Learn English FAST The Essential Podcasts for Learning English
A lot of you are here because you
love learning English on Youtube
but you also know the more ways you
expose yourself to English, the better.
Podcasts are a great resource and today,
I’m going to introduce you to 13 Podcasts
that I think is absolutely
fantastic for learning English.
We have two different categories. First, Podcasts
created by English teachers for learners like you,
non-native speakers. Then, we’ll get
into some Podcasts in American English
created for native speakers that
you could also learn a lot from.
Let’s head to my computer
to go over these Podcasts.
The first one I’m going to talk about is
“All Ears Podcast”. I love their tagline,
“Connection not Perfection”. Just do it, don’t
worry about mistakes, get yourself out there. It’s
a daily podcast, all sorts of topics. Vocabulary,
Idioms, Business English and as you can see,
they’re not too long. Ten, twenty minutes,
you can definitely take that on a daily basis.
The next on I want to recommend is “The
In Fluency Podcast”. It’s weekly and again
the episodes are pretty short. It’s not a big
commitment, I mean they’re short as three minutes
but there are also some longer episodes too. She
covers topics like pronunciation and grammar.
Speaking of podcasts something that I did not
know, you can now get podcasts on Audible, you’ve
heard me talk about Audible before, it’s where I
get all my audio books and I think audio books,
in addition to podcasts, are a great way to learn
English and increase your vocabulary and listening
comprehension, so huge thanks to Audible for
sponsoring this video and supporting my channel.
We’ve just discussed two podcasts you can use for
learning English, and we’ll cover eleven more.
But first I want to recommend a title that I just
finished and tell you how you can get it through
audible. They’re offering a free 30-day trial
to new members, visit Audible.com/rachelsenglish
or text rachelsenglish to 500-500. So visit
the site, send the text, because the title
I want to recommend, it is one of the most
riveting stories I’ve heard in a long time,
it was recommended to me by my colleague Tom, who
listened to the audiobook with his wife, and it’s
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It’s a true story
about Louis Zamperini whose bomber, in World War
II crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Sharks are
circling, he survives at sea for weeks. The story
is just incredible and it’s so well told. Every
night I would sit down with David and be like,
oh my gosh, this is what happened. So please,
get it, listen to it – Audible.com/rachelsenglish
or text rachelsenglish to 500-500. It’s a
new year, a time to start making new learning
goals. I strongly encourage you to add audiobooks
and podcasts to the resources you use to learn
English, and audible has the most extensive
offering that I know of. Find something you’re
really into, like me with ‘Unbroken’, and
you’ll want to listen to it every night.
I also want to mention my podcast. Now, I’m not
making new episodes so it’s discontinued but there
are twenty-five episodes there worth listening
to if you haven’t already. These episodes are a
little bit longer usually around a half hour
and we’re discussing pronunciation topics,
my favorite topic but also things like
vocabulary and idioms and some cultural stuff.
Most of these episodes are with my husband
David where we’re just discussing our lives
so it’s just a good way to get to know me
and us better as well as you learn English.
Breaking news! If you miss my podcast,
I’m going to start sharing audio lessons
again. I’m so excited about this way
of communicating with my students,
and I’m launching it next week, Tuesday,
January 18, through the YouTube membership,
that’s the join button you’ve seen next
to the subscribe button here on YouTube.
So look for a video next week, and for
the button on my channel, to sign up.
Next we have “Espresso English”, updated almost
every week and again these are short episodes,
easy to take in, one tip or trick when
it comes to speaking English at a time.
The “Real Life English Podcast” is great
because you get exposure to both American
accents and British accents. Now you can see
that these episodes are a little bit longer,
there are multiple episodes each week
and they focus on all sorts of topics.
Conversation, vocabulary and general tips for
learning a new language. One time,
I sat down with Ethan from this podcast for an
interview, so be sure to check out that episode.
I also love “Learning English News Review” from
BBC World Service. They have new episodes once
a week and they go deep on one topic. The
podcasts are each around ten minutes long
and they have quizzes on their website, you can
really test your listening comprehension here.
“Grammar Girl” is for all you language nerds
out there. She goes over some pronunciation and
vocabulary but also the “why” of language.
And I find it a really fun way to explore
different aspects of English. Now this podcast
isn’t necessarily made for non-native speakers.
It’s also made for native speakers who
just enjoy learning more about English.
Each Episode, about fifteen minutes long
and just a place to learn along little
interesting tidbits and facts about
the English language and grammar.
Now, moving on to podcasts that are
in English, not about learning the
language but about interesting things. My
biggest tip: Follow something you love.
Something that already interests you, maybe
something that you already know about.
My friend Stacy, who has been on this channel is
a master knitter. And she has a podcast for people
who love knitting. Or look for podcasts that
are relevant to what’s happening in your life
now. Really you name it. Gardening, cooking,
wrestling, religion and spirituality, anything. My
husband listens to a podcast that’s just two guys
talking about the Philadelphia 76ers. He loves the
team and keeping up on news and people’s opinions.
Whatever you’re passionate about, find a podcast
in English on that topic, it’s going to draw you
in you’re going to learn so much more from that.
