Dare to be happy - my podcast today is based on a rainy from a book by Jamie Baron - "Radically content".

British English with Maria

Listen to Yourself!

In today's episode, I'm talking about the similarities between Sinhala grammar's 'ද' and the Chinese question particle '吗' in Chinese. Tune in to discover how these languages handle questions! 

Sinhala corner 

ද 和吗语气词一样吗？

Think you're too old to learn English? Think again! In this episode of English Learners Boost, I share the inspiring story of my student, Bernd, who proves that learning has no age limit. Despite challenges, his confidence and determination continue to grow—showing that mindset, not age, makes all the difference. Tune in for motivation, practical tips, and a special invitation to book a personalized lesson with me on iTalki. Let’s break barriers and keep learning together! 🚀🎧

English Learner's Boost

Age is Not the Reason to Quit

Littérature avec Isa

La courbe de tes yeux

In today's podcast I show you how native speakers would answer the new IELTS Speaking Part 1 questions all about 'shoes'.

You will learn some great vocabulary and interesting idioms to really impress your examiner and boost your overall score.

For more IELTS tips and techniques, book a lesson now with ex-examiner Cambridge David

IELTS with Cambridge David

IELTS Speaking Part 1 Question about 'shoes'

Ini cerita tentang Malin Kundang yang pergi merantau, meninggalkan ibunya untuk mencari uang. Tetapi hatinya berubah setelah ia menjadi kaya.

Cerita Pendek Indonesia (B1-B2)

01 Malin Kundang

Making suggestions is an essential skill when you want to offer advice or ideas to someone. So, 
let's dive right in and explore these five useful ways to make suggestions.

And there you have it, five useful ways to make suggestions in English. Let's do a quick 
recap:
1. "How about…?" for proposing new ideas or alternatives.
2. "Why don’t you… ?" for offering suggestions to someone who's unsure.
3. "Maybe we should… ." for collaborative and friendly proposals.
4. "I’d recommend… ." for advice based on personal experience or expertise.
5. "Have you thought about… ?" for introducing new ideas or options.

Learn Persian with Kimiya - w/script 

"5 Ways to Make a Suggestion"

Speaker 1: For me, having a dumbphone would be …dumb. I really like surfing the web on my phone to find out about things. If I hear the name of an actor I don’t know about, I can look them up, or if I‘m in a new place and I want to find a restaurant to go to, I can find somewhere easily. Plus, I love Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I follow loads of celebrities and I love to watch concerts and live-tweet what is happening. Without my smartphone, my friends wouldn’t know what I was doing. It would feel very strange.

Speaker 2: I’m seriously thinking about getting a dumbphone. I hate how the battery on my smartphone is in control of my life. I always have to find somewhere to charge the phone when I’m out and I’m always worried about it. I also don’t like the way search engines record your history and use it to sell you things. I feel as though my attention is always taken away from everything I do with my smartphone because I use it so much. I was with a friend the other day and after a while, we were sitting there not talking, just looking at our phones. It was like our phones just killed the conversation. We didn’t even realize it was happening.

Speaker 3: I like the idea of a dumbphone. I’m just not sure if I would like it in practice. I travel a lot with my work, so it really helps being able to access my inbox when I’m out. If I didn’t, I would spend all my time in the office answering emails. I also have a favorite podcaster who I listen to all the time when I’m traveling. I can download his latest episode and pass the time when I’m on a flight or a train. I do enjoy being offline as I feel as though I am always using my phone to communicate, with email, Skype, phone calls, and text. But I think if I didn’t have access to the Internet most of the time, I would worry.

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

DUMBPHONES

June and Yuli have a talk about Chinese Blind Date, this episode is part 4: Can we trust what the matchmaker says, you will learn how to say 【objective,tend to】 ect. (This is casual talk so there're some repetition and unnecessary words, which is also very natural authentic dialogue.)
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It is recommended that you study in the following ways:
1st time: listen without looking at the text.
2nd time: look at the text and write down the new words, later look up the dictionary. 
3rd time: listen again without looking at the text.
4th time: repeat after it without looking at the text.
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June：还有就是一般相亲的时候我们是有通过中间人去介绍，可能这个人是你的亲戚，对吧？也可能是你父母的朋友，中国叫做媒婆或者媒人嘛。你觉得媒人说的话都是真的吗，或者是你觉得百分之多少是可以相信的？
Yuli：因为我就经历过那一个相亲的对象，那个是我小叔他的朋友的儿子，所以他们说的还算挺客观的吧。就是介绍了一下他的学历、他的工作、他的年龄，还有家里的情况，就是这些。还是蛮客观的，就没有太夸大的成分。网上有一些段子（看到）都会说，如果说这个人很老实，可能是一般，潜台词就是可能也不帅。
June：我觉得很多人会谎报，有的是会谎报身高，有的是会谎报年龄。
Yuli：年龄也会谎报吗？是报大还是报小？
June：对，看情况。这边也有报大，也有报小。相亲可能女方她的年龄，在二十七八岁，基本上如果相成功了就会想要结婚了，对吧。所以她会倾向于找一个比较成熟稳重，那如果像你刚刚说的有的人可能大学在读的时候就去相亲了，但是那个时候才20岁左右吧，20到22岁。那女生可能会觉得偏小，然后有的人就会谎报说，噢这个男生已经25岁了。所以就是因为你报太小的话，可能他就一开始就不想见面，就不给机会了，对不对？那谎报年龄也有报偏小一点的，但可能就是大家都是觉得，因为在中国好像大部分的时候是30岁好像是一个界限，特别是对女生而言。所以有的人会觉得，差一两岁，差不多可能如果31， 32，有的可能会报30岁这样子。就是（先）觉得要有一个见面的机会。
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中间人	/	zhōng jiān rén	/	middleman
媒婆	/	méi pó	/	matchmaker
客观	/	kè guān	/	objective
夸大	/	kuā dà	/	exaggerated
段子	/	duàn zi	/	joke
老实	/	lǎo shí	/	honest,decent
潜台词	/	qián tái cí	/	subtext
谎报	/	huǎng bào	/	lie about sth.
倾向	/	qīng xiàng	/	tend to
成熟稳重	/	chéng shú wěn zhòng	/	mature and steady
偏小	/	piān xiǎo	/	on the small side
界限	/	jiè xiàn	/	dividing line