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How to help yourself think more like a native English speaker

 

Switch the default language on your phone/computer to English!  You may find it awkward at first but just think about it - how often do we check our phones during the day? For some of us it’s dozens of times! Now, each time you check, your brain will be registering a little bit of English - you’ll be absorbing it subconsciously - hooray for effort-free learning!

 

Use a monolingual dictionary.  When you don’t know the meaning of a word, the easiest thing to do is to look it up in a bilingual dictionary with your own native language.  But if you want to focus on English, cut out the middle man (your mother tongue) - that way, you won’t be actively translating from one language to another and it will help you to associate the word only with English and not through the medium of your own language.

 

Talk to yourself in English! Yes, out loud!! Probably best to do this in private…Listen to your pronunciation and the way you use the grammar and vocabulary to make your sentences.  Make a note of the words you don’t know and prioritise them for learning.  Maybe you could provide a running commentary of what you’re doing right now, what you can see, what you’ve been doing, what you’re planning to do and when. It’s a great way to practise your tenses and your numbers too (“I woke up at 7.30…”). You can do this last thing at night once you’re in bed or even set an alarm during the day - when it goes off, it’s time to spend two minutes speaking in English!  Even the busiest brains can find two minutes in a day to focus on this short exercise.  

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Start a journal.  If you want to make it special, go out and treat yourself to a beautifully bound, gorgeous lined notebook that makes you really happy when you open it.  Try and write something in English in your notebook every day. See if you can incorporate new vocabulary or grammar material you’ve recently learned or want to practise.  No-one else needs to see what you’ve written so don’t worry about your sentence constructions - just enjoy developing this skill - you'll be amazed how quickly your confidence grows and how much faster you become at writing in English.  

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Learn a song in English!  Singing is a great way to remember vocabulary and practise pronunciation and intonation in English.  If you enjoy this, learn a new song each week! Don’t just hum along to your old favourites - actively look up the words, sing along to the original and release that hidden rock god!  Not only will you be improving your English, you'll be looking after your heart too - singing helps you relax, reduces stress and boosts your immune system - there’s SO much choice out there - you’re bound to find something you love!

 

Stop worrying about perfection and making mistakes! SPEAK IT, SAY IT, GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST, COMMUNICATE!!! Don’t confine your English knowledge to books and articles - language is all about communication so get out there and communicate!!  Using the wrong tense or mispronouncing a word can’t be compared to any of the truly bad things we all have to face in life at some point, so why do we worry so much about it?! Be brave - most people are nice and want to talk to you and most businesses want you to spend money and make it as easy as possible for you to get what you want!  And finally, don’t be afraid of saying, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that please?” instead of worrying that you won’t understand the reply!

 

Listen to the radio.  In the UK we’re lucky enough to be home to what I think is the world’s greatest broadcaster, the BBC.  Think about putting the radio on when you’ve got jobs to do like cooking or ironing. You already know what a news programme, weather report, traffic report, phone-in show sounds like - every country has them, so you’ll already have an idea of what’s going on in the programme, which boosts your confidence!  I use a great App called TuneIn Radio - there are hundreds of stations to choose from from all over the world - try BBC Radio 4 for excellent quality, content and pronunciation!

 

Write your shopping list in English!  Get used to seeing these everyday items in English and don’t forget to work out the weights and measures and prices in English to practise numbers!  Finally, when you get home, follow an English recipe to make your meal, there's plenty of online sites - get started with: 

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com

 

Engage with my Facebook page! I'm constantly adding interesting articles, videos, jokes and language tips that will entertain you and give you lots of practice at reading or hearing everyday English.  They're usually topical or health-related items in the kind of English everyone understands (which, by the way is a great way of learning about how we deliver difficult content in an understandable way) and a quick way of getting your daily dose of English!  Here's a link: 

https://www.facebook.com/englishforhealthprofessionals/

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Think about your favourite novel/book in your native language, a book that you know relatively well.  Has it been translated into English? If so, why don’t you get a copy and read it again, this time in translation?  You already know the story/content, so you won’t waste time looking up dozens of words in your monolingual dictionary (!) and the book will have been translated by a native English speaker, so the narrative should flow naturally and not read like a clunky, robotic translation.  Settle down with a drink and relax - even if you only read a page a day you are managing to study and yet take a breather at the same time - no-one said learning had to be hard work!

