ESL Pod Official - Speak English Fluently by Listening (with Text)

By Dr. Jeff McQuillan

English as a Second Language Podcast (ESL Pod) You can only master a language by comprehending what you hear. If you don't get it, you're not learning anything. Our lessons are simple, clear, and easy... more

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The podcast currently has 54 episodes available.

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Number 1: ESLPodcast 54 - Talking to the Professor
[A knock on the door.] Jeff: Come in. Julie: Hi, Dr. McQuillan, I'm Julie Taylor. I'm in your 2 o'clock class on Thursdays. Jeff: Hi, Julie. Have a seat. What can I do for you? Julie: I wanted to come see you during your office hours because I missed class last week. I had a family emergency . Jeff: I'm sorry to hear that. We went over a lot of material so make sure you get the notes from another student in class. Julie: Thanks, I will. Did you give any assignments ? Jeff: Yes, I assigned an essay on the topics in chapter 3 of your textbook. Julie: Oh, I see. Are there guidelines for the essay? Jeff: Yes, it should be 8-10 pages and it's due in two weeks. Take a look at your syllabus. It has more details. Julie: I will. Thanks a lot. I've also been meaning to talk to you about the trouble I'm having keeping up in class. I'm having trouble understanding the lectures. Is there anything you would suggest? Jeff: Some students tape record the lectures and listen to them afterwards. That seems to help. Julie: That's a great idea. I'll definitely try that. I'm wondering if you give extra credit in your class? Jeff: No, I don't give extra credit assignments. But if you're worried about passing, there are still two more tests to pull up your grade. Julie: Yes, I'll study hard for those. Thanks a lot for your time. Jeff: No problem. See you in class. Julie: Okay, Professor McQuillan, see you Thursday. Script by Dr. Lucy Tse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
November 22, 202521min
Number 2: ESLPod006 - Bad Dreams
I do have nightmares sometimes. I do have bad dreams. A lot of my bad dreams are things like I'm being chased by someone and I can't get away from them, or I'm hiding from them. Some other of my bad dreams involve not being able to get home. I'm trying to get home and there are a lot of different obstacles that I have to get past before I get home. And I usually wake up before I get there. So I find it very frustrating. These bad dreams make me really tense. And when I wake up, I'm very, very stressed out. A bad dream that I kept having over and over again—a recurring bad dream I had when I was in high school—was a really horrible one. I dreamt that my mother had a knife, a meat cleaver. And I was a child, and I saw her in the bathroom cutting up a dead body with a meat cleaver. And she saw me watching her, and she started chasing me with her knife. And she never caught me, but I had to hide from her. And she chased me and chased me, and I was really scared. I had this recurring dream, probably, I don't know, for several months. And to this day, it's the scariest, worst bad dream I've ever had. Boy, that's an interesting question—bad dreams. Well, I would have to say that the worst bad dream I ever had, and this happens a lot to me in my dreams, is that I was trapped inside a building or I'm trapped in another country and I can't get back home. Usually what happens is that I meet someone there from my past—an old friend, an acquaintance, a classmate, someone from high school. And, of course, it seems normal. It seems just natural when I'm having the dream that I meet these people. But it's always in a situation that never actually occurred. But usually my dreams, like most people's bad dreams, I think are related to things that I thought about or happened to me that day or recently. For example, I had a very difficult time getting my car fixed the other day, and that night when I had a dream, I dreamt that I was broken down on the highway. And I couldn't get home. And it was dark. And it was starting to rain. I started to get desperate and so forth. So when I woke up, of course, I was sweating and a little bit scared. But fortunately, I was able to calm myself down. And eventually, I actually got my car fixed. I hope I don't have that nightmare again. You've just heard two people talk about a bad dream, including me. And I want to now talk about some of the vocabulary that they used that you might have had difficulty with. Remember, this section of our podcast is optional. If you want to go back and listen again and again, we recommend that. But if you want some additional help, then stay tuned. One word that both speakers used is nightmare. A nightmare is another word for a bad dream. When Lucy was talking about her bad dream, she mentioned that she couldn't get home because she had lots of obstacles. An obstacle is something that gets in your way either when you're walking, running, in a car, or just generally in life. We talk about obstacles that get in our way—things that prevent us from going or doing what we want to do. In the Army, they have something called an obstacle course. And sometimes in school, in physical education class, they'll set up a game called an obstacle course. And you have to go through all sorts of different obstacles, different challenges, such as walking through some tires or climbing up a rope and so forth. Another word that Lucy used was recurring. She said that she had a recurring dream. To recur means to repeat. So she had that dream several times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 11, 202312min
Number 3: ESLPod007 - Food and Cooking
