NEW! 014 – “I Forgot my Wallet!” – Listening lesson (podcast)

by Melanie on May 16, 2013

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Story:

I went grocery shopping, but I forgot my wallet at home!

Pronunciation Lesson:

Two ways to pronounce ‘the’

 
This weekly podcast is for intermediate to advanced English learners. I use core vocabulary to tell you a story about something that happened in my daily life in Canada. Each podcast also includes a pronunciation lesson that explains something I said in the story. You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. After the pronunciation lesson, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed. I speak naturally and with a standard American accent.

Transcript:

[I speak with a standard American accent, but sometimes my spelling is British. That's the way we do things in Canada!]

Have you ever gone shopping and forgotten your wallet, but you didn’t know you had forgotten your wallet until you were ready to pay for everything? That happened to me and it was really embarrassing. I went to the grocery store, as I do every week. I put my purse in the cart and went through the entire store. I filled my cart with all the items on my grocery list. I got to the checkout, and as the cashier was scanning all my items, I reached into my purse to get my wallet to pay for everything.

That’s when I realized my wallet was not in my purse! In a flash, I remembered where I had left my wallet. It was sitting next to my computer. Earlier in the day I had been trying to buy tickets over the Internet to a concert. I forgot to put my wallet back in my purse.

I felt so awkward! I quietly explained my situation to the cashier. Luckily she was very sympathetic. She told me to drive home very slowly (obeying all traffic laws), get my wallet, and then come back. I was really nervous about this! My house was only a 15-minute drive away, but it was pouring rain outside, and my driver’s license was in my wallet! It’s illegal to drive without a license!

When I returned to the store with my wallet, I went to the customer service counter. My two bags of groceries were sitting behind the counter. The technology in supermarkets is really advanced! The cashier had saved my bill in her computer. It had been saved with the helpful title, “Melanie who forgot her wallet.” At the customer service counter, the cashier found my bill in her computer, and I was able to pay for the groceries there.

Now, I always make sure I have my wallet before I leave the house!

 

Pronunciation

Listen to some things I said in the story:

the grocery store
the entire store
all the items
over the Internet
behind the counter

Did you notice that sometimes I said the /ðə/ and sometimes I said /ði/? Do you know why?

Listen again and see if you can hear the difference:

the grocery store
the entire store
all the items
over the Internet
behind the counter

The word the is one of the most commonly-used words in English. There are two ways to pronounce the.

Most of the time, it is pronounced the /ðə/.

However, when the comes before a word that begins with a vowel sound, it’s pronounced /ði/.

Listen carefully:

the entire store
all the items
over the Internet

Sometimes people will say /ði/ when they want to emphasize or exaggerate something:
For example,
“That was the best ice cream I’ve ever had.”
“That’s THE David Beckham? ”
[= the famous soccer player David Beckham, not another person named David Beckham]

This is just one of many ways you can emphasize or exaggerate something in English.

 

Reference Vocabulary:

wallet
“Have you ever gone shopping and forgotten your wallet, but you didn’t know you had forgotten your wallet until you were ready to pay for everything?”
= a small case in which people put money, credit cards and other small things to carry in a purse or pocket

grocery
“I went to the grocery store, as I do every week.” [adjective]
“I filled my cart with all the items on my grocery list.” [adjective]
“My two bags of groceries were sitting behind the counter.” [noun]
‘and I was able to pay for the groceries there” [noun]
A grocery store is another name for a supermarket. Groceries are food items that can be bought at a grocery store. A grocery list is a list of all the food items that a person needs to buy at the grocery store.

the checkout
“I got to the checkout, ”
= the area in a grocery store [or other large store] where you pay for all your items; in a grocery store or supermarket, there is usually one long row with many different checkout counters

cashier
“I quietly explained my situation to the cashier.”
“The cashier had saved my bill in her computer.”
“…the cashier found my bill in her computer, …”
= a person who works at the checkout; this person takes your money
A cashier also works in stores & banks.

a driver’s license / license
“…and my driver’s license was in my wallet!”
“It’s illegal to drive without a license!”
= a legal document, usually a card, that allows you to legally drive a car or other vehicle. You cannot drive a car without this card!

customer service
“When I returned to the store with my wallet, I went to the customer service counter.”
“At the customer service counter,…”
= a place in a store that deals with customer complaints or customer relations, or where a customer can ask for information about something

 

Phrasal Verbs:

put (something) back
“I forgot to put my wallet back in my purse.”
= return something to its original place

come back
“She told me to drive home very slowly (obeying all traffic laws), get my wallet, and then come back.”
= return to a place

 

Core Vocabulary:

(What is core vocabulary?)