If you still can't think of a book you want to read, check out my new book review page below. I'm sure you'll be able to find something you fancy reading here!

https://www.goforwardenglish.com/book-reviews

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When you’re watching films, choose the language option subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing - this means that the dialogue will appear on screen but in English, not your native language. It’s obviously helpful when you’re trying to understand the plot but it’s also a great way of hearing the differences between the written word and how they might sound when they’re actually spoken, which is often a major difficulty for English language learners.

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Are you sure you can pronounce the difference between bear and beer?  Can you fully recall the (at least) 8 different ways the letters -ough can be pronounced in English? Do you honestly believe there are only 5 vowel sounds in English?  To fully master them (there are 12 vowel sounds actually, and 8 diphthongs!) why don’t you consider learning to use a phonemic chart? That way, if ever you’re unsure exactly how a word is pronounced and you don’t happen to have a native speaker to hand, you can check in a dictionary or online and ensure you never ɡəʊ ˈɪntʊ ən ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ pʌb (ə)n ˈɔːdə tuː  bɛːz!

Have a look at the website below to download a chart today:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart

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Have you come across the BBC’s Six Minute English?  This is a feature on their website, “Learning English”.  It consists of 6 minutes of audio (with a transcript) on really varied and interesting subjects.  6 elements of useful vocabulary are chosen within each piece, explained and discussed - it’s well worth 6 minutes of your time and you can find it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english

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Read aloud. I think most of us have a tendency to skip words in a sentence when we read, especially when it’s a good story and we’re keen to find out what happens next!  However, next time you’re reading something in English, spend 5 minutes reading part of it out loud.  This will ensure you understand every bit of the sentence and how the words and grammar work together in context and it will help you focus on intonation and the flow of the words.  You can concentrate on these aspects of speaking instead of worrying about what to say because somebody else (the writer) has worried about it instead!   Whether it’s fiction, articles or blogs, find something you’re interested in to sustain your motivation.  Reading aloud will activate your brain’s visual and sound memory and so help you with not just speaking English but the spelling as well.

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Do you ever lose confidence with your English when you hear a native speaker and you find it really difficult to understand them, even if on paper you know all the words?!  As well as regular practice at listening and speaking English, another thing you can do to help is to understand that English is a stress-timed language and get to know the most common vowel sound no-one has ever heard of - the schwa - it looks like this on a phonemic chart ə.  Stress-timed languages stress the important words in a sentence, like the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs and the unstressed syllables get squashed up, speeded up and quietened - instead of being pronounced a,e,i,o or u they become ‘uh’! (The unstressed words are usually the auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, prepositions and linking words.)  Other stress-timed languages include Swedish, Russian, Arabic, German and European Portuguese.  These are different to the syllable-timed languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Finnish and Brazilian Portuguese which spend an equal amount of time on each syllable.  The video below explains the difference:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUMM5eCvi8w

 

It can be confusing listening to a native speaker and expecting to hear certain sounds, i.e every vowel pronounced - when you don’t hear them, you think you’ve misunderstood!  You’re not expected to reproduce these sounds but just knowing they exist will help you understand English!  The pronunciation teacher Adrian Underhill calls the schwa the most famous sound in British English and he explains how to pronounce it in this video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMpPB0GadaY&list=PLbEWGLATRxw_2hL5hY164nvHdTpwhEOXC&index=16

 

Here’s an example of a schwa in action: if I were going to say “I am going to go to the pictures tonight” I would sound like a robot if I pronounced every syllable with my British accent.  The reality sounds something like this (I’ve underlined the stressed syllables):

 

əm gənnə go tə the pictures tənight

 

Confused?!  The English teacher in this final video has some examples of how the schwa sounds in words and sentences.  For what it’s worth, I disagree with him on one point - I don’t actually think English learners need to worry too much about pronouncing the schwa themselves - everyone speaks English with an accent, learners and native speakers alike, but I do think it’s worth knowing and understanding about it because you will hear it everywhere and hopefully it will reassure you that you’re making great progress with your learning!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_XMthn4iUc

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Practise spelling names, addresses, emails and phone numbers out loud. We often have to give people this information and sometimes we can’t always remember the exact pronunciation of the letters in English!

Remind yourself of how we pronounce the alphabet by watching this YouTube video:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jTpGzLyGM0&t=2s

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Learn some set phrases - it’s good for your confidence because it makes you sound much more fluent and natural in English!  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be adding some useful phrases for you to memorise in the following situations: Making introductions, engaging in small talk, at conferences, in meetings, in hotels and restaurants, shopping, at the doctor’s/pharmacy, and using public transport and asking for directions.

