Alan Palmer's Language Chat podcasts

Hello,

Today I am playing a Beatles song for you - which I like very much. Here are the songwords:

You know, if you break
my heart I'll go
But I'll be back again
'cause I told you once before goodbye
But I came back again

I love you so, oh
I'm the one who wants you
Yes I'm the one who wants you
oh, ho, oh, ho, oh

You could find better things to do
Than to break my heart again
This time I will try to show that I'm
Not trying to pretend

I thought that you would realize
That if I run away from you
that you would want me to
But I got a big surprise
Oh, ho, oh, ho, oh

You could find better things to do
Than to break my heart again
This time I will try to show that I'm
Not trying to pretend

I want to go
But I hate to leave you
You know I hate to leave you
Oh, ho, Oh, ho

You, if you break my heart I'll go
But I'll be back again



Bye for now
Alan

More on conversations with native speakers

Today I’d like to tell you more on starting conversations with native speakers when you are travelling to England, or another English speaking country. Also how to make the conversation more friendly.

Places you can safely start conversations in the country where English is spoken:

Hotel reception areas
Train station platforms
Bus stops
Tourist information offices
In shops
Museums/Art Galleries
Taxis
Airport lounges
Hairdressers
Ice cream kiosks
Newspaper stands
Restaurants/cafes
Car boot sales
On the beach



I don’t recommend talking to people in the street, unless it’s just to ask for the time or directions.

Of course, speaking with people you don’t know isn’t the ideal way to practice English, but it is often these places where people who are learning English can have the opportunity to speak it , as they maybe don’t know any native speakers.

So, be careful where you speak and to whom. This is just common sense. If you are a woman alone, then speak to people in public places. It will be surprising that maybe you can start an interesting conversation and get chance to practice.

1. Decide the reason for speaking to somebody. Maybe to find something about a place or just get to know more about what the place is like.
2. Ask a small question to start with “Could you tell me?” or “Do you know where/what time/how etc…?”
3. One the conversation has started, slow down your speech more that you want to, this will give you some time to think more about what you want to say and also give the person you are speaking with the chance to get used to your particular accent.
4. Don’t forget to add “please” or “Thank you” where you need to and also nod your head a bit to show that you understand what the other person is saying.
5. Ask small questions and if they give you a long answer that you can’t remember (for instance, with directions) say “Oh, thanks, let me just write that down please”
6. If they ask about you, be glad to tell them (but not very personal information)
7. Don’t talk about: money, politics, religion unless you get to know the person quite well (say if you are staying in the same hotel for some days)
8. Enjoy the conversation – never worry about mistakes – keep the conversation light-hearted and not too detailed.
9. When the conversations stops, don’t forget to say something like “it was nice talking with you”
10. If you want to take a photo for any reason, don’t forget to ask first if the other person minds.

Hello everybody,

Some languages use tones or stress sounds (like Chinese) which shows meaning. Today’s Weekend words is more about how in English we use tones on different words when we speak. This is used for emphasis on meaning and also it makes language more interesting. I have found a nice text for you and I will read this out loud.

1. The first reading will be without stress on any word (this is a false way of speaking which we do not do in English, but it will show you what unstressed English would sound like.
2. The second reading will show you where I place the stress on words:
 At the end of each sentence there is also a little down sound to complete the idea.
 Listen to the words which have a little more stress to show that these words are important (breed, much-lamented, Christmas time)
 Listen to the words in a list: (cheap tat, reality shows, makeover shows and news) We can read this with a steady sound

However, please don’t worry if you can’t decide how to say the right stress on words. It isn’t so important for people learning English as a second language – you will still be understood. The reason I discuss this today is to show you some of the way native speakers speak.

This text is about two comedians called “Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise” who were very popular in England. They became part of British entertainment culture in the 1960s and particularly in the 1970s.

Be good, be happy

Bye for now
http://www.ericandern.co.uk/
Welcome to Eric & Ern, the Morecambe & Wise website, a tribute to Britains best loved and most popular comedy double act.
Double acts have come and gone, and are somewhat of a dying breed now. No longer is there the thriving club circuit to learn the trade or indeed the much-lamented entertainment shows that gave many comics their early break.
Even our beloved television has been swamped with hundreds of useless channels showing nothing but cheap tat, reality shows, makeover shows and news. The bright spots used to be the yesteryear channels such as UK Gold which often showed classic Morecambe & Wise shows from the golden days. Sadly Eric and Ernie are not on as commonly as they were in the early years of satellite TV.
Morecambe & Wise are, of course, usually with us at Christmas time. For fans around the globe, they will always be with us - in our hearts. Eric once said that he wanted people to remember and to keep watching the shows, or it would have all been for nothing. . Well - it wasn't all for nothing, and if this site goes some way to keeping them in our minds, then we have achieved something.

Hello everybody,

The text of what I am saying on the video is here:

www.language-explorer.co.uk

Bye

Alan

History of the English Castle

Many English castles were built of stone during the Medieval era. But the history of the English castle goes back much further! Exploring the History of the English Castle takes us as far back to the Neolithic Period - to Stone Age History!

Understanding the History of the word 'castle'

The word 'castle' is derived from the Latin words castellum, meaning fortress, and castrum meaning a ortified place. The castle can be defined as the following:

"A safe place against intrusion or invasion"
Another definition is:
"A large fortified (strengthened)building "

The history of the English Castle can date back to the time when people started to live in settled communities – which was the Stone Age over 7000 years ago!

The History of the English Castle becomes clearer!
When looking at the History of the English Castle we need to look for people who worked together to create, or build, a safe place to live against invasion!

