I hope you like listening to the word spoken with each "mood" so you can hear how we use "tones" in English.

I think you will like the funny pictures also.

Bye for now

Alan

 

I've copied the webpage for those of you who can't open it - you can download it here.

Bye for now

Alan

Here are some sentences for pronunication practice:

R

Right royal rebellions really rock regal regents randomly

Th

This is the thought that the three thinking thatchers thought

W

When we walk we wander where we will

V

Very viscious vixens vexed very vunerable vermin

Y

Yesterday your young yobs yomped yonder yolking your yellow yacht  

D

Deeds done daily don't doubt dainty daughters digging dirt

S

Strumming sun seekers stretch strong strings

F

Friends frown for fresh flowers fetch for friendly fellows

B

Be bountiful by bringing black beer breaks by buskers

L

Lovely Linda likes looking longer lately

M

May my mind make me mild mannered

N

Nine knights never needed nine new necklaces Nigel knows

H

Happy hippos heaved heavy horses heartily

T

Try to take Tim's ten T-shirts to tiny tailors 

 

Hello everybody.

A lot of serious students of English listen to BBC radio for practicing English listening. I believe that this can be useful, but we must not expect too much to be gain from this. It is good to listen to speech patterns, certain words and phrases and pronunciation. But, I want to show you with this article, that just 30 seconds of a news bulletin (2 November 2009) contains only 106 words, but more than 20 cultural, historical and special words and phrases. This is a huge amount of information to listen to and understand.

My recommendation, is if you want to listen to English on the radio, then only listen to very short passages. This will give you plenty of things to discover and learn.

Now I will play the passage for you, then I will speak the same words more slowly. You can compare my accent with that of the newsreader.

cNow here in Britain, Windsor Castle is hosting a unique gathering of religious leaders over the next three days. A meeting for what's been called "a celebration of commitments by the world"s religions to take action on climate change”.

 The conference has been sponsored by the United Nations. And faith groups are presenting firm plans showing how they’ll tackle the issue.

 Pledges include making all China’s Daoist temples solar-powered, and printing sacred books on environmentally-friendly paper.

Our religious affairs correspondent Christopher Lander has been to New York to find out about the Jewish plan , which includes a pledge to halve the community’s intake of meat.

106 words.

1.Windsor Castle  - Famous English castler             

2.Unique gathering  - a gathering of people for a special meeting

3. Religious leaders  - leaders from different religions

4. Celebration of commitments  - a complex new phrase someone has thought up to show that the meeting participants are both committed to the reasons for the meeting and also linking to the use of the word “celebration” as a religious idea.

5. World’s religions 

6. Climate change    - the way the worlds climate is changing through “global warming”

7. Conference 

8. Sponsored

9.United Nations

10. Faith groups  = religious groups

11. Firm plans  - definite plans agreed

12. Tackle the issue -  discuss the subject to find solutions and ideas

13.Pledges  = promises

14.China’s daoist temples

15. Solar-powered – powered by sunlight

16. Sacred books 

17. Environmentally-friendly  - a special phrase meaning “not harmful to the environment”

18. Religious affairs correspondent  - a journalist who looks at religious matters

19. New York

20. Jewish plan – a plan made by Jewish people in New York

21.Pledge

22. Community’s intake of meat – the amount of meat the Jewish community in New York buys and consumes.

Hello everybody.

Remember when you were very young. Do you remember being excited about people being interested in what you could do? Your parents, friends and family would encourage and support you.

Remember when your team members in a sports team used to encourage you and challenge you to play well?

Remember when you achieved something special and the people there applauded you?

Remember being happy when your teacher in class gave you a good mark and said "keep trying"?

Everybody remembers these times when we found achievement, encouragement and a
positive response to something we did well.

When we learn a language, especially on our own, I think a part of our mind thinks we are still the small baby, the schoolchild, the sports player or the performer.

