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Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to send out the word - our Rollover is now functional after a lot of blood, sweat and tears! (That’s just an expression, we didn’t really cry, though there were paper cuts.)

What is a “rollover”? It’s when you roll your mouse/cursor over a word, and up pops some more information. EnglishPod’s rollover is for Premium Users only, in the Learning Center in the Dialogue and Expansion sections.

Our rollover for Business English includes the word itself, the phonetic pronunciation, and a brief definition. The beauty of the rollover is that if you click on the word, you can save it in your personal WordBank. Any words you don’t understand or are unsure of can be easily explained by using the rollover. I use it myself when studying Chinese on www.chinesepod.com, EnglishPod’s big brother. Any words unfamiliar to me I click on and save in my WordBank to learn and review later.

Some users my experience some problems at first when using this feature - the screen flashes white or the computer is slower. Let us know what problems you have and we’ll try to fix them as soon as possible.

Just another feature to help you in your goal of learning English.

Kris

So what’s the ideal English environment?

Well, I’d have to say, a job or school where most of the people use English, most of the time. Then add in English-speaking friends. An English-only girlfriend or boyfriend is a huge help. Hmm, what else? Maybe living in an English speaking country.

All of these things would be great, but we can’t have them all. We have to do the best we can with the opportunities we have. There are many foreign exchange students in my country (Canada) who stay together in groups, speak their native language, and spend years in Canada and do not become fluent (or even close in many cases)… sounds like the subject for another blog.

What I’m saying is that some of these people are not taking advantage of the opportunities they have to learn English. So let’s take a short look at the average person in Hanoi, Vietnam or Munich, Germany. How can they improve their English?

First, they can take language courses at a local school (community programs tend to be cheaper but not as high in quality, whereas private schools have higher tuitions but better instruction). However, we all have problems with time and money - both are limited.

Second, they can try to get a job where they can use the English skills they have and learn more. So, multinational companies can be helpful, but not always. There are many offices of large American and British companies in non-English speaking countries where almost no English is used, everyone is local. I have many students who have jobs where they only use English in company emails… well, this is a start, but of course it is better to need English for face-to-face communication or over the telephone.

Third, make friends. Now, a big warning here. Many foreigners in non-English speaking countries absolutely HATE getting asked for free English lessons or to be someone’s friend only for the purpose of practicing English. Make friends just for friends, the English learning is in the background, and is something that happens naturally. Don’t force it.

Fourth, use your time wisely. How much time do you waste in a day sitting on a bus or in a subway, waiting for people, etc. That’s where EnglishPod comes in. You can spend 20-40 minutes sitting at your computer listening to the audio, doing the exercises, listening (and speaking back) to the sample sentences for new vocabulary. However, an even better option is to download the mp3 podcasts on to your mp3 player and listen to the lessons as you go to work, work out in the gym, wherever and whenever you want.

Fifth, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, think in English. After you use English, reflect on the conversation and think about how you could have said something different, what could you have said better. A frequent observation of mine when teaching English and working with ESL colleagues is that they use the easy words that they’re very comfortable with, but don’t often try to use more complex vocabulary that might really force them to upgrade and improve their speech (though they may do this when they write).

Not one of these steps will teach you English on its own. You need to try all of them and find out what combination works for you.

Good luck,

So, where do you study and how effectively do you study?

I’ve learned from my many years of school (including 7 years of university) and many tries at learning languages (we’ll talk about that later), that there are certain times and places where I learn best.

My personal preference is to study in the morning or the early evening, with a coffee and quiet music in the background (i.e. Starbucks or a library where I can listen to headphones). I like big tables where I can spread out my stuff. I like snack breaks about every hour or so. When I study in this way, I learn quickly and I learn a lot, whatever the subject. But everyone has their preferences - find what works best for you. Here’s a short test that may help (though it does assume we all learn in the same way).

However, learning English is not exactly the same as learning Math or History. It’s not all about memorizing dates and formulas - English’s equivalent would be memorizing vocabulary and verb conjugation. English is a tool to communicate, so it needs to be used and practiced in that way. The focus should be on listening and speaking, but in practice, most people learn reading and writing first. This leads to students studying alone, which leads to neither fluency nor communicative skills. We should learn English together.

I have more thoughts on this topic, but perhaps I’ll save them for tomorrow. For now, check out this blog about learning English: I find Mary’s comment particularly thoughtful.

I really hate the out of control use of acronyms and abbreviations. In these days of instant messaging and chat rooms, acronyms and abbreviations are becoming all too common.

They’re not just annoying, but slow to read and awkward to say (do we say the letters, like in BBS, or pronounce it like a word, as in AIDS). There are plenty of people who agree with me. A great deal of writers, professors, language purists and old prudes like me (I’m not yet 30 if you’re checking) can’t stand them. I would link to them, but most of the blogs and comments I’ve seen are maybe, er, not appropriate (very strong language).

What makes it even worse is that many people learning English adopt acronyms and abbreviations quite quickly. I’m not sure why. I’ve had students use them in class and I didn’t know what they were saying. The students would give me a confused look like - “how can you not know this?”. Then I had to explain what they’re using is often slang or jargon. These students, who have a vocabualry about 1/20th the size of mine, are using this stuff. Often it’s from work - they have jobs where acronyms or abbreviations are often used in the workplace or that particular field of business. But the rest of the English speaking world doesn’t know them or use them.

Let’s get this straight. Acronyms and abbreviations do not make you sound intelligent, and they are not, in general, much faster to say. I can see how it makes sense to use them in writing sometimes, but only if they’re high-use, well-known ones that your readers will know. There’s nothing more frustrating than not understanding a piece of text or what someone is saying because they use too many acronyms and abbreviations.