This would apply to the people living in England during the Neolithic Period, the Stone Age (7000 years ago) then on to the people of the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Romans and finally on to the Medieval era.

By the time we reach the history of the Renaissance period (14th to 17th century)the castle was used as a symbol of wealth and power rather than a necessary safe place against invasion! At this point in time and history the castle was replaced with the 'Palace', a large or splendid residence.

The History of the English Castle - The Stone Age ( 3000 - 1800 BC )
We can travel back in the History of the English Castle to discover very old buildings like Stonehenge.

The History of the English Castle - The Bronze Age ( 1800 - 600 BC )
We look to Bronze Age period of history to discover the Hillforts of England, the biggest being Maiden Castle

The History of the English Castle - The Iron Age and the Romans ( 600 BC - 400 AD )
The Hillforts were developed even further during the history of the Iron Age and then the Romans invaded England and made structures such as the massive Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Forts

The History of the English Castle
The Dark Ages, also know as Anglo-Saxon England ( 400 AD - 1066 AD )
The Fall of the Roman Empire led to a time in the history of England when the Celts of England were invaded by the Scots, the Welsh, the Saxons and the Vikings. A new National Defence system was established by Alfred the Great by the formation of fortified towns called 'Burhs' (later changed to Burghs then Boroughs) The Dark Ages - Alfred the Great - the Burhs.

The History of the English Castle
The Medieval Period also known as the Middle Ages ( 1066 - 1500 )
The Norman Invasion heralded the Medieval period, or the Middle Ages. The Normans introduced the wooden Motte and Bailey castles which were immediately followed by the construction of stone castles and Keeps such as the Tower of London in the History of the English Castle - . The Medieval Kings of England went on to build the magnificent Windsor Castle and Warwick Castle. The English King Edward I conquered Wales where he constructed massive fortifications called Concentric castles such as Conwy Castle, Harlech Castle and Caernarvon Castle.

Here is a website where you can see photos of castles in England
http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk/list-eng.php
http://www.ecastles.co.uk/sitecastle.html

I am now posting on my new website www.language-explorer.co.uk - check it out, watch this space! Alan

Hello everybody

Today I want to talk about attitude to language learning. Having a good attitude to learning language helps overcome barriers to learning. These barriers may be personal barriers, or physical barriers.

Examples of personal barriers

How we personally feel about our progress
Our ability to remember words, phrases, grammar points
Our feelings about how well we pronounce words
What other people tell us about how we learn
Teachers’ comments good or not so good
How much we feel we need to learn a language well
What we think language will give us and what we think it might make harder


Examples of physical barriers

Time or lack of it
Opportunities to speak with other speakers of the language (native speakers in particular)
The place we learn (class or home)
The things we have to provide us with language “input”: courses, books, DVD, MP3, Websites


All these things (and many more I am sure) affect us in how we learn. It may be a positive effect or not.

Some negative effects could be, if we have a bad teacher, this will affect us, if we don’t have enough good learning material, if we don’t have enough time.

Some positive effects could be having a good teacher, praise that makes us feel good, remembering more words that we expect, finding we can pronounce things well.

There are many more things that we can add to this list.

I think our attitude or perhaps a better way of saying it would be our “way of thinking” is very important and can also affect how we learn and perhaps more importantly, how we feel about learning and how much we can get from the language learning experience.

My opinion is that we should think about these things when we feel that we are not making much progress or when we are making good progress, and she what we think may be affecting us in a positive or negative way.

Making a list may help. Once we see something written down we can maybe think about it more and also we then have a record to look back on. Something that tells us how we felt about language at any particular time.

I have started to call myself a “language explorer” rather than a “language student” . To me, this feels more appropriate and right for me. Maybe you prefer the word “student”.

Everyone has to choose his or her own path, although those of you doing courses must follow the way the course is taught.

I like to find my own way whereever I can, however I do study language courses and I would always say that these are important, providing they are good courses and we can learn well from them.

To help us with our attitude to learning and way of thinking about learning, try saying this to yourself.

Instead of “I wish I could know more” say to yourself, “I am glad I have learned so much already”
Instead of “I could do better” say to yourself “Perhaps I can find some new ways to learn”

“Poor language skills” should be “can I improve language skills?”
“pronuciation problems” should be thought of as “what can I do if I am uncertain to best way to say it?”
“not enough time” should be “can I make us of the time I have?”
“no learning fast enough” should be “is there a way I can speed up?”


What I mean is, instead of making statements “my English is poor”, turn it into a question “what can I do to improve?”

This will focus our minds on what to do for the future not dwell on what has gone before

Take care

Be good, be happy

Hello everybody

Today I am just making a small blog entry. I am a bit busy to make a podcast at the moment, but I am thinking hard about my new website idea “www.language-explorer.co.uk

My podomatic website/blog is just over a year old! Time goes fast when you’re having fun as they say…


I’ve decided to make this posting a sort of questionnaire for you

Do you think “language explorer” is a good alternative word to “language student”? In time I will make my new site the most important – but I will keep open “podomatic”

I am inviting all of you who like my podcasts to give me some ideas on new subjects:

What would you like to know about English language?

How much are you interested in English culture?

Maybe you could make a list of the TOP 10 reasons for you to learn a language

Do you like podcasts for learning, or for just listening practice?

Do you agree with me that language learning should always be relaxed?

What do you find most boring about learning a language?

How much do you practice each skill: Reading, writing, listening. speaking?

Do you like learning grammar or not?

What has been your favourite podcast over the last year?


Any comments are very welcome

Bye for now

Alan

Send me any messages/comments to: alan_r_palmer@hotmail.com

Don't forget that I have a **NEW WEBSITE"" KEEP VISITING www.language-explorer.co.uk

This recording is the same as the other post, but I have read this more slowly...

