Adam
Hello. Welcome to episode 16 of the Learn English Elementary Podcast. I’m Adam.
Rob is on a business trip at the moment, but it’s nice to be back. First of all, I’d like to say sorry that there hasn’t been a podcast for a while. Rob and I both had to travel for work this month and we haven’t been around. But one of us is back now with another great podcast for you.
Later on, we’ll be catching up with Carolina and I’m afraid she isn’t very happy this week.
But first, let’s have a look at some of your comments on the last podcast, when we asked you for your thoughts on London.
Tess and Ravi talked about Big Ben and Buckingham Palace but you, listeners, mentioned loads of other things in London: Tower Bridge, Madame Tussauds, the British Museum, Hyde Park, Camden Market, the changing of the guards, Trafalgar Square… even those of you who haven’t been to London seem to know a lot about it.
And it wasn’t just London. You also mentioned Oxford University and Stonehenge and the city of Bath - other places you’d like to visit in England. A few of you are fans of English football – like Mohammed in Jordan who really wants to visit Wembley Stadium.
Sora from Korea is lucky; she’s going to study in London in September. Write and tell us how you find it, Sora.
And there’s good news too for Tanya in Russia and Angelo in Italy. Tanya mentioned Sherlock Holmes and Angelo talked about seeing the famous double-decker buses in London. Well, both of those things will be in a future podcast – so keep listening out!
So many great comments, as usual – too many to read out all the good ones – but I do want to look at just one more. It’s from Raviha in Pakistan and it says ‘Rob, I love your Word on the Street series’.
Now, if you don’t know, Word on the Street is a TV programme made by the BBC and the British Council and you can find it on the LearnEnglish website. Go to: www.britishcouncil.org/wordonthestreet
And that’s almost the same address to send your comments to. We love hearing from you, so keep the comments coming to www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
Right, time now to catch up with Carolina again. Carolina is from Venezuela and is studying at Newcastle University. We’ve been following her life. Last time there was good news for Carolina’s friend Emily, but this time things aren’t going too well for Carolina…
Carolina
At the shop
Carolina: That's four pounds please. Thank you. Would you like a bag? OK. Who's next?
Man: I am.
Carolina: Oh, yes. OK, that's two pounds nineteen please.
Man: How much?
Carolina: Two pounds nineteen.
Man: Ninety or nineteen? I can't understand you.
Carolina: Nineteen. Two pounds nineteen pence.
Man: "Two pounds nineteen pence". Why don't you learn to speak English?
Carolina: I… I do… I… I'm sorry…
At University
Mrs Greenwood: So that's it for today. I'll see you next week. If anyone wants to talk about their essay, I'll be in my office from two to five tomorrow afternoon. And don't forget, the deadline for the essay is Monday morning. And that's the absolute final deadline. I will not accept any essays after that time. Is that understood?
Students: Yes, Mrs Greenwood.
Mrs Greenwood: I'm looking forward to reading them. Right, OK. Have a good week.
Students: Thank you, Mrs Greenwood / Bye Mrs Greenwood
Carolina: Oh no!
Student: What's up?
Carolina: The deadline. Monday morning. Is she really serious? She really won't accept any essays after Monday?
Student: Oh yes, she's serious. I did a course with her last year. Two people failed because they didn't do their essays on time.
Carolina: Oh, God!
At the Post Office
Voice through microphone: Cashier number five, please.
Carolina: Good morning.
Clerk: Good morning.
Carolina: I want to collect a parcel. It's from Venezuela, for Carolina del Barco. Here's the card.
Clerk: Can I see some identification?
Carolina: I'm sorry?
Clerk: You need to show me some identification.
Carolina: I need to...?
Clerk: I'm sorry, but I can't give you the parcel if you don't show me some identification.
Carolina: I'm very sorry but I don't understand. Can you speak more slowly?
Clerk: I-den-ti-fi-ca-tion. Pass-port.
Carolina: Oh… yes… identification, passport... yes, of course. I'm sorry. Here you are.
At home
Carolina: It's me, Emily. I'm tired. I'm going to go straight to bed.
Emily: OK. Night. See you tomorrow.
Carolina: Goodnight. Hola mamí. I… oh…
Adam
Oh dear! Carolina sounds really miserable, really homesick.
It happens sometimes when you’re a long way from home. It just takes a few small things to go wrong, and it can make you feel really unhappy. I remember the first time I went to church camp. My parents weren't there, and I was 10, but I was OK until I put ten pence in the payphone and heard my parents' voices. Then I ran away to cry where the other boys couldn't see me.
How about you, listeners? A lot of you don’t live at home or you lived away from home in the past. Do you ever feel homesick? If you do, what do you do to make yourself feel better? Even if you’ve never felt homesick, what advice would you give to Carolina to make herself feel better? Write and tell us what you think at: www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
Now, one thing that went wrong for poor Carolina was making a mistake with her English – listen to this bit again: Carolina: Oh, yes. OK, that's two pounds nineteen please. Man: How much? Carolina: Two pounds nineteen. Man: Ninety or nineteen? I can't understand you. Carolina: Nineteen. Two pounds nineteen pence. Man: "Two pounds nineteen pence". Why don't you learn to speak English? Carolina: I... I do… I… I'm sorry…
Carolina got confused about the stress of nineteen and ninety – it’s an easy mistake to make. In ‘nineteen’ we stress the second syllable – ‘teen’ and in ‘ninety’ we stress the first syllable – ‘nine’. It makes a big difference.
