The judge in Pennsylvania gave two convicted criminals an unusual choice: learn English or go to jail. He set one year deadline. If they fail the English test, that will leave them the only option: serving two full year behind the bar.
Some ESL teachers might secretly wish they are given the judge’s authority.
For the video report, watch it at CNN; for the news article, check it out at Associated Press.
“What is your name?”
“Bond, James Bond.”
It’s been the best known English conversation 101 worldwide ever since Sean Connery uttered the name of the agent 007 in Dr. No more than four decades ago. The same line was repeated in the trailers of the later sequels, no matter who played 007.
Watching movie trailers is fun, as a lot of them were surprisingly well made. In two minutes or less, the movie makers artfully rearranged the scenes in quick succession, while the voice-over or the dotted dialogues tell barely enough of story to stir your curiosity. Trailers may not be the best source for an elaborated English, but they are wonderful materials for non-native speakers to pick up the rhythm of spoken English.
Among several websites that host the movie trailers, the best and sleekest one has a simple name.
Al Pacino is talking about the football play. Or is he?
The Obama’s race speech, A More Perfect Union, isn’t not a typical presidential campaign speech laced with the soundbite lines. He talks in the long sentences, and he discusses the racial issue with both personal experience and historical perspective. It’s a great listening comprehension material.
When Hulu, yet another online video site, started a few months ago, it said it would not be a copycat of YouTube, which just about every other teenager girl and her nerdy cousin had uploaded an amateur video about, like, whatever.
Hulu aims to play in the professional league, sort of NBA vs. Youtube of high school tournament. It finally opened to the public this week with a big splash. The site is sleek, with the TV shows and movies–some are clips, some full-length–released by several TV networks and movie studios. In a word, they are professionals.
It’s too early to tell whether Hulu will have a great season. But given the quality and variety of the materials at its site, we bet that the English learners, especially those in advanced level, will come out as the winners. All are free to view. Pick the ones you like (we love Family Guy), watch them often, and have some fun.
That’s how the learning is supposed to be done.
For some learners, it’s easier to practice spoken English when they could slip out their own skins and pretend to be somebody else. Once escaped from their first life, they found themselves thriving in the Second Life.
How is your experience of learning English at the Second Life?
I can speak English well, but I only do it from behind the scene….
Curiosity is underrated in learning a new language just as hardworking is often overrated. You can work your ass off in classroom, but still can barely speak the language, let alone speak it well.
But if you have a strong curiosity, it works the other way around. Everything comes to you easily, at least seemingly. It’s because curiosity drives people nut, and the nut people pick up new things as they hunt for the answers. The second language won’t stop them.
The videos at How Stuff Works are perfect resources to satisfy your curiosity while you learn English. They cover a lot of stuffs, from mundane (How Engine Works) to weird (How ID Theft Works). Each video is only a few minutes long, explains stuff in simple and concise English, and often uses pictures or diagrams for show-and-tell. Really good stuffs.
One stone to kill two birds, as they like to say.
(You can watch the video either at How Stuff Works site or at its YouTube channel)
The difference is quite obvious between American English and British English. But how about the differences among the American regional English?
A New Yorker might have a harder time talking with a New Orleanian than with a Londoner.
That’s how Tiger Woods has gotten to where he is. He talked about his success and passion with Ed Bradley in the CBS’s 60 Minutes program.
part 1
Part 2
About: learning a second language? talk as much as you can, make as many mistakes as you have to, and never, never, never give up.