Bye
Alan

Hello everybody

Today I want to talk about a new idea I have had to do some language practice on our own with no more than a piece of paper and a pen. I call this idea “mind word essays”. With this idea, you can practice:

Thinking in a language
Writing
Reading and grammar
Speaking/Listening

You can do this anywhere, whilst travelling, at home, with friends. I had the idea when I was flying to Germany and I wanted to practice German but I had nothing with me except a pen and paper.

The idea is simple and you can do this in any language. I will demonstrate it here using English.

You start with a simple sentence:

“My friend has a car” – you write it down

Next, you quickly think of extra words to make the sentence bigger

For example:

“My good friend has bought a new car” – you write this down under the first sentence

Now, you make another sentence from your head – don’t worry about making mistakes

“My good friend from London has bought himself a new red car which he likes very much.”

You write this down also

Then you make a bigger sentence

“My very good friend from London, who I spoke with last week, told me he has bought himself a new red car which he likes very much”


4 sentence are probably enough although you could write more.

You can then check the sentences as well as you can for grammar and spelling and then read each sentence out loud and listen to how you say it.

So, from four sentences, you have a lot of chance to practice many different language skills.


I believe that this will help also improve fluency


The important thing is to think of it like a game and enjoy it, getting the words from your head as youy can. This will make you think more clearly in the language and help you to think of the words you need when you have conversations with people.

Enjoy your mind essays, you can keep them and look at them again a few weeks later and try the same sentences again to see if you can think of words more quickly than before.

Be good, be happy

Bye for now

Hello everybody

Today I want to talk about a new idea I have had to do some language practice on our own with no more than a piece of paper and a pen. I call this idea “mind word essays”. With this idea, you can practice:

Thinking in a language
Writing
Reading and grammar
Speaking/Listening

You can do this anywhere, whilst travelling, at home, with friends. I had the idea when I was flying to Germany and I wanted to practice German but I had nothing with me except a pen and paper.

The idea is simple and you can do this in any language. I will demonstrate it here using English.

You start with a simple sentence:

“My friend has a car” – you write it down

Next, you quickly think of extra words to make the sentence bigger

For example:

“My good friend has bought a new car” – you write this down under the first sentence

Now, you make another sentence from your head – don’t worry about making mistakes

“My good friend from London has bought himself a new red car which he likes very much.”

You write this down also

Then you make a bigger sentence

“My very good friend from London, who I spoke with last week, told me he has bought himself a new red car which he likes very much”

4 sentence are probably enough although you could write more.

You can then check the sentences as well as you can for grammar and spelling and then read each sentence out loud and listen to how you say it.

So, from four sentences, you have a lot of chance to practice many different language skills.

I believe that this will help also improve fluency

The important thing is to think of it like a game and enjoy it, getting the words from your head as youy can. This will make you think more clearly in the language and help you to think of the words you need when you have conversations with people.

Enjoy your mind essays, you can keep them and look at them again a few weeks later and try the same sentences again to see if you can think of words more quickly than before.

Be good, be happy

Bye for now

Hello everybody. My news is that I have a new website "under construction"

My new website has also got a new name:

www.language-explorer.co.uk

You can have a preview already - but I have not put new material on this website yet.

I'll keep you posted... take care

Alan

Here is a video of the Dragon Boat Race that my son and I took part in yesterday. http://www.vimeo.com/1137389

I hope you find it interesting. A bit of Chinese Culture in England.

My commentary on the video is: Alan here. We are at Hollingworth (I made a mistake and said "Hollingsworth") Lake where today we're going to have Dragon Boat Racing. Perhaps not the same as in China but the boats will look very similar and we'll see what we can do.

The company I work for has a boat (on hire) and we will be racing very soon. We hope we can win, but at the moment we don't know - so we'll see...

So enjoy the next part of the video which will be the dragon boat race...."



Bye for now

Alan

Hello everybody

Sorry it has been a long time since my last podcast. I’ve been busy lately so I haven’t had time to make one. Today’s podcast is a bit scientific as I have just been reading a book I was given on linguistics. In this book it mentioned the work of Dr Stephen D. Krashen. http://www.sdkrashen.com/ and I have become very interested now in his work.

What is interesting for me is that Dr Krashen has published his ideas in 1981 on language acquisition and learning and I did not know that some of my ideas are similar to the language learning theories he has written about.

In Linguistics, “acquisition” means “the act or process of achieving mastery of a language or a linguistic rule or element”:

We talk of “child language acquisition” and “second language acquisition” for adults.

The interesting ideas he has written about can be read on the website http://www.sdkrashen.com/SL_Acquisition_and_Learning/index.html

What was interesting for me was that Dr Krashen talks about language acquisition and language learning as being different.

When I see some of the ideas of successful language acquisition and learning, I can see the way I have been learning French over the last 17 years, German over the last 7 years and more recently Chinese and Spanish.

In my case, I had been forming my ideas independently, as I have never heard of Stephen Krashen until yesterday.

Here are some of the things that make for a successful language acquisition and learning student.

Some characteristics
 good students pay attention to form
 they monitor their own and others’ speech
 they are prepared to guess
 they always attempt to communicate, to get their message across
 they are willing to appear foolish
 they look for practice – initiating conversations
 they attend to meaning – by attending to context

Important strategies
 clarification/verification of language
 monitoring progress
 memorization words and phrases
 guessing the meaning
 deductive reasoning from situations
 practice-learning on their own

I hope you found this podcast interesting. I am on holiday in Germany for a week, so I will make a podcast in a week’s time. See you soon – bye

PS. Here is an interesting blog I found:
http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/10/oral-and-aural-skills.html

Hello everyone, good evening.
Alan here from England, and this time I’m speaking without a text again. It’s always interesting for me to just speak without a text, because this is how we speak normally when we speak with friends or with, mm, people we know or work with, and sometimes with my podcast I like to do this because it makes it more natural.

