Hello, everyone,
Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast.
Here is a new episode for you. Now, listening to this podcast can definitely help your English a lot, especially your listening skills. But it all work best if you are also working on other areas of your English, like for example your speaking skills. And you can do that with italki, the sponsor of this podcast. To get started, go to teacherluke.co.uk/talk. And then you can just check out a lot of the English teachers and native speakers that are available there. They are waiting there to speak to you and to teach you English. And another cool thing about this is, that because you are a LEPster, italki will give you a voucher worth a 100 italki credits when you buy some English lessons from italki. And you can then use that to get a nice discount on more English lessons in the future. To check out italki and to get that offer, visit teacherluke.co.uk/talk or click on italki logo on my website, okay? And if you got any questions, feel free to contact me via my website, okay? Right. So now, here is a new episode of the podcast. So, start the jingle! Jingle: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the journey into English language, a journey into the DNA of the English language.
Really? The DNA of the English language, and that's a really quite a strong claim. I find your lack of faith disturbing. Who are you? You're talking to me? You're talking to me? You know who I'm talking to. I'm a school teacher. I teach English composition. Oh, really? Yes! Hello, everybody!
Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast.
This is episode number 364 which means that you can now listen to an episode of Luke's English Podcast every single day for a year. And what a good year for your English that would be if you did that! That would be a fantastic year for your English! Imagine, probably about an hour's worth of English injected directly into your brain every day for a year. You‘d emerge from that year transformed, wouldn't you? Imagine: January, the 1st, right. Here we go with the Luke's English Podcast annual project. This is where I am going to listen to an episode every day for a whole year: Here we go, episode number 1: ‘Introduction'. Bang! And then you listen to that. And then you continue to do the same thing every day for an entire year. And you'd emerge on New Year's Day -- New Year's Day? What's that? I don't know -- you'd emerge on New Year's Day the following year transformed into some sort of incredibly fluent, or at least you'd be transformed into someone who could certainly understand a hell of a lot of more English than you could at the beginning: Your vocab would be vastly increased. Your general familiarity with pronunciation and the way in which English is naturally produced in speaking, that would have gone up massively. And I imagine also that your spoken fluency would have improved as well. Because all these things are linked, you know, like your ability to produce fluent spoken discourse can be greatly enhanced by your familiarity with spoken discourse from your listening, you know? Yeah. 03:36
So, it's going to be good for your English.
So, anyway, you're now listening to this. I wonder if you have listened to all the other episodes of this podcast as well? If you have, if you're fully up to date with all of the episodes, and you have listened to this podcast from day one, then, you know, well done! Brilliant! That's brilliant work. Because that's a lot of time to have stucked with this project. You've stuck with Luke's English Podcast through thick and thin, you know. It means, that even if those episodes were... you don't really even understand what is going on, you're not entirely sure that I understand what's going on either, even those weird random episodes with lots of stupid jokes and rambling thoughts and things, you listen to all of that, good for you! Basically, I'm sure that you'll see the benefit in your English.Your English will definitely have improved as a result of all of that. If you haven't listened to all the episodes, then welcome aboard!
And I wonder how many you've listened to so far? I think that you can listen to Luke's English Podcast in many different ways. You don't have to listen from the very beginning. The main thing is that you are just involved, that you are really stucked into these episodes. You know, that is the main thing that you are really enjoying listening to it, and you get satisfaction from the fact that you can understand what I am saying to you, and the fact that I'm speaking directly to you, as a learner of English or someone who has got an interest in English. 05:16
This is for you.
So, you've come to the right place! If you are looking for real British English as it is actually spoken by a qualified English teacher with over fifteen years of experience, then you've come to the right place. And listening to this regularly will definitely improve your English. In fact, that's what this episode of the podcast is all about. It's all about getting back to basics and talking to you about learning English and some top tips for how you can improve not just your English but the way that you approach your learning of English. So this should be, I hope, a very motivational episode and quite a practical episode, too. Because I'm going to go through some specific tips and advice for how to learn English, okay? Because ultimately that's what Luke's English Podcast is all about. That‘s why I started this project in the first place, way back in 2009, when I did episode number 1. The intention was to provide the world, and maybe other planets if they are out there listening to this learning English too, anyone on other planets. 06:26
(I don't think that's the case, but anyway, let's stick to Earth, let's keep our feet on the ground.
