A bit of English every day
Welcome to my English learning support space! Here you’ll find some written explanations, as well as videos to help you become familiar with the sound of English from all around the world. Some of them are about learning the English language, but you can also find videos about traveling, cooking, music and many other topics. You’ll find shorts, reels, and longer videos so you can choose the format you like best. Just make sure you have your computer or phone settings on English in the language section! Learning to communicate in English with confidence can be a challenge, but there’s a secret to making it easier: put a little bit of English into your everyday life.
Hedgehog highways with David Attenborough
The legendary naturalist shows that it’s not necessary to go to wild places to find wild animals - and how even a metropolis like London can become more environmentally friendly.
Why are there so many words in English?
One of the challenges for people learning English is that there are so many different ways to say the same thing, but this can also be an advantage because if you can’t remember one word you can use another one. This is because Great Britain was governed by various different ethnic groups in its history, and English is a kind of melting pot of their different languages. Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans succeeded each other for control of the country up to the Middle Ages, when the first books were written in English - including Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales which many Italians have to study at school. So for example don’t worry if you can’t remember an Anglo-Saxon word like “cheap” because you can use the Latin-based “economical” which means the same thing.
Tips for building your first gaming PC
This one is for the techies out there! Zach looks at the issue of price vs performance from the points of view of both a gamer and a dad.
@zachstechturf Follow your dreams, but don’t let an expensive gaming PC get in your way. 🫡 #PCBuild #GamingPC #PCBuilding #CompetitiveGaming #PCGaming
♬ original sound - Zach's Tech Turf
Sun and son - are they the same?
You might think that two words written with different vowels would be pronounced differently. But in fact the words “sun” and “son” sound exactly the same in standard English pronunciation - you just have to check in the dictionary and you’ll find they’re both written in phonetics like this: /sʌn/. This is because the letter “O” isn’t always pronounced in the same way, as we can see for example with the words “clock”, “phone” and “come”. The “O” in “son” is pronounced like the one in “come”. There are other words like this too: cover, mother, love, recovery, above. In all of these words the “O” is pronounced as /ʌ/. So how can we understand if we’re talking about “sun” or “son”? Don’t worry, it’s generally clear from the context.
The days of the week
It’s not easy to learn the days of the week in English even for native speakers - there are songs and nursery rhymes to help children memorize them and this strategy can help adults too. Perhaps the worst problem is the similarity of the names “Tuesday” and “Thursday”, but the strange spelling of “Wednesday” is a problem too, as it’s pronounced “wensday”. And of course it’s not “venerdì” as it might sound but “mercoledì”. A song like The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” could be a nice substitute for the classic “days of the week” songs for kids.
What’s the right answer to “How do you do?”
William Hansen tells us how to answer if we hear this mysterious English expression, which could seem to be similar to “How are you?”
Different ways to say “wrong”
Tiffani explains why choosing your words is important, and gives us many different, and more diplomatic, alternatives to “wrong”.
Beat yourself, not your competitors
Simon Sinek explains how you can achieve more by embracing the concept of Worthy Rivalry - being inspired by your competitors rather than trying to beat them.
Prepositions for relationships
Prepositions can be confusing in English because they don’t always correspond to the ones you’d use in Italian - as English Teacher Claire shows, we don’t use the more logical “married with” but we say “married to”…
Interview with Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox talks about her book Retrospective, looking back on her career with Eurhythmics and how it was shaped by the times she was living in. She comments on how her androgynous look grew naturally out of wearing second-hand clothes in the era of punk and exploring and challenging feminine stereotypes. She explains how the duo’s most famous song Sweet Dreams was composed in a time of crisis when they had no money and it seemed that nothing would ever happen. It was the song that turned their fortunes around and created success out of their feelings of failure.
Using photography to slow down
Ruth Davey talks about how her passion for photography helped her to see the world in a different way and to improve her mental health. With her foundation she now uses what she learned to help others to slow down, to live in the moment and to create an attitude of curiosity and trust to implement mindfulness in everyday life.
The story behind Strawberry Fields Forever
David Hartley talks about the meaning behind this song of the Beatles, and how the life of its composers is an integral part of the creative process.
Connecting the dots with Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs tells three stories from his life, and explains how they shaped his success and his views on life and death. He emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself, and following your heart even when it seems to lead you the wrong way.
How to pronounce TH, voiced and unvoiced
The TH sound is one of the most difficult sounds to pronounce, not only for Italians but also for some native speakers - to make it you have to put the tip of the tongue between your front teeth. It can be pronounced with no voice, as in the words “think” and “truth” or with voice, as in “mother” and “than”. Laura from Smashing English shows us how to do it.
Searching for dangerous animals in Australia
Miller Wilson takes us on a tour of the northern Australian bush, and shows us some of the animals that live in this wild area of rainforest and swamps, including crocodiles, cassowaries and the one he’s set out to find: the green tree python.
What comes first - first name or surname?
In Italian the surname often comes before the name, but in English it hardly ever does. In this entertaining interview of Elton John, Rowan Atkinson forgets all about the music - all he’s interested in is the question of the name. Why is it inverted? If John is generally a first name and Elton a surname, shouldn’t it be John Elton?
How to make crusty English bread
John Kirkwood is a retired professional cook who specializes in baking. His channel features recipes for classic English comfort food, including many bread recipes. In this video he shows how to make traditional Old English Bloomer bread, from the mixing and kneading to the proofing and baking.
Exploring the world by motorbike
Noraly Schoenmaker started her solo adventure in 2018, when she left her job as a geologist and started exploring the world by motorbike. Her blog is called Itchy Boots, because a person with wanderlust is said to have “itchy feet” and of course as a motorcyclist she always wears boots. Her travels have taken her through 70 different countries on 6 different motorcycles, with cameras mounted on her head and her motorcycle to record the breathtaking scenery and all the details of her journey.
How do you pronounce “water”?
It depends on where you’re from! English actress Emily Blunt shows us how even in a family of native English speakers words can be pronounced very differently, with her daughter choosing between the pronunciation of her English mother and her American father.