When you’re speaking with a text, it’s not quite the same as when you’re speaking just from your head, if you like, speaking aloud, as you would when you’re speaking with friends and family. And of course it means that you can hear when I pause, when I think about things a little more, and then when I decide to say something. And for those of you who are learning English, I think this makes it more interesting - maybe more difficult to understand, but also mmm, you can hear when I stop a bit, then start again. And that is how conversations go.

When someone reads from a text we just follow the words on the paper, or on the computer screen of course. But when you’re speaking normally, you’re thinking of the words in your head and then you say them. And of course this cannot be continuous, it has to have some small stops and starts, and this I think demonstrates that it’s useful when, mmm, people are learning English and they can hear that a native speaker would also sometimes stop and think about what they are saying before they say something more.

And I have people asking me quite often, how can they understand native speakers better? For instance, they may watch the news to TV or listen to the radio and the speakers are very fast when they speak and they don’t always things, …, the words are sometimes complicated. And I say to myself, well, you know, when we watch TV, watch the news, all the words are prepared before, They need to get as much information in as short a time possible and so they choose the words carefully and they say them rather fast.

And I think this isn’t a very good way for people learning English to improve their English.

Of course the can hear new words and things, but it may be a little off-putting to hear someone speaking very fast on TV.

Other people has said to me that I don’t speak as fast (here) as I do normally because they are used to hearing teachers, maybe, speaking very fast. But I say, not all English speakers, native speakers, speak quickly. Some people speak a little slower. And I don’t think that my “normal” speed is very slow but do not think it is very fast either.

So my advice to those of you who are listening to me speaking and wanting to improve your comprehension, your understanding, I say listen to this podcast a few times and listen to when I make my small pauses and when I start speaking again .

And you can see very easily when I think about what I am saying and when I decide to say something that I’ve thought about.

So I hope this podcast has been interesting for you – it’s just me speaking, talking, chatting without a text. See you next time, excuse-me, bye for now

I hope you like my guitar piece which I played this evening and a nice sunny evening in England

Hello everyone,

Today I would like to talk about how better to get conversations started.

When we learn languages, we always want so much to speak with native speakers – but at the same time, we also worry about it. Will they understand us? Will they find what we say interesting? Will they get frustrated with us, or bored, or both?

Lots of these sort of thoughts go through our mind. Even if we are lucky enough to have friends who speak the language we are learning as native speakers, it doesn’t mean that we don’t still think these things.

Another difficulty when speaking another language is that after we have said something, it is often difficult for us to remember what we just said! In our own language, we remember what words we say better than when we say something in a different language. I think this is because we are busy trying to think of correct words to use and make sure we are understood, so we only remember the ideas of what we were talking about, not the actual words we used to say it.

Often, we have little or no chance to speak with native speakers. We practice in class, at home, with friends etc, but unless we live in the country or can visit it, then the opportunities for speaking the languages we are learning with native speakers can be quite rare. Even when we visit the country, or find a native speaker to speak with in our country, maybe we don’t know who we will speak with or how long we will have to speak with them, or what we will need to say.

So, what can we do that gives us a little more confidence to speak with native speakers when we have the chance?

My opinion is, whenever we have the opportunity, we should take it, but also be very kind on ourselves and do not try to make it into a “language test” that we must “pass”.

I also think that we should not expect so much from the people we speak with. They might be very busy or have other things on their mind.

Negative experiences always make us question why we even want to learn the language. For example, someone ignores us, or says something we don’t understand, or doesn’t seem interested. We have to understand that not everyone is interested in languages and that people have their own lives to get on with. I’ve had some experiences like this over the years.

This is where a relaxed attitude can be very useful. Enjoying the opportunity to speak a different language however well we can, should always be a positive thing. So we must do our best to make sure that any conversations we have are as positive and pleasant as we can make them. We have a lot to do with making sure this happens.

So here are some ideas for helping any conversations we have with native speakers be as pleasant as possible:

1. Don’t expect to have a very interesting conversation, it might be a quite ordinary even a bit boring conversation. Many people just want to “pass the time of day” which means they just talk about very ordinary things such as the weather. So, be prepared to talk about the weather…a few useful phrases can really set off a conversation well:

“ Oh, isn’t it cold today?” “What a beautiful sunny day!” “Oh, it’s very windy today isn’t it?”

These sort of friendly openings are called “icebreakers” and nearly everybody does this. So why shouldn’t we do it also?

2. Remember that many, many people love to talk about themselves and what they are doing, subjects such as their family, their work and their hobbies. If we allow people to talk about themselves first, then we can have a perfect opportunity to listen and it gives us time to get used to the person’s accent, their preferred speed of speaking and we can get to know more about them quickly. So, maybe a conversation would go like this:

(you) “Hello, how is it going?”

(other person )“Oh, very well thanks. I’ve been busy and many things are happening at the moment, I have a new job, a new house. My kids are enjoying school and very soon we will be going on holiday…..”

(you)“oh, that’s nice, where will you be going to?”

(other person)“we will go to Spain this year, we’ve never been there and we are really looking forward to it”

Even though you have not said much yourself and you may wish that you were speaking more, accept that you may need to do this at the beginning of the conversation.

It shows that you are a good listener and people like knowing that they are being listened to, and also you will show that you are understanding normal conversation speed and vocabulary. This is important for you to know as much as the other person.