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Making introductions

Pleased to meet you            

Can I introduce you to….?

Do you know…?

What’s your name? (Not how are you called?)

How are you?

I’m really well thanks, how are you?

How are things (with you)?

Where are you from?

I’m from …..

I’m sorry, I didn’t (quite) catch that

Sorry, could you repeat that (please)?

I’ve been looking forward to meeting you!

I’ve heard a lot / so much about you!

No, we’ve not met before - nice to meet you!

You must  be Mary

Yes that’s right

Nice to meet you, I’m …

Do you two know each other? George, this is Simon

Nice to meet you Simon

Nice to meet you too

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Small talk

Are you here on business or for pleasure?

I can’t believe how busy it is here!

Can I ask you where you got the coffee from?

I’m (so) sorry, your name has just slipped my mind for the moment!

Please excuse me, I’ve just seen Chris and I need to catch him

I’m based in London but most of the time I work in Oxford

Isn’t this weather amazing/terrible?!

Have you heard a forecast for tomorrow?

Have you worked here/with John for long?

That reminds me…

I’m afraid I’ll have to be going

I couldn't help noticing…

While we’re on the subject…

Mary asked me to give you her regards

Me too!

Me neither!

Really?

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Attending a conference

So, what did you think of / about that last presentation?

What’s your opinion on….?

I really enjoyed….

I totally agree with…..

I didn’t really agree with…..

Can you tell me a little bit more about your research?

Are you presenting a paper here?

Are you a speaker here?

Is this your first time in ___________?

How are you getting on with your research/with your project?

Are you attending the welcome drinks tonight?

Where are you based?

What did you think of that last talk/presentation?

It raised some interesting questions

It provoked a fierce debate

It generated a lively discussion

It challenged the status quo

It presented a new angle

How have you found the conference (so far)?

The presentations have been to a high standard

Overall, it’s been worthwhile

I’m rather disappointed about the organisation

Nothing stood out

So far, it’s been mediocre

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At hotels and restaurants

Could I book a double/single room for two nights on Saturday the third of December?

Would it be possible to move to a quieter room?

Is breakfast included?

Can you tell me, are there any good restaurants near here?

How d’you work the TV/aircon?

Can I book a table for eight at eight o’clock on Thursday night please?

Could I have a menu please?

What does it come with?

Does it come with vegetables or do I have to order them separately?

Could I have another knife please?

Could we have some more bread please?

Are we all drinking wine?

What does everyone fancy? Red or white?

…and some water please, two sparkling and two still

Are we all having starters?

I’m not having a starter

Could we have the bill please?

Can I pay please?

How much is it?

What do I owe you?

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Health

Do you have anything for a sore throat/migraine?

Do you sell plasters?

I think I’ve got a temperature

My ….. hurts

I feel terrible

I need something to help with the pain

I’m really tired

I slept really badly

I feel great!

I slept really well!

I’m feeling a bit under the weather

I think I’ll have to call in sick

Is it contagious?

Do I need a prescription or can I get it over the counter?

Can you tell me where the nearest pharmacy/hospital is?

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Meetings

Right, shall we start?

If we’re all here, shall we get started?

XXXX sends her apologies, she can’t be here today

Who’s going to take the minutes?

The first item on the agenda is…

Does anyone have any views about…?

Has anyone got anything to add?

I think we’ve covered that

Right, so shall we move forward?

Yes, I see what you mean

I’m sorry, but I don’t agree….

What about/how about…?

Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations?

I’m sorry, could you repeat what you just said?

No, that’s not what I said

Could you keep to the point?

Can we fix a date for the next meeting?

I’ll email everyone with the date of the next meeting

OK, that’s everything, see you next time

Thank you for coming everyone!

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Public transport and directions

Excuse me, could you help me?

Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to….? 

Hello, I’m lost! Could you tell me how to get to…?

What’s the best way to…?

Could you show me on this map?

When is the next train to…?

What time does it arrive?

Which platform is the train for…?

Is there a buffet on the train?

Do I need to reserve a seat?

Is this seat reserved?

Excuse me but I’ve reserved this seat

Which stop do I need for…?

Which terminal do I need/does the plane go from?

Where do I catch the bus for….?

How long does it take to get there?

Could you repeat that please?

D’you mind if I close the window?

