Monthly Archives: November 2007

On the Edge of Your Seat (325 – Describing People’s Moods)

In today’s podcast, 325 – Describing People’s Moods, we talk about being on edge. In the “What Else Does it Mean?” section of the Learning Guide, we also talk about the different meanings of edge, and what competitive edge and … Continue reading

Posted in Discussing the Episodes, Language & Terms | 8 Comments

Paying for College (Applications)

An article in yesterday’s New York Times is entitled (has the title of), “A College Application Or a Slick Sales Pitch?” The article is about how difficult it is to get into the best U.S. universities, and how important your … Continue reading

Posted in News and Current Events | 7 Comments

How to Learn All of the Phrasal Verbs in English

One question we get frequently is: Can you please talk about phrasal verbs? A phrasal verb is sometimes called a two-word verbs such as “to put down” or “to get out” or “to kick (someone) out.” English has lots of … Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Language & Terms | 28 Comments

Singer Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwo’ole

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, whose nickname was “Iz” (pronounced “is”), was an American musician from Hawaii. He was a talented singer and ukulele player. (To see what a ukulele looks like and to hear another excellent ukulele player, look at this.) He … Continue reading

Posted in Karaoke English | 4 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 22 is the Thanksgiving holiday. It is a national holiday and is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November. Most people don’t have to work on Thanksgiving, and many people take Friday off (not work; as vacation), … Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Life in the United States | 14 Comments

Help Promote ESL Podcast with Google, Facebook, and More!

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 … Continue reading

Posted in About ESL Podcast | 8 Comments

ESL versus EFL

We’ve had a few listeners ask about the acronyms (abbreviations) ESL and EFL, so I thought I would talk about them briefly. Different countries and organizations use these terms differently, but I’ll tell you how they are generally used. First, … Continue reading

Posted in Language & Terms | 11 Comments

Links in Blog Comments

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 … Continue reading

Posted in About ESL Podcast | 3 Comments

What Yo Yo Ma is Up To Now (English Cafe 111)

Today’s Cafe 111 talks about the American celloist Yo Yo Ma. Ma is one of the best known classical musicians in the U.S. If you are interested in what he is up to (what he is doing), take a look … Continue reading

Posted in Discussing the Episodes | 3 Comments

Hollywood Writers Go On Strike

Last week, the big news was that the Writer’s Guild of American, a union of writers for television and movies, went on strike. To go on strike is to stop working to protest something that you think is wrong, or … Continue reading

Posted in Life in the United States | 12 Comments