B1-B2 English Level 中高級

聊聊 FIFA 世界盃，是練習英文中「國家名稱」和「日期表達」的好機會！ 我們也會學到許多討論比賽、賽事和大型活動時常用的實用英文片語。

本集內容包括：世界盃的歷史。 2026 世界盃賽制介紹。 值得關注的球隊。 我對本屆賽事的一些預測。 2027 年有哪些精彩賽事值得期待。Chatting about the FIFA World Cup is a great way to practice countries and dates in English. We also discuss lots of useful phrases when talking about competition and events. 

In this episode, we'll look at:

1. The history of the World Cup
2. How the 2026 tournament works
3. Teams to watch
4. Some predictions
5. What to look out for in 2027

Key vocabulary & phrases

1. coveted
2. tournament
3. knock-out stage
4. penalties
5. a big upset
6. qualify
7. at silly o’clock/at stupid o’clock
8. predictions
9. to be anybody’s game
10. the underdog
11. expectations

Countries

1. 🇺🇾 Uruguay
2. 🇧🇷 Brazil
3. 🇩🇪 Germany
4. 🇮🇹 Italy
5. 🇦🇷 Argentina
6. 🇫🇷 France
7. 🇳🇱 Holland (The Netherlands)
8. 🇲🇦 Morocco
9. 🇵🇾 Paraguay
10. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England
11. 🇪🇸 Spain
12. 🇺🇸 the United States
13. 🇨🇦 Canada
14. 🇲🇽 Mexico

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B2 - C1 level : Around 12 minutes 
Good afternoon and welcome back to the podcast.
Today we will be talking about the recent heatwave in the UK and the current torrential rain here in Taiwan.
Topics & Timestamps

• May heatwave 00:28
• The problems caused by extreme heat in the UK 01:18
• Taiwan’s plum rains 05:59
• Torrential rainfall & flooding 06:50
• El Nino 09:55

Words & Phrases

• all-in-all 
• get a gist of something
• a hot spell
• no matter what 
• coral bleaching
• foliage
• language geek
• within a span of (time)
• weather patterns
• typhoons/ cyclones/ hurricanes 

希望這一集對你的英文學習有所幫助！如果你有任何想法、問題或想聽的主題，歡迎留言和我分享。也別忘了給節目一個五星評價，讓更多人一起加入學習的行列。謝謝收聽，我們下週見 💛 也可以 Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm6khd8jd01qf01w46q6barvx/comments

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Good Morning, I hope you are having a good week so far. Today is Thursday but it feels like Friday because this weekend is a long weekend. 

Dragon Boat Festival is here! So this Friday, June 19th, is a day off; no work and no school. Woo Hoo! How will you be spending your day off?

Actually I will be teaching in the morning online but those are my regular Saturday classes moved to Friday. And I won’t be teaching at the school so I will still feel like a holiday for me too ☺️

How do you celebrate Dragon Boat Festival? 

In Hong Kong you can watch the Dragon Boat races LIVE at the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade.

In Taiwan you can watch LIVE Dragon Boat races in Taipei at Dajia Riverside Park, and Lukang in Changhua County.

I think you can also watch these races on TV if you don’t fancy the crowds or live too far away. 

How about food? Do you like 粽子?

In English will can say rice dumplings, but I think that is confusing because they are nothing like dumplings 餃子. 

So I just say zongzi spelt ….. if you want to describe them to a friend we can say they are made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Fillings can be either sweet, such as red bean paste, or savory, such as pork belly and egg yolk. Also they are usually huge! 

Which is your favourite flavour?

Enjoy your weekend 週末愉快! 🤗

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Good Morning and welcome to the first of our short culture club episodes. These are shorter than the regular speaking practice episodes and share some culturally important event that is happening soon. 

Today is June 17th and I have been looking forward to making an episode on this topic all week. Being English there is only 1 thing I’ll be focusing on for the next month. The FIFA World Cup is taking place in North America. The first match was played last Thursday on June 11th in Mexico. 

We are currently in the group stages, there are 12 groups (Group A to Group L) with 4 teams in each group. The top two teams from each of the 12 groups, plus the eight best third-place teams will progress to the knockout stages, where it gets really exciting!

England are in Group L, the last group, so our first match is tomorrow. And because the 2026 FIFA World Cup is being co-hosted by 3 nations; Canada, the United States, and Mexico, there is a big time difference for LIVE viewing times in Taiwan. Most matches will be broadcast LIVE in Taiwan on ELTA sports channel in the early hours of the morning, between 3AM and 5AM. If you’re lucky some (like this morning's Group J match between Argentina & Algeria) are played at 9AM.

So the dilemma is… do we wake up at 4AM to watch it LIVE or do we watch on catch-up. ELTA provides full-match on-demand (VOD) replays and 2-day catch-up viewing, but annoyingly when you go to click the replay on ELTA you can see the score! We call this a spoiler because it spoils the match for you if you already know the end result. 

So which team will you be rooting for? 

