Category: B2

With so many news services out there today it can be difficult to discern which to choose.  Here to help is a round-up of some of the best providers in English.

• OZY– The ‘new kid on the block’. OZY presents itself as the ‘new news’ and comes complete with a ‘Presidential Daily Brief’

WEBSITE

BBC News – The old stalwart from the UK

RADIO

One of the best areas of the BBC for keeping updated.

WEBSITE

• Quartz For the business set

WEBSITE +

• Monocle for the trendy and informed. Also provides numerous podcasts and a radio station in addition to a very glossy magazine, several shops and a quarterly newspaper.

Take some time to look around this site there are several interesting radio programmes and videos.

The Guardian – The Guardian has an enviable  trusted reputation in the UK for investigative journalism. It’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, received the Right Livelihood honorary Award in 2014 alongside Edward Snowdon for exposing mass surveillance by the NSA and others.

To finish with…Initially the bad boy on the media bloc, ‘Vice’ has now got all grown-up and has given birth to its very own Vice News service ‘an international news organization created by and for a connected generation. ‘… see what you think.

A lot of travel talk in today’s class and in the middle of it the term ‘bucket list‘ came up. So –homework time, what’s on your bucket list?  Minimum five items.

Here’s a little inspiration from Jack and Morgan 😉 and a little something else I spotted https://www.bucketlist.org/activity/

I’ve also managed to find a really good radio documentary from the BBC about someone perusing their bucket list

Sportlov class: Bucket lists, ambitions and goals

Last class…Relationships

In class this week we discussed ‘relationships’. I posted some related content on the Facebook page here.  If you would rather not use facebook you’ll see links to the websites at the bottom of this blog post. There is a very good but tough podcast from the Freakonomics team and an interesting article from Brain Pickings.

They are difficult but they are not compulsory

FREAKONOMICS PODCAST What You Don’t Know About Online Dating

BRAIN PICKINGS ARTICLE What Mathematics Reveals About the Secret of Lasting Relationships and the Myth of Compromise

For our next class…Travel

For next week if you have time please visit the following website and listen to the podcast on ‘Travel Stories’.  We will be focusing on travel and shall  interview each other about our personal ‘travel stories’. The podcast should be inspirational and will of course help with your general English. Please think about you greatest travel experience so that you are ready to be questioned on Wednesday.

http://esl.culips.com/2014/05/learn-from-natural-english-conversation-travel-stories/

Happy New Year ladies and gentlemen!

According to Oprah if we maintain a new regime – fitness, diet, English practice… For thirty straight days it will become a habit…

Well I’m not sure about this, I haven’t tried it yet, however as a teacher I do know that just as certain as piano practice will make you a better pianist, English conversation, listing or regular reading practice will greatly improve your English language ability.

Welcome back all, listening and vocabulary practice below. If you haven’t seen it yet I hope you enjoy the Adele parody 😉 see you soon…