However, this can be dominated by all the negative thoughts sometimes: apprehension, anxiety, hesitation, indecision, uncertainty, doubt, reservation, reluctance..... need I go on?? 

The only use these negative words have for us is to know them as part of a vocabulary, but not as words we want to use to describe our language learning!

I often talk about being relaxed when we learn. I even call it "relaxed learning". I believe this is a good attitude to take.

However, we need to challenge ourselves at the same time. The challenges we faced as small children, on the sports field, in class, performing something on stage.

To guide ourselves, we need a way to both meet a challenge, work to achieve it and then congratulate ourselves if we do achieve it, or if we do not quite get there, then give ourselves special thanks for trying.

This way, we get a feeling of continuing along our learning path and meeting the challenges in a way where we can see a "straight line" not a zigzag line.

Some people are very disciplined, like a professional soldier or a professional sportsperson. They are ready, willing and able to meet any challenge big or small. These confident people are to be admired. However, I am not one of these people. So to keep myself motivated, I need to set myself small challenges for getting to where I want to go with language learning. Let's keep these feelings we had when we achieved something and were encouraged to do it well and were congratulated.
Each time we meet a challenge successfully, we feel we are on the right pathway.
 
Of course, we cannot always meet a challenge and succeed. There are times when we don't do something as well as we think we could, despite trying our best. There are times when we become very disappointed, or frustrated. But there is a difference between feeling disappointed or frustrated with one or more small challenges that are not achieved, compared with having general feelings of disappointment or frustration with language learning altogether.

Here are 10 small challenges we can enjoy with our language learning:

1.Getting a difficult text correct when we didn't think we could do it.
2.Speaking a word we didn't know before and finding we said it correctly.
3.Understanding a newspaper article even when there is slang, political or cultural words in it.
4.Understanding some strange accented speech we are unfamiliar with.
5.Surprising ourselves that we can speak about something we don't know much about.
6.Being able to say a tongue twister. Here is an example: "she sells sea-shells on the sea shore"
7.Being able to speak with a native speaker better than we thought we could do, despite having a limited vocabulary.
8.Having a good idea about learning that we didn't think we could do.
9.Writing something that others find interesting to read.
10.Listening to more than one person speaking and being able to understand most of what they say.

How many can you think of?

Bye for now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Definition: An emotional word picture is a communication tool used to help convey to your family member or close friend how you are feeling. It is a way of clarifying your thoughts and feelings so the other person can experience them.

Example: (man to his wife)

"When our children were young and taking delight in experiencing something new like having a catepillar walk on the back of their hands, I felt joy, wonder, thanksgiving, and awe. There was a sense of quiet excitement to this feeling. That's the feeling I have when we work on a project together and everything turns out great!"

Example: (friends talking)

"I really like going out for a Chinese meal. It isn't just the different food and tastes, it is also the different styles of food; how it is served and presented.  The other thing I like is the social occasion of people sat around the table sharing to food. I also like the challenge of trying to use chopsticks! Although I am a bit ham-fisted (clumsy) with them, it all adds to the enjoyable experience of eating Chinese food"

Try some "emotional word pictures"! Just write or speak using any words you can think of to bring in some emotion to what you say or write.

Happy emotional words:

joy, awe, wonder, excitement, happiness, cheerful, glad,

Bye for now

Alan

When we spend a lot of time learning language, we can spend just a little more time to "smooth out" our language skills. This is like planing some wood and sandpapering it to make the wood smooth and look nice.

 

Why should we try to smooth out our language skills? Because we can make the language we speak and write more interesting and attractive to ourselves, and hopefully for anyone reading our writing or listening to us speak.

 

How do we smooth out our language skills? Here are a few ideas:

 

1. Speak about 5% slower than you want to. This gives us 5% more time for thinking out more interesting words or a grammar point.

 

2. Check through your written texts one sentence at a time, and read it out loud. This is good speaking practice, but also you can hear how the language flows and see if all the sentences make sense.