3***
forget
everything
store
entire
fill
item
reach
realize
remember
sit
computer
ticket
quietly
explain
situation
drive
slowly
traffic
law
pour
return
technology
bill
save
title

2**
purse
cart
scan
awkward
concert
calmly
sympathetic
nervous
illegal
counter
supermarket
representative
helpful

1*
embarrassing
flash
luckily
obey

 

Collocations:

(What are collocations?)

be ready (to do something)
pay for (something)
on a list
in a flash
sit next to (someone/something)
buy tickets
over the Internet
explain (something) to (someone)
obey a/the law
traffic laws
driver’s license
it’s illegal to (do something)
behind the counter

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013 – “The Lost Keys!” – Listening lesson (podcast)

by Melanie on May 9, 2013

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Story:

One day, my parents lost the keys to the house. Eight days later, the keys arrived in the mail. How did that happen???

Pronunciation Lesson:

Linking consonant sounds to vowel sounds

 
This weekly podcast is for intermediate to advanced English learners. I use core vocabulary to tell you a story about something that happened in my daily life in Canada. Each podcast also includes a pronunciation lesson that explains something I said in the story. You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. After the pronunciation lesson, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed. I speak naturally and with a standard American accent.

Transcript:

[I speak with a standard American accent, but sometimes my spelling is British. That's the way we do things in Canada!]

 
This is a story about something that happened to my mom & dad about a year ago. They had gone out to do some shopping, and somewhere along the way they lost the key to their house. My dad left the house first, and my mom locked the door as she was leaving. She claims that she put the keys on top of the car to give to my dad. That’s the last time anyone saw the keys. When they got home, each waited for the other to open the door to the house. That’s when they realized the keys were gone. They spent the rest of day searching high & low for the keys, but they couldn’t find them.

My parents decided to wait a few days before changing the locks in case someone returned the keys. Their house has an alarm system and there was nothing on the keys that could identify them as keys to their house, so they weren’t worried about someone using the keys to get in.

You may think it’s odd to wait for someone to return the keys, but this actually happens in Canada! A charity came up with a very innovative service to encourage people to donate to them. They make identification tags for your keys. Each tag has a unique number on it, and that unique number tells this charity who & what address the keys belong to. Anyone anywhere in Canada who finds a set of keys with an ID tag from this charity can drop the keys in any mailbox or take them to the post office. Canada Post sends the keys to the charity. The charity uses the number on the key tag to look up the address of the owner in their database, and mails the keys back to the owner. For free. It’s a worthy charity & a great service, so many people donate money to it.

Eight days after my parents lost the keys, the keys arrived in the mail. The keys must have fallen off the car after my parents left the house, and a kind, anonymous person found them and put them in the mail. The charity sent the keys back to my parents.

 

Pronunciation

Listen to some sounds from the story. Can you understand what I’m saying?

this is a

keys on

them as

think it’s

happens in

One of the main features of English pronunciation is linking. It’s part of the rhythm of English. To link things together, means to connect them. In spoken English, words are connected together so that there is no pause between the words. Linking words together sounds more natural & makes your speech more fluid.

One of the most common methods of linking, is to link a consonant sound at the end of one word, to the vowel sound at the beginning of the next word, so that the second word sounds like a syllable of the first word. Listen again:

This is a story

she put the keys on top of the car

there was nothing on the keys that could identify them as keys to their house

You may think it’s odd

this actually happens in Canada

Most of the time, content words are linked to function words, or function words are linked together. You might not be able to hear the function words, because they are linked to content words.

When people start learning English, they learn to pronounce every word individually. They have trouble listening to natural spoken English, because they are listening for separate words. The more you listen to natural spoken English, the more you will get used to all the strange sounds that come from linking words together, and you will stop listening for each individual word.

Imitation is a great way to add linking to your spoken English. Practice different phrases & sentences that you hear. The more you practice, the easier it becomes to link words together.

 

NOTE:

The charity I talk about in the story is The War Amps. The key tag service helps the War Amps raise money to help amputees. I didn’t talk about the specific charity in the story because it’s difficult to explain using just core vocabulary. It’s a charity that helps amputees. An amputee is someone who has had part of his/her body (usually part of a leg or an arm) amputated. To amputate is to cut off or remove a part of someone’s body, usually part of a leg, foot, arm or hand. For example, after the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, many people had to have their legs amputated (removed) because of damage to their legs from the bomb.

