EnglishLingQ
Angielski ze świata
English LingQ
-
#302 Steve and Alex - Multilingualism (Part 2)
How many languages do you know? What motivated you to learn a foreign language? In this podcast, Steve and Alex discuss the importance of motivation in learning a language and about the importance of promoting multilingualism.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Click here to listen to Multilingualism (Part 2).
Category: Language
Duration: 6:24Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
For an excerpt from the text, click below:Alex: Really, you have to make an effort to improve. It’s hard work, but I think definitely it’s so rewarding.
Steve: Well, it’s rewarding once you achieve the goal, but it’s also rewarding if I’m sitting there reading a book on Czech history in Czech. I mean I’m saying wow, look at me, I’m reading about Czech history in Czech. That’s very rewarding. Also, it’s very good for the brain, but I don’t necessarily think that you deliberately force the brain to do anything. It’s the fact that the brain is having to some how struggle with and put labels on and figure out this new language. As you are reading stuff that’s interesting, as you’re listening to stuff that’s interesting, all of that is very good work for the brain, I hope.
Alex: Yeah.
...
-
#301 Steve and Alex - Multilingualism (Part 1)
How many languages do you know? What motivated you to learn a foreign language? In this podcast, Steve and Alex discuss the importance of motivation in learning a language and about the importance of promoting multilingualism.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Click here to listen to Multilingualism (Part 1).
Category: Language
Duration: 9:55Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
For an excerpt from the text, click below:Steve: Well, that’s right. Yeah, and it can beat back Alzheimer’s. But the whole point and the reason I think it’s worthwhile talking about this is like okay, let’s say your case for example. I’ve heard you. You speak very good Korean with very good pronunciation. You don’t look the part.
Alex: Not so much. No.
Steve: No. And there’s no particular reason from your background that you should do that, except that you had a very strong interest in it. That’s the point I want to talk about is how many people could be good speakers of more than one language if they really felt they could do it. I think a lot of people don’t believe they can do it.
...
-
#300 Steve and Alex - Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 2)
Do you know a word when you can recognize it, or do you have to be able to actively use it? What does it mean to really know a word, and is having a large active vocabulary as useful as having a large passive vocabulary? In this podcast, Steve and Alex discuss different definitions of "knowing" a word, what a typical active to passive ratio might be and more.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Click here to listen to Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 2).
Category: Language
Duration: 7:47Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
For an excerpt from the text, click below:Alex: I forgot the word and as soon as I heard it I’m like oh, yeah, I remember that word, but I hadn’t used it in like two years.
Steve: And the other strange this is… Well, I have experienced this. I don’t know if you have. Over the two years, of course, your Korean has improved. You know many more words. You can read stuff more easily. You can understand people more easily and, yet, there will be some words that you knew two years ago, very simple words that you’ll forget now.
...
-
#299 Steve and Alex - Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 1)
Do you know a word when you can recognize it, or do you have to be able to actively use it? What does it mean to really know a word, and is having a large active vocabulary as useful as having a large passive vocabulary? In this podcast, Steve and Alex discuss different definitions of "knowing" a word, what a typical active to passive ratio might be and more.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Click here to listen to Passive vs. Active Vocabulary (Part 1).
Category: Language
Duration: 10:49Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
For an excerpt from the text, click below:Steve: I don't care how familiar you are with that non-familiar writing system; it's another level of strain, another level of difficulty. So what's been your experience with learning vocabulary in Korean?
Alex: I'll say to start off with, a different script. I had a friend in university, she was in her fourth year, she was Korean, from Korea, but she had moved to Canada about 10 years before. So I asked her one day. She was reading a research paper or something like that in English and I said “What is your English level compared to your Korean level as far as reading goes?” She says “Well, I would say probably my English is about the same now; like I'm able to read English as easily now as I am able to read Korean.” She was like 24 and had been in Canada for 10 years attending school, high school, everything, university for four years and it took her that long until she said “Well, they're probably about the same.”Steve: Yeah. I mean I'm not surprised. Even with the same script, I would say that. Even though I studied in France for three years and I'm quite comfortable in French, it's easier to read in English. You end up doing a little more sub-vocalizing, but that's even in the same script....