There are a lot of different podcasts that I like
listening to and I’m just going to go over some
of them here. First “The Moth”. I love this one
because it’s an episode of many people telling
shorter stories maybe around 8 minutes about their
lives, some sort of transformative experience.
So they’re really interesting from that
perspective and they’re live. They’re
often shot Infront of an audience. So you get
very authentic English here. People can’t edit
something out. And it’s a great way to
study how to tell a story in English.
What are some of the phrases that you could
use to connect one thing to the next? What’s
some of the vocabulary that you could use to
talk about an event in your life and so on.
Next, “This American Life”. As you
can tell here from the time stamps,
I’ve been listening to a lot of these
lately. This is probably the podcast
that I’ve been listening to the longest. New
episodes each week about an hour. Sometimes,
it will be someone sharing a personal essay but
more often it’s interviewing and back and forth
different ideas on different topics. And I just
love the variety of voices that you get here.
One of my favorite episodes that I listen to
recently is number 218 and it’s called “Act
V” and it’s about a theater company that
brings theater to high security prisons
and lets the people in the prisons act. It was
very powerful, very moving, a great story.
Another one I love is Radiolab. Again, about an
hour, weekly episodes covering a range of topics
often focusing on Science. It’s sometimes
challenges me to think about something
differently. I like that challenge. For example,
in an episode about killing endangered species,
the Rhino hunter made it clear that
things aren’t always what they seem.
If you don’t have an hour to devote,
what about ten or fifteen minutes.
I recommend “NPR Up First”. This
is a daily podcast and they cover
three of the most important
news stories of the day.
If you love news, you also want to follow the New
York Times, “The Daily”. Guess what? It’s daily.
Each episode is about thirty minutes
and they go deep on one news story.
I also like to podcast, “Being Boss”. This
is a great podcast to listen to if you’re
interested in business topics and you want to
study some of the vocabulary that people use
when talking about these things. Interesting
interviews, weekly, about an hour.
If you have a favorite podcast in English,
please put it in the comments below.
Now, we’ll take a little bit one of my Podcast
and we’ll use it to learn some
English. I’ll study with you.
Um, so okay, so you’ve been
making New Year’s resolutions.
What it will, what are you resolving to do?
The verb resolve is related to resolution. If
you resolve to do something, you make a definite
decision to do it, you commit to doing it. It’s
stronger than decided. “I decided to train for
a marathon.” versus “I resolved to train for a
marathon.” If I decide, I may change my mind. But
if I resolve to do it, I’m going to do everything
I can to make that happen. At the beginning of a
New Year, we make resolutions. That would be
commitments for things to do in the New Year.
Um, so okay, so you’ve been
making New Year’s resolutions.
What it will, what are you resolving to do?
I feel like there have been
some common themes for me,
things like exercise on a regular
basis or do daily meditation practice.
So there are things that you already did
but your goal was for more consistency?
Yeah, that’s accurate. Mm-hmm.
How did you do with meeting those resolutions?
Not well. That’s not strong enough, um, horribly.
I think it’s interesting we make resolutions
to try to do things better. I wonder,
do we ever look at why we don’t do things well?
Like why aren’t you consistent in working out?
If you’re consistent in doing something
that means you do it regularly.
If you’re not consistent, that
means you only do it sometimes.
A good word for that would be sporadic.
It means every once in a while.
“I don’t practice Spanish consistently.
I only practice sporadically,
which is why I’m not very good.”
I think it’s interesting we make resolutions
to try to do thing better. I wonder,
do we ever look at why we don’t do things well?
Like why aren’t you consistent in working out?
Well, because it gets really cold out
and you don’t like to run when it’s cold.
Like I wonder if you came
up with looking at the why
you haven’t been able to do it yet,
and then came up with strategies.
Mm-hmm.
A strategy is a plan or a method to use
to reach a certain goal. For example,
“What are your strategies
for acing the IELTS exam?”
“Well, I’m going to do a vocabulary workbook
every day, I’m going to train in Rachel’s English
Academy for 30 minutes a day, I’m going to watch
one news story in English every day.” And so on.
Strategy. Like I wonder if you came up with
looking at the why you haven’t been able to
do it yet, and then came up with strategies.
Mm-hmm.
To count too–, to, you know,
attack that doubt or that,
“I can’t do it today, because it’s too cold.”
If you had a list of strategies, uh,
planned as part of your resolution,
if it would help people keep them more.
I think it probably would.
Okay, let’s come up with a strategy right now.
Exercise more in 2018. Would you say that would
be a New Year’s resolution for you this year?
Yeah, mm-hmm.
Okay. Why do you think you
don’t exercise consistently now?
Well, laziness.
Okay.
Inertia.
Inertia, meaning?
Like I’m in a pattern of not doing it,
so it’s hard to start a new pattern.
Yeah, exactly. A good definition of inertia.
Uh, a body at rest tends to stay at rest
(laugh) Right.
if you’re doing a whole lot of resting.
Any other resolutions you’ve had as an
adult, anything not related to exercise?
