Blog

Hello! First, we want to say thanks to all of our loyal EnglishPod listeners around the world. We’re happy you are making OnDemand English such a success. We just wanted to update you on some big changes going on here. The biggest is that we’re moving back to our old website address: www.englishpod.com. Do not worry, the only thing you need to update your bookmark. We, here at EnglishPod, will take care of the rest.

Also, for our users in China, EnglishPod has partnered with Nokia to bring you short podcasts that you can download to your mobile phone. Each podcast is a quick 3-minute focused English lesson that you can listen to quickly when and where you want to. Look at the Mobiledu.cn website.

EnglishPod Team

Dear ODE users,
We appreciate your long-term support to our website very much , without you, we couldn’t have run such a long way.

Nowadays, we have collected all the suggestions to lesson content from our users, we really feel excited and we are going to edit lessons from these topics to meet your needs.

After May Holiday, we will have new lessons which are concerned about Vendor Managed Inventory, Just in Time , ISO 9000, Customer Relationship Managment, Data Mining, Curriculum Vitae, Curriculum Vitae and so on.

Hope you like our new topics! We will bring you more professional business English!And moreover, we look forward to your feedback, your suggestions is very important to us as the site is for you!

ODE team

Dear customers,

In order to provide you, our valued customers, with the best and effective business English learning platform in the world. Englishpod.com has begun the task of rebuilding and improving upon our website. In order to accelerate this process, we will briefly be interrupting our production schedule of podcast lessons. We apologize for any inconveniences this causes, and for all of our subscribers, we will automatically extend your memberships to cover the full amount of time without new lessons. Your support is critical to us, and we encourage any and all of you to contact us with all of your comments, questions, and suggestions. We really do need your input!

ODE Support Team

Welcome Tim Martin,

ODE has a new CEO, Tim Martin. Tim is from Chicago, Illinois. He brings 20 years of experience in business and a ton of positive thinking to ODE. I can speak from meetings with Tim that he’s excited about the future of ODE and ready to do what it takes to improve the website, the quality of the lessons, and customer service. The reason that Tim was brought on to the team (aside from his general excellence) was that the other owners of On Demand Training (ODE’s parent company) Ken Carroll, Steve Williams, and Brian McCloskey, wanted to take a step back and focus on other projects. They knew that ODE deserved the attention of someone with great business knowledge and personal character - thus they searched for and found Tim.

ODE’s definitely in good hands. Good luck Tim,

Kris

Greetings all,

Over the next month or so, Englishpod will publish fewer new lessons.

How many? ODE will publish just 2 lessons for the next 2 weeks (the same amount as this week) and then just one lesson/week for the 3 or 4 weeks after that. I know this sounds like very few lessons, but wait - there is a positive side. ODE currently has 107 lessons on the website - this is a chance for everyone to review the lessons and practice what you’ve learned. I know from previous experience it’s good to take breaks and re-energize whatever you’re learning.

Why? There are several reasons for the slowdown. On reason is the Holiday season. As you may know, people in many countries celebrate Christmas, and they take holidays to visit family and loved ones. All business in Western countries slows down a bit at Christmas (with the exception of retail because of Christmas gift shopping).

Another reason is that I am leaving the company to pursue other career options. ODE is going to find the right person to continue on with the podcasting, blogging, and other tasks I do, but it takes time. The good part is that they’ll be a new voice - variety in the voices you hear can really help build listening skills. Plus, I’m confident ODE will find someone with more business knowledge than myself.

In addition, everyone at ODE thinks this is a good moment to re-think the podcasts and see if there are some improvements we can make in them. Sometimes the staff here spend so much time and energy on production, and we don’t take a step back and look critically at the lessons. So this is a good opportunity to re-tool and improve the podcasts. It will also give our tech team a chance to grow and make improvements to the website.

It was great being a part of Englishpod and helping so many great students. I wish all the people behind ODE the best - I know they will do well, and of course, to the students, I hope every one of you can reach your goals and become confident speaking professional English.

Best Regards,

Kris Fedorak

So I’ve heard a lot of you out there are just listening to the podcasts, but not doing any other work on the site. I realized we haven’t fully explained how to use all of the wonderful tools we have on the website (except in the New User Guide).

First, slow down and just listen to one or two podcasts a day. You can’t learn everything in one day or one week. If you study 3 or 4 podcasts each week, you will be doing great 6 months from now. Set a date and start learning (New Years is coming, and it’s a tradition in many countries to make promises to yourself on that day, usually for self improvement - we call these “New Years Resolutions.”)

Which podcasts do you study? Well, find a level that suits you first. Listen to one or two podcasts from each level and decide which level you are. For example, if you find Upper Intermediate is good for you, stick with it - study other podcasts at that level. You need to understand the basics of the conversation between the hosts to learn much from the podcast. Of course it should be a little bit difficult; it has to be a challenge. Once in a while, listen to a lower level in order to review or if the topic is one you have trouble with. Also once in a while try a lesson from a more difficult topic to see if you’re ready to ‘graduate’ to a new level. If you listen to every podcast that’s fine, lots of students do that, but concentrate on the level you think is appropriate for you.

