The right and wrong way to ask for something, or to ask permission, in English.

The English Toolbox

Making Polite Requests in English

Have you ever wondered why French people ask: Comment ça va ? How do you go?
— instead of How ARE you?

The answer's only one click away, but beware its foul aftertaste!

French Follies feat. Leeroy

The gross mystery behind the french expression Ça va.

Learn Tagalog with Teacher Regina

Whiskers ng Pusa

Here you learn how introduce yourself in the informal and formal way.

GermanPodcast mit Dirk

Begrüßungen

Get ready for a special treat! In this episode, I talk with Cara Leopold, an English Teacher known as the Listening Expert. We covered a lot of topics, so this will be the first of two episodes with our conversation. The main theme of our conversation was building great listening skills in another language. In this first episode, we talk about the importance of listening when learning another language, including pronunciation, and what to do when you don’t understand your colleagues in meetings.  Here are some gems from this episode:

“People might think, “I spend most of my time speaking.” But listening is actually the skill that dominates. So by that logic, the foundation for also learning future languages should be listening.”

“So what’s really helped me to get fluent in French is observing what people say, understanding them, and then copying them.”

“Notice the expressions that people keep using and then use them. You will sound more authentic because you'll be using what the people around you actually say, as opposed to what you read in a book or what you got out of a list of 100 idioms.”

Tune in to get more valuable insights from Cara, so you’ll understand more of what people say around you! The second part of our conversation will be released in the next episode. 

Read the transcript here: https://www.express-to-impress.com/listening-skills/.

Original theme music by Lucas Knutter 

Express to Impress

How to Improve Your Listening Skills With Movies With Cara Leopold

Link to the text👇 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LY7GexrzfYsGLzUazbfM9QCpnk1IfojByC1QrWXJhkY/edit?tab=t.0

Easy Hebrew

 Kibbutz - mini podcast in Hebrew 

第5课  就买这件吧

一、听力  第一部分
1.我今天有点儿累，去外面吃晚饭吧。
2.他们都在准备下午的考试呢。
3.医生说喝茶对身体很好。
4.我准备了你爱吃的鱼。
5.这件衣服还不错，你喜欢就买吧。

第二部分
6. 男：今天晚上你想吃什么？
女：我们在家吃吧，就做你爱吃的。
7. 男：你想不想去看电影？ 
   女：我有点儿累，在家看电视吧。
8. 男：你和小明在做什么呢？ 
女：我们在准备明天的考试呢。
9. 女：医生说每天喝咖啡对身体不好。 
 男：以后我不喝咖啡了，喝茶。
10. 女：你看看，这件衣服怎么样？
男：我觉得有点儿大，那件还不错。

第三部分
11. 女：外面有点儿冷！
   男：是啊，我们就在咖啡馆看书吧。
   问：他们在哪儿看书？
12.男：我去准备晚饭。你们爱吃什么？
女：我丈夫和我都爱吃鱼。
   问：她丈夫最爱吃什么？
13. 女：这个椅子怎么样？
男：我儿子不到一米，这个有点儿高。
问：女的为什么不买这个椅子？
14. 女：你昨天的考试怎么样？
男：听和说还不错。
问：男的昨天的考试怎么样？
15. 女：吃苹果对身体好，但是也不能吃太多。
   男：我以后少吃一点儿，每天吃一个。
问：男的以前每天吃几个苹果？


hsk2 第5课  就买这件吧

There are many types of dairy alternatives on the market today, often made from things like nuts and soybeans.

But have you heard they're now making butter from air?

A US startup called Savor is working on a range of dairy alternatives made using something that exists all around us: carbon.

Fats are made from chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Savor's process involves taking carbon — from, say, carbon dioxide — and adding heat and hydrogen to create chains that are combined with oxygen from air.

This results in fat molecules, like the ones found in dairy and other animal products.

Now, regular butter is about 80% fat — the rest is mostly water. So to make butter from its synthetic fat, Savor just adds water, as well as an emulsifier that keeps the liquids from separating, and rosemary oil for flavor and beta carotene for color.

What does it taste like?

"I couldn't believe I wasn't eating real butter," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote in a blog post earlier this year. Gates is one of Savor's investors.

He wrote that "it tastes really good — like the real thing, because chemically it is."

Savor has already run informal taste tests with small groups of people, and is working to get regulatory approval for its product in the US.

But why butter?

A 2021 study estimated that food production makes up about 35% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions — and Savor estimates that about 7% of greenhouse gas emissions are just from producing fat.

But Savor's process, Gates wrote, doesn't release any greenhouse gases. He added that it uses no farmland and "less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture does."

Savor is focusing on butter to start with partly because its high price point makes it easier to compete on cost. But the startup later hopes to develop other products like milk, ice cream, cheese — even meat.