 

3. Take care with vowel sounds. A E I O U.  Try saying these words so that you can hear a difference between them: "cap" "cup" "see" "say" "look" "luke" "lick" "like" "not" "nut" "mad" "made" "silk" "sulk"

 

4. Take care with consonants. Make sure that words are ended well. Try saying these words: "see" "seeD" "seal" "sealed" "seeN" "seaT" "sieVe" "seaP" "seeTH" "siFT" "seeR" "cieliNG" (don't say the G sound too much, just slightly)

 

5. Take care with syllables. Make sure you don't add them.

 

tel e vis ion (4 syllables(

 

Rum ple stilts kin (4 syllables)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpelstiltskin

 

com mun i ty (4 syllables)

 

Aus tra li a  (4 syllables)

 

se ren di pi ty (5 syllables) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

 

6. Start some ideas with a friendly link words "well," "ok" "So," "now"

 

ok, now we can discuss... ok, now we will go shopping

 

well, it's a nice idea

 

so, what do you think?

 

now, what shall we do?

 

7. Take notice of the intonation of words. Small two syllable words are the most important: toDAY, weekEND, ice CREAM, FIRE works, APril.

 

Enjoy smoothing out language!

 

Alan

Saying Hello to "Hello”

 

English has a lot of intonation on syllables, which sometimes can change meaning.  I chose the word “hello” to demonstrate this.

 

I have recorded the pronunciation of each example along with a full sentence that explains the meaning. My advice is to listen and copy the pronunciation.

 

/ rising tone

\ falling tone

V falling-rising

… steady tone

 

The word hello has two syllables: 1.hell  2 o

 

1. Hello  hell o (no intonation) very few, if any, people would say it this way.
2. Hello (Hell… o/ ?)  asking if someone is there (on the phone) Hello? Is someone there?    
3. Hello (Hell\ o\)   shouting to see if someone is there “Hello! Where are you?”
4. Hello (HellVo)  a pleasant greeting with a slight enquiry. A dog walks past without an owner and comes to greet… “Hello, doggie,where is your owner?”
5. Hello (Hell…o\) a pleasant greeting - meeting someone for first time –but in an informal setting. “Hello, nice to meet you”
6. Hello (Hell/ oV) a man greeting some pretty young women. “Hello! Girls!”
7. Hello (Hell o\) a normal greeting in formal setting “Hello, how are you?”

 

Interesting?

 

Bye for now

http://42explore.com/talltale.htm

Easier - Throughout history/ people have told and written stories/ about their heroes. A tall tale/ is a special kind of hero story/ because the heroes of tall tales/ are 'larger than life'./ They are bigger or stronger/ than real people,/ even when/ the tall tale/ is based on a real person/. Tall tale heroes/ solve problems/ in funny ways /that are hard to believe

 Harder - A tall tale/ is a uniquely American/ story form/ that features/ (1) a larger-than-life, or superhuman, main character/ with a specific task, (2) a problem/ that is solved/ in a humorous or outrageous way/, (3) exaggerated details/ that describe things/ larger than they really are/, and (4) characters/ who use/ everyday language. /Many tall tales/ are based/ on actual people/or on a composite/ of actual people/. Exaggeration/ is the major element/ in tall tales.

 

Hello everybody,

I found a book on memory and language last week. The book lists the most important 100 words for conversation.

The idea is if you learn these, you will have 50% of the words you need for a conversation. The rest of the words you need will be added onto these words.

LIST OF 100 MOST IMPORTANT WORDS is attached. Click on the 100 most important words in English.rtf to the right of "direct download" below.

If you are learning other languages than English, then using this list, it is time to get out the dictionary to make your list. You can write the words in the boxes.

I've made this file in RTF (Rich Text Format) which will work with most word processors.

Bye for now

Alan

 

 

Many people I speak with about language learning ask me about how to increase vocabulary. To be honest with you, it is a question I often ask myself.