那麼，你會為哪一隊加油呢？⚽
歡迎留言和我分享你的看法！ 💛
Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm6khd8jd01qf01w46q6barvx/comments

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A2 - B1 level : Around 10 minutes 約 10 分鐘

Today we talk about the crazy hot weather in England this May with 12 words and phrases that are useful because they're common in discussions about weather, travel, seasons, and everyday life in both Taiwan and the UK. 
今天我們要聊聊英國今年五月異常炎熱的天氣，以及為什麼這波熱浪讓許多英國人吃不消。
本集將學習 12 個實用單字和片語，這些詞彙經常出現在與天氣、旅遊、季節以及英國和台灣日常生活相關的話題中，非常值得學起來！ ☀️🇬🇧🇹🇼🎙️
Here are the first 5: 

1. heatwave — a period of unusually hot weather — The country experienced a heatwave that lasted for a week. — 熱浪
2. unbearable — too unpleasant or difficult to tolerate — The heat was unbearable without air conditioning. — 難以忍受的
3. multiple days in a row — several consecutive days — It rained for multiple days in a row. — 連續好幾天
4. air conditioning — a system that cools indoor air — Most offices have air conditioning during summer. — 空調；冷氣
5. central heating — a heating system that warms an entire building — Many British homes use central heating in winter. — 中央暖氣系統

希望這一集對你的英文學習有所幫助！如果你有任何想法、問題或想聽的主題，歡迎留言和我分享。也別忘了給節目一個五星評價，讓更多人一起加入學習的行列。謝謝收聽，我們下週見 💛 也可以 Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm6khd8jd01qf01w46q6barvx/comments

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B2 - C1 English Level : Around 8 Minutes
In today’s episode we have 3 advanced level English tongue twisters to help you practice some of the most difficult vowel and blended sounds. 
Follow along with me as I break down how to pronounce these 繞口令 step-by-step and you will be nattering like a native in no time 💪🏼 跟著我一步一步拆解這些英文繞口令的發音技巧，讓你輕鬆練習清楚發音，很快就能像母語人士一樣自然開口說英文。
希望這一集對你的英文學習有所幫助！如果你有任何想法、問題或想聽的主題，歡迎留言和我分享。也別忘了給節目一個五星評價，讓更多人一起加入學習的行列。謝謝收聽，我們下週見 💛

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Hello 👋 Welcome to the podcast 大家好! I'm Ann-Marie 我是英國人 and this is my English podcast 🇬🇧 started to help my students learn more authentic modern English, from a Taiwanese perspective.

When you learn a language you want to talk about your daily life, the food you love, the places you visit. Have you ever tried to explain 鹹糕 to a foreigner? Fear not! Ann-Marie's English has got you covered.

Here we discuss global issues and local topics, to bring you closer to the English speaking world.
If you have any questions you can send me a message on Instagram at ann_maries_english or join the community on Patreon.
Let's begin! 我們開始吧！

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A2–B1 English Level : Around 15 Minutes
本集節目中，我們將練習幾組學生常覺得困難的相似發音單字，接著透過有趣又容易上手的英文繞口令來訓練口腔肌肉與發音清晰度，最後分享幾個實用技巧，幫助你提升英文口說能力，讓表達更自然、更有自信🎙️🇬🇧
你不需要聽起來像英國人，才能說出一口好英文。清楚的發音，才是有效溝通的關鍵。集 Episode 21，想要你的發音進步的朋友們，今天的 Podcast 歡迎來聽喔 !
本集21 沒有 worksheet.
你的作業是跟著逐字稿練習發音，專注於把每個字說得流暢且清楚。
不需要追求速度，重點是讓發音自然、清晰，並透過反覆練習建立口說自信。
You don’t need an English accent to speak English well. Enunciation is more important, so that a snack doesn’t become a snake! 🍪🐍
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Following on from episode 19, today’s podcast dives deeper into this classic English novel ‘The Secret Garden’. This is an advanced level listening exercise, where we read the blurb, look at the chapters in more detail, and discuss the style of language used in this book.
延續上一集 Episode 19，今天的 Podcast 將更深入探討英國經典小說[秘密花園]（The Secret Garden）。這是一集進階程度的英文聽力練習，我們會更詳細地聊聊書中的章節內容、閱讀書籍簡介（blurb），並討論這本小說所使用的語言風格。
Key vocabulary
adapted — 改編的；調整過的
to be orphaned — 成為孤兒
a hypochondriac — 疑病症患者
a robin — 歐亞鴝
amusement — 娛樂；有趣的事物
impoverished — 貧困的；貧窮的
industrial Revolution — 工業革命
slums — 貧民窟
in dire straits — 處境困難；陷入困境
the moors — 英國石楠荒原
Grammar used
Neither has… nor…
Example: ‘An orphan neither has a father nor a mother.’  沒有...也沒有...Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/cm6khd8jd01qf01w46q6barvx/comments

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Ep.19: The Secret Garden Book Review

A2–B1 English Level | Around 5 Minutes
A short book review of a well-loved English classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This 5 minute podcast gives a brief summary of the main characters and storyline. 
This is for lower intermediate level learners. I use simple vocabulary in short easy to understand sentences. There is a lot of repetition of common words. So you can follow along with my pronunciation. You can listen to how many times I say garden in one episode 😄
第19集：《秘密花園》書評

Ep.19：《秘密花園》讀書心得分享
A2–B1 英語程度｜約 5 分鐘
這一集將帶你認識英國經典小說《秘密花園》（The Secret Garden），作者為 Frances Hodgson Burnett。
在這段約 5 分鐘的 Podcast 中，我會簡單介紹故事主角與主要劇情，帶你輕鬆進入這部深受喜愛的經典作品世界。
本集特別適合初中階（Lower Intermediate）英語學習者。
我會使用簡單單字，以及短而容易理解的句子來說明內容。
節目中也會重複很多常見單字，幫助你更容易跟上發音與語感。
你甚至可以數看看我在一集裡說了幾次 garden 😄
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-19-mi-mi-hua-158911476?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
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