I would also encourage everyone to find topics they’re interested or need (now) for work. You’ll be much more likely to really learn and remember the target language and actually get chances to use it. Find the lessons you want using the Podcast Archive, which I’ve blogged about here (it also has its own tag here).

Now, how do you use our system to learn better and faster?
Put the lessons on your MP3 player. Download the lessons by right-clicking on the link, or using podcast software (podcatchers) like iTunes. See our RSS explanation here, to find out more.

Listen to the lessons on your way to work, then spend a few minutes before you start work or at lunch, reviewing the lesson online - this is where you can really learn the new words and phrases. Follow these steps:

1. Click on the “Review Materials” to study the lessons in more detail.
2. Go over the dialogue transcript (html page) and listen sentence by sentence. Use the rollover for any words you’re unsure of - add interesting ones you want to review later to your WordBank with just one click.
3. Check the Expansions section to see new language used in sample sentences. Listen and read the sentences, and make sure you know a) the meaning, and b) how to use the new language.
4. Do the exercises to make sure you’re really learning everything.
5. Then listen one last time (at work, on the bus/subway, at home, shopping, wherever).
6. 3 days later, review the same lesson to see if you remember and retain the target language.
7. Make a schedule to periodically review lessons you’ve already studied. If you can’t remember what you have and haven’t learned, use My Course to track your studies.
8. Post comments on the website to ask questions, and tell us what you want. If there’s a lesson you need, we’ll make it. If you notice mistakes or have problems, tell us about it - we’ll find solutions as quickly as possible.

Remember, studying our podcasts by themselves won’t make you fluent. You need to use the online resources to really learn new words and phrases and how to use them. Naturally you must find chances to speak English as well. Work is an obvious choice for some people, but for those not working with English speakers, see this blog and this other one to find out how to improve your English Environment to find opportunities to speak English and become fluent.

Ok, what are you waiting for? - try it out!

Kris

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share what lessons are coming up over the next couple of weeks. We’ve been doing a lot of office English over the past few weeks, but of course business English goes beyond the office.

Over the next 4 weeks or so we’ll have lessons on airlines, hotels, insurance and banks. They’ll be lots of great language, both for people who work in these fields and the rest of us, who are customers of these industries.

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment on our lessons or suggest some for us to produce.

Kris

Dear all,

Ever wonder which level to study at ODE? Here are some descriptions of student abilities at each level. Do they describe you? Try the different levels and see which one fits you.

These descriptions are also available in the Podcast Archive (where all our lessons are located) - just roll your mouse/cursor over the level titles. They’ll also soon be on the Home Page as well.

Elementary (E)
An Elementary student can understand slow, simple questions about daily topics. They usually speak in short sentences, and make many errors. They still think in their first language when speaking English, and this affects both grammar and communication ability.

Lower Intermediate (LI)
A Lower Intermediate student can perform daily tasks in English. They can communicate with one native speaker at a time, but can’t understand groups of people. A Lower Intermediate student is willing to speak, but feels their vocabulary is limited. They can only communicate about simple ideas. Grammar mistakes are still frequent. They use email at work without many problems.

Upper Intermediate (UI)
Upper Intermediate students feel much more comfortable using English at work. Their listening skills are good, but different accents can give them trouble. These students can communicate in professional and social environments, in person or on the telephone. They can understand many idioms, but can’t use them accurately. Complex vocabulary is understood but still misused from time to time.

Advanced (A)
These students are very good speakers, but still lack many idiomatic expressions and have difficulty with slang. They feel comfortable communicating in groups. They can communicate in professional environments, but lack knowledge in specific areas (medical or engineering terms, for example). Misunderstandings are more the result of cultural differences than English ability.

Try the different levels out, and see for yourself.

Hey Students,

We want to know what you think of our podcasts. After listening to a few, rate them. Those of you who’ve signed up for the free trial or paid subscriptions, go to your My Course. For any podcasts you’ve added to your My Course, you’ll find a link on the right side of the screen to rank them. If you think they’re great, give ‘em a 10… if you think they’re a little useful give them a 6… if they’re not good at all - 0.

Please be kind. Did I mention we love you?

What do you think of the new website? Yes, yes, it’s very similar to the old website www.englishpod.com. However, there are going to be many big changes over the coming weeks.

We want your input on these changes. What do you like, and what don’t you like? Tell us about everything, from the colors and pictures to the learning tools and level difficulty. All of it is open for you to comment on.

We’re currently working to distinguish the website as Englishpod - updating all of the logos, links and email addresses. If you experience a problem, or notice something wrong, don’t hesitate to send an email to info@ondemand-english.com.

With this new website, we want to add to the experience of our users. One way is to make it easier to find what you want. If you’d like to study telephone English, go to the Podcast Archive, where all of the lessons are located and search tools make it simple to get your lessons ‘on demand.’ Got more suggestions? - send us an email or comment on this blog.