No, I’m not thinking of anything. Uh, I probably
need to be more specific or, or not more specific,
branch out into some other areas. I don’t know
exactly what that would be, but that’s about it.
You know, I, I do think
actually you’re on to something
by saying, “Be more specific.” What
does it mean to be on to something?
It’s when someone thinks, “Okay, you’ve started
a good idea. We should take that further.”
Like if you’re brainstorming
how to solve a problem.
Oh, I think you’re on to
something. Let’s explore that.
Mm-hmm.
I think you’re on to something when talking
about being specific because if your goal
is to exercise more, that’s very generic. It
could be three times a week for a half hour.
Specific versus generic. These are opposites. If something is specific, it’s precise, particular.
If something is generic,
it’s general, not specific.
For example, “You can buy any generic chocolate
for this recipe and it’ll taste great.”
That’s very different from “You have to buy
the semi-sweet chocolate chunks from Trader
Joe’s for this recipe.” That is specific.
Only that one kind of chocolate will do.
I think you’re on to something when talking
about being specific because if your goal
is to exercise more, that’s very generic. It
could be three times a week for a half hour.
Right.
You could set something more specific
that might help you keep the goal.
You know, you were talking
about the kind of goal to set.
Yeah.
And you were talking about a SMART goal, smart
here being an acronym, An acronym. An acronym is
when you take the first letter of the several
words and put them together, that is an acronym.
And here, the acronym happens to spell
an actual word and that is SMART.
Yeah.
What is a SMART acronym and how did you,
or sorry, a SMART goal? And how did you
learn about these kinds of goals? And how
did you learn about these kinds of goals?
Right, we were talking about this before
the show. Uh, so one of my friends Bradley
brought this up when a group
of us a couple years ago,
we were talking about New year’s resolutions
and we decided to go around the circle and
see if anybody wanted to share what their New
Year’s resolution was. And before we started,
he suggested that we all try to do it in SMART
format. And SMART stands for specific, Measurable,
achievable, realistic, and what’s the T?
Timely.
Timely. So, instead of us
all going around and saying,
“I want to run more,” you know, I was forced
that year at least at the beginning of the year
to say, you know a little something
about each of those areas.
Mm-hmm, how you could measure it.
Mm-hmm.
Well, you would know by whether or not you ran,
whether or not it was achievable and realistic.
Right.
Getting specific with your goal.
Right. Mm-hmm. So, I remember that being
really helpful both for myself as I was
thinking about my goal and to hear other people
putting their New Year’s resolutions into that
format. It was just helpful to yeah, to use
that as a sort of tool to get more specific.
It does force you to be more thoughtful and
detailed about the New Year’s resolution, I think,
when you have to say something that is specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
Mm-hmm.
Speaking of timely, that rings me to what I have
decided to do this year, which is a little bit
different. I find that having a goal for a ear is
not great for me. It’s just, it’s too much time.
So I decided to flip the idea of a
New Year’s resolution on its head,
rather than making a goal to do in 2018.
I decided towards the end of 2017, I was going
to make a goal to do before the year was out
because that provided me more of a time
crunch, more motivation to make it happen.
Now you said flip on its head.
Yeah, that means do it the
opposite way it’s been done.
Change it around completely. So I flipped the idea
of a New Year’s resolution on its head by deciding
I had to do it before New Year rather than do
it before New Year rather than in the New Year.
Got it.
Okay, so my goal was to before the year is out,
sign up for and take my first piano lesson.
And it looks like I’m going to be able to
do that. I have the piano getting tuned.
Mm-hmm.
Next week and the week after that,
just in the nick of time. It’s
going to be on the 20th of December.
I’m going to have my first lesson.
Have ten days to spare. Um,
just in the nick of time.
Yup. What does this phrase mean?
This means, down to the wire.
Oops, another idiom.
These things mean just before
time runs out. Is that another…
Yeah.
Yeah, it is, runs, runs out.
Okay. It becomes so hard sometimes to
describe idioms without using other idioms.
If it’s just in the nick of time,
that means you have done something
just before the allotted time has ended.
Just before the deadline.
Just before the deadline. So, the phrases
we used were just in the nick of time.
You could also say, it’s getting down the
wire. When it’s getting down the wire,
that means you are really running out
of time on getting something done.
Mm-hmm.
What was the other one we
used? Oh, time’s running out.
Mm-hmm.
Almost no time left.
Right.
Those are fun idioms. So anyway,
yeah I think I’m going to.. I think
I’m going to achieve it I’m looking
forward to having that first lesson.
We learned resolutions and resolve, consistent
and consistently, along with the opposite,
sporadic. Strategies, inertia, to be on
to something. Specific versus generic,
acronym, to flip on its head, in the nick of
time, down to the wire and running out of time.
To listen to this full podcast
and to download this full PDF
or any of my other podcasts, head
to RachelsEnglish.com/podcast.
There are so many great shows being
produced, I can’t wait to hear what
you find and what you learn from them,
put your favorites in the comments below.
Keep your learning going now with this video and of
course please subscribe with notifications,
I make new videos on the English language
every week and I love to see you back here.
That’s it and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.