In this episode, we are going to learn the vocabulary related to a newspaper and the first conjugation verbs starting with the letters "j" and "l". Less

Christmas crackers. Photo by Miss Shari/flickr. A Happy New Year, everyone. Many thanks to all of you who sent e-mails to wish me a speedy recovery from the flu. I am now much better – thank you. Today’s podcast is a delayed Christmas podcast. I would have made it before Christmas, but I was unwell so I could not do so. I hope you will like it nonetheless. In the podcast, we meet the words “crack” and “crackers”, and we learn what you should do at a Christmas dinner in England. Let’s start with the word “crack”. Imagine that you drop a plate – a china plate – on the floor. It does not break into lots of pieces, but when you pick it up you see that the plate now has a line running across it. You know that soon the plate will break completely along this line. The line is a “crack”. You have “cracked” the plate. The plate is “cracked”. Here are some other things which you can crack. A piece of wood can crack if you hit it hard. Ice on a river or a pond can crack if you walk on it. A window can crack if you throw a stone at it. And an egg can crack if you tap it with a knife or a spoon. We also use the word “crack” to describe the sound of something cracking – a sudden, short sound – “crack” – like that. And a “cracker”? What is that? It is something which makes a cracking sound. In America, they call a savoury biscuit – the sort you eat with cheese, for example – a “cracker“. A “firecracker“ is a firework, especially a firework which makes a cracking sound. “Crackers” is also a rather old-fashioned slang word meaning “mad” or “crazy”. And in England, we have Christmas crackers. Imagine that your English friend has invited you to join his family for dinner on Christmas Day. When you sit down at the dinner table, you will probably find a strange object made out of coloured paper and cardboard on the plate in front of you. If you pick up the strange object and shake it, you will hear something rattling inside. The strange object is a Christmas cracker. There is a picture of some Christmas crackers on the website, and (I hope) on your iPod screen as well, so you can see what they look like. What do you do with the Christmas cracker? Perhaps you remember what I just said about biscuits in America. Perhaps you should eat the cracker? No. Do not try to eat a Christmas cracker. Perhaps a Christmas cracker is like a firecracker. Perhaps you should find a match and set fire to the Christmas cracker? Wrong. Do not set fire to the Christmas cracker. Well, perhaps the best thing is just to put the Christmas cracker in your pocket so that you can look at it more closely later, when you are alone. No. No. No. You hold of one end of the cracker and give the other end to the person sitting next to you. Together you pull the cracker. The cracker will break open with a “crack” sound – that is why it is called a cracker! And the things inside the cracker will fall out. First, you will find a silly little hat made of paper. Etiquette requires that you put this silly paper hat on your head and wear it throughout the meal. Do not feel embarrassed. Everyone else will wear silly paper hats as well. Second, you will find a toy, or a puzzle. You are allowed to play with the toy or puzzle during the meal. Indeed, if you are lucky you may find a whistle inside the cracker; you can blow the whistle as often and as loudly as you like. Third, you will find a little piece of paper. On the paper is a joke. It will be a bad joke. For example, this is the joke from my Christmas Day cracker: “Why did the skeleton not go to the party?” “Because it had nobody to go with.” “No body” – “nobody” – do you understand? Never mind, I said it was a bad joke. You should read the joke from your cracker out loud to all the other people at the table. Everyone will laugh. You should laugh loudly when other people read their jokes as well, even if you do not understand the joke, and even if you do not think that it is funny. You may be thinking, perhaps all this stuff about Christmas crackers and paper hats and things is an ancient Christmas tradition, going back hundreds and hundreds of years. Wrong again. Christmas crackers have nothing – absolutely nothing – to do with the birth of Jesus, which is what we are celebrating at Christmas. The first Christmas crackers were made in the middle of the 19th century by a man called Tom Smith. Today, you can buy boxes of Christmas crackers in the supermarket in the few weeks before Christmas. Or you can make your own crackers, if you wish. So now you know that the English really are mad. Crackers, in fact. Happy New Year! File Download (7:08 min / 3 MB) Less

"Wie geht's? – Gestern ging's noch!" Ha, ha, sehr komisch, aber vor allem wollen wir heute nicht zurückschauen, sondern nach vorne sehen, ins neue Jahr: "Ob da wohl alles gutgeht? – Wird schon gehen." Less

Today’s sentence Hello again. How are things? Here’s the latest in the series on the uses of quite. You’re quite right! Notes Do you remember yesterday’s sentence? “That’s quite impossible!” Quite means completely. Today’s sentence means, “you are 100% correct.” You could also say, “you’re half right.” Your teacher might say this if you have the right idea but not the correct answer. Or, you could say, “You’re nearly right,” if someone has just made one small mistake in say, a maths problem. However, “you’re quite right” is an emphatic way of saying you are 100% right. I hope that was useful. We’ll look at this theme again tomorrow. Bye! Search Linguagum for more English tips, check out our very useful links and our shop! And please, tell us what you think of us! Text and audio © linguagum.com 2006-2009 Less