Is there a post office/pharmacy/supermarket/hospital/police station near here?

Could I have a return/single to…?

How much is a ticket for…?

Is it a direct train or do I need to change?

Could I have a seat by the window/aisle?

Could you tell me where the toilets are?

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Shopping

Could you tell me where the changing rooms are please?

Can I try this on?

Have you got this in a size 12?

I’ll take it

It’s too big/small/tight

Where do I pay?

I’d like to return this item please

Do you have this in blue/a different colour?

Is this in the sale?

Could you tell me where customer services is?

What time are you open till?

Are you open on Sundays?

This is fine, I’ll take it!

I’m just looking, thanks!

Are you in the queue?

Shall I put my card in now?

Could you gift wrap it for me please?

Do I have to weigh the veg myself?

Have you got any more….?

Excuse me, do you sell…..?

Could you tell me which aisle the toothpaste is on?

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Have you ever thought about listening to audio books in English?  Not only is it an engaging and relaxing activity, listening to a novel being read aloud by a native speaker also helps you focus on the stress and intonation of natural English and you get more of a feel for the humour and drama of the story from the tone of the narrator's voice.  Don't forget you can listen to an audio book on the move - commuting to work, taking exercise or doing household chores, and if you want to be a super student, you could even listen to the story being read while you look at the original book at the same time!

Have a browse on this website to get you started - there's bound to be something here that suits your interests:

https://www.audible.co.uk/?tmplaceref=ENGINE&tmad=c&tmcampid=17&source_code=M2M30DFT1BkSH11221601AB&tmclickref=audible+uk

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Definitely sweat the small stuff! If you want to sound more like a native English speaker, spend time on your prepositions and articles.  Make it your mission to notice them! There are rules about when we do and don’t use the article (revise them here:  

https://www.goforwardenglish.com/grammar-rays-a-c).  However, prepositions are more slippery!  You can read about them here - https://www.goforwardenglish.com/grammar-rays-p, but I would advise you to learn them in set expressions rather than trying to learn the rules (if there are any rules!)  Whenever you’re reading English, take time to look at the articles or prepositions and think about why the writer has (or hasn’t) used them and try to commit to memory phrases that you come across (for example,  on the balcony, under a microscope, in the pub, at the doctor’s).  Think about context so you can remember to use the same set expression in the same context (understanding context will help you know why we use these particular prepositions for example at the waterpark - are you on the water, in the water or under the water?!)

One final tip -  if you’re ever unsure of using a particular phrase, Google it and you’ll see if it’s ever been written in natural English!

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Watch or listen to the news.  The news is always readily available on TV, radio and online, the presenters speak very clearly and if you’re watching it, there is usually an accompanying film that helps you understand the topic being discussed.  There’s also a good chance you might have seen or heard the news already that day in your own language, which will obviously be a huge help in understanding the English version.  When you listen to information you use a combination of two types of interesting skills you probably don’t even know you have! They’re called top down and bottom up processing.  Bottom up processing is using our knowledge of the language (vocabulary, grammar etc) to understand what we’re hearing.  Top down processing uses what we already know about something (in this case it would be what we already know about news reports) to guess in advance what the news might be.  Most reports have headlines, the news items in order of importance and sometimes they finish with a more lighthearted story.  The end of the report might also contain weather, sport and traffic news.  Because you know this already you have an advantage when it comes to hearing and understanding the news and this is great for developing confidence in your listening skills!

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If you don’t already use one, think about flashcard apps for your phone and computer.  They take the old-fashioned index card system and give it a twenty-first century spin with what they call ‘active recall testing’ and 'spaced repetition’.  You build up a collection of facts/vocabulary/grammar points etc in a ‘deck’, with your question on one side of the virtual card and your answer on the other.  Essentially, the app is able to assess in advance which questions you need to be asked in order to maximise your learning.  Common sense tells us that we need to see a piece of information several times to learn it, and these apps work out when you need to see a fact again to review it, so you don’t waste time re-learning things you’ve forgotten.  Unlike the old card index system, these apps are free, take up no space and enable you to use video, audio, images and text on your cards if you want to.  

Don’t worry about the time it takes to build your decks - you’re learning as you’re inputting the info and you’ll save time because your deck is relevant to you and so you’re much more likely to retain the information.  For example, if you never fly or send letters you’re probably not interested in ‘at the airport’ or ‘at the post office’ lexical sets but a keen baker might start their own cookery vocabulary deck and will retain the information much more easily due to its relevance to their own lives.

