Thompson L. - Британский подкаст учителя Люка / Luke's English Podcast [2009-2015, MP3/MP4, ENG]

Кто такой Люк?
Привет, меня зовут Люк и я учитель английского языка из Лондона.
Я преподаю английский язык больше 11ти лет. Я начал карьеру учителя в Японии и жил в префектуре Канагава два года.
С тех пор, я преподаю английский язык в Лондоне и регулярно обучаю на курсах английского языка по Бизнесу, академический английский язык, основной английский язык, для эзаменом английский язык такие как FCE, IELTS и BEC.
Я закончил ливерпульский университет им. Джона Мура в 1999 году на степень бакалавра на ф-т СМИ и культрологии. Я работал в различных медия компаниях перед тем как стать учителем английского языка. Я получил мой уровень CELTA в 2001 году и уже после DELTA 2006 года в UCL. Я преподаю английский язык полный рабочий день в языковой школе в Лондоне.
Я разработчик ELT материалов и я часто разрабатываю EAP курсы для который я часто пишу материал. Я написал специальный курс английского языка для фармацевтической промышленности, для нефте-газо промышленности и, английский для журналистики. Некоторые мои работы были опубликованы в нескольких странах.
Я начал свой подкаст в 2009 году и с тех пор я стал набирать популярностью. Я планирую продолжать писать материал и публиковать выпуски в дальнейшем на своём канале и расширять мой сайт.
Я также музыкан и сатирик. Я играю на барабанах и басс гитаре в нескольких группах. Я регулярно ставлю сатирические сценки в Лондоне.
Я искренне надаюсь Вы наслаждаетесь прослушиванием моего канала, который поможет Вам продвинуть Ваш уровень английского языка. Следите за моими страницами, получайте полезные советы по изучению английского языка.
Спасибо что посетили мой сайт.
Люк.

