Alan Palmer's Language Chat Podcasts

Hello, Today I am playing a Beatles song for you - which I like very much. Here are the songwords: You know, if you break my heart I'll go But I'll be back again 'cause I told you once before goodbye But I came back again I love you so, oh I'm the one who wants you

More on conversations with native speakers Today I’d like to tell you more on starting conversations with native speakers when you are travelling to England, or another English speaking country. Also how to make the conversation more friendly. Places you can safely start conversations in the country where English is spoken: Hotel reception areas Train station platforms Bus stops Tourist information offices In shops Museums/Art Galleries Taxis Airport lounges Hairdressers Ice cream kiosks Newspaper stands Restaurants/cafes Car boot sales On the beach I don’t recommend talking to people in the street, unless it’s just to ask for the time or dir

Hello everybody, Some languages use tones or stress sounds (like Chinese) which shows meaning. Today’s Weekend words is more about how in English we use tones on different words when we speak. This is used for emphasis on meaning and also it makes language more interesting. I have found a nice text for you and I will read this out loud. 1. The first reading will be without stress on any word (this is a false way of speaking which we do not do in English, but it will show you what unstressed English would sound like. 2. The second reading will show you where I place the stress on words:  At the end of each sentence there is also a little down sound to complete the idea.  Listen to the words which have a little more stress to show that these words are important (breed, much-lamented, Christmas time)  Listen to the words in a list: (cheap tat, reality shows, makeover shows and ne

History of the English Castle Many English castles were built of stone during the Medieval era. But the history of the English castle goes back much further! Exploring the History of the English Castle takes us as far back to the Neolithic Period - to Stone Age History! Understanding the History of the word 'castle' The word 'castle' is derived from the Latin words castellum, meaning fortress, and castrum meaning a ortified place. The castle can be defined as the following: "A safe place against intrusion or invasion" Another definition is: "A large fortified (strengthened)building " The history of the English Castle can date

Hello everybody Today I want to talk about a new idea I have had to do some language practice on our own with no more than a piece of paper and a pen. I call this idea “mind word essays”. With this idea, you can practice: Thinking in a language Writing Reading and grammar Speaking/Listening You can do this anywhere, whilst travelling, at home, with friends. I had the idea when I was flying to Germany and I wanted to practice German but I ha

Hello everyone, good evening. Alan here from England, and this time I’m speaking without a text again. It’s always interesting for me to just speak without a text, because this is how we speak normally when we speak with friends or with, mm, people we know or work with, and sometimes with my podcast I like to do this because it makes it more natural. When you’re speaking with a text, it’s not quite the same as when you’re speaking just from your head, if you like, speaking aloud, as you would when you’re speaking with friends and family. And of course it means that you can hear when I pause, when I think about things a little more, and then when I decide to say something. And for those of you who are learning English, I think this makes it more interesting - maybe more difficult to understand, but also mmm, you can hear when I stop a bit, then start again. And that is how conversations go. When someone reads from a text we just follow the words on the paper, or on the computer screen of course. But when yo

I hope you like my guitar piece which I played this evening and a nice sunny evening in England

Hello everyone, Today I would like to talk about how better to get conversations started. When we learn languages, we always want so much to speak with native speakers – but at the same time, we also worry about it. Will they understand us? Will they find what we say interesting? Will they get frustrated with us, or bored, or both? Lots of these sort of thoughts go through our mind. Even if we are lucky enough to have friends who speak the language we are learning as native speakers, it doesn’t mean that we don’t still think these things. Another difficulty when speaking another language is that after we have said something, it is often difficult for us to remember what we just said! In our own language, we remember what words we say better than when we say something in a different language. I think this is because we are busy trying to think of correct words to use and make sure we are understood, so we only remember the ideas of what we were talking about, not the actual words we used to say it. Often,

Hello everybody It’s nice to be here again to talk to you. I’ve been having some nice feedback about my podcasts recently and it’s always nice to receive it. Thanks to those of you who sent me messages of encouragement either here or on Livemocha.com. I’m always glad to know that you find my podcasts useful and interesting. Today I want to suggest an idea for those of you who want to know how your English is progressing and also a small English practice test. My idea is this. I want to give you a topic here that you can read about and then you can write a small text in your own words to explain my text. Maybe between 50 and 100 words will be enough. Copy any words I have written – but don’t copy out my text word for word – or it will not be useful for the test. You must create a new text yourself in your own words. If you have access to recording equipment, make a recording of your voice saying my words and also read out aloud your written text. Keep this text and voice recording for a month and the

hello everybody For my weekend words today, I want to talk about why sometimes it is difficult to understand native speakers, even when you may have been learning English a long time. I discovered a long time ago that the language you hear in class with a teacher, or normally on sound recordings can be easily understood, and yet when you go to the country and listen to native speakers - you may not understand so much. There are many reasons for this, and firstly I want to say - don't worry about it. The more you worry, the more it will either frustrate or annoy you when this happens. Just accept that this will happen, the moment you set foot in the country. Here are some reasons I believe can make listening to native speakers difficult: 1. There is usually some background noise - some examples:street noise, other people speaking nearby, television is on. This makes it difficult to concentrate on the person speaking to you. 2. The native speaker will hear you speak first and assume you know much more th

Hello everybody, Today I have just decided to talk - no text prepared. So I will listen back to it later and write down for you what I said - so you can read along with me speaking. In the meantime, for those of you who are learning English - see how you find it listening without text for the time being... take care everybody... Alan

I hope you like my latest guitar tune

I hope you like this guitar tune I recorded today on my 12-string acoustic guitar...