However, if we are giving a date, like nineteen eighty-nine, we stress the first syllable of nineteen. English can be really difficult sometimes!
If you want help with syllables and stress we’ve put some exercises on the website for you. They’ll help you recognise how many syllables you hear and which syllables are stressed.
You’ll find lots of other exercises there too so do go and look at the website, and send us your comments – it’s always great to hear from you.
We’ll be back next time with more from Tess and Ravi, talking about a famous British family… who could that be?
That’s all for now. See you next time – bye!
Comments
Hi Maruto,
Great to see you have so much enthusiasm! Perhaps I can give you a little advice as to how you might develop your fluency.
As far as fluency goes, it's hard for me to give you specific advice without knowing how you speak at the moment. However, there are some general suggestions that I can make which will help you to improve over time. The most important thing you can do is to speak English as often as possible. To do this a partner is very helpful, so think about the people you know and consider if any of them could be a practice partner for you. It may be that you know someone else who is also learning English and who would like to practise with you, or perhaps you know some people who do not speak your language but do speak English. However, if you do not have a practice partner it does not mean that you cannot practise because it is possible to practise alone. Just speaking English to yourself while you are at home, going about your normal daily activities, can help a great deal with your fluency and can help you to feel more confident, which will help you to cut down your hesitating.
You can also use the audio and video materials here on LearnEnglish to improve your fluency. After doing the exercises, try listening with the transcript (listening and reading). Then try saying the text yourself, and finally try saying it with (and at the same speed as) the recording. This will help you to develop speed in your speech, which is a key component of fluency. You'll also pick up a lot of language as chunks - words which are often used together in set phrases - which you can use to communicate with less hesitation.
I hope those suggestions are helpful.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thanks so much for your advice, this is very useful with me. i will practise as often as possible. tryyyyyyyyyyyyy ^_____^
hi ...i m really interested in learning english.I always try to speak english as much as i can.i' m an intermediate level student.Anyway,i m not bad in english.But,i m bad in pronunciation.Sometimes, i mispronunce words in front of my friends.I want to correct my wrong spellings.I also try to learn phnoetics from english teacher,but still not improve enough.Can u give me some advice?i want to speak english like native speaker.How can I?Please tell me.i ll waiting your reply.Sorry for my grammer mistakes if have.
Hello Violet Aerial,
It's very difficult for me to give you advice without hearing you speak, of course, but I would say that the most important ingredients for you are listening to good models, practising producing the right sounds (including connected sounds and connected speech) and comparing your pronunciation with the models.
You can find many good models in our Listen & Watch section. After listening to the recordings, use the transcript to practise the same speech. You can use the recording too: pause it after each sentence so you can repeat the sentence, trying to copy the model. After that you can try saying the whole text at the same time as the recording, so that you will have to speak at the same speed, with the same pauses and so on. This will help you to develop a lot of sentence-level features and to increase your confidence.
Please remember that improvements in pronunciation are almost always incremental. That means that they happen in many small steps rather than a few great leaps, and that sometimes it can be hard to recognise your progress. Don't lose heart! If you practise every day then you will make progress, even if that progress is hard to see.
Best wishes and good luck!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Syllable exercise is quite difficult for me so again and again I am practicing with it, rest is ok.Thanks.
Hello i'm new user ! How can i beginning?
Hello hatemalduroobi,
Welcome to LearnEnglish! Our page is a collection of resources, much like a library, so you can start anywhere you like. If you work on a section that has different episodes, such as this Elementary Podcast series, I'd recommend you begin at episode 1, as they do refer back to each other, but otherwise, you can begin wherever you'd like to. I'd suggest you take some time to explore the site to see the different options you have.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi frinds i'm nilesh hiwale. I'm new user British English councils website. Please help me friends how to talk English. How to improveing me English. Please help me
Hi Nilesh Hiwale,
Welcome to LearnEnglish! It's difficult for us to give you very specific advice without knowing more about your needs, your abilities and your interests. However, there are some general suggestions which we give to people starting out here.
First of all, take some time to explore the site. Use the links at the top of the page to go to different sections and see what kinds of materials are available. Get a feel for the level of difficulty of different sections so you can see what will be most useful to you at the moment.
Second, start with something that is not too high a level. I suggest you begin with the Elementary Podcasts Series Three, which is probably a good level for you. Work through the episodes, and remember that you can use the transcript to help you, or to read and listen at the same time after you have done the exercises.
Third, keep a vocabulary notebook as you work. Organise it by topic ('work', 'family', 'food' etc) and add words and phrases to it as you go through the material. Test yourself regularly to see if you remember the words.
Finally, try to find time to practise English during your regular day. Perhaps you have a friend who is also learning English, with whom you can practise speaking, or perhaps you can practise by yourself, just speaking English when you are alone at home or at work. This kind of practice is great for developing fluency in speaking, so that when you need to use English in the 'real' world you are ready and confident.
I hope those suggestions are useful.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I'm new here and English is my second language. Does anybody know the difference between using "which+past tense verb" vs. using an -ing verb"? For example, what is the difference between saying "The court issued an Order which directed Peter to produce the evidence." vs. "The court issued an Order directing Peter to produce the evidence." I will really appreciate being enlightened on this.
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