Alan Palmer's Language Chat podcasts

Hello everybody,

This is the last article I will put on this website as it is full!

My new site is:

www.language-explorer.co.uk

See you there!!

Bye

Alan

Hello again

Today I want to make a suggestion about how we can make a decision on our language skills.

People say “I am a learner of English,” “ I am learning French”, “I learn Italian” etc

This means that we think of ourselves as “learners” , “students” “pupil”

Then people may say:

“I am a beginner of Chinese”

“I speak some German”

“I can get by in Russian”

All the time we make these sorts of statements to other people, particularly native speakers, we make a judgement of our ability and class ourselves as a “learner”.

I want to suggest that we think of ourselves as both learner AND speaker. This way we can make a judgement in a different way which I believe will help us improve and enjoy language.

For example

I would say that I am 80% speaker of French and 20% learner

I would say that I am 60% speaker of German and 40% learner

I would say that I am 10% speaker of Chinese and 90% learner

I would say that I am 5% speaker of Spanish and 95% learner

This rating changes as we feel we know more and are confident in speaking.

Even as a native speaker of English I would also say that I am a learner

I think I am maybe 98% speaker of English and 2% learner. This is because I learn new phrases and words in English as I learn new things about my language or as new words come into the language. For example I did not know the word “Podcast” two years ago, but now I use the word a lot.

These figures need not be very accurate – they are just a way of judging our language skills. My idea is that we rate our speaking to learning depending on our own feelings and attitude to the language

I believe the more we tell ourselves we can call ourselves a “speaker” – even if the percentage is quite low, the more we will feel proud, enjoy speaking as well as learning and make great progress.

Bye for now

Be good be happy

Hello everybody

Today I want to talk about an idea for learning I call "Relaxing Challenges"

Remember when you were a child and you liked to play? Sometimes you dared yourself to try things: climb a tree, make a snowman, build a sandcastle, catch a ball. Each of these sort of things were a physical challenge. Some other things were mental challenges: playing chess, making a jigsaw, drawing and painting.

Learning a language is a big challenge. It is a huge undertaking; building up vocabulary, pronunciation, writing a text, reading a book, listening to speech and also speaking ourselves are all different challenges with language learning.

When I refer to a "relaxing challenge" I don't mean having a rest. I mean setting ourselves a small challenge with a relaxed mind, but with an energetic and enthusiastic intention.

For a language learning "relaxing challenge", we can think of something to do with the language we are learning that challenges us for a short while, but doesn't tire us out completely.

Some examples:

Reading a passage quickly to see how many words we know

Speaking a text to see how well we can pronounce it

Seeing if we can learn 5 new words a day

Try singing a song in the language

Try phoning or e-mailing someone and speak about a subject you are not very familiar with

Listen to a foreign radio station to see how many words you can understand

Ask a friend for their opinion on how they think you speak

All these ideas and many more are a way of us using the language or practicing and pushing our knowledge and skill further....but without worrying. Like we did when we were a child.

We didn't climb a tree to worry about falling

We didn't build a sandcastle to worry about the sea washing it away

We didn't worry about dropping a ball sometimes

We can put this sort of attitude also to language study. I do not mean act like a child, I mean be "childlike" in our way of challenging ourselves to do something which excites us about language and relax after, safe in the knowledge that even if we did not do things so well, at least we had a try and enjoyed the challenge

Be good be happy

Bye for now

Hrllo everyone

I am back after quite a long absence. I had problems with my home internet connection.

Here is something new, a German/English videocast

See what you think

Bye for now

Alan

I hope you like this podcast about Punch and Judy. A famous traditional puppet show in England.

Bye for now

Alan

China, the homeland of tea

It is universally acknowledged that China is the original tea-growing area, as well as the first country to grow, produce and drink tea.

In the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) Dynasties a popular custom was tea appraising. Over the long history of drinking tea, a special and simple Chinese tea culture came into being. Drinking tea was not only for quenching thirst or for enjoyment, but also for the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding. Folk customs of drinking tea reflected the ancient Chinese people's great interest in tea culture.