One of the most popular flashcard apps is called Anki and you can access it here:

https://apps.ankiweb.net

However, I use this particular app because I found it easier to use and I preferred the look of it:

https://www.ankiapp.com

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Phrasal verbs - if you want to get confident with English you really need to master phrasal verbs because they’re SO common, especially in informal English.  These are verbs that come in two parts - the verb + a particle - and you can’t always tell the meaning just by looking at the two words individually.  To help you with your learning, why don’t you separate them into verbs that take an object (transitive verbs - throw away, give up) and verbs that don’t (intransitive - get up, come over) and also have different lists for phrasal verbs that you can separate  (turn on, pick up) and ones that you can’t (look after, put up with) ? 

Remind yourself about them here:

https://www.goforwardenglish.com/grammar-rays-p

Have a practice here:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/phrasal-verbs 

Understand the differences in use from more formal English on this excellent page:

https://guinlist.wordpress.com/tag/latinate-words/

If you’re on Twitter, why don’t you follow @150phrasalverbs?

If you like to get your info from books, I recommend this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Phrasal-Dictionary-learners-English/dp/0194317218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528710874&sr=8-1&keywords=oxford+phrasal+verbs

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Record yourself! Don’t be shy! This is a great way of reviewing your stress, intonation and pronunciation in English.  Listen to your pauses - do you need to reduce them? Or do you need to think more closely about using them for a more natural effect?  Read from a book, a news article, a weather report, a piece of poetry or even improvise.  Even better, why don’t you video yourself and see what other people see when you speak?  Plus, videos are a great way of practising for presentations and interviews - you can see where you’ve paused for too long or looked confused!

The discussions on the BBC’s Six Minute English website have transcripts if you want to copy a native speaker:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english

 

And if you’re short of inspiration, why don’t you start with Noma Dumezweni reading Wordsworth’s Daffodils in the most beautiful, clear English!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrmnIsp7WBE

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Practice makes perfect!  Learning a language is the same as learning a musical instrument or improving your game in a sport….the more you practise the easier it gets!  Try to spend 15 minutes a day doing something in English.  You can listen to music, watch TV, read, listen to a podcast - it doesn’t matter - it all counts!  15 minutes a day (little and often) is more beneficial to retaining information than longer sessions done less often. 

If you want to know the science, have a look at this article on ‘Spaced Practice’:

https://osc-ib.com/article/science-spaced-practice-why-studying-‘little-and-often’-works

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Blogs - what about them? Do you read them? Why do people read them? Why would I recommend them?

People read blogs for many different reasons - the point is, they do read them! Maybe it’s because they’re interested and curious about other people or they want to connect with them.  Maybe they like to read things written by and about ordinary people and not just celebs.  Maybe other people’s blogs inspire them and they’re interested in the different opinions and perspectives that aren’t offered by mainstream publications.  

Blogs are great reading for English language learners.  They’re usually written in a chatty, informal style and use a lot of idioms and contractions.  It’s good practice to familiarise yourself with everyday English as well as the more formal or academic English you might see in journals or news pages.  Plus, there are blogs on every conceivable subject, so you can find one that will engage you, no matter what you’re interested in - lifestyle, sport, travel, business, food, current affairs, satire….

Here are some links to get you started:

 

For successful blogs:

https://phrasee.co/10-of-the-worlds-most-successful-blogs-and-what-theyre-doing-right/

 

Blogs for English language learners:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/blogs-for-learning-english/

 

My Camino de Santiago blog, with added English grammar points (highly recommended!):

https://www.goforwardenglish.com/blog

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Personalise your vocabulary.  When you learn a new word try and use it as often as possible as soon as possible in your spoken and written English.  If you can personalise the new word to yourself and your own circumstances, so much the better.  A good tip is to try and write three sentences containing the new word that you can relate to - you’re much more likely to remember the word in future using this technique.  For example, if you’re a doctor and your new word is ‘stethoscope’ you might write “My father bought me this stethoscope as a graduation present”.  A nurse might write “I wish the junior doctors would stop borrowing my stethoscope!” and a vet might write “I used my stethoscope to auscultate the dog’s heart”.  If you work in IT you might remember “The doctor used a stethoscope to listen to my breathing when I was ill” but maybe you might just think, “I’m never going to need this word.  Let’s have a look at some AI vocabulary instead!”  That’s absolutely fine! If you find it too difficult to identify enough with a word to write a meaningful sentence, maybe that word isn’t relevant to your life and you don’t need it taking up space in your brain that could be filled with vocabulary you’re actually going to use!