 

 

Here are two ideas:

One is my idea which I have called "My little notebook"

1. Buy a small writing pad, and make sure it is small enough to carry around in your jacket or bag.

2. When you discover a new phrase or interesting word, write it into the smalll writing pad.

Here are some examples:

"I like learning English and I want to improve it"

"Could you help me with my English please?"

"I really enjoy discovering more about Chinese culture"

"My family is well, thank you for asking"

"Nice to speak with you"

"Thanks for your help, it is very much appreciated"

"I really enjoy...........as my hobby" (playing sport, cooking, walking etc)

3. Write notes in your own language alongside it

4. Review the little book each day or a few times a week.

5. Write a weekly or monthly review in your book.

6. If you think of questions, write them in a "questions to ask" page. When later, you have a chance to check with a teacher or native speaker, you can look in your little book.

 

Today I found a useful article on increasing vocabulary. I think it is very good, so I have made it into a PDF document and you can download it.

Bye for now

Happy Exploring!

Alan

 

Hello everybody.

Here is a new idea I am trying. It involves finding a picture and making a "storyboard"

Then with this picture, you add vocabulary and interesting or useful phrases.

Finally you describe what is happening the best way you can with the language you already have learned and add in the new vocabulary

So, in my example (please download it)

"Two business men are meeting in an airport. The are relaxed and smiling. They greet each other. They both have a briefcase. Maybe they have a meeting planned. Will they have a coffee first?"

I have used "Powerpoint" to make this photo storyboard. But it could be done with a simple sketch on a piece of paper and a dictionary.

Bye for now

Alan

 

Audio MP3 of the English version

Fish and Chips refers to a famous dish of fried fish in a flour batter and chips which are potato pieces also fried in hot vegetable oil or animal fat. In USA “chips” are called “French fries”. All cities, towns and some villages have “fish and chip shops” in England. Fish and chips is still very popular, although not as popular as in the past.

Along with fish and chips, some people like to eat “mushy peas” which are boiled dried peas which looks a bit like green porridge.

 

The traditional way to eat fish and chips from a fish and chip shop was from the paper wrapping, walking along the road. Nowadays many fish and chips shops have a restaurant in the shop and sell to take home or “eat in” (meaning eat in the restaurant)

 

A fish and chip shop is a typical English tradition.

Thanks to Ally for the idea.

I've made a videoclip to go with my guitar piece.

Photos taken by me on a sunny evening last week.

Bye for now

Alan

 

 From this website: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html

 

 

English is tough stuff

 

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

(Apparently excerpted from The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenit

 

here is the voice recording  of my last text blog at a normal speed with my hesitations and mistakes...haha

bye

Alan

Language “coffee break”

 

Hello everybody

 

We often read a magazine during a coffee break, sometimes whilst listening to the radio, at the same time talking to a friend or family member about what we are reading and perhaps jotting down some short notes at the same time.

 

We could use a similar idea to enjoy using the language we are learning.

 

Perhaps you would like to try this idea using my podcasts, or just find a useful text

 

Spend approximately 5 minutes a day:

 

Reading (5 mins approx.)

Listening        “

Speaking        “   

Writing           “

 

That would make 20 minutes practice per day.

 

So I’ve made an example for you using this podcast. Here is my suggested method:

 

1. I read it first slowly, then again more quickly
2. I then read it out slowly and carefully, (read it out loud)then more quickly
3. I then talk about the text I have read and listened to (with me speaking it)
4. I then write a few words about it in the same way.

 

So here are some words I wrote:

 

“Alan has made a podcast here about spending only 5 minutes per skill per day: reading, listening, speaking and writing. I don’t know if this idea will help me, but maybe I will try it. In any case, it’s worth a try”

 

So, you can try out the idea of using podcasts for a relaxed learning method.

 

Bye for now

 

I hope you find it useful

 

PS  I don’t mean that this is the only study you do, maybe you want to learn many hours a day I don’t know, but this is a relaxed way of practicing.