So, the aim was always to provide the people of the world with something they can listen to regularly that will be a really, I hope, engaging source of natural English, that will not just instruct you in the English language, but also give you some tips on how to learn English, but also just provide you with something enjoyable, something that makes listening to English fun. And I hope that it is fun. Now, so, I've been away for a couple of weeks.
This is the first time I have recorded and uploaded an episode for about two weeks. And it feels like ages, I have to say. It feels like such a long time since I did this. And I wonder if you've been thinking that as well. You might have been. You might have been thinking: ‘Where's Luke? What Luke's been doing? Where is he? Why hasn't he uploaded a podcast episode recently? Why hasn't he given us more free learning English material lately? What's he been doing?' You might have been thinking that: ‘Luke, what have you been doing? 07:39
Now, if you have had that thought in your head, specifically that thought: ‘Luke, what have you been doing?
-- then that is a good sign. You should give yourself a pat on the back, if that's what you've been thinking: ‘Luke, what have you been doing?' Because that means not only are you thinking in English (also it's a bit weird that you're talking to me in your own head. That's a little bit odd. But let's not worry about that. Let's be positive.) So, yeah: ‘Luke, what have you been doing?' That's what you've been thinking. Now, you're thinking in English there, but also you're thinking using the present perfect continuous tense, aren't you?
Which can be rather a tricky one to get the grips with. (That's the phrase I'm trying to say:) ‘That can be a difficult tense to get the grips with. ‘Luke, what have you been doing?
So, congratulations, if that's the thought that has been going around in your head lately. Well done! It means your English is improving. Well, yes, I've been away.
I've been very busy basically. I like to do episodes of this podcast as sort of regularly as possible. And sometimes I go through phases where I am uploading loads of episodes quite frequently. And then there are patches where I'm a bit quiet. And it's usually based on the fact that, you know, I've either got lots of time and inspiration or I don't have a lot of time. I usually have loads of inspiration. Time is the main factor. So, when I'm uploading loads of episodes just a few days apart, that's when obviously I've got lots of time and I'm just sort of binging on podcasting. But then when there are quiet patches. It means that life has stepped in. Life has gone: ‘Oy, Luke, I need you for stuff.' And that's what has been going on over the last two weeks. I've been very busy with work. I've been teaching full days at school. I've been teaching intensive general… I've been teaching so much that I‘ve forgotten how to speak my own language. Alright. Just relax, Luke, okay? 09:54
There is music playing in the background, I hope that is not bothering you.
Why would that be bothering you? Of course, it wouldn't. It's just setting the right atmosphere, isn't it? Yeah, you can hear music in the background.
This is all stuff that I've produced myself. So, anyway, there is going to be a little bit of music in the background, not all the way through the episode, but certainly in the introduction, just to kind of take the edge off, you know? So yes, I've been teaching intensive general English courses at the British Council. That means I've been teaching 30 hours a week, a 6 hours a day, every day. And I am doing that all the way through this month. So it's a very busy month of teaching. And I just haven't really had a chance to get behind the microphone and record and then upload an episode of this podcast since the last one which was about Muhammad Ali.
I am glad to have received lots of messages about that episode. It seems that lots of people really enjoyed listening to it. In fact, a number of people have said that it's their favourite episode ever, which is always a delight really. It's always delightful to get a feedback like that. So, I'm really glad that you've enjoyed listening to that. I've really enjoyed doing that episode. I love telling the story of ‘The Rumble in the Jungle'. It's just for me a fascinating moment of the modern history, that fight. So, anyway. Here we are. Here we are. I'm back on the podcast again. And this one is going to be about top tips for learning English.
I'm going to get into that in just a second. So, I was just saying that the reason I haven't uploaded an episode recently is because I've been so busy teaching full days at school and then also doing loads of other things after school in the evening, you know. I've just been very busy and I've loads of things on my plate like for example my first wedding anniversary.