Dear Readers,
These days there is an emerging new kind of English teaching professional – the online teacher. They create their own content, break new ground with the use of social networking, and give learners an option outside of the traditional school structure. They're on YouTube, blogs and podcasts, they gain a very significant following, and I suppose that I am now one of them.
Over five years ago I had settled into my career as a teacher of English as a foreign language. I had passed my DELTA course, had a permanent job teaching English and had just bought my very first property in London. I bought a new laptop and it gave me the option to record, produce and publish my own podcast in iTunes. I had always wanted to be a radio DJ. As a child I had produced numerous fake radio shows with my brother on our cassette recorder, and I had always loved listening to radio, podcasts and comedy CDs. It was my dream to make the same kind of content, and have an audience of people like me, who would lie on the sofa, listening to someone else's words, being transported to different worlds of imagination.
For a while I tried my hand at making comedy videos on YouTube but they didn't get many views. Why would anyone look at my comedy videos and short films anyway? I didn't have an audience.
As an English teacher I'd been working for about 8 years. I'd met hundreds and hundreds of learners of English from all around the world, and had learned some key things. I knew that almost everybody wanted to learn English – the vast majority of the people in the world really. I'd learned how to engage the attention of a class full of people. I knew what subjects interested them, what language difficulties they had, and how to stand out as an English teacher. Also, as a recently diploma qualified professional I had some proper know-how when it came to helping other people learn my language.
What I realised was that there was a potentially huge audience in the world, I had something to offer to them, and I had the means to do it, so what could possibly stop me from launching my own podcast for learners of English? The idea sounded perfect really. I could do it all on my laptop. I could plan my episodes around engaging topics, I could make sure I included some fairly rigorous sequences about language and language learning and I could find ways of making the content funny too. I even had my own flat where I could record episodes of the podcast without being disturbed. Conditions were perfect.
I come from what I consider to be a BBC family. My Dad was a BBC man for about 30 years. We grew up in a BBC household. We never watched ITV, the commercial television station which was the BBC's main rival. The BBC logo was everywhere in our house on pens, folders, notepads, and mugs. I would often hear my Dad talk about producing the news, what he thought of different presenters and how to deliver information as a broadcaster. It felt quite natural to do it myself on the podcast.
Also, I'd always loved stand-up comedy. When I lived in Japan at the start of my career as a teacher, I had no television so I used to listen to comedy CDs over and over again. My Mum used to send me recordings of Eddie Izzard, Bill Bailey, Monty Python, Peter Cook, Bill Hicks and Steve Martin and I used to devour them, listening over and over again.
I came back to London after a couple of years in Japan, just as the podcasting boom took off for the first time. I continued what had now become a tradition of lying on my bed listening to someone talking through through my speakers, usually a stand-up comedian.
I'd always harboured a desire to try stand-up myself, but it wasn't until my girlfriend at the time suggested I do a stand-up comedy course (yes they exist in London) that I first picked up a mic, stood on stage and tried to make a room full of people laugh. The relationship with the girlfriend didn't last, but the stand-up comedy did. I'm still doing stand-up now (in fact I have a gig in about one hour) and I'm glad to say that feeds into my podcast a lot as I attempt to use comedy, from time to time, to make my audience laugh, and to reduce the so-called “affective filter” which can really get in the way of language learning.
So that is what I brought to my new project, called Luke's English Podcast, years of experience, qualifications, enthusiasm, a BBC background, and some skills as a stand-up comedian. I finally have my own radio programme.
Over the last five years I have managed to keep producing regular episodes of my show, and it brings in lots of listeners particularly in Russia, which is my number one country for downloads and website visits.
You may be wondering at this point what the website address is for Luke's English Podcast, and I am very glad to tell you! It's teacherluke.co.uk. There you'll find loads of content, including some very popular YouTube videos, but mainly it is a place to present episodes of my podcast, which is also available on iTunes.
The vast majority of my content is in audio form, and I upload podcast episodes about once a week. Each episode is one hour long on average, and the English level of my audience ranges from intermediate to proficiency.
Yes, that's right, my episodes are usually about one hour long. Sometimes people are surprised at that length as the usual model for learning English podcasts is for them to be short, like the BBC's “6 Minute English” podcast. The conventional wisdom here is that short episodes are easier to digest, they don't overwhelm learners with too much content, they are convenient for listening at lunch time or during a quick break from work or studies, and they can be adapted by teachers for classroom use.
I decided quite quickly that I would take the conventional wisdom and chuck it out of the window. My episodes would be longer, like the podcasts that I loved to listen to. By 2009 I'd been listening to podcasts regularly, particularly one called “Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Review”. That is one of the most popular podcasts in the UK, and is produced by the BBC. In a nutshell it features two guys reviewing films, but it's not really a film review show, it's a lot more than that. Reviewing films gives their podcast a structure and a theme but the show is, sometimes quite profoundly, about life in general. It's an intensely rewarding listening experience, especially if you're a long-term listener. Listening to Mark and Simon wittering on about films is life-affirming, entertaining, touching, educational and more. It makes you feel like you're part of a close community of people who share a certain outlook on life, and who all are aware of the little in-jokes and references from that show. I wanted Luke's English Podcast to be like that.
Having longer episodes gave me much more freedom. I could go much deeper into subjects I wanted to talk about. I could achieve more in each episode. I have never really understood why learning-English podcast episodes should be short. There doesn't seem to be any good reason for it. Mp3 players and iPhone apps are programmed to remember where you stopped listening. So, if your journey to work is only 30 minutes – no problem. Listen to 30 minutes of an episode, and then press 'stop'. When you come home from work your mp3 player will remember where you were in the episode, even if you listen to some music in the meantime. Also, longer episodes mean more content, and what is wrong with that? So, despite the fact that every now and then I read comments that say my episodes are a bit long, I maintain that they're exactly the right length for what I want to achieve with my podcast.
The other thing I decided from the beginning was that my episodes would not be scripted. A lot of other podcast episodes for learners of English are scripted, and I know why. Writing the script beforehand means that you can easily add target language into a conversation, you can properly prepare grammar or vocabulary explanations and it means that a full transcript is available for listeners when the episodes are published. But, when I listen to these scripted episodes (such as the BBC's 6 Minute English) they just sound fake, awkward and unengaging. Why should English learning materials be dull or patronising? Why make podcast episode contrived, full of bad acting and unnatural speech patterns? Again, I can't think of any really good reasons. Surely, it is better to present English in the most authentic way possible: by recording without a script.
Admittedly, some of my episodes are scripted, but for the most part I've kept them spontaneous, and I think that has really benefited the podcast. They sound more engaging natural and they present language more authentically. I think it gives the programme a lot of personality. There are times when I have made mistakes, stumbled over my words or forgotten what I was talking about, and I left them all in the published episodes, for the sake of authenticity. In fact, this sort of thing is precisely what my listeners love about my podcast. They love the fact that it's real and spontaneous. The fact that I have total creative control, and that I make sure that podcasting is fun for me, have made LEP (Luke's English Podcast) unique and valuable.
I have found that the episodes my listeners love the most are the ones in which I take risks and am spontaneous. I can do things on LEP that I definitely wouldn't do in schools where I work as an employee. If I want to devote a whole episode to Star Wars, or zombies, I can. If I want to talk about all the rudest words in the English language, I can. If I want to just talk and talk about nothing in particular, with no plan, I can! And it seems the more I do that, the more my listeners appreciate it.
The atmosphere of total freedom is really healthy for my podcast, I believe. For example, a couple of years ago I just decided to improvise a story on the podcast, based on an old joke I used to tell as a child. The joke normally takes about 2 minutes to tell, but I decided to try and stretch the story to about 30-40 minutes of podcasting time. I recorded the episode with the microphone in my hand, walking around the kitchen, improvising jokes, dialogues and scenarios. The story became an epic adventure, with me being chased around the world by a huge pink gorilla, using various modes of transport. I wasn't sure if I should publish it, because I thought people would think I was crazy, and that they wouldn't see the learning value in it. That episode (125. The Pink Gorilla Story) is one of the most popular ones I've ever done. My listeners love it, and now I try to do improvised stories as much as possible. It's so fun, full of risks (I have no idea what I'm going to say next sometimes) but I think it's truly rewarding for my listeners because it creates a listening experience which totally captures people's attention. If they know it is being created there and then, in the moment, there's so much more drama involved, and that makes people pay attention. Sometimes people tell me they are addicted to my episodes, and that when they listen, time just flies by. Apparently, the length of my episodes proves not to be such an issue.
All of my feelings about this are backed up by academic research. I am sure you are familiar with the work of Stephen Krashen. His idea is that language is effectively required by learners when they engage with language in a meaningful way, and that the more comprehensible input a learner is exposed to, the better. That pretty much sums up the thinking behind my approach to the podcast, however I realise that it's not just as simple as that, and I try my best to vary my teaching method in my episodes. Sometimes I focus on grammar, providing colourful examples and sample sentences which I encourage my listeners to repeat to themselves. Sometimes I teach vocabulary in a fairly traditional way. Sometimes I devote episodes of the podcast to giving general advice on learning English, with a view to improving my listeners' metacognitive strategies. The whole package, which includes over 250 episodes to date, covers a really wide range of content, language input, comprehensible input, interviews with native speakers, comedy, music and more. I'm really proud of it, and this year I have decided that I finally deserve to make some money from my endeavours, but this is the tricky part. So far I have focused mainly on producing good content, hoping that it would speak for itself. It has done that to an extent. I have a healthy following and a large audience, but I must find ways of monetising my online project. So, taking LEP to the next level is my new challenge, while also producing regular episodes of the podcast as normal.
As English teachers yourselves, I suggest that my podcast could be a great resource that you can recommend to your students for use outside the classroom. It could be just another option, other than the BBC's podcasts. If your students like it, hopefully they will get hooked and then they'll find themselves with a healthy new habit in their lives. If they don't like the podcast, no problem. I've always known that you can't please all the people all the time, but you can do your best!
There's so much more for me to tell you about, like the transcript writing project I have set up, which has listeners collaborating on transcriptions of my episodes using Google documents, and the award my podcast has won three times, but I have already written nearly 2,500 words here, and as I said, I have to go out and perform some stand-up comedy soon.
Just to bring this writing to a close, I should say that since starting my podcast in 2009 it has steadily grown in popularity. In the last year LEP was downloaded over 3,000,000 times in total, which is much higher than I expected when I first started. I would really like to continue and build my work into something larger. I believe I have a lot to offer as an online teacher, and podcasting may just be the beginning. Online teaching has given me freedom, creative control, an audience, my own radio show and an outlet for my comedy. I also know from all the messages I receive every day, especially from listeners in Russia, that my podcast has made a difference to the English of people all around the world. I hope that in the future I will be able to make a living teaching like this, and I believe I can.
Thanks a lot for reading.
Luke