3. Always use polite words, even if the person you are speaking with doesn’t. This will mean everyone will always consider you as a polite, friendly person. From my experience, I know that this will make people want to speak with you more – and then you will have chances to say more about what you like, what you want to do and who knows, maybe you will make friends.

4. Always accept a compliment in a matter of fact way. “Oh, your English is great!” You should accept and acknowledge, but only a short “thanks, I keep trying my best to learn more” will be enough. You don’t need to say “oh yes! I have just passed all my English language exams and I had top marks!” Very few people would be interested in all this information. Of course, if they asked you “have you passed any exams in English?” then you could say this then.

5. Give yourself time by starting to speak in short sentences at first. “How’s it going?” “what’s new?” “I’m doing fine myself” These sort of well known conversational link phrases are fantastic at giving you chance to say something and then you should have an answer. When the other person is speaking, you just need another phrase ready in your mind “oh really?” “I see” “right, ok” – these are all useful to give yourself more time to form better sentences in your head when you need to do it – such as when they ask you a question.

So, see how you find it when you next have the chance to speak with a native speaker. See if my advice works for you as it has for me.

See you next time

Bye for now

Hello everybody

It’s nice to be here again to talk to you. I’ve been having some nice feedback about my podcasts recently and it’s always nice to receive it. Thanks to those of you who sent me messages of encouragement either here or on Livemocha.com.

I’m always glad to know that you find my podcasts useful and interesting.

Today I want to suggest an idea for those of you who want to know how your English is progressing and also a small English practice test.

My idea is this. I want to give you a topic here that you can read about and then you can write a small text in your own words to explain my text. Maybe between 50 and 100 words will be enough. Copy any words I have written – but don’t copy out my text word for word – or it will not be useful for the test. You must create a new text yourself in your own words.

If you have access to recording equipment, make a recording of your voice saying my words and also read out aloud your written text.

Keep this text and voice recording for a month and then do the same test again. Do not check your previous work and try to write the best text and speak as well as you can.

Record your voice again copying my voice recording and also your new writing.

Once you have done this – keep the text and recording safe for a few days.

Then get both recordings and texts together and listen to and read to the first one and then the second. You will be able to see if you have improved:

Your pronunciation, speed of speaking and confidence
Your reading skills – for how easily you can read and understand my text and your own
Your listening skills – how well you can understand this podcast
Your writing skills – how your written language has improved from the first piece of writing to the second – 1 month later

You can see how much progress you have made across all four language skills. I think this will be useful for you.

Now I will read out the text below at normal speed.

My country

Today I want to talk about my country. Did you know that I live in 4 different places? Well, I mean that my country has four different names.

My country is called England

Great Britain is the name of the largest island. Eire is the name of the next biggest island. There are many other smaller islands. Together these islands are called “The British Isles (Isles also means islands)

United Kingdom means England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is the political union of the country. The capital of the United Kingdom is London.

The United Kingdom does not have an official language – but of course, most people here speak English. Although English is the most common language, there are other languages in the British Isles. These are: Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Manx (Isle of Mann)

There was also a language that used to be called Cornish –this was spoken by people in the south-west part of England which is now called Cornwall.

There are many different people living in Great Britain. Those people who are born here are called “British” This is true even when their parents come from other countries

There are 50,000,000 British people living in the United Kingdom

The flag of the United Kingdom is very well know and is a red cross (for England) a blue cross for Scotland and “St Patrick’s cross” for Northern Ireland. There is no part of the flag to represent Wales – which is something that some people would like to see changed.

So, when I say “I am English” I mean that I live in one country of the United Kingdom of Great Britain which is called England

I hope you like this idea and I am very interested to know if it helps you judge your progress

Bye for now

hello everybody

For my weekend words today, I want to talk about why sometimes it is difficult to understand native speakers, even when you may have been learning English a long time.

I discovered a long time ago that the language you hear in class with a teacher, or normally on sound recordings can be easily understood, and yet when you go to the country and listen to native speakers - you may not understand so much.

There are many reasons for this, and firstly I want to say - don't worry about it. The more you worry, the more it will either frustrate or annoy you when this happens. Just accept that this will happen, the moment you set foot in the country.

Here are some reasons I believe can make listening to native speakers difficult:

1. There is usually some background noise - some examples:street noise, other people speaking nearby, television is on. This makes it difficult to concentrate on the person speaking to you.

2. The native speaker will hear you speak first and assume you know much more than you know - and they make speak quite fast - this makes it difficult to hear everything they say and make sure you understand it,

3. The native speaker may use dialect words, slang words or common expressions that you may not be familiar with - or only some. This makes it harder for you to understand, because you have first to understand the slang words or expressions and then translate that to normal speech and then understand it. Don't be afraid to say "I am not familiar with this word/these words, what do they mean exactly?"

4. The native speaker can also make mistakes themselves--- did you think of that one? There are few native speakers who speak perfectly!

5. The native speaker may have an accent that you are unfamilar with. In England for example, there are many different accents and some accents may clip the words short, use different sounding vowels or even miss out words. In the north of England where I come from, sometimes we clip words and drop "h"'s. This is especially done when we speak with family and friends. Here is an example:

Standard English: " Are you going to come with me to the cinema?"

Northern accent: "Are yer goin' t'come wi' me to th'cinema?"

You can easily hear that the first is easier to understand than the second, but both are saying the same thing.

Don't worry.In my experience, the native speaker will not mind changing his/her speech to make it a little more controlled and easier for you to understand - providing you ask!

So the key to understanding a native speaker better is to accept that you are not a native speaker - but a serious non-native learner and don't be afraid to tell people you meet this fact. It will not mean they become frustrated with you, on the contrary - the native speaker will usually be very glad to make sure you understand everything - and even explain things more precisely to you. So you end up with good communication and a language lesson for free!