 

Alan

I've recorded the phrases from my last text blog, for those of you who are learning English.

My suggestion is:

1. Download this recording.

2. Read the text from the text blog as you listen to me speak.

3. Say the words out loud once slowly listening to your pronunciation.

4. Say the words quite quickly

5. Read and listen again

Bye

Alan

http://www.linternaute.com/voyage/royaume-uni/culture-tradition/

L'humour anglais
Même si nous sommes voisins de la Grande-Bretagne, l'humour anglais nous laisse parfois très perplexe. Cet humour indéfinissable reste pour certains incompréhensible. La particularité de cet humour réside dans le ridicule et l'exubérance. Un exemple qui l'illustre parfaitement sont les personnages de Patsy et Edina dans la série Absolutely Fabulous. Ces deux femmes ont dans la série un caractère fortement exagéré et excentrique. D'un autre genre, le très populaire Mr Bean arrive à se mettre dans des situations souvent rocambolesques. Les Anglais ont un sens de l'absurde inimitable. Les Monty Python sont un autre exemple de la dérision dont les Anglais font preuve quotidiennement.

English humour

 

Hello everybody.

I just found this French article about English humour. It is quite an accurate description about what makes English people laugh. I decided it would make a good podcast  for me to practice French and also I could perhaps explain in English a little more about the TV series mentioned as examples in other podcasts. Mr Bean for example is very popular in many other countries around the world, because the actor who plays Mr Bean (Rowan Atkinson) does not speak much as the humour he uses is mostly visual humour.

 

Bye for now

 

 

Even though we are Great Britain’s neighbour, English humour leaves us sometimes very perplexed. For some this “indefinable humour”  remains incomprehensible. The style of humour often revolves around stupidity or over the top exuberance. An example that illustrates this perfectly is in the characters of Pasty and Edina in the TV series “Absolutely Fabulous”. These two women’s characters are both gloriously exaggerated and eccentric. From another genre, the very popular Mr Bean often put himself in ridiculous situations. The English have an inimitable sense of the absurd. The “Month Python” comedy series is another example of the way English people mock daily life in their own particular way.

Here's a song I recorded today. It was originally sung by a singer called Paul Rogers in a rock/blues group called Free from the 1970's

One of my favourite songs.

I had a bit of fun playing this song in a club last Saturday evening so I decided to record it.

I hope I did it justice...

Bye for now

Alan

PS the photo is of the guitar I used for the recording: a Taylor 214 - I love this guitar!

the transcript for my latest podcast

Here is my latest podcast

Be good be happy

Alan

Here is a small presentation about Number 10 Downing Street

Transcript is next podcast

Bye

Alan

Here are a list of "criticising and praising" phrases:

Criticism:

"I'm so disappointed with that" (after buying something of bad quality, or after an experience you didn't enjoy)

"you should have done better" (telling a worker, school child, colleague about that they did not do something well)

"Can't you do better?" (request for someone to do something better than before)

"That was useless!" (a severe criticism)

"You are useless!" (a personal critcism) 

Praise

"You did really well!" (praising peoples' work, help, efforts)

"What a good job!" (praising peoples' particular work or successful project)

"How nice!" (general comment on receiving a gift or shown something you like..)

"It's really nice of you!" ( a comment to praise people for their help or advice)

"Wow, what a tasty meal!"

"So nice of you to say so" (praise on praise received)

"I really enjoyed that" (telling someone you enjoyed something)

"Can I just say, how nice you look in those clothes"

"I had such a nice time"

Bye for now

Alan

 

1. In England we use the words "would, should and could"

("oul" is pronounced like the "oo" in the word "wood")

These words help form the "conditional tense". 

Would corresponds to the word "will"

Should corresponds to the word "shall"

Could corresponds to the word "can"

"Would you help me?" is more polite than "will you help me?"

"Should I go this way?" is more polite than "shall I go this way?"

"Could I pay here?" is more polite than "can I pay here?"