01. to ask someone out
02. to back someone up
03. to bail out
04. to bounce back
05. to bring it on
06. to get/be carried away
07. to catch up
08. to chip on
09. to cough up
10. to crack down
11. to crack up
12. to curl up
13. to dash off
14. to doze off
15. to drop off
16. to dumb down
17. to eat out
18. to eke out
19. to egg someone on
20. to end up
21. to eye up
22. to faff about
23. to fall through
24. to fess up
25. to fiddle around/about
26. to feel for
27. to feel someone up
28. to flag up
29. to flick through
30. to gather (a)round
31. to gear up
32. to get across
33. to get along
34. to get at
35. to get away with
36. to get back
37. to get back to someone on something
38. to get behind
39. to get by
40. to get down
41. to get down to
42. to get in
43. to get into
44. to get in on
45. to get in with
46. to get off
47. to get off with someone
48. to get on
49. to get on with it
50. to get out of
51. to get over
52. to get through
53. to get together
54. to get up
55. to hack off / to be hacked off
56. to hammer out
57. to be hailed as
58. to hand out
59. to hand down
60. to hang on
61. to happen to
62. to have on
63. to head for
64. to hint at
65. to hold down
66. to hook up
67. to invest in
68. to iron out
69. to jack in
70. to jazz up
71. to jot down
72. to jumble up
73. to keel over
74. to kick off
75. to leave out
76. to let down
77. to lock down on someone
78. to look up to someone
79. to make fun of someone
80. to make something up
81. to make it up to someone
82. to map out
83. to match up
84. to mess up
85. to miss out
86. to mix up
87. to mop up
88. to move in / to move out
89. to mount up
90. to move along
91. to move on
92. to move up
93. to mull over
94. to muscle in
95. to nag at
96. to name after
97. to narrow down
98. to nod off
99. to object to
100. to occur to
101. to open up
102. to opt for
103. to opt in
104. to opt out
105. to be overcome with
106. to owe to
107. to own up
108. to pack in
109. to pack up
110. to pad out
111. to palm off
112. to pair off

