These days Elena Mutonono is an experienced business coach who helps online English teachers to gain independence and control over their own careers, but Elena's journey started as a learner of English herself. In this conversation I ask Elena about how she learned English, making the step to becoming an English teacher, then teacher trainer and what challenges online English teachers face when trying to work in a crowded and demanding job market.

👉 Elena's website https://www.elenamutonono.com/

👉 Elena's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/elenamutonono/

👉 Elena's podcast https://www.elenamutonono.com/podcast/

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👉 Join Luke's Zoom Workshop on 18 April 2024 (10AM UK time) https://english-at-home.com/summit/

This conversation is a preview of my Zoom workshop on Thurs 18 April 2024 at 10AM (UK time), as part of the Advanced English Summit. In my workshop I will be talking about how to really learn vocabulary, and not just stare at word lists.

This is a conversation about the subject of the workshop, and summit organiser Clare Whitmell asks me questions about why vocabulary is important, why I love teaching it, common mistakes made by learners, ways of learning vocabulary more effectively, and some tools you can use.

👉 Sign up for the Advanced English Summit here https://english-at-home.com/summit/

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👉 Episode page on teacherluke.co.uk https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/04/11/877-how-to-learn-vocabuary-a-conversation-with-clare-whitmell/

Listen to me rambling about Daylight Saving Time, weird AI generated images for Luke's English Podcast, and lots of comments and responses to recent episodes including the Birthday Party story 🎂 , the MBTI Personality Test 🙇 and the Walk & Talk in Paris 📹🚶.

🔗 Episode page 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/04/08/876-thoughts-comments-on-recent-episodes-a-spring-equinox-ramble-2024/

📄 Get the PDF (no email needed) 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/876.-Thoughts-comments-on-recent-episodes-_-A-Spring-Equinox-Ramble.pdf

📺 The Advanced English Summit - book your place for Luke's Zoom talk (free) 👉 https://english-at-home.com/summit/

Learn English with another short story. I'll read the entire story to you, and then go through the text again explaining and clarifying the main events and plenty of vocabulary. This is a wonderful adventure story written by HG Wells, a very influential and imaginative English writer from the late 19th century. The story is full of vivid descriptive language, action, adventure and extraordinary moments. I hope it captures your imagination and lets the English come alive in memorable ways.

The story starts after about 12 minutes.

📄 Get the PDF here 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/875.-Aepyornis-Island-by-HG-Wells-Learn-English-with-a-Short-Story-Lukes-English-Podcast.pdf

🔗 Episode page 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/04/01/875-aepyornis-island-by-hg-wells-learn-english-with-a-short-story/

Here is an episode in which I walk through the streets of Paris, rambling about a particular subject. This time the subject is Paris itself. This summer Paris is hosting the Olympic Games. The city will be filled with visitors. I am very curious to see how the city will handle this moment. Will it be a huge success? What will visitors think of the city? Will anyone suffer from the mysterious "Paris Syndrome"? Join me on my walk, follow my words, look out for vocab and consider using my questions for your own speaking practice.

Episode page https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/03/25/874-walk-talk-paris/

The MBTI Personality Test (aka "16 Personalities") is a very well-known and widely used test which claims to be able to give you a "freakishly accurate" analysis of your personality type. In this episode I take the test, explain the reasons for my answers, explain some vocabulary and give my thoughts on the test results and the test itself. Includes plenty of expressions for describing personality traits, behaviour, ways of thinking and feeling and the subject of psychological testing.

👉 Episode page with notes, transcripts and links https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/03/18/873-luke-takes-the-mbti-personality-test

Learn English with another short story. This time it's a 300-word story by Katherine Brush often used in literature classes, full of vivid imagery and with an emotional twist. I read the story to you, and then go through each line, explaining vocabulary and grammar.

👉 Episode page with story text and vocabulary notes https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/03/11/872-the-birthday-party-learn-english-with-a-short-story/

A very long rambling episode with a big mix of vocabulary, stories about my trip to Rome, comments from listeners, lots of thoughts about episodes I've published over the last 12 months, more advice about learning English, and a story about being Jackie Chan's English teacher.

👉 Episode page https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/03/04/871-rambling-through-my-episode-archive-listener-comments-gold-youtube-creator-award/

👉 Download the PDF https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/871.-Rambling-through-my-episode-archive-_-Listener-Comments-_-Gold-YouTube-Creator-Award.pdf

Returning guest Kate Billington suddenly decided to move to the other side of the world, to Taipei in beautiful Taiwan. In this episode we talk about meeting LEPsters in Taipei, her decision to move there, and how everything is going, with the usual conversational tangents along the way. 

👉 Episode page on my website https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/02/26/870-kate-billington-moved-to-taiwan

In international diplomacy, "communication is everything". This is the main point of this conversation, in which I talk to my friend who works for the UK delegation at UNESCO in Paris. We discuss the work that UNESCO does, and the various communication challenges involved in working together with representatives from countries all around the world, including the collaborative writing of official documents where the use of a single comma can be debated for hours, and the meetings and conversations in which cultural sensitivity and good-will are essential elements for success.

Also includes some communication idioms and guitar playing near the end of the episode.

👉 Episode page with introduction transcript https://teacherluke.co.uk/2024/02/19/869-working-at-unesco-english-in-international-diplomacy/