A bucket list is a list of activities or things that people really want to do before they die, as depicted by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in the 2007 film of the same name, where two people realise their wildest dreams.
In this podcast Sue and Chris talk about a Bucket lists.
Before listening, do you know what bucket lists are?
While listening.
1. Does Sue want to swim with dolphins?
2. Where does Chris want to go for his bucket list?
3. Where does Sue say she thinks the Northern Lights are?
Listen to the podcast and try the following :
First relax, sit down, close your eyes then listen to the podcast all the way through.
Note down some ideas of what you expect the Podcast will be about. If needed have a look on the Internet for the keyword, ‘Bucket Lists’ to prepare yourself for the listening.
Listen to JUST Sue, ignoring Chris and try to work out globally what her questions and comments are. (you won’t understand everything, so there is no point trying at this point.)
Listen to just Chris as above.
Now go back and listen to Sue – take a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle, on the left of the paper, write any ideas that you have of what Sue was talking about.
Now do the same for Chris.
Now listen to the podcast all the way through THEN write down any more ideas that you have about the podcast.
Leave the podcast for a day or two, then come back and listen.
Do you understand any more than from the first session of listening you did?
How do you rate the difficulty level for you? (Too difficult at the moment / A challenge / I understand enough).
When will you return to this podcast to check your listening progress?
Remember :
You won’t understand everything you hear.
There is a lot of regular work to do to tune your ear into Real English – you need to work on listening regularly.
NEVER write notes at the same time that you are listening.
ALWAYS – try to set yourself realistic objectives.
REMEMBER – this is just a part of your learning and you need to be able to connect this work with your other work.
This is REAL English – we don’t believe that slow, over-articulated speech prepares learners for the real world – you may be able to understand an audio extract that is spoken slowly, but what good is that if you don’t understand real people in real situations.
At english-podcasts.com we want to help you to be ready for the real world – it will be difficult at first, but later you will feel the benefit – it is just pure, common sense.
We all know what a verb is, but what’s a phrasal verb ?
Well, it’s a verb with a particle, that can be a proposition or an adverb. For example, LOOK FOR, LOOK INTO, LOOK UP.
Phrasal verbs are everywhere in English, we use them hundreds of times a day but they are not always easy for learners to understand because the addition of the particle changes the meaning of the original verb completely.
Sometimes when the particle refers to a movement, the phrasal verb is easy to understand. For example, to look AROUND means to turn and look around you, but in many cases the addition of the particle can make no logical sense at all.
In this podcast we looked at the verb TAKE and added different particles to come up with many new words.
Before listening try this quiz to see how you do and then do the quiz again after listening to check your understanding. Not every verb will be useful to you so we recommend that you learn what’s important and useful to you, but keep your ears open to other phrasal verbs you may hear in conversation.
In this podcast we mention many other phrasal verbs with the preposition UP, you can go to the Grammar section to test your comprehension of our examples.
Learn English with Emmanuel Macron can be seen in two ways : as a parody of Emmanuel Macron speaking English, or the way that it was intended, that is to help people get over their fear of speaking English.
We hear lots of people who are afraid of speaking English as they make mistakes and have a strong accent.
Well, we say, so what! If you do not dare to speak English because of this, you are missing out on so much – including not improving your English skills.
As you can see, Emmanuel Macron makes mistakes and he also has a strong French accent, but this does not stop him communicating well and getting his message across.
I cannot think of another French president who communicates so well in English – so Well Done M. Macron – we hope you inspire others to forget the small errors they make, go over the fact that they have an accent and just start communicating, and most of all, enjoying speaking English.
And remember – If you are not making mistakes, you are not learning!
France put its 67 million people under lockdown on Tuesday 17 March 2020, in an unprecedented act during peacetime, and said it was ready to nationalise big companies suffering financial turmoil created by the deepening coronavirus crisis.
Drafting in the army to help transport gravely ill people and ordering border controls, President Emmanuel Macron late on Monday said citizens could leave their homes only to buy food, go to work, seek medical care or get some exercise on their own.
In the cities and towns police patrol quiet streets, stopping drivers and pedestrians and demanding that they present an interior ministry document justifying their movement. The form can be downloaded on the ministry website and citizens can present an electronic version on their smartphones.
Susan talks about the effects of the lockdown and how it has affected her daily life and habits.
Covid-19 series part 2: Australia and France, different lockdown situations
The virus COVID-19 is a pandemic which means that it is affecting countries all across the globe, but are they all responding in the same way ?
To find out we connected via Zoom with Laura who lives in Australia and Pierre who lives in France.
Listen to how Laura, who is living in Sydney, describes her “semi-lockdown” as compared to that in France.
Listen to Pierre, who describes his company’s policy to home working and working on site.
They both agree that the rules in both countries all seem a bit unclear.
As a learner you might find the clip a bit long, but remember that you can break it down into manageable sections (working from home, lockdown in Australia, what do you miss? What are the positives ?)
During the video you will see some questions which pop up regarding vocabulary and comprehension, you’ll find the answers (and more questions) in this quiz.
Covid-19 series part 1: Adapting to life in lockdown
Since the beginning of the year we have all been living in strange times. First we watched on TV as the COVID-19 virus took hold in China and then as the weeks went by the virus crept into the Middle East, Europe, the USA and has now affected almost every country on the planet.
New words have become part of our every day vocabulary: lockdown, quarantine, social distancing, self isolation.
How can we cope with this new (hopefully temporary) way of living? What is the effect on your working day, on your socializing and the way you get your groceries?
Do you feel the restrictions are hard for you or are you taking advantage of the time at home to learn new things, get things done around the house and enjoy the family.
In this series of podcasts and video links we will chat with people all over the globe (thanks to the COVID technology boom !) to find out how we are coping on an individual level and also take a look at the differences between countries.
In this first podcast you can hear Chris and Sue talking about how lockdown is affecting them.
Try this quiz to test your comprehension
COVID-19: Vocabulary quiz
Chris and Sue speak very naturally and use a lot of expressions. Test your
understanding of their conversation.
