Comments on: Real English Conversations: What was he thinking?

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:54:56 +0000

Akira, thanks for your nice comment and feedback. I suppose my problem is that it’s so hard to judge which words learners of various levels might need help with, so I tend to err on the side of caution! Anyway, it’s good to hear that you are finding the site useful for your learning

By: Akira

Akira — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:37:24 +0000

Hello Lori and thanks for your very nice podcast.

I write a comment from Japan and I have never seen sach a good site before. This transcript and word list are very helpfull to learn English and I’m looking forward to listening next article.

I think there are so many words in a word list, and making it is very troublesome and time consuming, so I think if you choose 10-15 words which you think more useful or important for talking or using English, your work could be easy and a word list could be more high quality.

Maybe, My english is very poor, so If you cannot understand my comment, please ignore it. but I want to say this site is cery interesitng,so I like this site!

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:30:17 +0000

Hi Claire,
Thanks very much for your nice feedback! I hated those boring and contrived dialogs too — in fact, I hate them more as a teacher than I did as a student. It’s great to hear you’re enjoying the site.

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 21:31:34 +0000

Thank you sooo much, your podcasts are so much fun (unfortunately in my english class we only listen to predictable and very boring dialogues, so I have to make up for it somehow)!

I cannot believe I discovered this site just a couple of days ago, so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do (already looking forward to it:) BTW don´t know if anyone has said that to you already, but I really like your voice (even when you´re ill =)

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:06:46 +0000

Thanks for the feedback, Kristof.

I hear you on the fireworks thing. Another Swedish custom that freaks me out is everyday folks lighting off loads of humongous, scary fireworks on New Year’s Eve. I’ve been at far too many parties where the guys (it’s always GUYS) in charge of setting off the fireworks have had far more to drink than would be appropriate for safe execution of the task at hand. So far I’ve never witnessed anything but a close call with disaster (thankfully!), but it’s equally nerve-racking every time. Usually I chicken out and just go inside until it’s all over…

By: Kristof

Kristof — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 11:01:27 +0000

Juan: I’ve had those “repeat-after-me” classes! I got thrown out of language labs one day because I was listening to a Joe Satriani tape and mumbling some words … I didn’t know they could actually listen to what was on your tape as well as listening to what you mumbled into the headset.

And Lori, congratulations on a very interesting, very off-the-beaten-path convo there! I saw the video a few weeks ago so I could relate instantly.

And you would think people would eventually catch on about the dangers of fireworks, but over here, people still die because they think it’s smart to hold a firecracker in both hands and hold it up to their face to see if it’s lit.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:19:22 +0000

Juan – thanks for your nice comments. If you liked this one, you should hear the ones I *wish* I had the nerve to post! I may start recording the vocab notes as well so people get extra listening practice, but I think the transcripts are a big help for people who are struggling with their listening comprehension. That way they can at least see the words and look them up. I actually enjoy doing everything about B @ E, including making the transcripts. The only problem is that it all takes time (4 to 8 hours per episode). If you heard something in my tone of voice, it’s because of other crummy stuff going on right now, not the transcripts!

Matteo: Thanks for the heads-up on the Donate button. It’s working now. Stupid Paypal was giving me a misleading error message (making me think the problem was with THEM. The problem was actually with the way WordPress deals with the Paypal code). As for your pronunciation question, my seat-of-the-pants answer is that either pronunciation of “direct” is OK in AmE. I pronounce the “di” like in dinner. But my dialect has been colored by Euro influences because I’ve lived outside of the USA for so many years, so I’m not a very trusty source when it comes to pronunciation! As for “why” direct is pronounced that way, I don’t know. Answering a “why” question means diving into causality, and I’m quite leery of making statements about causal factors when it comes to language usage patterns. But I’ll look into your question and get back to you if I find anything enlightening!

By: Matteo

Matteo — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:13:33 +0000

Dear Lori,

thanks for another nice podcast.

I have a quick question: how do you pronounce the “DI” in the word DIrect. The dictionary puts it like DIning, but I often hear it like DInner by Am. E. speakers….
Is it because “direct” is the only exception among “direction”, “director”, “directly” etc.? I’m always interested in this sort of British/American differences…

By the way, I was checking the Donate button and something must be wrong with paypal or the link itself because it doesn’t work…. or maybe it’s my PC… don’t know…

Cheers

By: Juan

Juan — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:07:43 +0000

This is just getting better and better! Where were you Lori when I had to listen to those boring “repeat after me” tapes in primary school?

I could notice from the tone of your voice how much you love writting the vocabulary

Got another idea: how about you read aloud the vocabulary at the end of the podcast? That way you wouldn’t have to type it, and it’d still be available to those who are not checking the site at that moment.

Damn, that so much fun….