Program?  Well, when I got home I turned on the TV and CNN was on talking about DIY Space Programs. So, I asked Google to show me the links and here are some pretty cool Space experiments you can do yourself on the cheap*.  
   
Send a camera (or object) in to space.  In the show notes you will find a link to a video about a father and son who did just that.  They attached a video camera to a weather ballon and launched it from Brooklyn, New York.  It made it all the way to space and back safely. The images are pretty cool. 

Join a citizen scientist project.  You don't have to be an expert in engineering or science to participate in Space Exploration. At Spacehack.org you can find a list of different projects run by different groups and organization that you can help out with. 

Google also brought me to this interesting article related to another question brought up in our discussion - Should the space Program be run by private corporations instead of the government? It could be the next wave of the future*.  

The article mentioned a small company called ArduSat which is using Kick Start to fund their small satellite project.  Check out their video that explains their project. 

I'm always impressed with the great thoughts, questions, and ideas brought up during the conversation hours.  Language learning allows us the opportunity to share and learn from each other.   

*Language Link
On the cheap is an idiom that means something done for not a lot of money.  

Wave of the future means a trend that will become popular in the days ahead.  

Thanks for listening.   This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.  

Shared experiences in American Culture

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Today is September 11.  It is a significant date in American Culture because it was on this day in 2001 that planes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killing thousands of people. My thoughts are with the families of all those who were lost that day.  

Although it happened over 10 years ago most Americans, including myself, can tell you exactly what they were doing on that day.  The significant tragedy is burned into our collective memories and connects us through this shared experience. 

The Topic for this week here at Fast Food English is Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.  This event is another one of those significant moments in American Culture and history that most Americans can tell you exactly what they were doing when it happened.  In this case, we shared our pride in American accomplishment not just with each other but with the world as we were all glued to our TV sets watching as Neil Armstrong stepped on to  the surface of the moon and uttered these famous words, "One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind."   

Topic of the Week Neil Armstrong

Topic of the Week Neil Armstrong by Cbrenn on GoAnimate

Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.

Culture Connection
Michael Jackson is a popular American singer who was famous for a dance he created called the moonwalk.    He first did this move during a song called "Billie Jean" in 1983.  To see a video of Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk for the first time click here.

Neil Armstrong was an astronaut who was the first man to walk on the moon in space July 1969.  To see video of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon click here.

More High Frequency Words

Listen to me read High Frequency Words in English 201 - 300


feet, land, side, without, boy, once, animal, life, enough, took, four, head, above, kind, began, almost, live, page, got, earth, need, far, hand, high, year, mother, light, country, father, let, night, picture, being, study, second, soon, story, since, white, ever, paper, hard, near, sentence, better, best, across, during, today, however, sure, knew, it’s, try, told, young, sun, thing, whole, hear, example, heard, several, change, answer, room, sea, against, top, turned, learn, point, city, play, toward, five, himself, usually, money, seen, didn’t, car, morning, I’m, body, upon, family, later, turn, move, face, door, cut, done, group, true, half, red, fish, plants

Are You Mad* for Mad Libs?

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I added a new game for you in the side bar.  It's called Mad Libs.  This is a popular game that kids play in the US.  And it's been around forever because I remember playing it as a kid.  Wow!  That's a really long time ago. :)

High Frequency words

Listen to me read words 101 - 200 on the high frequency word list.



get, through, back, much, go, good, new, write, our, me, man, too, any, day, same, right, look, think, also, around, another, came, come, work, three, must, because, does, part, even, place, well, such, here, take, why, help, put, different, away, again, off, went, old, number, great, tell, men, say, small, every, found, still, between, mane, should, home, big, give, air, line, set, own, under, read, last, never, us, left, end, along, while, might, next, sound, below, saw, something, thought, both, few, those, always, show, large, often, together, asked, house, don’t, world, going, want, school, important, until, form, food, keep, children

Hear words 1- 100 here.

Play with Vocab

Have fun with vocab.  The more fun you have when you are studying the more likely you are to keep doing it.  There are lots of fun word games on the internet for you to try.  One that I discovered recently is called Knowords.  It gives you the first letter of a word plus a definition.  You have to guess the word before the time runs out. How many words can you get right before time is up?

First time I played I got 70 points.  It's not an easy game and spelling definitely counts.  I had to skip a few words because I couldn't spell them correctly.  but it's loads of fun.  I definitely want to play this game again.  Give it a try and see if you can beat my score.  By the way the second time I played I scored 280 points. Post your best time in the comments.
   

Tell a Story with Vocab

When you are trying to learn and remember new words in English, you want to make those words come to life.   One way to do that is create a story with your new vocabulary.    This will help you remember the new words better.  This was one of the great suggestions from the last lecture on Vocab Study.

Your stories don't have to be long or complicated.

Recently, I discovered a fun website that can help you create your own video stories.  It's called Go! Animate.    It's a free website that allows you to make animated videos.  It's easy to use and fun.  Here is a sample video I created in just a few minutes.  Using the Quick Video Maker option, I picked from preset characters, typed in a few lines of dialog and pressed publish.  The program even created the voices to go along with the characters  (or you can record your own voice, if you prefer.)

Here is the video I created... 
Topic of the Week Intro by Cbrenn on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Now it's your turn!  Write a story or create your own video using English words that you are trying to learn and remember.  And don't forget to share them with everyone here at Fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.

Learn Vocab with Labels

Source: etoday.ru via Yukino on Pinterest

Label things in your room with words.  Every time you look at them you will be studying English vocabulary without even trying.  This is the latest picture from my Pinterest board Vocab Study.

High Frequency Words 1-100

Listen to me read the words 1-100 on the high frequency word list.  These are the 100 most common words in the English language.


the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, for, was, on, are, 

 as, with, his, they, at, be, this, from, I, have, or, by, one, 

had, not, but, what, all, were, when, we, there, can, an,

your, which, their, said, if, do, will, each, about, how, up, out, 

them, then, she, many, some, so, these, would, other, into,

 has, more, her, two, like, him, see, time, could, no, make, 

than, first, been, its, who, now, people, my, made, over, did, 

down, only, way, find, use, may, water, long, little, very, 

after, words, called, just, where, most, know

Topic of the Week - Vocab Building

Our new Topic of the Week is Vocabulary Building.  How do you learn and remember new words in English?  This week I will share with you some websites and strategies for Vocab study.  Feel free to add your own tips in the comment section.  

I made this cool word picture at Tagxedo.com.  The program looked at all the words here at fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com and created this image.  The bigger the word, the more often it is used.    Learning these words will help you understand this website better because they are used often.  

The same is true in English.  You can study the words that are used the most and it will help you understand more.  They are called High Frequency Words and you can find the top 1200 most common words in English  here. http://school.elps.k12.mi.us/donley/classrooms/berry/sitton_spelling_activities/4thgrade_spelling/sitton_word_list.htm