Mary's Response I love to eat, but I don't like to cook—not at all. I probably don't like to cook because I'm really bad at it. When I was growing up, my mother did all of the cooking in our house. But I never did learn how to cook any dishes at all. And so when I went to college and I moved into my own apartment, I had to learn how to cook a little bit. Usually what I made were very simple instant things, like ramen noodles. I bought a lot of TV dinners. And I also bought a lot of frozen pizzas. So I didn't have a very good diet when I was in college. But I ate a lot of things that were easy to make and that were in my very small student budget. Later on, I did try to learn how to cook a little bit. I tried to cook for a boyfriend or two. And each time I tried to cook, I would get some simple recipes that required things like marinating the meat, chopping up the vegetables, getting spices to add to the dish. And I would do all of those things. And I would spend a lot of time—maybe hours and hours—working on cooking a meal. And then in the end, it would always turn out badly. Whether I would cook it too long and it would burn, overcook it, or it would just simply taste terrible. I don't think I'm made out to be a cook. Jeff's Response I like to cook occasionally—every once in a while. I probably cook now about three, maybe four times a week. By cook, though, I mean prepare a very simple dish. Usually it involves either rice or pasta. I like to boil pasta. And then I buy a bottle of pasta sauce with tomatoes and mushrooms and other spices. And I mix the pasta with the pasta sauce. And so I have my own Italian dish. Then I add chicken to that. And so it's like a hot pasta salad with chicken. That's my easiest dish. I have a few other dishes that I make. I like to cook fish. I like eating fish. And so I steam the fish and then pour some hot oil over it. But generally speaking, I'm usually pretty busy. I don't have a lot of time to make up a meal. I don't know how to cook from scratch, so I need a recipe to tell me what to do. A lot of my “quote-unquote” cooking usually involves things like opening up a can of soup and putting it into a bowl and then putting it into the microwave oven. So like a lot of busy people, I don't feel like I have a lot of time to cook, and so I end up either eating instant foods, frozen foods, or going out for dinner. Someday, I hope I'll have time enough to learn how to cook properly. Vocabulary Discussion Let's go over some of the vocabulary and expressions used in these two interviews. In Mary's interview, she started off by saying that she isn't good at cooking. The expression to be good at or to be bad at is what we usually say about how well we can do a certain thing. So, for example:I am good at writing, but I am bad at sports.Another term that was somewhat confusing from Mary's interview and from my interview is the term dishes. Both Mary and I said that we like to cook and we can usually cook some certain dishes. A dish is part of a meal. So a dish, for example, could be pasta salad. A dish could be ramen noodles. And another dish could be a salad. Typically in a meal you have several different dishes. Now, the confusing part is that we also use the term dish to refer to the physical plate and bowl and cup that we use to eat. People will often say, clean up the dishes, or I need to set down, put the dishes on the table. So, that word dish has two meanings:It can mean part of the actual meal—the food itself.Or it can mean the plates, the saucers, the cups that we use to eat the meal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 12, 202312min
Number 4: ESLPodcast 52 - At the Art Exhibit
I really wanted to see the new exhibit at the art museum and invited Lucy to come along. We both like contemporary art and this was an exhibition for an artist that we've both liked, ever since she was an up and coming artist 10 years ago. This was a retrospective so there was going to be a lot of different types of work by the artist. There would be some of the artist's paintings, her early work. There would also be some of her sculptures. Her most recent work is mixed media. This is very versatile and that's one of the reasons I like her work so much. We were going to the opening of the exhibition, with a wine and cheese reception for the artist. When we arrived in the main gallery , there were already a lot of people there. Looking around, I could see that some were artists themselves and some were art critics. I'm sure there were collectors there, too. I knew the curator and looked around for him. I spotted him talking with a group of people in the corner, probably trying to talk up the gallery and the artist. After a little while, the curator said a few words and then introduced the artist. We got a chance to meet her briefly and she was very gracious. I'm glad that someone with her talent has made it in the art world. That's not easy to do. And, I think her best work is still to come. Script by Dr. Lucy Tse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
November 22, 202519min
Number 5: ESLPodcast 55 - A Trip to the Library
I read in the local paper that a new public library had just opened two weeks ago in my neighborhood. I wanted to check it out. But first, I called the library to check the hours of operation. The librarian told me that they were open Monday through Saturday from 10 to 6 so I decided to see the new library for myself. I parked my car in the library parking lot and walked in. There were two library clerks behind the counter and a librarian at the reference desk . I walked around and spotted the non- fiction section and moved onto the fiction stacks. There was a pretty good collection in both of these areas. I wanted to see if they had a book I've been wanting to read so I went over to the computer to check the online catalogue. As it turns out, they had one copy and it had not been checked out. I wrote down the call number and went to the stacks. I found it right away. When I walked in, I also noticed that the library had music CDs, videos, and DVDs that could be checked out. I looked briefly at the collection but decided not to check out any right then. I had my book and I was all set. I stood in line and waited to check my book out. The library clerk said, "Next please," and I stepped up to the counter. I asked her what the loan period was for the book. She told me that the due date was three weeks from today. I gave her my library card. She scanned the bar code on my book and stamped the due date on the back of it. It was quick and easy. I was so glad to have a nice new library so close to home. Script by Dr. Lucy Tse Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
November 22, 202521min