As most of you know, you do not need an iPod or an iPhone to listen to ESL Podcast or any other podcast. But if you do have an iPhone or the new iPod Touch, you may be interested in listening to the podcast on your device.

One of our listeners, Orlando, has created a special iPhone version page of ESL Podcast. You can go to this address:

http://www.iphonestory.com/mobile/podcast.html#eslpodcast

and click on the ESLPod logo.

Thanks to Orlando, who also developed a special Mac widget for ESL Podcast last year. We appreciate your help!

~Jeff

There is now a new business English course in our ESL Podcast Store called Using English at Work. This course is designed to teach you basic business English vocabulary related to everyday activities at work, from arriving in the morning to leaving at the end of the workday. This is a 10 lesson course, with explanations by Jeff and the stories read by another native speaker, so you have a chance to hear other voices as well.

If you are interested in improving your business English, take a look at the fuller description here. We hope you enjoy it!

~Jeff, Lucy, and the ESL Podcast Team

I just discovered this very cool web service called Shared Copy. It allows you to make notes on web pages and share them with others. I tried using it and I think it may be useful for what we do here at ESL Podcast.

I took a news article from today’s Voice of America website and highlighted (made a different color) in yellow certain difficult words. Then on the side I put the definitions of these words so you can get some help if there is a word you don’t understand. It is even possible for you to go on to the page and put your own comments or questions (although in this first experiment, I turned the comments option off).

The article is about the subject of yesterday’s post, the sex scandal involving Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York. Take a look at it here and tell me what you think.

~Jeff

Apple’s iTunes-Japan has named ESL Podcast one of the “Best Podcasts of 2007,” one of only a 20 podcasts in Japan to receive this honor. We are very grateful for the recognition, and hope we can continue to provide useful podcasts in 2008.

Domo arigato (thank you), iTunes!

~Jeff

There was a nice article today in the Spanish-language financial newspaper, Diario Financiero, published in Santiago, Chile, about learning languages on the Internet. ESL Podcast is mentioned in the second part of the article, which talks about ways of learning different languages on the web. If you can read Spanish, you may be interested in it.

~Jeff

Are you wondering what to buy that special someone you know for the holidays? How about giving them the “gift” of English with an ESL Podcast Basic or Premium Membership? It’s much better than candy or a video game; it tastes sweeter and is much more fun than either of those things!

You can purchase a 6 or 12 month membership on our ESL Podcast Store. After you purchase the membership (either Basic or Premium), email us and we’ll email you a coupon code that you can then give to the person you’re giving the membership to.

How about some nice business or personal English courses for your loved ones?  We currently have 5 different courses, including English for Business Meetings,  Interview Questions Answered, A Day in the Life of Jeff, A Day in the Life of Lucy, and our English Though Stories’ mystery, Deadly Letters.  You can buy a gift certificate for one of these courses right on our ESL Podcast Store.

~Jeff (also known as “Santa Claus”)

I was interviewed by a website in the Czech Republic about ESL Podcast. If you are interested in reading the interview from earlier this year, you can read it here. The questions and answers are all in English.

I talk about the podcast in general and specifically about the nature of (the basic principles of) language acquisition, related to the post last week on learning phrasal verbs.

~Jeff

Some of our listeners have emailed us to let us know that they are spreading the word (telling other people) about ESL Podcast.

Thank you to our wonderful listeners!

Some of the things they have done are:
§ To tell their friends, family, and co-workers about the podcast;

§ To post messages on blogs and message boards;

§ To send a message to a newspaper or newsmagazine in their country about the podcast;

§ To tell their teachers about the podcast;

§ To give friends and family a gift certificate to the ESL Podcast Store; and

§ To start a site for fans or listeners of the podcast.

If you’d like to help us out (assist us, help us), please try one of these suggestions.

One of our listeners, Eduardo, has started a Google discussion group here for ESL Podcast listeners. Eduardo has put in (done) a lot of work on the group, and is a very dedicated (loyal) fan. Thanks, Eduardo!

If you already using Facebook, there is also an ESL Podcast Group that you can join as well.

If you have done something to spread the word about ESL Podcast or have ideas about how to tell others about the podcast, please send us a comment to let us know!

~Jeff

Thank you to everyone who has been posting comments to our blog. Lucy and I appreciate it!

We have received some posts recently with website links (addresses). For security reasons, we prefer not to post any active links in the comment sections. The reason is that it takes extra time for us to investigate these links and make sure they are not spam or are not redirecting you to another site. (We receive a lot of spam messages on the comments section!) For that reason, we have decided not to put active links in the comments. We know this is inconvenient, but most things can be found using a simple Google search, so if you mention something you saw (such as a YouTube video or newspaper article), most people will be able to find it another way.

Thank you for your understanding – and your great participation on our blog!

~Jeff

If you own a Nokia cell phone, you can now listen to ESL Podcast right on (directly on) your phone! Nokia has a piece of podcasting software that allows you to listen to various podcasts on your phone.

To get the software, simply go to this page and click on the Download Nokia Podcasting button and install on your phone.

~Jeff