Bye for now

See you next time

Hello everybody,

Today I have just decided to talk - no text prepared. So I will listen back to it later and write down for you what I said - so you can read along with me speaking.

In the meantime, for those of you who are learning English - see how you find it listening without text for the time being...

take care everybody...

Alan

I hope you like my latest guitar tune

I hope you like this guitar tune I recorded today on my 12-string acoustic guitar...

Hello everybody
For my weekend words today I'd like to discuss ways to make language learning more interesting.
Often, people ask us why we learn one or more languages. We sometimes ask ourselves why. This question seems particularly interesting sometimes as we don't always have easy answers.
Personally speaking, I often answer that I learn languages "as a hobby" like we do when we take photographs, collect things, read books, watch films.
Is it a good idea to compare learning a language to these activities that we would usually consider to be hobbies? I am not sure. I suppose learning a language is something that is interesting to do, keeps our minds occupied and there is something to be gained by learning - we eventually get to communicate with other people who speak the language - whether these are native speakers, or other people learning the language.
If we have no-one to speak the language with, then how do we keep interested in learning?
We need to find reasons than make us more interested in keeping going to achieve success.
Language learning is a long "journey" with many difficult aspects to encounter: remembering the words, understanding grammar, getting the pronunciation correct. It is easy to become demotivated.
One thing I think we should never do is say "sorry" when we don't know a word, or make a mistake when we are speaking with someone who speaks the language better than us. I believe that if we do make a mistake and feel that we want to say something about the mistake, then we should say something like this: " I enjoy learning the language (English, French, Chinese or whatever) and I make some mistakes - but I keep trying to learn to speak it better" This is positive and helps us and the people we are speaking with to understand that we know we make mistakes, but we don't want it to stop us speaking the language.
Keeping going when we have no native speakers to talk to is difficult. I have a some suggestions to help:
1. A simple idea is to keep a diary and write something each day, or each week in the language we are learning. This will also tell us over time how much we are learning when later we read what we have written. This is the easiest way to keep the language in our heads each time we write something in the diary.
2. Another idea is to have a conversation with yourself. In the car, on the train, on a bus. Also, we can speak (silently) with ourselves when we are waiting for something: doctor's waiting room, hotel room, train station etc. Although it's not perhaps a good idea to talk to ourselves out loud in these sorts of situation, it can work if we quietly "speak" in our heads - we can try to remember the words for some things that we can see. For example, if we are waiting for a train, there is these words to think of" train", "track", "platform", ticket etc.
3. A good idea I think is to try using a language learners website, such as this one: www.livemocha.com - here we can practice our languages with native speakers in different ways - writing, speaking , reading and listening.
4. Another interesting idea is to write a little about something that interests us. Then, when we later have the chance to speak with a native speaker - we can ask them to read it and see what they think about it. Not only will they be able to correct the text, but they will also learn something themselves from the text that we have prepared earlier - that is why I suggest making it about an interesting subject that we know enough about.
I'm always happy to hear your suggestions for subjects or comments on my podcasts.

See you next time

Bye for now

Hello everybody,

I hope you are all well. It has been a little while since I made a podcast. Thank you for all you nice messages.

Today I would like to talk about being positive and relaxed about learning languages and also being willing to take risks with language too.

Learning a language is a difficult thing to do, but as I have said before, we can always enjoy our language at any level. Young children do this. When we see a small child start to learn their mother tongue – they maybe don’t say so much at the beginning, They listen and maybe try some sounds that don’t sound like words. But later, when they start to say words, their mother or father will be happy to hear them say things and then they encourage them by speaking back to them – usually in a kindly way.

That way, a small child learns in a positive place with a friendly teacher (mother or father) and then the child enjoys using whatever language they have – they often don’t want to stop talking!

I think that as adults, we should try to copy this method a little. Of course we can’t act like a child, but we can use some of the attitude of a child: positive about learning, relaxed when we speak, read, write or listen. We can also not worry about mistakes – of course, try to correct these mistakes when we can or when someone helps us – for example if we are in a class.

My belief is that we can learn and at the same time make what we have already important.

We can also be willing to take some risks too. For example, when we speak with people we know who speak the language as a native speaker – try to see if we can push the language level a bit higher when we speak with them. If we make a mistake or use a wrong word, then maybe our friend will kindly advise us – without criticising us. It is the same with writing letters – try some things that are new to us. Of course, in exams this is different, because this is a test of what we know. But with letters, e-mails, text messages with friends – always try a little extra and see if you can get things right and learn more. When we listen – try to listen to language that is a higher level than we have ourselves – because we always understand more than we can speak.

The same thing with reading. Read short articles, magazines where there is conversation or interviews written down for reading like a conversation would be in reality.

So, we can be relaxed and happy to learn and still try hard to become better at the same time if we think about things carefully and we can keep getting better and better.