 

Reference Vocabulary:

the keys
Throughout the story I use both ‘the key’ and ‘the keys.’ Often we keep more than one key on a key ring or a key chain. Even though we only need 1 key to unlock a door, we still say ‘the keys’ to mean ‘the key chain’ or ‘the key ring.’

change the locks
“My parents decided to wait a few days before changing the locks in case someone returned the keys.”
= When you lose the key to the house, you have to change all the locks that key opens. Canadian & American homes have more than one door. Houses have a front door and a back door, and may also have a side door & a garage door (from the garage to the house). The same key will open all those doors, so if you lose that key, you have to change the lock on every door.

mailbox
“Anyone anywhere in Canada who finds a set of keys with an ID tag from this charity can drop the keys in any mailbox or take them to the post office.”
= a large box in a public space where people can put their letters (with postage stamp) to send to someone else. The postal service collects all the mail from the public mailboxes.

Canada Post
“Canada Post sends the keys to the charity.”
= the national postal service in Canada

 

Phrasal Verbs:

come up with
“A charity came up with a very innovative service to encourage people to donate to them.”
= think of something (a solution, a plan, an idea, something that is needed)

look up
“The charity uses the number on the key tag to look up the address of the owner in their database,…”
= to search for / find a piece of information

 

Core Vocabulary:

(What is core vocabulary?)

3***
story
happen
lost
key
lock
claim
each
wait
realize
search
return
system
identify
worry
actually
charity
service
encourage
unique
sends
address
owner
service
arrive

2**
lock [noun]
alarm
odd
identification
address
post office
database
worthy
mail [noun]

1*
innovative
donate
tag
mail [verb]
anonymous

 

Collocations:

(What are collocations?)

about a year ago
the key to (something)
lock a/the door
on top of
the last time
open a/the door
the door to the house
search/look high & low
a few days
in case
an alarm system
for free
in the mail

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012 – “The Facebook Party!” – Listening Lesson (podcast)

by Melanie on May 1, 2013

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Story:

A party on my street (that got out of control!)

Pronunciation Lesson:

The reduced form of the pronoun our

 
This weekly podcast is for intermediate to advanced English learners. I use core vocabulary to tell you a story about something that happened in my daily life in Canada. Each podcast also includes a pronunciation lesson that explains something I said in the story. You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. After the pronunciation lesson, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed. I speak naturally and with a standard American accent.

Transcript:

[I speak with a standard American accent, but sometimes my spelling is British. That's the way we do things in Canada!]

 
Our neighborhood is very quiet. I live with my family in a suburb north of Toronto. There are some families with young children in the neighborhood, but mostly the people living here are older, retired couples. Our house is on a hill. There is a street going up the hill with houses on either side of it.

Not too long ago, I was staying in on a Saturday night. Around 10:30 at night, I heard a lot of noise outside. I looked out my window and saw an unusually large number of teenagers walking up the hill. They just kept coming & there was no end in sight! I went outside to see where they were all going, and I saw that there was a mob of kids at the top of the hill. I’d never seen that many kids in our neighborhood, not even on Halloween!

Sure enough, someone in the neighborhood called the police. The kids had taken over the road. A lot of them had probably been drinking. They were yelling at neighbors and running between houses to urinate. One of my neighbors almost got in a fist fight with a kid who was mouthing off, and the police had to step in.

A 14-year-old girl who lives at the top of the hill decided to have a party while her parents were away. She posted the details on Facebook, and of course, it went viral. Kids SHOWED UP at her house from all over town, including people she didn’t even know. The police estimate(d) [*I should have said 'estimated'] there were about 200 kids. It took 5 police cars and half an hour to disperse everyone.

I’m sure it was a great party for the kids. A party is always considered cool when the police SHOW UP, and I’m sure she was very popular at school after this. She was also probably punished by her parents when they got home and heard about what happened.

 

Pronunciation

Listen carefully to some sentences from the story:

Our neighborhood is very quiet.

Our house is on a hill.

I’d never seen that many kids in our neighborhood,…

Did you hear the word our in those sentences?

The pronoun our is a function word. It’s a grammar word. It’s not an important word, but it needs to be in a sentence so that the sentence is grammatically correct. Within a sentence, function words are unstressed, and they are often reduced.

The pronoun our is unstressed and reduced in a sentence. In natural spoken English, it’s pronounced /ɑɚ/, exactly like are, the second-person singular and plural form of the verb be.

