In this podcast for adult, independent English learners I talk about the importance of practising talking about controversial issues. How will we ever make authentic connections in a second language if we haven't practised the vocabulary needed to express nuance, and delicately, cautiously and respectfully present opposing perspectives? In this podcast I present some of that language, and discuss the importance of using it before we need it! 

Birdsong English Explains

Ep.3 Courting controversy!

A fun podcast with fun facts about greek words

It's all Greek to me 

3 fun fact about the Greek words 

Let's have a Conversation

Introduction

Frases relacionadas con el fútbol que se utilizan en el español de Buenos Aires

Che, ¿qué significa en español?

Pasar la pelota

En este episodio especial de No Hay Tos hablamos sobre 5 expresiones comunes en el español mexicano.

No Hay Tos

Mexicanismos Vol. 3

🧠 La Puerta del Cuarto 103 🚪

Daniel llegó al viejo hotel de montaña buscando un poco de paz. El recepcionista le entregó la llave y le advirtió con una sonrisa incómoda: “Evite mirar por la mirilla de la puerta del cuarto 103”. Daniel, intrigado, subió las escaleras y, al llegar a su habitación, no pudo evitar fijarse en la puerta mencionada, que estaba justo frente a la suya. La mirilla parecía un ojo negro que lo observaba. Trató de ignorarlo, pero su curiosidad crecía con cada minuto.

A medianoche, incapaz de resistirse, se acercó sigilosamente y miró por la mirilla. Al otro lado solo vio una habitación vacía y completamente blanca. Pero cuando apartó el ojo, sintió un escalofrío: alguien lo observaba desde detrás. Se giró bruscamente, pero no había nadie. Al volver a mirar por la mirilla, vio una silueta alta y delgada, con ojos completamente rojos. Retrocedió y corrió a su cama, convencido de que todo era su imaginación.

Por la mañana, fue a la recepción y le contó lo ocurrido al recepcionista. Este palideció. “¿Dijo que vio ojos rojos?”, preguntó. Daniel asintió. El recepcionista tragó saliva y le dijo: “Esa habitación… está cerrada desde hace diez años, desde que un huésped desapareció dejando esa misma descripción”. Daniel se quedó helado y, al girarse para marcharse, notó una cosa más: la llave de su habitación ya no estaba en su bolsillo, sino sobre el mostrador… junto a una pequeña nota que decía: "Te veo esta noche".

Spanish Reading Comprehesion

The Door to Room 103

¡Hola a todos! Welcome to our Spanish lesson series. Today, we're going to explore a crucial verb tense: the preterite tense (el pretérito indefinido), also known as the simple past in Spanish. In this video, we'll dive into the rules, conjugations, and main uses of this verb tense so you can talk about past actions with confidence and precision. Get ready to master the past in Spanish and take your fluency to the next level! Let's get started!

Super Basic Spanish

Easy Spanish Grammar: El Pretérito Indefinido (The Simple Past)

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.





Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

US Startup Makes Butter from Carbon Dioxide

はじめまして！Atsushiと言います。オンライン日本語教師とオンラインコーヒーショップをしています。日本語学習をしているみなさんのサポートをしたいと思い、ポッドキャストをはじめることにしました。これから、簡単な日本語で日本の日常を話していきます。

Nice to meet you!  My name is Atsushi.  I have an online coffee shop with an online Japanese teacher.  I decided to start a podcast because I wanted to support everyone who is learning Japanese.  I will talk about everyday life in Japan in simple Japanese.