Всегда пожалуйста! Скоро обещают следующую серию! Лайкайте и следите у него на странице в facebook
Добавлен 130 эпизод!
Conversation with a real American person from New York!
Sebastian Marx was born in New York and went to Boston University. He is a stand-up comedian in Paris and regularly performs in English and in French. You can visit his website here http://www.sebmarx.com and find out about his comedy shows!
In this episode I invited Sebastian to my flat where we had some tea and some chocolate brownies. Listen to the episode as I ask questions which were suggested by listeners from the Luke's English Podcast Facebook page
We talk about topics such as:
-Growing up 30 minutes away from Manhattan
-Going to university in Boston
-His experiences of leaving America and moving to France
-How he learned a second language (French)
-Some advice on how to learn a second language
-Differences between America and Europe
-Accents from USA
-Time travel
-Spirituality and the meaning of life!
-Gun control
-American junk food and obesity
-The Boston bombings from last Monday
-America's foreign military campaigns
-The amazing sport of 'disc golf'!
I also help Sebastian learn to speak with my British accent.
I hope you enjoy the podcast. It's another long one, but as I've said before - you can listen to it in stages, and if you're using iTunes or other podcast players, your audio player should remember your position if you stop listening, although I can't imagine why you would want to do that
Please leave comments below and tell me your thoughts.
Thank you if you are kind enough, or are able to leave a small donation by clicking this button here.