Listen again:
I didn’t say “Our neighborhood.” I said “/ɑɚ/ neighborhood”

I didn’t say “Our house.” I said “/ɑɚ/ house”

Can you hear the difference?

Listen to the story again, and listen for the reduced form of our.

 

Reference Vocabulary:

urinate (verb)
They were yelling at neighbors and running between houses to urinate.
= to pee, get rid of liquid waste from your body

fist fight
One of my neighbors almost got in a fist fight with a kid who was mouthing off, and the police had to step in.
= a fight in which people use their fists (your hands with fingers closed in a ball) to hit each other

go viral
She posted the details on Facebook, and of course, it went viral.
= spread very quickly from person to person on the internet

 

Phrasal Verbs:

stay in
Not too long ago, I was staying in on a Saturday night.
= stay at home instead of going out

take over
The kids had taken over the road.
= take/have control of (something)

mouth off
One of my neighbors almost got in a fist fight with a kid who was mouthing off, and the police had to step in.
= talk loudly & say rude, unpleasant, offensive things

step in
One of my neighbors almost got in a fist fight with a kid who was mouthing off, and the police had to step in.
= to become involved into order to prevent or stop something bad from happening

show up
Kids show up at her house from all over town, including people she didn’t even know.
A party is always considered cool when the police show up,…
= arrive at a place/somewhere

 

Core Vocabulary:

(What is core vocabulary?)

3***
control
neighborhood
quiet
couples
hill
street
window
number
kids [older people use ‘kids’ to also refer to teenagers]
police
road
neighbor
fight
away
details
estimate
great
consider
cool
popular

2**
drinking [drinking alcohol]
fist
punish

1*
suburb
retired
unusually
mob
yell
post
disperse

 

Collocations:

(What are collocations?)

out of control
north of
up the hill
on either side of
(not) long ago
on a Saturday night
at night
a lot of
a number of
in sight
no end in sight
sure enough
call the police
of course
half an hour
at school

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011 – “This is an Easier Way of Doing It!” – Listening Lesson (podcast)

by Melanie on April 24, 2013

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Story:

This podcast started in the summer of 2010, but it became so time-consuming that I threw in the towel a few months later. Now, I have an easier way of making podcast episodes!

Have you ever thrown in the towel?

Pronunciation Lesson:

How to sound more confident when you are speaking English

 
This weekly podcast is for intermediate to advanced English learners. I use core vocabulary to tell you a story about something that happened in my daily life in Canada. Each podcast also includes a pronunciation lesson that explains something I said in the story. You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. After the pronunciation lesson, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed. I speak naturally and with a standard American accent.

Transcript:

[I speak with a standard American accent, but sometimes my spelling is British. That's the way we do things in Canada!]

 
Did you know this podcast actually started in the summer of 2010? The English Teacher Melanie website was less than a year old and I was experimenting with different lessons. I had spent a lot of time on Twitter & Facebook talking to English learners, and I learned that there weren’t a lot of quality listening resources available for students. I also learned that people really liked Canada even though they didn’t know a lot about it. I realized I could help learners improve their listening by telling stories about life in Canada.

In theory, the procedure for making a podcast was simple: Each week I wrote a short story and a pronunciation lesson. I already had a professional microphone that I was using to make videos, and this microphone was highly recommended for podcasting, too, so I just plugged it into my laptop. I set up my laptop in the quietest room in the house & recorded the entire lesson. I edited the .mp3 file, and uploaded it. In practice, it was not this simple.

It turned out that my microphone was the WORST microphone to use for podcasting. It picked up every single sound in the background. If you had listened carefully to some of the old episodes, you could hear birds chirping outside, cars going by, the fan on my laptop, even my mouth opening & closing. I tried everything I could think of to create a soundproof environment, but nothing worked! I even sat in a walk-in closet, but if someone was watching TV in the room below, the microphone picked that up, too.

It would take hours to edit out all the background noise. After 29 episodes, I finally threw in the towel. I didn’t want to abandon the podcast, because there had been such a positive response to it. I just needed to find an easier way of doing it! I did a lot of research, and found a better microphone, better recording equipment, and better editing software. Producing an episode is much easier now.

My goal is to help you understand natural spoken English. I want this podcast to be an important part of your English studies, so I’m looking forward to hearing from you about the new episodes!

 

Pronunciation

There’s one simple thing you can do to help you sound more confident speaking English, even when you don’t feel confident.

It’s really easy.

Make sure your voice goes down at the end of a sentence.

It’s called ‘falling pitch’ or ‘falling intonation.’

