Do you know the expression “a photo is worth a thousand words ? Well, with amateur photography this is not always the case…..
Are you sometimes disappointed with your photos ? When we visit great places we want to capture the moment on our phone cameras or with a “traditional” camera….. and then we say “well, the photo doesn’t do the place justice” and we end up deleting the photo !!!!!!
In this podcast Chris gives some tips to Sue (who is definitely in the “disappointed/delete” category) about how to make her snaps come alive !
Chris knows what he is talking about and sometimes it sounds a bit too technical to Sue, but see if you can hear what he says about:
Putting the settings on manual
Eye level photos
Social media feedback
Framing the photo
Shutter speed
Aperture
Tripods
Light sightings
White balance
Deep of field
Grid for straight photos
The Rule of thirds
ND filters
Practice
What does Chris say about the 365 challenge he took part in ?
To celebrate International Podcast Day there is only one thing to do… make a podcast about podcasts !
Listen as we talk about the history of podcasts, the countries where podcasts are the most popular and where people generally listen to podcasts (making them more practical than Youtube !).
Listening is the first step in learning a new language, so we recommend listening to an adapted podcast everyday.
For pre-intermediate and intermediate learners there are 10 Animated Podcasts on our YouTube channel to start you off.
For more experienced learners there are over 100 podcasts to choose from to improve your listening skills. Enjoy !
English pronunciation can be tricky ! Stress and innovation can prove to be a minefield for new language learners as some words are not pronounced as you would expect.
There are silent letters as in the K in the word Knowledge and the P in the word Cupboard.
Some letter are pronounced differently in different words as in the A in the word April.
And some sounds bear no ressemblance to the written letters on the page as in the “ach’ as in the word Stomach.
So it’s always recommended to check the pronunciation of new words in one of the on-line dictionnaries.
Click here to log to our YouTube channel and listen to these 20 frequently mispronounced words that you’ll never get wrong again!
New study uses mice to unlock the secrets of language learning
2 researchers believe that the brains of mice can help humans learn a new language more efficiently.
Linguistics professor Melissa Baese-Berk and neurobiologist Santiago Jaramillo are teaming up on a new research project that will combine their two areas of expertise to probe how humans learn languages and to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying that learning.
They have been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to pursue the work.
“This project will investigate how we can improve the efficiency of learning a second language,” Jaramillo explained. “If we can better understand the learning mechanisms in the brain, we can translate that to better learning strategies.”
Baese-Berk has been studying the effect of passive learning, which can happen through an activity like playing Spanish music in the background, and actual practice, where learners are actively trying to train their brain to acquire and retain the information.
“We found that when learners incorporated both passive learning and practice, they could learn the new language in a way that rivaled pure practice and study,” said Baese-Berk, “But I wanted to know more about why humans are able to learn that way.”
Baese-Berk’s study provided important insights into how humans learn through listening, but it left her wondering why this was the case. She had uncovered a behavioral pattern and wanted to better understand what was happening in the brain to enable that reality.
Enter mice brains and Jaramillo, who specializes in the neural basis of auditory cognitive processes, exactly what Baese-Berk was hoping to understand: how the brain is learning sounds. Jaramillo is using mice because their mammalian brains resemble those of humans, and he can examine them with a level of sensitivity and precision that is unattainable with human brains.
The highly advanced tools and techniques in Jaramillo’s lab allow him to collect incredibly precise data about the neural activity of the mice during their learning exercises. He captures hundreds of different cells on video and uses computational methods to help analyze the high volume of footage from the brain cameras.
Hence a two-pronged approach to their research question. They will work together on the project, with Baeae-Berk leading an experiment looking into human behavior with language learning and Jaramillo spearheading the research behind what happens in the brain while that learning is taking place.
They hope their complimentary research will generate new insights and new research questions that will help us gain a better understanding into how humans can learn a second language more efficiently.
Martin Luther King Jr, born 15th January 1929, was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most well-known leader of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s.
Born Michael King Jr, his father later changed his son’s name to honor the memory of the German Protestant leader, Martin Luther.
MLK, as he became known, was a firm believer in nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his religious beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He participated in and led marches against racial discrimination and segregation for voting rights, labour rights, schooling and other basic civil rights.
MLK first rose to prominence during the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott when Rosa Parks an African American woman refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. The boycott lasted more than a year and finally the United States Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery segregation laws were unconstitutional. MLK later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and he helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. His most successful action was the People’s March in 1963 when he led the march on Washington, where 20,000 people heard him deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He spoke of his dream in which the sons and daughters of white slave owners and black slaves would be brothers and sisters living in peace.
Through his non-violent methods he gained much public support for the civil rights demands which resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities, as well as in employment.
On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches whose aim was to register black voters in the South. The marchers encountered deadly violence from the authorities but eventually the Voting Rights Bill of 1965 was passed giving equal rights to all citizens regardless of the colour of their skin.
Although MLK was lauded worldwide for his nonviolent methods to oppression he did face opposition from more radical leaders such as Malcolm X.
Later in life MLK expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty, capitalism, and the Vietnam War. In 1968, MLK was planning a national occupation of Washington DC to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupted in many US cities following his death. His presumed assassin, James Earl Ray, insisted he had been framed by the FBI for the murder.
Martin Luther King Jr was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
Martin Luther King Jr Day was created a national holiday in 1986 and is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of January.
Only 2 other people have national days in their honor; George Washington (3rd Monday of February) and Christopher Columbus (2nd Monday of October)….. but that’s another story !