Today’s sentence Hi. How are you? Here’s the latest sentence in the series on typical interview questions. What do you think you can bring to this position? Notes This question means: “tell me about all of the positive things which you will do if you get this job.” Obviously, you will then explain all of the brilliant things which you will do if they give you the job! Now is the time to tell to tell them just how progressive you are and how they simply can’t do without you! I hope that was useful. We’ll look at another sentence in the series tomorrow. Bye! Search Linguagum for more English tips, check out our very useful links and our shop! And please, tell us what you think of us! Text and audio © linguagum.com 2006-2009 Less

Trainieren Sie Ihr Hörverstehen mit authentischen Materialien. Nutzen Sie die Nachrichten der Deutschen Welle vom Montag - als Text und als verständlich gesprochene Audio-Datei. Less

Learn Spanish with Spanishpod101.com! Who do you think is taking control in this relationship already? Come on Adolfo, say it! She wants you too. Join Carlos and Natalia for this humorous little pick up situation. Trust us, they have a lot to say about that. In addition to this examination of modern mating rituals of young club [...] Less

You just got an incredible job with a Korean company. You’ve learned a lot in just a short time, and your Korean is getting a lot better too! After a few weeks your Korean boss wants you see how you are doing! He pulls a chair up to your desk and begins watching every move [...] Less

As you know, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. When you’re in Japan, you’ll need to quickly and confidently tell people who you are, where you’re from, and what you enjoy doing. These three simple facts about yourself are enough to form lasting friendships. Sentences as simple as, “My name [...] Less

Hi everybody, my name's Mike and this is the Let's Speak Italian podcast. So you've been listening to the first few lessons, and hopefully you're learning how to speak Italian. Well with the first 100 lessons completed, I wanted to release the first few lessons for free as a little teaser so that you can see just how easy it is to learn to speak Italian. Now, by going to the website, you can buy the first 100 lessons for only $15.00. That includes 100 lessons, plus 20 review lessons as well, for a total of 120 lessons in all. That's 24 weeks of lessons, for only $15.00.  It's over 13 hours of Italian lessons, for the price of what you might pay for one music CD. I've found that the key to learning to speak Italian is to learn a little bit every day, and to practice it with your friends. So get lessons 1-100, and listen to one lesson, every day for 24 weeks. By the end, you'll be amazed at how easy it was, and just how much you can learn by practicing a few minutes every day. To buy the first 100 lessons, just go to the web site at www.letsspeakitalian.net and click on one of the banner ads. If you want to Download Lessons 1-100 , click on the 'Download' banner ad. Once I get your payment, I'll e-mail you a link to the files. Be patient though, it might take a few hours before I check my email.  If you would rather Get Lessons 1-100 on CD-Rom , click on the 'CD' banner ad and once I receive your payment, I'll mail the CD-Rom to you.  For only $15.00 you'll be speaking Italian before you know it. Grazie tanto, arrivederci. Less

chiudere = to close chiudo, chiudi, chiude, chiudiamo, chiudete, chiudono ascoltare = to listen to ascolto, ascolti, ascolta, ascoltiamo, ascoltate, ascoltano aiutare = to help aiuto, aiuti, aiuta, aiutiamo, aiutate, aiutano lavorare = to work lavoro, lavori, lavora, lavoriamo, lavorate, lavorano cominciare = to begin comincio, cominci, comincia, cominciamo, cominciate, cominciano preparare = to prepare preparo, prepari, prepara, prepariamo, preparate, preparano Less

Episode #7 of this exciting "Upper Intermediate Level Series" is entitled "I Need A Room For Tonight". Last week we had left our friend Italo in the middle of un unpleasant situation. The business meeting he was supposed to have has been cancelled and rescheduled for the following morning. Now Italo must find a place [...] Less

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? [Learning Guide] (index.php?option=com_docman task=doc_download gid=190 Itemid=36) [Pinyin Edition] (index.php?option=com_docman task=doc_download gid=191 Itemid=36) [Other Languages] (http://imandarinpod.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=16) Less

Discussion Lili and JP share their New Year's resolutions with Leo, as we begin 2009. Share your resolutions in the comments section! ... Less

Discussion Irene and Marco will take you through a sneak preview of the lessons coming up next week. As usual we're plenty of surprises and useful content in our dialogues, from thieves to telesales, from taking pictures to silly accidents... :D... Less

Discussion Happy New Year! Don't get lost in the Chinese desert like our fool-hardy friends in their upper intermediate lesson this week. The New Year is also great cause for new developments in your romantic lives so tune in for our lesson 'Will You ... Less

Discussion When you thought it was over, all the parties, celebrations, eating (drinking?!), FrenchPod comes back to tempt you with more occasions to have fun! Not just winter holidays, but birthdays and much more... Listen to today's podcast to see w... Less

Trainieren Sie Ihr Hörverstehen mit authentischen Materialien. Nutzen Sie die Nachrichten der Deutschen Welle vom Sonntag - als Text und als verständlich gesprochene Audio-Datei. Less