A conversation with my Dad, Rick Thompson.
Rick is a journalist who worked for the BBC for about 30 years. He now runs his own media training company, called T-Media. He's also been my Dad for 35 years. In my family we consider him to be like Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. His knowledge is pretty encyclopedic. If I have a question, he is usually able to give quite an extended answer to it, although sometimes the facts can be a little bit unreliable. That's why I've started to call him "Rickipedia".
In this episode I ask my Dad various questions which were sent in by fans of Luke's English Podcast on Facebook.
What do you think of my Dad's answers? Leave your comments below.
My Dad and I both hope you enjoy this episode, and find it interesting and useful as a way of practising your English listening.
Your donations keep Luke's English Podcast alive. If you would like to make a small donation, you can click the button below. If you'd like to make a really big donation, you can click the same button! PayPal is a very safe and trusted way to send money online.

Some pronunciation, some vocabulary, some romance and a little bit of horror-movie gore in this episode.
Hi everyone, I decided to teach you some essential language this time. Here's what to expect from this episode:
The first part is about the pronunciation of ~ed endings (e.g. agED, beggED or wastED, etc)
The second part involves some -ed adjectives.
Then I teach you some idioms and very natural expressions.
The episode also includes a romantic story with sentences you can repeat, and a little bit of horror movie violence, just in case you were bored of all the 'romance'.
For vocabulary notes, see below.
You can make donations here. It's my birthday next Wednesday. Just saying...

In this episode:
1. I'll tell you a bit about hip hop, and its history, but not too much because I don't want to bore you.
2. We'll listen to some hip hop and have a look at the lyrics and analyse them. I'll explain them, and kind of give you my thoughts on them.
There is music in the background on this one. I thought it was appropriate because of the subject of this episode. Future episodes will not always have music, but this one does. If you really can't hear what I'm saying then let me know and I might be able to upload this episode again without the background music. If you like the music and would like to hear more, let me know by commenting on this episode. I should be able to recommend some albums or tracks for you.

This episode is all about the story of a hardcore punk rock band from London. Listen, and you'll hear an interview with the band members as they talk about how the band started, their influences, and what caused the band to end.
The band is called Salvo. They started in London in 2002 and played gigs in London, Oxford and Manchester before breaking up 4 years later. This interview was done recently. For the first time in years, most of the members of the group were all in the same room at the same time, so I had to take the opportunity to interview them for Luke's English Podcast