Take care and bye for now

Hello everybody.
For my weekend words this week I want to talk about conversation practice and speed of speaking.
Over the years, I've met a lot of people who are learning English as a foreign language. I'm always surprised how hard they try to learn English and their level of language, their high ability to handle difficult grammar points and how much vocabulary they have.
In some cases, maybe it is the first time they have had an opportunity to speak with a native speaker (me) and they want to be able to have an intelligent interesting conversation.
This means that very often, in order to develop the conversation, they speak much faster than they need to, and sometimes forget that a conversation is two-way - speaker and listener.
I often find myself doing a similar thing when I speak French or German. I speak faster than I should do. It is like I am in a race against time, to say what I want to say and hope that I have made myself understood.
As a native speaker of English, what I can tell anyone who speaks English as a foreign language is that you don't need to rush when having a friendly conversation with a native speaker.
It is completely different from speaking exams or making a presentation - when accuracy and speed is very important. When you are having a conversation it is a two-way thing. You speak, the other person listens. Then the other person speaks and you listen.
To make this a more enjoyable experience, try speaking a little slower than you would normally like to and always allow a small gap for the listener to use certain phrases that let's you know that they are listening. Words such as: "I see..." "really?" , "oh right.." " do you think so?", "ehm....well, you have a point..."
This makes the conversation truly two-way and you can learn much more. Speaking more slowly allows you time to think of more interesting words, more appropriate words, develop the conversation and allow the listener to correct you sometimes.
This way you will develop your language skills even more I believe.
Now you've heard my podcast, you might like to listen to it again as I am speaking at a normal conversational speed - as I would do if I were talking with my family, to my colleagues at work and people I meet in the street.
If I were to speak with a taxi driver, someone on the telephone when I am busy and situations like this, then I would of course, speak more quickly.
But this podcast is just to help you to understand that whilst maybe you think English people speak fast, only a few do in a relaxed conversation - and as I believe strongly -being relaxed is the best way to learn. Stressful situations don't make good language learning situations I think. Such as:
* getting information for catching a bus or a train
* asking someone the time
* answering the telephone when you are busy
So, make use of each informal/friendly conversation you have to learn and enjoy the conversation!
* meeting someone on a train journey
* meeting someone on holiday
* meeting someone in an online chatroom
* discussing things in another language with friends who also speak the language
* meeting someone in a social setting, party, church etc
See you next time
Bye for now

Hello everybody. For my weekend words today I wanted to talk about using short newspaper, magazine or Internet articles to help develop language and also how, at the same time to understand more about a country's culture as well as language. Also how to "think in pictures" to help make the text interesting and to retain vocabulary. If you find interesting articles like the one I have chosen, then language and culture start to merge together a bit more. These are not just words on paper or on a screen, but they make you think of situations and events in the past, at present or in the future.

I read somewhere that to learn a language well, we need to:

1. Understand the structure (grammar) of a language and have a good vocabulary.
2. Have the chance to communicate in a language with people who speak it well (Better still, those who speak it as a mother tongue)
3. Understand some of the culture of the country (or countries) where the language is spoken

No small task!

Having said that, all of us are learning new things all our lives and learning another language should add to the enjoyment of learning in a positive way. Always be pleased with what you know already - but keep learning as and when you can.

Today, let's analyse a text that is about English culture. It's about Pub signs. Many Public houses and hotels (where the word "pub" comes from) name the building and hang painted signs outside. It's a long-standing tradition in my country.

I've copied a short piece of a bigger article to discuss. The full text is here:
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/culture/pub-names.htm#bio

So, I'll read the text first

British Pub Signs - a short history
By Elaine Saunders

Everyone loves an “Olde Worlde” pub with its oak beams, horse brasses and roaring log fires. Nevertheless, no matter how old the pub itself, the name on the sign outside is probably the most historic thing about the place.

The idea of the pub sign came to Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. Wine bars in ancient Rome hung bunches of vine leaves outside as trading signs but when the Romans came here, they found precious few vines in the inhospitable climate. Instead, they hung up bushes to mark out the inns and the names Bush or Bull & Bush still survive.........(text continues...)

This text is full of cultural references:

"Olde Worlde" is a way of describing old things as the pronunciation has a feel of times gone by when people spoke with more endings to the words

Pub sign
Oak beams
Horse brasses
Wine bar

And some good short phrases like:
"roaring log fires"
"precious few"
"vine leaves"
"at the time of the Roman Invasion"
"inhospitable climate"
"mark out"

Take some time to get a "feel" for what is being said in the text. The author wants to make it interesting and make you, as a reader think in pictures as well as words.

So, rather than reading through a full article that is difficult to read and becoming frustrated with it. Chose a small part of the text - say, the introduction and read it fully, taking it apart like a puzzle and then putting it back together again. This way you can practice all four skills:

Reading
Listening and Speaking (as you read out the text)
Writing (write about it in your own words and use the new vocabulary you learn)

Finally, use a dictionary to check the meaning of words or phrases you can't guess well - more to confirm your thoughts after you have made a good attempt to guess it.

See you next time

Hello everybody,

Today I wanted to talk about my ideas on increasing fluency (which in my opinion is about how easy you can use a language at a high level)

I wanted to tell you about a new idea I have had about building up vocabulary and fluency at the same time. I have a lot of trouble remembering words and I believe that everyone agrees that the secret to learning a language is knowing enough words and enough of the structure of the language (sometimes call rules of grammar)

Some languages have complex grammar (like German) and other languages have simpler grammar (like Mandarin Chinese)

Whichever language we learn, we need a knowledge of enough words and grammar to converse with others who speak the language. Of course other areas of language ability are important - such as pronunciation, but generally speaking, with some words and grammar and a reasonably understandable accent - most people could make themselves understood and understand what was being said to them. In English this is often called "get by".

Anyway, to explain my idea. If you were wanting to learn some new words, let's pick three unusual unrelated words:

A noun: condominium
An adjective: straightforward
A verb: perform

To remember these words, explain them with easy language by using a dictionary:

Condominium = apartment (or flat)
straightforward = easy
perform = carry something out, act/sing/dance

Make up a sentence and write it down:

Nothing is straightforward, there is not enough space in my condominium that I cannot perform my dance

change it...

