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ON MONDAY
ESL Podcast 690 – Types of Views
In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “steep” and “upper.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Special Hotel Requests.”
“When “booking” (reserving) a hotel room, the “reservations agent” (the person whose job is to process reservation requests) needs to know how large of a room is needed and when. But callers can make many other requests, too…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide
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ON WEDNESDAY
English Cafe 296
Topics: Ask an American: driving while texting; ground versus soil versus land; as such; pupil versus people
In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear).
In “What Insiders Know,” you will read about “Common Texting Terms.”
“Most cell phones and other “mobile devices” (small, hand-held electronic devices that connect the Internet and/or a phone network) have very small “keyboards” (a set of buttons with letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, used for typing), so it can be difficult to type long messages…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide
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ON FRIDAY
ESL Podcast 691 – Dangerous Freeway Driving
In the Learning Guide: Get a full transcript (written version of every word you hear), vocabulary list and sample sentences, and comprehension questions.
In “What Else Does it Mean,” learn the other meanings of “to get old” and “to pass.”
In the “Culture Note,” learn about “Seatbelt Laws – “Click it or Ticket.”
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was created by the Highway Safety Act of 1970. It tries to make people safer by “preventing” (not letting something happen) “crashes” (car accidents). One of its most successful programs is…” – READ MORE in the Learning Guide
Guys ,
I m goona let in on a secret
As I told you before ,I watched “The Hang over part 2.”i
I watched the sneak peek.
It is nothing like the first movie,yet it made a fortune at the opening night
The movie lacks originality. In fact , the movie is such a copy carbon of The Hang over part one. This time it happens in bancook , and it is less funny.
There are some shcoking scene ,and there are more dark elements to it
It doesn’t measure up to The Hang over part one.
All in all ,the movie was not though through
I have this problem as a child that I sleep walked
I regressed I guess:)
How ever ,I went to this quack who claims she is a shrink
She loaded me up with these tranquilizer pills
Now,I can’t even move
I m so pissed
I stopped having them
Never ever go to a shrink
I m tired of this quack
Just getting off my chest
“Peek-a-boo” vs “cucù”…
Anybody knows something about “The Devo”?
During the physics tests in my classes, few minutes after starting, my students look carefully at me and at their tight neighborhood in searching
– I spitefully suppose – for any “external memory” (like little paper sheets…).
Then I tell them (in English indeed): “Peek-a-boo! I can see you and I know what you do…”
They ask me what it means and I explain taking them the small paper sheets…
Do you want to know why, dear ESL listener friends? You’re looking forward to, I not spitefully suppose…
Because of a song! About at the end of the 80s, a band called “The Devo” played “Peek-a-boo”!
Over here it sounds like “cucù!” (coo-coo).
Sergio
P.S. Thanks Lucy and Jeff for making me remember these memory fragments.
I found it interesting to read an article dated May 27, 2011, titled: ‘Are our accents a help or a hindrance, Cheryl?’ from ‘uk.news.yahoo.com’.
The news was talking about Cheryl Cole who appeared in the ‘X Factor’ TV programme in America.
If you are interested, you can read the news by searching online with the title.
I do find comfort in reading news like this because I hate to be told about my imperfect spoken English.
************
I Would like to write a big ‘THANK YOU’ note to Jeff, Lucy and everyone in ESLPOD.com in helping me achieve a pass (a ‘3’) in the Speaking Paper of Hong Kong’s Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (English). Out of 1322 candidates, only 664 people passed the test, that was 50.2% pass rate.
There are some native English speakers who want to teach English in Hong Kong taking this test, and many more from the education institute in their final year of their Degree course majoring in English Language taking this test. I am not a native English speaker non a Language student, I am very happy to be among those who passed the test.
I wrote here about how I bought the course ‘English for Business Meetings’ from this website just before the test, and I studied all of it over night.
During the test, I tried to use everything I learned, and I tried to imitate Jeff and Lucy to have all the ‘intonation and stress’ etc.
I passed the test. Please let me say a very grateful thanks to you all, Jeff, Lucy and all the other ‘business people’ in the course.
My Reading paper result was very good, I achieved a ‘4’ (5 is the top mark), which is considered to be very good, I was a bit surprised.