Hello everybody For my weekend words today I'd like to discuss ways to make language learning more interesting. Often, people ask us why we learn one or more languages. We sometimes ask ourselves why. This question seems particularly interesting sometimes as we don't always have easy answers. Personally speaking, I often answer that I learn languages "as a hobby" like we do when we take photographs, collect things, read books, watch films. Is it a good idea to compare learning a language to these activities that we would usually consider to be hobbies? I am not sure. I suppose learning a language is something that is interesting to do, keeps our minds occupied and there is something to be gained by learning - we eventually get to communicate with other people who speak the language - whether these are native speakers, or other people learning the language. If we have no-one to speak the language with, then how do we keep interested in learning? We need to find reasons than make us more interested in keeping g

Hello everybody, I hope you are all well. It has been a little while since I made a podcast. Thank you for all you nice messages. Today I would like to talk about being positive and relaxed about learning languages and also being willing to take risks with language too. Learning a language is a difficult thing to do, but as I have said before, we can always enjoy our language at any level. Young children do this. When we see a small child start to learn their mother tongue – they maybe don’t say so much at the beginning, They listen and maybe try some sounds that don’t sound like words. But later, when they start to say words, their mother or father will be happy to hear them say things and then they encourage them by speaking back to them – usually in a kindly way. That way, a small child learns in a positive place with a friendly teacher (mother or father) and then the child enjoys using whatever language they have – they often don’t want to stop talking! I think that as adults, we should try to copy

Hello everybody. For my weekend words this week I want to talk about conversation practice and speed of speaking. Over the years, I've met a lot of people who are learning English as a foreign language. I'm always surprised how hard they try to learn English and their level of language, their high ability to handle difficult grammar points and how much vocabulary they have. In some cases, maybe it is the first time they have had an opportunity to speak with a native speaker (me) and they want to be able to have an intelligent interesting conversation. This means that very often, in order to develop the conversation, they speak much faster than they need to, and sometimes forget that a conversation is two-way - speaker and listener. I often find myself doing a similar thing when I speak French or German. I speak faster than I should do. It is like I am in a race against time, to say what I want to say and hope that I have made myself understood. As a native speaker of English, what I can tell anyone who spea

Hello everybody. For my weekend words today I wanted to talk about using short newspaper, magazine or Internet articles to help develop language and also how, at the same time to understand more about a country's culture as well as language. Also how to "think in pictures" to help make the text interesting and to retain vocabulary. If you find interesting articles like the one I have chosen, then language and culture start to merge together a bit more. These are not just words on paper or on a screen, but they make you think of situations and events in the past, at present or in the future. I read somewhere that to learn a language well, we need to: 1. Understand the structure (grammar) of a language and have a good vocabulary. 2. Have the chance to communicate in a language with people who speak it well (Better still, those who speak it as a mother tongue) 3. Understand some of the culture of the country (or countries) where the language is spoken No small task! Having said that, all of us are learning

Hello everybody, Today I wanted to talk about my ideas on increasing fluency (which in my opinion is about how easy you can use a language at a high level) I wanted to tell you about a new idea I have had about building up vocabulary and fluency at the same time. I have a lot of trouble remembering words and I believe that everyone agrees that the secret to learning a language is knowing enough words and enough of the structure of the language (sometimes call rules of grammar) Some languages have complex grammar (like German) and other languages have simpler grammar (like Mandarin Chinese) Whichever language we learn, we need a knowledge of enough words and grammar to converse with others who speak the language. Of course other areas of language ability are important - such as pronunciation, but generally speaking, with some words and grammar and a reasonably understandable accent - most people could make themselves understood and understand what was being said to them. In English this is often called "

Hello everybody, Today I wanted to talk about practicing phrases to make it easier to remember how to say things and the right words to use I want to go shopping because my sister is coming and we enjoy going to the shops together. It is surprising just what language you can practice with only one sentence: Because my sister is coming, I want to go shopping and we enjoy going to the shops together We enjoy going to the shops my sister and I and my sister is coming, so I want to go shopping That is three sentences saying the same thing, more or less - but if you practice the sentence in different ways - then you can become more fluent. You can then expand it a bit more: My sister is coming to see me. We always like to go shopping together because we like going to the shops together. It is always nice when my sister comes, because we like going to the shops together to do some shopping. I want to go shopping anyway - so I will wait until she comes This way, you can build up the language practice. J

Hello everybody. This is a continuation of my podcast about difficult sounds in English. English often uses stress or emphasis on syllables within a word. Stress is sometimes used in spoken English as a language technique to change the meaning of what is being said and emphasise a certain thing or idea. Normally this doesn't show in written English unless the word is written differently. Here's an example: 1. He wants me to give her the book 2. HE wants me to give her the book 3. He wants ME to give her the book 4. He wants me to GIVE her the book 5. He wants me to give her the BOOK Easy sentence - but stressed words make a big difference to meaning. The first sentence just has a basic meaning. There is no extra stress on the first sentence - so someone listening would just hear it as a statement. Number 2 is emphasising the person who wants me to give the book Number 3 is emphasising that the person want me in particular (that is no one else but me) to give her the book Number 4 is emphasising that th