135. Raining Animals
"It's raining cats and dogs" - Do native speakers of English often use this idiom to describe heavy rain or do they use different expressions?
What do people really say when they're talking about heavy rainstorms?
Is it really possible for animals to rain down from the sky? What are the explanations of this phenomenon?
What is the origin of the expression "it's raining cats and dogs?"
What other idioms about heavy rain exist in other countries and languages?
What would happen to Luke if he was struck by lightning while recording an episode of the podcast? Would he just be electocuted to death, or would he become some kind of podcasting super-hero? (probably the former option)
In this episode, I discuss all of these questions, while a thunderstorm passes overhead and the rain beats down on the roof of my apartment. Listen, and please add your comments below.
How's the weather where you are, while you listen to this?
What idiom do you use in your language to describe heavy rain?
Do you have any stories about animals falling from the sky?
We'd like to know about them!
136. Cycling from London to Paris
What is the longest bike trip you've ever done? Have you ever run a marathon or walked a very long distance? In this episode, I speak to Ben Fisher, who just this weekend cycled all the way from The River Thames in London to La Seine in Paris, covering a distance of over 460km.
Listen to the podcast as Ben and I discuss the trip, the challenges, the pain, the joy and the enjoyment of this journey by bicycle. In our discussion you will hear lots of vocabulary relating to cycling and transport in general.
Click here to read Ben's blog, in which he describes the journey and shows some photos. Thanks for listening to the podcast.
Have you ever made a long journey by bike? Leave a comment to tell us about it.
All the best, Luke
137. Discussing Movies (Part 1)
Henry Dean joins me for a cup of tea and a chat about movies. Part 2 will be available in the next few days.
In this episode, I talk to Henry about his background, his university course, his writing work and his interest in film and movies in general. We also explain and discuss various items of vocabulary related to film. We'll teach you various words and phrases that you can use to talk about films with your friends. We also begin to answer questions which were sent in to us via Facebook. We continue to answer the questions in part 2, which will be available soon!
Click here to visit Henry Dean's website, where you can find out more about him, including his eBook "Stories from Paris" which is available to download from Amazon.
I know that a transcript of this episode would be useful. Unfortunately, a transcript of this episode is not available at the moment, but if you would like a challenge why not transcribe the episode yourself and send it to me? Then, eventually, I will be able to check/edit the transcript you have written and provide it for everyone. So, no transcript yet, but maybe in the future if I get help from a listener...
Thanks for listening. Your comments are welcome. I love talking about films, so there will be more film-related episodes in the future.
All the best, Luke
138. Discussing Movies (Part 2)
This is the second in a 2-part series all about films. In this one, Henry and I answer listeners' questions from Facebook. See below for more details.
Please feel free to leave your comments. I love talking about movies, and I have plenty of things to say about them in the future. In fact, I am planning episodes on these subjects: Zombies!
Classic Movie Scenes (listen to some movies scenes, then understand everything which is said)
Great British movies (what movies can I recommend?)
Star Wars
Superhero Movies
Back To The Future
Which ones would you like to listen to most? Let me know. The episodes should eventually be recorded for your listening pleasure...
As for this episode, here are the questions from Facebook, which I discuss with Henry. You can find the names of movies we mention under each question. Enjoy the episode!
139. Hard Driving
One Man. One Car. One Destination.
In this episode you join me in a BMW Mini as I attempt to drive across Paris, through some of Europe's busiest streets, on a very hot July afternoon. My mission is to deliver the car to a car-park while avoiding angry Parisian drivers, pedestrians with prams, and busses full of Japanese tourists. The ultimate goal - a glass of cold beer on the terrace of a cafe, and to save the world through another episode of Luke's English Podcast, of course.
Do I manage to complete my mission? And what driving-related vocabulary can you learn during this episode?
Listen, and you will find out...

This episode is all about ghosts, strange things, the unexplained, demons and things that go bump in the night. I’m talking about the paranormal, ghosts, phantasms, specters, spirits, poltergeists, unexplained phenomena, and all that kind of weird stuff that you don’t want to hear about when you’re alone in the house at night. I hope you’re not alone right now, because this could be the creepiest episode of Luke’s English Podcast so far. To help you feel okay I suggest you get a teddy bear to hold onto or a pillow to hide behind, close the doors, close the curtains, do not look in the mirror, and keep the light on. You could burn a candle if that makes you feel better, as traditionally it is said that a flame can protect you from evil spirits. Ideally, listen with other people around. People say that undead spirits and demons can be attracted by accounts of paranormal activity. If someone talks about ghosts, it brings the world of ghosts closer to you, and in some cases can attract spirits into your world. So if you notice anything strange going on around you while listening to this, I suggest that you stop listening, turn on the lights, get a drink from the fridge in the kitchen and just put scary thoughts out of your mind. I don’t believe in it myself, but who knows what is really out there in the darkness. I’ll give you some more tips on that later. Basically, in this episode I’m going to tell you some scary and weird stories, which I thought of or which are completely real and really happened to me.