-
#298 Steve and Alex - About World Leaders (Part 2)
Steve and Alex talk about various world leaders, including Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong Il, Dr. Martin Luther King and more. They discuss how these leaders came into power, why they became prominent and what they are known for.
Difficulty: Advanced
Click here to listen to About World Leaders (Part 2).
Category: News and Politics
Duration: 10:32Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
For an excerpt from the text, click below:Alex: Yeah. Well, even then. I mean even to people who know a lot about it North Korea is so illusive. It’s so difficult to find any substantive information to really learn more about it. I had the privilege of talking to a lot of professors who study Korean history and Korean politics and have spent a good portion of their life on this and even to them there’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to really having insight into North Korea.
Steve: Well, you know it’s interesting. I read in the paper that children are taken from their parents and brainwashed from the age of like two. I mean that is tremendously powerful and so they probably did think that Kim Jong-il was like their father. They’re told that all the time. I know from listening to Echo Moskvy that when Stalin died, despite you know perhaps one in 10 Russians were either killed or imprisoned by him and I mean massive famine in farming areas all caused by this man, plus out and out just eliminating people, like shooting them, having them shot and yet when he died everyone thought they’d lost a family member because the power of indoctrination is so great. So maybe those people sincerely feel they lost, in a sense, somebody more important than their father.
...
-
#297 Steve and Alex - About World Leaders (Part 1)
Steve and Alex talk about various world leaders, including Vaclav Havel, Kim Jong Il, Dr. Martin Luther King and more. They discuss how these leaders came into power, why they became prominent and what they are known for.
Difficulty: Advanced
Click here to listen to About World Leaders (Part 1).
Category: News and Politics
Duration: 10:19Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
For an excerpt from the text, click below:Alex: But it's so interesting to see. I mean, in a way, when you compare the two it's almost like it's a different species. The thoughts that go through their heads are so differing. In a way, you can compare say Hitler to Martin Luther King, Jr. where they stand for things in the complete opposite spectrum I mean.
Steve: Exactly. What I think is unusual with people like Martin Luther King, which is another good example, or Havel or Nelson Mandela -- and I think to some extent, although I don't know that much about the Dalai Lama, maybe in fact he does abuse his power -- but there is that expression “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We see it in politicians or even people who have a lot of money. Once they have power and influence they become corrupt. It corrupts people and what's striking about those people is that they weren't corrupted by power; at least they were able to give the impression that they weren't corrupted by power. We don't know what goes on behind the scenes, right?...
-
Beginner #48 - Eating Out, Part 14
A simple dialogue which takes place in a restaurant. Part 14 of 14 episodes. It is a good idea to listen many times to each part. This story is available in other languages at LingQ. You can use these versions to provide a direct translation.
Difficulty: Beginner
Category: 1. Beginner I
Duration: 0:54Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
Click here to listen to Eating Out, Part 14.
-
Beginner #47 - Eating Out, Part 13
A simple dialogue which takes place in a restaurant. Part 13 of 14 episodes. It is a good idea to listen many times to each part. This story is available in other languages at LingQ. You can use these versions to provide a direct translation.
Difficulty: Beginner
Category: 1. Beginner I
Duration: 1:02Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
Click here to listen to Eating Out, Part 13.
-
Beginner #46 - Eating Out, Part 12
A simple dialogue which takes place in a restaurant. Part 12 of 14 episodes. It is a good idea to listen many times to each part. This story is available in other languages at LingQ. You can use these versions to provide a direct translation.
Difficulty: Beginner
Category: 1. Beginner I
Duration: 1:13Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
Click here to listen to Eating Out, Part 12.
-
Beginner #45 - Eating Out, Part 11
A simple dialogue which takes place in a restaurant. Part 11 of 14 episodes. It is a good idea to listen many times to each part. This story is available in other languages at LingQ. You can use these versions to provide a direct translation.
Difficulty: Beginner
Category: 1. Beginner I
Duration: 0:44Click here to see the full transcript of this podcast.
Click here to listen to Eating Out, Part 11.