(to appraise – to value, to judge) to quench- to satisfy (mutual – common)

People often used tea as a betrothal gift; for it could not be "transplanted." After accepting tea as a betrothal gift, a girl could not capriciously change her decision to marry her fiancé.

Betrothal – promise of marriage capricious – impulsive - reckless

Entertainment of guests to tea is the most fundamental social behavior in the Chinese people's contacts with each other. When a guest comes, the Chinese will offer him or her a cup of tea to express friendship.

Fundamental –basic, original

China is the home country of tea. Before the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Chinese tea was exported by land and sea, first to Japan and Korea, then to India and Central Asia and, in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties, to the Arabian Peninsula. In the early period of the 17th century, Chinese tea was exported to Europe, where the upper class adopted the fashion of drinking tea. Chinese tea, like Chinese silk and China, is an outstanding contribution to the world's material and spiritual civilization.

Adopted – take on

China is the homeland of tea. It is believed that China had tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants dates back two thousand years. Tea from China, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known over the world more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export. At present more than forty countries in the world grow tea, with Asian countries producing 90% of the world's total output. All tea trees in other countries have their origin directly or indirectly in China. The word for tea leaves or tea as a drink in many countries is a derivative from the Chinese character "cha." The Russians call it "cha'i", which sounds like "chaye" (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word "tea" sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference. The habit of tea drinking spread to Japan in the 6th century, but it was not introduced to Europe and America till the 17th and 18th centuries. Now the number of tea drinkers in the world is legion and is still on the increase.

Derivative – taken from, original legion – great many

Hello everybody.

Alan here. Thanks for listening to my podcast.

www.alanlancs1.podomatic.com

Today I want to talk about some of the difficulties with English pronunciation.

There are certain letters or combination of letters that are often difficult for people learning English. I want to demonstrate some of these difficulties and ways to help your pronunciation sound more English.

Firstly, I must say that I speak with a northern English accent and as such, my English pronunciation is a little bit different to London English or American English.

So let’s start with some vowel sounds. A E I O U

In English, we cannot just read word and know how it is pronounced.

Take the word “right” for example. The “righ” is pronounced like the word “rye” or the “ri” in the word “sterile”

So we must always learn the correct pronunciation from teachers, recordings or from dictionaries that use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

So, which are the most common sounds that can often be pronounced differently by people learning English, than the pronunciation used by a native English speaker?

This depends on the nationality of the person learning English I think.

Many people who speak other European languages sometimes pronounce “e” as “ee” ( as in “veeseet” instead of visit) and “a” as “eh” ( “ehpple” instead of apple) However, sometimes the sound of “e” is “ee” and the sound of “a” is “eh” as in the word “eat” and the word “any”.

For those of you who speak European languages, try saying this: “ When I visit my mother, if she has any, she always gives me an apple to eat because she says it does me good to eat fruit”

People who speak Chinese (as a native language) often mistake an “l” sound for an “r” so “right” sounds like “light” and sometimes they add another syllable to a word when there isn’t one. As in for example the words “and” which becomes sometimes “and-a” and “is” becomese “is-a”

So for those of you listening who are Chinese, try saying this:

“I know when I have the right light for reading, it is when I can see the text and the text is clear to see”

English vowels are often pronounced as diphthongs which sound like two vowels together

Bay for example is spoken like “bay-ee”

Day is spoken like “day-ee”

Go is spoken like “goh-u”

Fine is spoken like “fye-een”

Sometimes English people pronounce some words a little different to Americans:

“Stupid” (English)

“ Stupid” (American)

Take care with these sounds:

“th”

To get this sound (which I think is very difficult) is put the very tip of your tongue touching your top teeth very softly and the allow a little air out and pull your tongue back quickly.

