Today is International Podcast day, held on September 30th.

Do you know what a podcast is?

A podcast is the combination of the two words, "iPod" and "broadcasting". Podcasts are digital audio shows that you can listen to on your iPhone, iPad, or any other digital device. These shows usually have many episodes so you can save them and listen over and over again.  It's almost like having your own radio!

I think I started listening to podcasts as soon as they were available. It's a great way to learn when your eyes are too tired to read. I love listening to podcasts before bed, while taking a shower, cooking dinner, basically anytime! Listening is such an important part of learning English. You can hear pronunciation and intonation,  learn new idioms and slang, and understand basic conversation. If you don't have time to sit and study English through books, why don't you just try and listen?

Here I share four podcasts that I enjoy listening to.

CULIPS ESL PODCAST
I recently discovered this practical podcast for English learners, called Culips ESL Podcast. You can find them on iTunes or download an App such as Stitcher. Although I'm not an English learner, I love listening to their show because they talk about everyday topics in the form of natural speech. A lot of what they talk about is relevant, engaging, and useful. Their website also includes some additional help on each episode.

Their most recent episode, Don't Front, teaches you several ways to talk about people who are fake or inauthentic (someone pretending to be something they're not). I'm sure we all know one or two people like that in our lives!

I've always talked about listening to natural speech in order to improve English and this is a great podcast whether you're a beginner or advanced learner. I absolutely recommend this!

BILINGUAL AVENUE
Of course I must mention Marianna Du Bosq's amazing podcast, Bilingual Avenue. I was featured on her podcast a few months ago talking about the power of visual aids. If you missed it, you can listen to it here. Bilingual Avenue has so many great advice if you're a parent or someone trying to teach or raise children from a multilingual background. The podcasts cover questions such as, how to support second language learning? Will my child be able to learn a second or third language if he/she is older? All the podcasts feature people who've have years of experience on these topics. If you're a teacher with young students coming from multilingual backgrounds or if you're a parent trying to provide different languages to your child, check out Marianna's podcasts!

THE MOTH
I discovered The Moth Podcast a few years ago on a night I couldn't fall asleep. I tried to find something to listen to that would help me fall asleep and came across The Moth. It didn't actually help me sleep, but made me stay up even later. I couldn't stop listening! The Moth is a collection of short stories shared by regular everyday people like you and me. It uses storytelling to bring attention to ordinary life. Some stories are inspirational, some are funny, some are sad, but everything brings attention to different human experiences. Because all the stories are different and told through different people, you may find some stories easier to understand than others. Read the descriptions and choose the one that interests you!

TED RADIO HOUR
Most of you might have heard of TED TALKS. These are short videos of experts "teaching" and telling us about a subject matter. The TED Radio is kind of similar but it presents a topic and brings together all the relevant talks by speakers. So instead of hearing a whole talk by one speaker, you get to hear little bits from many speakers about a topic. Some topics include, the act of listening, our relationship with trust, why humans lie, how we love.

I use Stitcher Radio which you can download for free through the App store. It's one of the best Apps I own! I can find podcasts depending on topic or category and save them to my favorites so that I can always see new episodes from each show. Try listening to some of these podcasts and let me know if there are any other podcasts you would recommend!

I receive a lot of emails from English learners who say, "I've been learning English for years but I'm not improving at all! I'm so frustrated and want to give up."

I hear this all the time and I almost always say, "If you work hard, you will see the fruits of your labor one day."

What does this mean?  Think about a farmer. If he or she works hard on taking care of a plant, the farmer will one day see beautiful and delicious fruit from it. In the same sense, you will see rewards and benefits if you have invested time and effort even if you make mistakes or have to struggled for a while.

I know it can be discouraging to work hard at something but see no progress. Or work hard at something and see others progressing faster than you! We've all experienced this. If learning English is important to you, then putting in effort is better than nothing at all! I understand it's easy to want to give up or convince yourself something is not so important. Maybe you just need a little "push." So that's what I'm doing today!

Before I end, I want to share this wonderful TED Talk by Richard St. John on Why It Pays To Work Hard. It's only six minutes long but worth your time if you need some inspiration. He is humorous and a very clear speaker.

One of the most important things he says is that success is not talent but the ability to work hard. In the end, work wins over smarts!

After watching or listening to it, don't forget to do the quiz on the right-hand side to test your English comprehension.

As always, I love hearing about your struggles, your achievements or frustrations in learning English. Share your story - email me or comment below. I'm sure so many others have the same experience as you! You're not alone.

My husband and I were recently on a short trip to visit his family and his new nephew who is just two months old. During one of our days there, we stopped at a store for some gelato (Italian ice cream). All the flavors looked delicious and I couldn't decide whether I wanted single scoop, double scoop, or triple scoop. Triple scoop means I could try more flavors than single or double, but it would cost me more. I eventually went for double scoop, which is two scoops. I'm was pretty satisfied with my choice as triple scoop might have been too much for me!

This is another way we can talk about numbers. If you've watched the above clip, you'll understand that "single" means 1, "double" means 2, and "triple" means 3. There are also words for four and above, but are less commonly used (scroll down to the bottom to see all the numbers till 10!)

Some other examples of them being used in real-life:

(1) I only have a single key (meaning: I only have one key)

(2) Could you please double bag my groceries? (meaning: Could you please bag my groceries with two bags?

(3) Listen to my advice if you want to triple your reading speed! (meaning: Listen to my advice if you want to increase your reading speed by three times!)

You might have also seen these being used when talking about accommodations, for example, when booking hotel rooms. There may be single rooms, double rooms, triple rooms, or even quadruple rooms for families. Of course, it's probable that the higher the number of people you want to fit in the hotel room, the higher the cost will be.

Here are some other numbers!

1= single
2= double
3= triple
4= quadruple
5= quintuple
6= sextuple
7= septuple
8= octuple
9= nonuple
10=decuple

A lot of the times when we speak, we use the short form of certain words to make our speech smoother and faster. These are known as CONTRACTIONS.

For example, instead of saying: "I am excited for summer", we could say, "I'm excited for summer."  We shorten two words ( I am) into one word (I'm).

We do this by replacing the missing letter by an apostrophe
I am = I'm
As you can see, we substitute the 'a' with apostrophe mark. You'll notice the same thing from all the contractions below, all the missing letters are replaced with an apostrophe.

Contractions are definitely more informal and is used more commonly in speaking. However, I've started to see it more and more in writing since we've now become a more informal culture, don't you agree?

(Did you notice how many contractions I used in the last sentence?)