I passed my listening test as well, although I don’t know how.
Now I have to really, really sit and study how to explain to students about English grammar, this part of the test failed my Writing paper. Another obstacle is to know what the examiners want, they said I had not completed the task which was fatal for my test.
I will write here again next year this time to tell you how I do with my test.
A BIG THANK YOU AGAIN, ALL MY TEACHERS AND FRIENDS HERE IN ESLPOD.COM.
Don’t make Jeff go back to the drawing board .
The increasing cost of any operation has spiked up the price of everything over the past 5 years ,yet Eslpod is for free.
,and we are on cloud nine for that.But,drear comrades please put your feet on the ground and think ,think logically. No system lasts with no fuel.
So ,tank Eslpod up
Guys
Take a pause for a good cause.
Please guys,pretty please take it on board and act accordingly
My most fear is Eslpod let go of our hands way before we learn to walk.
Don’t let it happens
Let keep Eslpod around until we run that we are still crawling.
Pony up guys
Let’s the Eslpod’s cogs run until we speed run
Yours
Jeff
Just recently I heard that mark time means when soldiers march without moving
Is it right?
If not ,what is the proper word for the walking on the spot?
I know the common meaning of be marking time
But this specific application of the term has puzzled me
Has Any body out there heard of it. Please come forward
Come to rescue guys
CONGRATULATIONS, dear Betty.
I am very happy knowing you have passed your exam.
I think you have been working very hard.
Jeff, Lucy and Warren are the best teachers you, me and all of our friends may have.
That is really very good Betty and you deserve it.
My sincere congratulations again, Betty.
emiliano
Dear Emiliano,
Thank you very much indeed for your good words.
I have passed 3 out of the 4 papers available, so I will have to work harder on English Grammar in order to do well in the ‘explaining errors’ part of the writing paper.
I did very well in the ‘correcting errors’ part, but I did not know how to ‘explain’ it. So, I need to concentrate on this part from now on.
It is easy to do something but not very easy to explain to others how to do something. There’s why our teachers here (Jeff, Lucy and Warren) have earned our love and respect, they explain everything very clearly to us.
I want to stress the good work of our teachers.
One part of my English Speaking Assessment involved a meeting with colleagues /co-workers. So the course ‘English for Business Meeting’ became very valuable to me.
In fact I would recommend anyone wanting to be successful in doing business with English speaking people to buy it, even native English speakers do not know so much ‘social technique’ in business meetings. It would be disaster if we only know how to speak formal way or informal way. We need to know both speaking skills and use different skills when we are in different circumstances. The course tells us both ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ way of speaking in meetings so that we can cope with different types of people / meetings.
A BIG THANK YOU to you again, Emiliano, I am writing here more often because you encouraged me to write. The only way to improve writing is to write more everyday. Don’t stop breathing and don’t stop writing.
Best Regards
Betty
Thank you very much, Peter. Reading your post has helped me learn a lot.
Last time in Warren’s ‘Good grieve’ article, you mentioned the term ‘unprocessed emotions’, I looked up the internet to find out what it meant and I learned one more thing which I was not aware of previously.
This time you asked about ‘mark time’. As usual, I was curious and went online to find out.
Both ‘mark’ and ‘time’ are very simply words. But these two words together made up an idiom which was explained in The Free Dictionary (search Google for “the free dictionary”) as:
Idioms:
mark time
1. To move the feet alternately in the rhythm of a marching step without advancing.
2. To suspend progress for the time being; wait in readiness.
3. To function in an apathetic or ineffective manner.
mark time
to do something which is not very interesting while you are waiting to start doing something more important (usually in continuous tenses) She’s just marking time in her father’s shop until it’s time to go to university.
mark time
to not do anything important while you wait Mrs. Jamison marked time while waiting to take up her new job.
Related vocabulary: tread water
Etymology: based on the military phrase mark time (to march in the same place, moving your legs up and down without going forward).
Thanks again for helping me learn more everyday, Peter.
I checked with a luitenent
The term is right
Mark time means march with no advancement.walk on a spot
But mark time has a more common use
Jeff might cover it one day