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Spend time understanding connected speech in English.  We don’t speak in a robotic fashion, with a space in between words making it nice and easy to understand us!  Most of the time our words run into each other, changing their pronunciation slightly,  and we often only clearly hear the words we’ve stressed (see ‘stressed-timed language’ above).  

Here’s the first line of this Top Tip, written how it sounds when I read it aloud at a normal pace:

Spentimunderstandin connected speech inenglish.  Wi’don’tspeak inarobotic fashion, withuspace inbetween words makinitniceneasy towunderstandus!

Some parts are barely recognisable, something you might appreciate if you’ve ever found it a challenge listening to a native speaker!  Here’s another - do you recognise the very first line from the very first book of an incredibly famous series?

Mistrummissis Dursley, uvnumber four, Privet_Drive, wuproud t’say that theywu perfectly normal, thankyouverymuch. Theywu the last people youdixpect tubee involvedinanything strangeor mysterious, because theyjus didn’t hold withsuch nonsense.

Yes! These are the lines from the first paragraph of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ (read more about the series on my Book Reviews page).

Why don’t you watch this excellent video, which clearly explains what’s happening with connected speech in English?  I think it’s a really helpful tool for language learners:

https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/linking-pronunciation?nabm=1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

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D.O.B. - Date of birth - everyone’s got one but can you say yours in English? This is particularly useful for health care professionals because we’re constantly asking people their date of birth to verify a correct ID! (Pronounced ‘eye’ ‘dee’ and the common abbreviation for ‘identification’.) We say our date of birth using ordinal numbers (first, second, third, fourth, fifth etc) in the UK, so get practising them so you can use them effortlessly (even if you only learn up to ‘thirty-first’!)

Here’s the usual construction:

The ORDINAL NUMBER/ of the ORDINAL NUMBER/ YEAR OF BIRTH (with or without 19).

01.01.85 - first of the first eighty-five

12.07.96 - twelfth of the seventh ninety-six

29.11.72 - twenty-ninth of the eleventh seventy-two

Can you tell me your date of birth? - It’s the sixteenth of the fifth fifty-four (16.05.54)

What’s your date of birth? - It’s the twenty-second of the second eighty-two (22.02.82)

Can you confirm your date of birth for me? - Yes, it’s the fourth of the sixth sixty-six (04.06.66)

Of course, people do use the name of the month too (02.01.88 - second of January 1988) and remember that in the USA they swap the day and the month round, which is why the famous date 9/11 was actually the eleventh of September, not the ninth of November.

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If you don’t already do so, engage with Podcasts.  If you’re new to them, they’re free audio programmes that you listen to either through the web browser on your computer, or  via an app on your phone or tablet.  Here’s a funny explanation by Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmRDVW7vo8

It’s like listening to a radio programme whenever you want to, instead of having to tune into the radio at a particular time.  Podcast series include a huge variety of topics, so you’re bound to find something that interests you, and the episodes are short (usually 20-30 minutes), which is the perfect amount of time for concentrating in a foreign language! Imagine how good it would be for your English if you spent just twenty minutes on your commute or whilst exercising, listening to natives speakers entertaining you!  A quick internet search will find you podcasts on the news, discussion forums, science, health, politics, celebrities, topical issues, film, sport, business, economics and finance, suspense thrillers, true crime and comedy.

Here’s a link with 25 suggestions for BBC podcasts for English learners:

https://www.onlinetefltraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/25BBCPodcasts.pdf

And here are some suggestions from Vogue magazine:

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/best-podcasts

If you're outside the UK you might like this podcast app, which offers millions of podcasts for listeners, so you're bound to find something you like!

https://castbox.fm

Finally, for people interested in health, here’s a link to the World Service podcast ‘Health Check’ to get you started:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsyw/episodes/downloads

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If you want exposure to English but you’re short on time, BBC Ideas is the perfect website for you.  In their own words, they provide “Short films and videos for curious minds”, and they really are short - between two and five minutes.  Each little film has handy subtitles too, although the narration is so clear, you might not need them.  Be warned - there is such a huge range of topics, you may become addicted!  Here’s the link to access it: https://www.bbc.com/ideas

Click on the Browse button to view the list of contents.

  

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(More Top Tips added regularly!)

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