When you’re voice goes up at the end of a sentence, it sounds like you’re really unsure of what your saying. It sounds like you’re asking a question. [NOTE: I say these sentences with my voice going up at the end as an example of rising pitch/rising intonation.]

When you voice goes down at the end of a thought or a sentence, you sound much more confident.

Listen to the story again, and listen to how my voice goes down at the end of a sentence.

 

Reference Vocabulary:

podcast
Did you know this podcast actually started in the summer of 2010?
A podcast episode is an audio or video digital media file. A podcast is a series of episodes that you can subscribe to.

upload (verb)
I edited the .mp3 file, and uploaded it.
= to send or move a file from your computer to a larger computer, server or network. In this case, I upload each .mp3 file to a podcast host (a larger computer that many different people can access to get the .mp3 file)

pick up (phrasal verb)
It picked up every single sound in the background.
= receive & record sound
This phrasal verb has many different meanings; this meaning is specifically about microphones. You probably won’t hear it or use it very often, if at all.

chirp (verb)
If you had listened carefully to some of the old episodes, you could hear birds chirping outside, …
= the sound a bird makes, a short high sound

a laptop
If you had listened carefully to some of the old episodes, you could hear… the fan on my laptop,…
= a portable computer; a small computer that you can carry; a small computer that can sit on your lap.
In American English, ‘laptop’ is more common than ‘notebook computer,’ because notebook can also be a book with paper in it to write on.

soundproof (adjective)
I tried everything I could think of to create a soundproof environment,…
= not allowing any sound in

walk-in (adjective)
I even sat in a walk-in closet, …
= a space that is large enough to walk into (usually used with ‘closet’)

 

Idiom:

throw in the towel
After 29 episodes, I finally threw in the towel.
= to stop trying or doing a project, activity or effort; to give up or quit, because you can no longer do it or you realize you cannot succeed.

 

Phrasal Verbs:

plug (something) into (something)
…so I just plugged it [my microphone] into my laptop.
= connect a device to a power source or another device using a plug

set up (something)
I set up my laptop in the quietest room in the house,…
= make something (a computer, machine, piece of equipment) ready to use

turn out
It turned out that my microphone was the WORST microphone to use for podcasting.
= to develop, happen, or end in a specific way, to have a particular (usually unexpected) result

go by
If you had listened carefully to some of the old episodes, you could hear … cars going by,
= moving past something

edit out
It would take hours to edit out all the background noise.
= remove something unwanted (from a recording, a book, magazine, movies, etc.) before making it available to the public

look forward to
I’m looking forward to hearing from you about the new episodes!
= be excited about (something that is going to happen or is expected to happen)

hear from (someone)
I’m looking forward to hearing from you about the new episodes!
= receive communication from someone, for example a phone call, a letter, an email, or in this case a comment on a blog or social media,

 

Core Vocabulary:

(What is core vocabulary?)

3***
actually
lesson
quality
resources
available
learn
theory
procedure
already
professional
highly
recommended
record
entire
file
single
sound
background
practice
create
environment
background
noise
positive
response
research
equipment
software
produce [verb]
goal
studies

2**
website
edit
episode
abandon

1*
experiment
microphone
closet

 

Collocations:

(What are collocations?)

in the summer
the summer of
less than
experiment with
a lot of time
even though
tell a story
In theory
highly recommended
In practice
every single
listened carefully to
some of
a walk-in closet
background noise
a positive response (to something)
my/your/his/her/their studies

{ 3 comments }

The NEW & IMPROVED English Teacher Melanie Podcast!

by Melanie on April 15, 2013

Learn how to understand natural spoken English.

Learn core vocabulary, phrasal verbs & collocations.

Improve your American accent.

Finally take control of your English studies and start moving in the right direction.

This is what you’ll be able to do when you listen to the English Teacher Melanie Podcast!

 

RSS-iTunes_1400x1400

 

Hello everyone,

I’m really excited to announce that the English Teacher Melanie Podcast will be starting again soon! [Click to tweet this!]

It’s a weekly podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who feel stuck at their current level. Each episode, I use core vocabulary, phrasal verbs, and collocations to tell you a story about something that happened in my daily life in Canada.

 

Here’s what you can do right now:

1. Listen to new versions of 10 of the original episodes here on the website. (This will keep you busy until new episodes begin next week!)

2. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

3. Help your friends improve their English and tell them about the podcast! Tweet, share this on Facebook or whatever social network you use!

 

Thank you for your support! Let me know what you think of the new podcast.

I look forward to hearing from you!
Melanie

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