The conditional tense allows the listener to know that not only are the words more polite, but they also allow more flexibilty and choice with the response.

For example:

"Could you tell me where I could find a bank?" To the listener, maybe they do not know where a bank is, so they can say back "I'm sorry I don't know where a bank is"

"Can you tell me where I can find a bank?" This is more direct, and the listener may feel that the request is more important. "I'm sorry, but I don't really know where there is a bank around here." This may be a more precise response from the listener (with more words) because they want to explain that it is not possible - with more clarity.

So:

Use the conditional tense for polite, non-urgent requests or statements:

Use "can", "will" and "shall" where you want to be more direct:

"Can you help me, I have hurt my leg"

"Shall I pay here?"

"Will you stop shouting at me!"

Here are some sentences:

"would you like to?....."

"could you tell me?"

"should I do this?"

"would you mind if I smoke?"

"could you show me where to go out?"

"shouldn't you go that way?"

English people use the conditional more than other nationalities I think (in my experience) I don't know the reason. Maybe it is because English people want others to think they are polite, even if not everyone is polite!

---

 

2. "Could" in the past

Be careful with the word "could" in the past.

Because this is a different tense. It is not the conditional tense then.

"I could do it last week" means " I was able to do it last week"

" I couldn't do it last week" means "I was not able to do it last week"

("could" when talking about something in the past means " was able"

and

"couldn't" when talking about something in the past means "was not able"

BGBH

Bye for now

Alan

 

RTF transcript for Language Shopping Trip

Common phrases for helping increase fluency

Learning common phrases for practical purposes

This is my welcome podcast in Chinese for Chinese friends. I will soon be closing www.alanpalmer.podomatic.com and just have this website from now on called "Language Explorer"

I now pay a subscription so this makes uploading and downloading much easier.

By having one website, it will make it easier for me for uploading files and improving the website.

If I post in the languages I learn: French, German, Chinese and Spanish, I will always put an English version for you at the same time.

Be good be happy!

Alan

Nimen你们 hǎo好！wǒ我shì是 Alan。huānyíng欢迎 guānglín光临 wǒ我 de的 wǎng网zhàn站！wǒ我 xuéxí学习 hànyǔ汉语de的 shíjiān时间 hái还 búshì不是 hěn很cháng长，suǒyǐ所以 wǒ我 zài在 zhèlǐ这里 de的 zhōngwén中文 jièshào介绍 wénzì文字 shì是 yóu由 wǒ我 de的 yígè一个 zhōngguó中国 hǎo好péngyǒu朋友 yǒuqíng友情 fānyì翻译 de的，zài再 yóu由wǒ我 zìjǐ自己 dú读 chūlái出来，duìyú对于 shuō说 hànyǔ汉语 shì是 yígè一个 hěnhǎo很好 de的 liànxí练习。 **点击 [Play] 你能听到我的话！** **Look down the pages for more articles!** | v Firstly I must acknowledge a great deal of help for the Chinese text here for each podcast. Thanks to a good friend in China 谢谢！I hope you like my new website for Chinese friends learning English! I want to make Chinese introductions to help me practice speaking Chinese and also to make a friendly presentation to the English podcast. 

 

 

Here is the transcript for the podcast

Hello everybody!

Just a "Internet Postcard" from sunny Orlando Florida in USA.

Halfway through or vacation now. We are having a nice time. The highlight so far was the "Kennedy Space Center" which was outstanding. I have always wanted to visit this since I was 12 years old.

Today I found an Internet Cafe and decided to leave a short message here.

I hope you are all well.

By the way, I will be changing my Chinese/English website when I get back to England.

I've decided to open the website on this "domain" as it is easier to use. I'll transfer the files over later.

Take care everyone

Bye for now

Alan

 

 

Hello everybody

Welcome to my website.

The text for this podcast is for download as "PDF transcript for 25 relaxing challenges"

 

Bye for now

Alan