For the other “th” sound as in: “the end” for example, just allow your voice to sound at the same time

Try saying: “the thing that I think is that their thoughts are thoroughly thought-out at the end”

“r”

To get the “r” position correct. Curl your tongue back a little and let your tongue go flat as you say a word.

Try saying this: “Roger ran after the rabbit and really regretted not reaching it”

“w”

To get the “w” sound try putting your lips to say “oo” like “food” and as you say the “w” let your jaw slightly drop – but only a little bit.

Try saying this: “when I went with my wife to Wales, we wanted to go walking but it was a wet weekend”

“v” this is sometimes difficult for Spanish speakers.

To get the “v” sound put your top teeth on your bottom lip softly say the “v” and lower your jaw slightly – but only a little bit

Try saying this: “vans are very wonderful fun vehicles”

I have put a “w” word and an ‘f” word there for you to show you the difference between “v” and”w”

Try to keep the rhythm of the speech in a similar way to English peoples’

The way to do this is to listen for the word intonation (stress) on the words and copy them.

Without intonation, here is a sentence:

“This sentence shows where we put stress on words when we speak”

With intonation

“This sentence shows where we put stress on words when we speak”

Can you hear the difference?

Finally, for this podcast, never be afraid to speak a little bit slower, because this gives you more time to say the words and think a little before you say anything. This is very useful when reading out loud.

To give you an example, which do you think sounds better?

I like to show you how to speak English better, and sometimes it is better to speak a little more slowly to make the language sound clear to listeners. It is fine, no English person should ever criticise you for doing this”

So you can try to break up the sentence a little bit….

So, I hope you find this podcast useful for your pronunication.

The important thing is never to worry about pronunciation. The most important thing is to be understood. In fact many foreign accents sound nice to English people.

Bye for now

Be good be happy

Hello everybody.

The transcript for this is the next podcast. You can download it as a PDF text document.

Bye for now

Alan

Hello everybody. You can download the transcript for this podcast by clicking "download" on the next podcast ***TRANSCRIPT***

PDF format

Take care

Alan

Hello everybody. It’s been a while since I made a podcast. Today I wanted to give you some suggestions on how to start conversations with native speakers of English, or if you cannot find a native speaker to speak with, then try them out on anyone else you know who will speak English with you.

Good luck!

Take care

Be good be happy

Conversation starters…for students of different levels

Beginning students

“Please tell me about your family.”

“What do you do? (student, worker, etc.) Where?”

“Where do you live? Do you like it there? Why or why not?”

“What did you do yesterday?”

“What do you plan to do tomorrow?”

“Please tell me how to get from here to your house (or the university or some hotel etc.)”

“What do you like to do with your free time?”

Intermediate students (can also use the above questions)

"What did you do yesterday, from the time you got up to the time that you went to

bed?”

“Why did you choose to study _______?”

“What would you like to be doing five years from now?”

“Tell me about a time when you travelled somewhere.”

“Please tell me about your favourite restaurant.” (favorite in USA)

“Please tell me about your favourite book.”

“Please tell me about your favourite movie.”

“Please tell me about your favourite shop” (store in USA)

“Please tell me about your best friend.”

“Please tell me about an important moment in your life.”

“Please tell me about your mum.” (mom in USA)

“Please tell me about your dad.”

“Please tell me about your brother (or sister or cousin or etc.).”

“What kind of books do you like?”

“What kind of films do you like?” (movies in USA)

Advanced students (can also use the above questions)

Note: Some of these should only be used with speakers of the same sex.

“Please use a lot of detail and tell me what you did yesterday between (for example) 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.”

“What qualities (or characteristics or traits) do you like in a friend?”

“What was your childhood like?”

“What is your first memory?”

“Please tell me about the happiest day of your life.”

“How important is religion in your life? Why?”

“How important is politics in your life? Why?”

“What is your opinion about….? (some major world event going on now)

“In your opinion, what makes life worth living?”

“What is the biggest mistake that you have ever made?”

“What is your most embarrassing moment?”