I admit, I use them here at EnglishPod - we have our own little language of acronyms and abbreviations - but I wouldn’t use them with outsiders because I wouldn’t expect them to be understood. So to everyone out there, please limit their use - make yourself clear, stop the confusion.

For all those who need help understanding acronyms and abbreviations, go here to find out what possible meanings they might have.

I’m not sure where the time goes each day, but I’m thankful for the few timesavers I have. One is delegating, one of the nicer benefits of being a manager. It’s so satisfying to have someone else do work for you (as long as it’s done well and on time), particularly when the work includes those time-consuming detail-oriented “little things,” the little problems that take up hours, days and weeks. But where does one find the time for improving themselves and learning the skills necessary to become a good manager? If you don’t have time for management schools like Yale or Harvard, you can learn some very useful advice online. Gerard Blair has written some helpful articles here and there’s a management blog hosted by Tom Foster that has useful insights and, as in all good blogs, has readers who comment and ask questions. I’ve also found some good articles with advice for managers here.

So delegating is a timesaver. The Internet can be as well; there are many websites that can give us the info we want and teach us the skills we need to survive and thrive in the world. However, the Internet is so huge that sorting through all of the information can be a time-consuming task as well. That’s where Google, Yahoo and other search engines come in handy. I don’t use them as effectively as I should - we can all still use a primer in Internet searching - it’s such an important skill. Researchers looking through books for information don’t read everything, they read smart - they scan, they use indexes and they learn how to find what they want. The same is true for the Internet. Searching involves using “search terms” and “boolean operators.” Most of us amateurs just type in words related to the information we want and look through the webpages, but the boolean operators can help us be more specific. There are tons of pages with tips on how to search effectively, but here is one that has some of the keys. Finding the information you need can be extremely important in managing a successful company or just enjoying your free time more.

Computers themselves can be invaluable as timesavers, but in my experience, there are so many problems with hardware and software, that sometimes it seems like they make more problems than they solve. Remember the days of the secretary and the dictaphone? Just record your thoughts on the dictaphone and the secretary could type it out much faster than you ever could.

Other time saving tips: A decent list can be found at this site , although not much explanation is given. To learn about time management for studying (say, with English), see these tips. Making the most of your time is essential for language learning. I’ve met many people who have studied English for 10 years or more. The combination of poor study/teaching techniques and massive amounts of wasted time mean that after 10 years, they’re not even close to being able to speak fluently. We’ll talk about study and teaching methods another time. For now, let’s conclude with my tips.

1. Get enough sleep to function properly during the day.
2. Solve your difficult/intellectual problems early in the day.
3. Make schedules and do your best to stick to them.
4. Have well-thought out agendas for meetings and don’t get off topic too much. Keep meetings short and productive.
5. Make action plans. Write out all the steps needed to complete a project.
6. Eat well, take breaks. Use coffee as needed.
7. If possible, surround yourself with positive, high-energy, motivated people - this will give you the extra push you need.
8. Keep work at work. Your personal life should not include large amounts of time thinking and worrying about work. Relax, escape with a movie, and get exercise.
9. Keep some time free during the day to put out fires and solve unexpected problems.
10. Use time efficiently (i.e. do something during your commute).

Want to know where all of our podcasts go when they fall off the bottom of the home page screen?

Click on the “Podcast Archive” to find all the podcasts, or “lesson pods” as well call them (which include a podcast, PDF transcript, review materials, exercises and teacher lesson plan).

The lesson pods are searchable in different ways:

by title/introduction - type part of the name or a word from the introduction of the lesson pod you’re trying to find in the search box.

by level - click on Lower Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, or Advanced to call up all of the lessons for that level.

You can then sort the results you get from these two searches by: date, popularity or rating (in the Learning Center, premium users can rank podcasts on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest).

You can also search:

by topic - click on the topic and up pops all the lessons related to that topic.

by function - same as for topic, but what are functions? Well perhaps that’s the subject of another blog post, but for now let’s call it the use of the language - what situations can you use this sort of lanauge. Or we could call it the goal of the communication: i.e. agreeing/disagreeing, describing people, offering, inviting, etc.

All of these search functions allow you to find what you want and study the things YOU find useful and/or interesting.

See you in the archive,

Today I was wondering about learning languages and about the topics that are necessary/interesting to learn. I am both a student and teacher of languages, but I must admit I don’t have all the answers yet about what to learn and when to learn it.

Oviously at the lower levels the basics of communication are vital: talking about numbers, especially price, finding out where things are, and directions for how to get there, how to say what you like and don’t like… Describing people and objects is also key. Most of the textbooks I’ve used concentrate on topics like hobbies and jobs. Talking about your hobbies, families and what you do in your free time is alright, but not a necessary skill, and it’s a bit vague to be of much help. Given that EnglishPod’s structure allows us 10-15 minutes to discuss a topic, each individual hobby could be a topic.

Let’s think about what people ask you and what you want to know when you meet someone who speaks English. The typical American will ask you:

What’s your name? = introductions
How are you? = feelings
Where are you from? = talking about your hometown
Great weather today. = talking about the weather
What do you do = jobs/school

Howeverm, some websites and textbooks just dont get it. The topics taught are either irrelevant, useless or both. A prominent English language website for kids has topics like “Aztecs” - something the student will probably never use in their life. Other topics include “volcanoes”, “monsters”, “dinosaurs”, “polar animals”, “snow travel”, “haunted houses”, and the “circus”. Some of these topics are for kids, and that’s fine, but even “haunted house” is really only useful when living in cultures that actually have this concept.

Other websites and textbooks have great topics, useful language and teach things that can be used immediately and throughout one’s life. Check out the BBC’s street language topics including work, moods, sport, food, money here.

More advanced learners need topics that are more developed and specific. But we’ll get into that another time. Any suggestions out there for topics you’d like to learn about?