Thanksgiving is a North American tradition that comes around every year at this time of year, but what is it all about?
Episode 204: What is Thanksgiving all about?
The last Thursday in November is a major celebration day in the USA, it is a national holiday and a time for friends and family to get together.
You have surely heard of Thanksgiving, it is often portrayed in American movies and TV series, but do you really understand why it’s so important to Americans.
In this podcast Chris and Sue, as 2 Brits, discuss some of the interesting traditions, facts and controversies surrounding this North American national holiday .
Why is it celebrated? How many Thanksgiving Dinners were there? Who were the first Pilgrims? Where did they come from? What do people eat at this dinner?
Notes
But even though Thanksgiving is a special holiday and a precious time spent with friends and family for many North American, Chris and Sue raise the issue that for many others it is considered to be a “national day of mourning” to be viewed as a terrible time when colonists wiped out Native Americans and their culture. They feel that this period of history is “white-washed” out of history – which leads many Americans to ignore the holiday.
Recap & Takeaways
Enjoy the podcast and listen out for useful vocabulary, and of course you can consolidate your knowledge and vocabulary by doing the Thanksgiving quiz with 20 great questions.
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Sue and Chris meet for dinner at a restaurant in England, as usual, Sue is late.
The Restaurant Episode 1 – Meeting for Dinner deals with meeting and greetings, arriving at a restaurant, checking a booking and finding a table.
One of the most difficult aspects in learning and using English in a social setting is eating and drinking in the restaurant, which is obviously vital for survival, but in a business context is a hugely important part of relationship building with clients, colleagues and suppliers.
The main difficulties arise from the vocabulary used to describe foods and drinks and the way that they are prepared, but an additional issue is the background noise that is often present in eateries and places where people go to eat and drink.
There is also the fact that the conversation can change from subject to subject very quickly, so as a learner you need to be constantly on your toes – and hopefully enjoy the experience.
In this series on The Restaurant, you will learn some useful ways of asking questions, describing foods, tastes and drinks as well as a host of vocabulary and real English to talk about food and drink.
Series 1 starts with two people meeting in a restaurant for dinner, they then go into the restaurant to take their place at the table they reserved only to find a disagreeable surprise.
The following section takes us to discussing the food and drink on a typical menu in a British Gastro pub, where food is served to clients, known as diners.
The two diners are greeted by a less than friendly and pretty unprofessional waitress, who tends to their needs from their entrance into the restaurant until the point where they pay their bill.
Along the way they battle their way through some of the, often ambiguous descriptions on the menu to a few surprises with the food that they order.
There are some simple quizzes that you can take at the end of each podcast to check your understanding.
Restaurant Podcast 1 Meeting for Dinner
Test your listening skills with this comprehension quiz to see how much you understood.
Remember you can do the quiz as many times as you like.
It's full of great vocabulary.... enjoy, listen and learn !
Not only is the vocabulary of the foods varied, but the way they are cooked can be confusing even to English native speakers.
Listen to Sue and Chris as they decide what they are going to eat and drink in the restaurant.
One of the most difficult aspects in learning and using English in a social setting is eating and drinking in the restaurant, which is obviously vital for survival, but in a business context is a hugely important part of relationship building with clients, colleagues and suppliers.
The main difficulties arise from the vocabulary used to describe foods and drinks and the way that they are prepared, but an additional issue is the background noise that is often present in eateries and places where people go to eat and drink.
There is also the fact that the conversation can change from subject to subject very quickly, so as a learner you need to be constantly on your toes – and hopefully enjoy the experience.
In this series on The Restaurant, you will learn some useful ways of asking questions, describing foods, tastes and drinks as well as a host of vocabulary and real English to talk about food and drink.
Series 1 starts with two people meeting in a restaurant for dinner, they then go into the restaurant to take their place at the table they reserved only to find a disagreeable surprise.
The following section takes us to discussing the food and drink on a typical menu in a British Gastro pub, where food is served to clients, known as diners.
The two diners are greeted by a less than friendly and pretty unprofessional waitress, who tends to their needs from their entrance into the restaurant until the point where they pay their bill.
Along the way they battle their way through some of the, often ambiguous descriptions on the menu to a few surprises with the food that they order.
There are some simple quizzes that you can take at the end of each podcast to check your understanding – if you like these then please sign up for premium membership where you will find over 120 hours of stimulating activities for each podcast series on this site.
Restaurant Podcast 2 The Menu
Test your listening skills with this comprehension quiz to see how much you understood.
Remember you can do the quiz as many times as you like.
It's full of great vocabulary.... enjoy, listen and learn !
Ayurveda the science of life is an medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent.
Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population report using it.
Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia.
Therapies include medicines, special diets, meditation, yoga, massage, laxatives, enemas, and medical oils.
Medicines are typically based on complex herbal compounds, minerals, and metal substances (perhaps under the influence of early Indian alchemy or rasa shastra).
Ancient Ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, kidney stone extractions, sutures, and the extraction of foreign objects.
The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of medical knowledge from the gods to sages, and then to human physicians.
In Sushruta Samhita (Sushruta’s Compendium), Sushruta wrote that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, including Sushruta.
Ayurveda has been adapted for Western consumption, notably by Baba Hari Dass in the 1970s and Maharishi Ayurveda in the 1980s.
Some scholars assert that Ayurveda originated in prehistoric times, and that some of the concepts of Ayurveda have existed from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization or even earlier.
Ayurveda developed significantly during the Vedic period and later some of the non-Vedic systems such as Buddhism and Jainism also developed medical concepts and practices that appear in the classical Ayurveda texts.
In Ayurveda texts, Doṣa balance is emphasized, and suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness.
Ayurveda treatises describe three elemental doṣas viz. vāta, pitta and kapha, and state that balance (Skt. sāmyatva) of the doṣas results in health, while imbalance (viṣamatva) results in disease. Ayurveda treatises divide medicine into eight canonical components.
Ayurveda practitioners had developed various medicinal preparations and surgical procedures from at least the beginning of the common era.
Listen to Renu, an Ayurveda practioner in north India talk about Ayurveda.
Susan caught up with Victoria – English Food Blogger, an enthusiastic food blogger from England who talks about her interests in food and blogging.
Victoria’s blog is available herefor those that would like to read about her food and recipes.
Food blogging is a very popular subject, with bloggers from all over the world sharing their recipes and thoughts on food with an ever-growing audience of foodies.
If you are an enthusiastic cook or interested in food and would like to share your passion with others, have a look here at How to start a foodblog.
You don’t need to be an expert – just able to write and pass on your interests and enthusiasm with the world.
Before listening to the podcast, think about the following :
What are food blogs about?
Who writes food blogs?
Why do people write food blogs?
After listening to Victoria – English Food Blogger, try to answer the following questions?
How old is Victoria?
How did she start doing her blog?
What did Victoria study at university?
Why did Victoria choose to write a food blog?
What foods does Victoria mention?
Who tests out Victoria’s recipes?
Is it difficult to set up a food blog?
Is setting up a food blog expensive?
Who does Victoria primarily write her blog for?
What tips does Victoria give for potential bloggers?
Victoria gives some tips for non-native English speakers who may wish to write a blog.
Do you have any tips for budding bloggers whose native language isn’t English?
The rise of the food blogger is perhaps no surprise in a world trying to connect with the simple life.
Available to all who have access to a computer and the Internet, we are inspired to try local produce, to experiment with what’s in-season and to be conscious of what we are feeding ourselves and our families.
Nourishment comes from more than simply nutrients; it comes from appreciating the process.
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