I cannot perform my dance. I need to practice every day in my friend's condominium. Nothing is straightforward - as it is too small

Say the sentences out loud.. then see if you remember the words and their meaning a little later. If you can't easily remember them - read the sentences again and see if you can remember them later still.

I'm going to try this idea myself with learning new words in the languages I am learning. I'll let you know how it goes!

Maybe this way it will not take so long to build up a good amount of words in my head and become more fluent.

Take care and see you next time

Hello everybody,

Today I wanted to talk about practicing phrases to make it easier to remember how to say things and the right words to use

I want to go shopping because my sister is coming and we enjoy going to the shops together.

It is surprising just what language you can practice with only one sentence:

Because my sister is coming, I want to go shopping and we enjoy going to the shops together

We enjoy going to the shops my sister and I and my sister is coming, so I want to go shopping

That is three sentences saying the same thing, more or less - but if you practice the sentence in different ways - then you can become more fluent.

You can then expand it a bit more:

My sister is coming to see me. We always like to go shopping together because we like going to the shops together.

It is always nice when my sister comes, because we like going to the shops together to do some shopping. I want to go shopping anyway - so I will wait until she comes

This way, you can build up the language practice.

Just keep thinking of different ways to say the same thing and If you make a mistake, it isn't such a problem because people will still understand

So, say for example you said

I want to go to the shopping when my sister comes, because we like shopping together
(saying "shopping" instead of "shops" will still be understood)

You could always simplify it more...

When my sister comes, we like going to the shops together.

We like going shopping together my sister and me

(maybe it should be "my sister and I" but most people in England would say "my sister and me"

Try making up a sentence, writing it in a few different ways and then saying it. Or you could just try making a sentence in your head and then say it - you will become more fluent!

Have you ever tried learning words from a visual dictionary? I like these type of dictionaries because you can see the picture and read the word. I have just found a very good one that shows many pictures and photos with the words in 4 languages. This is called "5 Language visual dictionary by Dorling Kindersley. English, French, German, Spanish & Italian

The ISBN number is ISBN 0-7513-3681-5
You can find it on www.amazon.com

It is quite expensive at around £20/ $27 but I think it would be worth every penny and a very interesting way to learn new words.

Bye for now and see you next time bye!

Hello everybody. This is a continuation of my podcast about difficult sounds in English.

English often uses stress or emphasis on syllables within a word. Stress is sometimes used in spoken English as a language technique to change the meaning of what is being said and emphasise a certain thing or idea. Normally this doesn't show in written English unless the word is written differently. Here's an example:

1. He wants me to give her the book
2. HE wants me to give her the book
3. He wants ME to give her the book
4. He wants me to GIVE her the book
5. He wants me to give her the BOOK

Easy sentence - but stressed words make a big difference to meaning.

The first sentence just has a basic meaning. There is no extra stress on the first sentence - so someone listening would just hear it as a statement.

Number 2 is emphasising the person who wants me to give the book

Number 3 is emphasising that the person want me in particular (that is no one else but me) to give her the book

Number 4 is emphasising that the person wants me to give her the book - that is, not do something different with the book

Number 5 means the person wants me to give her a book and not something else instead

So, it's interesting how English uses this stress on words to change the meaning of the sentence without changing the words in the sentence. You'll notice that all the words are the same in each sentence.

Take care and see you next time

Well, I decided that for all my podcasts, I'll write a little introduction and then put the transcript for the voice recording for you. So, welcome to "Alan's Weekend Words January 19th". Today some advice on pronuciation for all you English learners!

Hello, for my weekend words this week I want to talk about pronunciation difficulties for learners of English. It seems to me that there are some sounds that present more difficulties that others. For example the English "th" sound.

think
thought
thank
thesis
therapy
nothing
tether
teeth

are some words starting with or containing the sound 'th". For this sound place the top of your tongue against your top teeth - push some air through without too much pressure and say the word.

think, thought, thank, thesis,therapy,nothing,tether,teeth

The other 'th" sound is the same tongue position - but with less air movement and more voice. See if you can hear the difference between the two different 'th" sounds

the,there,those,with,feather

Try practicing these "th" sounds slowly then speed up

Make sure that you keep relaxed when you speak and don't worry if you find it difficult - just keep practicing when you have a little time.

The other sound I wanted to talk about today is the English "r"
The British version is softer sounding than the American:

run
ready
really
roaring

the american sounds more "strong" - in other words add more sound to your voice as you speak - with a little more energy.

run
ready
really
roaring

I can't really speak with an american accent very well - but I just wanted to show you an example.

Your tongue needs to be curled back about half-way in your mouth - but not touching any part of your mouth and then curl it back forward again and keep it quite loose as you do.

"a Rumanian runner was running a revolution around a really rocky racetrack"

Tongue twisters like this can be very useful for pronunciation practice

Take care and see you next time

http://www.englishsecret.com/pages/sound.jsp?pid=12

Buenos dias, bom dia,hallo, bonjour, jo napot,ni hao, Guten Tag!
So many languages. But of course, as usual, I am speaking in uhm, English my mother tongue and today, I wanted to speak a little about fluency, but today I'm trying to do this as a "chatcast" - and my way of doing chatcasts now is to just...chat without a text.
So, I will produce a text for the "PODOMATIC" site so that you can read what I've said, but I won't do that until after I've finished speaking.

So today, "fluency". What does it mean? In fact what made me think about it was, I was speaking with a friend at work today and we were discussing..uhm..language learning because he said that he would like to learn French and I was giving him some tips and hints and we were discussing what fluency was. He said he would like to have a conversation with people (in French) and he considered that would be fluency. And my opinion is, that fluency changes the more you learn a language, or your idea, should I say, about fluency.

Because the more you learn about a lan