You are formally invited to attend The LEP AGM (Luke's English Podcast Annual General Meeting) which will take place during the recording of this episode.
The AGM is a chance for me to just summarise some news and give some information before we all go away for our summer holidays.
Here is the agenda for the meeting (which is split into two parts).
Luke's English Podcast
Annual General Meeting
August 2013
Location: Baddesley Clinton House (not haunted)
AGENDA:
1. New listeners
2. Thank you
3. Sweat
4. Bassline
5. Best voice for the podcast
6. Toilet seats
7. Playstation 3 - system update required
8. Time
9. Happy music
10. Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino
11. Pedagogical Approach
12. Background music
...This episode continues in the next episode of Luke's English Podcast
Part 2 - Agenda
13. Set List Show
14. Meeting listeners
15. Music mixes
16. Holidays and weather
17. New job
18. New episodes
19. Wearing trainers without shoes - The Dangers
20. Flip flops in Paris - The Dangers
21. The sound of your own voice
22. Zdenek Lucas
23. Length of episodes
24. Pacific Rim
25. Statistics
26. Emails
27. The new Star Wars movies
28. AOB
Thanks for attending the meeting. If you have any other business, just leave a comment below. Happy holidays. Luke

Here is the second part of the AGM. For more information, see episode 141.
Thanks for attending the AGM. Here is the agenda:
Part 2 - Agenda
13. Set List Show (see video below)
14. Meeting listeners
15. Music mixes
16. Holidays and weather
17. New job
18. New episodes
19. Wearing trainers without socks - The Dangers
20. Flip flops in Paris - The Dangers
21. The sound of your own voice
22. Zdeněk Lukáš
23. Length of episodes
24. Pacific Rim
25. Statistics
26. Emails
27. The new Star Wars movies
28. AOB
Thanks for attending the meeting. If you have any other business, just leave a comment below. Happy holidays. Luke

Some fun banter and chat with the one and only Robert Hoehn.
In this episode I was invited to the apartment of my friend Robert for a cup of very specially brewed tea and some conversation, which you can actually listen to here, right now, with your ears (and some kind of headphones/speaker system).
Robert is 110% American, and was born in Minnesota, which is in the heart of the American mid-west. This makes him a kind of red-neck cowboy in my opinion. He is also a direct descendent of William Wallace (yes, Braveheart) and now lives in Paris where he works as a voice-over artist, comedian and clown. He also looks a bit like Heath Ledger, the Joker from the Batman movie The Dark Knight.
Click here to visit Robert's website http://www.frenchfriedtv.com
In our conversation, which you can listen to whenever you want, I interview Robert using the usual questions: What made you move to Europe? Did you experience culture shock when you moved to France? What are the differences between France and the USA? Have you been to London? How did you manage to learn French to a good standard? But we talk about all kinds of ridiculous stuff along the way!
Thanks for listening, leave comments below as always, and please consider making a donation by clicking the button below. Your donations help to keep this podcast alive and kicking.
All the best,
Luke

3 poems that demonstrate some difficulties with English spelling and pronunciation.
Today I shared a poem on Facebook. It was written to highlight all the inconsistencies in English spelling and pronunciation. In this episode I read the poem to you, demonstrating the correct way to say all the word. It's a very challenging poem, so I hope I get them all right! If you find any errors, correct me by leaving a comment below.
I also read a couple of other poems about English pronunciation below.
Enjoy the episode and I hope you find it useful.

This episode is all about English teaching and some stories of bad classroom experiences. Transcript available.
Hello listeners, how are you doing? It's a beautifully clear and sunny September day here. This time of year always reminds me of going back to school after the summer holidays. So, because of that, I'm going to talk about some teaching experiences in various schools I have worked in over the years.
In this episode I'm going to talk to you about my experiences of being an English Language Teacher. I'll tell you what it's like from the teacher's point of view, share with you a few really bad experiences I've had as a teacher and then explain what I learned from them.
If you would like to read and study every word of what I am saying then you can because there is a full transcript for this episode, which is available at http://teacherluke.wordpress.com. Just find or search for this episode on that page. 145. Nightmare Teaching Experiences
There you can read every single word I'm saying, you can copy+paste words into google to check them, or you can transcribe some of what I'm saying and then compare it to the correct version provided on my website. There's lots of ways to use the transcript as a tool in your English learning. If you need more ideas, just leave a comment below asking for suggestions.
You should also look out for some idiomatic expressions I use in this episode. I have scattered a number of idioms throughout the episode. I think they're useful, common and expressive ones. Can you notice them? I will deal with them in the next episode.