Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcasts. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
Shared experiences in American Culture
Listen to me read this post
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."
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Baseball Road Trip
Need a language challenge try listening to this podcast about road trips in the USA. A road trip is a vacation taken in your car and involving stops along the highway. Podcast #4 is a baseball themed road trip. The speaker talks about the Baseball hall of fame, different baseball stadiums and other interesting baseball attractions in the US.
http://www.learnoutloud.com
http://www.learnoutloud.com
Thursday, April 26, 2012
How to Learn English - Listening
Listen to me read this post
Hello and welcome. Today we are continuing on the topic of How to Learn English.
Yesterday we talked about listening to music but listening to spoken English in general is a really good way to learn English.
This is something I truly believe. The more you listen, the more you will improve your English. Listening to native speakers will improve your comprehension, your speaking, your pronunciation, everything. And all you have to do is sit back and listen. That is why I started this blog and why I record all of the posts. So, you can listen to an American speak English.
It doesn't even matter what you listen to as long as it's in English. You can listen to TV shows, Movies, Cartoons, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.
Here are some tips for picking materials:
1. Choose a topic you are interested in. If you like Gardening, then listen to a gardening podcast such as the one in the show notes from the Victory Garden. If you like history, go to history.com and watch all the videos. And If you don't like cars, then don't watch the BBC show, Top Gear. Although I have to tell you it is hiliarious. The point is if you are interested in the topic you will watch it or listen to it over and over again and you will keep listening longer. Because if you are having fun you will be motivated to keep learning.
2. Try to find materials that are just above your comprehension level. In other words, try to listen to something you understand about 80% of. If it's too hard you will give up or tune out, if it's too easy you won't get anything out of it and you will get bored. Even if that means watching Children's shows or cartoons, that's ok.
3. Find something you are already familiar with the story. If there are TV shows that have been translated into English from you native language, these would be excellent to listen to because you already know the story. Then you will know what's going on and you can get more meaning out of the English.
One last thing, the other day I was reading the website AntiMoon, you can find the link in the show notes. They had a post on how to find everyday English to listen to if you don't live in an English-speaking country. They mentioned in the article that sometimes movies and fiction books can't help you learn eveyday English. The types of phrases that you need for basic commnunication because a story needs conflict and drama to be interesting, not to mention unusual characters or settings. For example, vampires and werewolves in the Twilight series. So, One of their suggestions was to listen to podcasts because it's a great way to hear how people talk to each other naturally. And I have to tell you that podcasts are my new favorite thing. There are podcasts on just about any topic you can think of. I mean there are literally thousands of different podcasts. So try a few until you find ones you like. You can download them onto an mp3 player and listen to them anywhere. So, now you have no excuse for not listening to more English!
That's all for today. Thanks for listening to me, Cassie Brenn at fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com
Show noteswww.history.com
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/ask/index.html
www.podcastalley.com
www.podcastpickle.com
http://www.antimoon.com/blog/2012/03/learning-everyday-english-without-living-in-an-english-speaking-country/
Hello and welcome. Today we are continuing on the topic of How to Learn English.
Yesterday we talked about listening to music but listening to spoken English in general is a really good way to learn English.
This is something I truly believe. The more you listen, the more you will improve your English. Listening to native speakers will improve your comprehension, your speaking, your pronunciation, everything. And all you have to do is sit back and listen. That is why I started this blog and why I record all of the posts. So, you can listen to an American speak English.
It doesn't even matter what you listen to as long as it's in English. You can listen to TV shows, Movies, Cartoons, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.
Here are some tips for picking materials:
1. Choose a topic you are interested in. If you like Gardening, then listen to a gardening podcast such as the one in the show notes from the Victory Garden. If you like history, go to history.com and watch all the videos. And If you don't like cars, then don't watch the BBC show, Top Gear. Although I have to tell you it is hiliarious. The point is if you are interested in the topic you will watch it or listen to it over and over again and you will keep listening longer. Because if you are having fun you will be motivated to keep learning.
2. Try to find materials that are just above your comprehension level. In other words, try to listen to something you understand about 80% of. If it's too hard you will give up or tune out, if it's too easy you won't get anything out of it and you will get bored. Even if that means watching Children's shows or cartoons, that's ok.
3. Find something you are already familiar with the story. If there are TV shows that have been translated into English from you native language, these would be excellent to listen to because you already know the story. Then you will know what's going on and you can get more meaning out of the English.
One last thing, the other day I was reading the website AntiMoon, you can find the link in the show notes. They had a post on how to find everyday English to listen to if you don't live in an English-speaking country. They mentioned in the article that sometimes movies and fiction books can't help you learn eveyday English. The types of phrases that you need for basic commnunication because a story needs conflict and drama to be interesting, not to mention unusual characters or settings. For example, vampires and werewolves in the Twilight series. So, One of their suggestions was to listen to podcasts because it's a great way to hear how people talk to each other naturally. And I have to tell you that podcasts are my new favorite thing. There are podcasts on just about any topic you can think of. I mean there are literally thousands of different podcasts. So try a few until you find ones you like. You can download them onto an mp3 player and listen to them anywhere. So, now you have no excuse for not listening to more English!
That's all for today. Thanks for listening to me, Cassie Brenn at fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com
Show noteswww.history.com
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/ask/index.html
www.podcastalley.com
www.podcastpickle.com
http://www.antimoon.com/blog/2012/03/learning-everyday-english-without-living-in-an-english-speaking-country/
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