Hey everyone, welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
I'm Oliver and today we are going to talk all about podcasts
just like this one and how they are useful for learning English.
For those of you who are new on this channel and in this series,
we talk in easy, simple English for learners so you can practice
your listening skills and learn new words.
But let's get started. Did you know that podcasts are
one of the best ways to improve your English?
In this episode, I'm going to look about why podcasts are so
useful, what to look for in a good podcast for English
learning, and how to use them effectively.
So whether you're traveling to work, relaxing, getting ready to
go to bed, exercising, you can practice English absolutely
anywhere with this podcast. Let's dive in and get started.
So why should you use podcasts to learn English?
The number one reason is that you can hear real life English.
Podcasts help you hear how people really speak.
They use everyday language, natural tones or ways of
speaking and different accents as well.
And this is great for learning and improving your listening
skills. Take for example this podcast.
I am a native English speaker and when I speak, you can
practice listening to maybe a different accent but also real
English speech. And just a little warning, you
need to be very careful with the English podcast that you listen
to, especially in 2024 because there are so many AI podcasts,
so podcasts made with artificial intelligence.
I see them every day now in this category, in this space, and so
many of them use artificial voices, not real native speaker
voices. And this is a terrible way to
learn. Not only are you going to pick
up incorrect ways of pronunciation, but also you're
not practicing listening to real speech.
So do be careful. Keep an eye out for these AI
voices and these AI podcasts and don't waste your time listening
to them. There are so many channels out
there with real English speech because even from the way or
style of speaking, if you listen to me, sometimes I pause, I go,
I stop. This is natural.
It is a natural rhythm of speech.
Robots don't do that. They speak in a way that is
unnatural. They don't go, uh, uh, there's
no filler words. They speak in a strange way.
So just my warning before we continue, the second point of
why podcasts are very useful for learning English is convenience.
You can listen to them anytime, anywhere, on the bus, maybe
while you're driving, while you're cleaning.
That's one of my favorite things to do.
I listen to podcasts while I am doing a chore.
A chore is maybe a household activity, like cleaning the
dishes, cleaning the house, that type of thing.
You can also listen to podcasts when you're going for a walk,
really any time, and that's what makes it such a useful way to
practice English. The Third Point is, there are
podcasts on everything. When I make this podcast, for
example, I like to choose lots of different topics to interest
everyone. So about the environment, about
maybe history, about even travelling, so many different
topics. OK, so the 4th main point is
listening and understanding. So regular listening of podcasts
will improve your ability to understand spoken English,
including new vocabulary, slang, and even sometimes idioms.
OK, so next I want to tell you a little bit about how to use this
podcast effectively. So what are some ways that you
can listen to this episode and use it to improve your English,
just as an example. So the first point is active
listening. Don't just listen passively.
Pay attention to how words are pronounced and how sentences are
formed. Of course, if you want to just
listen passively, so in the background, that is fine too.
And it also helps your brain to pick up new phrases, improve
your understanding, etcetera, etcetera.
But active listening is a great way to start.
So just pay attention to what is being said, maybe some of the
grammar and things like that. The second point is you can
repeat and shadow me. So listen to a short section,
pause the video or the audio, and then you can try to repeat
what I said. And that's called shadowing.
And this will help to improve both your pronunciation and also
your fluency. OK, so the Third Point is to
listen multiple times. And this is probably one of the
most important. I always recommend listening to
the same episode twice. And that's because the first
time you are focusing a lot more maybe to understand phrases,
words, the topic, and the second listen through you will
understand things so much better.
Also, the first time you should use subtitles, read the
transcript while you're listening the words on the
screen. And then the second time just
listen and don't read. And that will help to train your
listening skills without any subtitles.
And really one of the most important points is to make it a
routine. So try to listen to this podcast
regularly. I make an episode, you know,
every few days, sometimes every day on YouTube and just try to
do that little bit. The reason why I make these
podcast episodes only 10 minutes is because I understand that
it's more important for you to learn a little bit every day
than a lot once per week. So listening to this 10 minutes
episode per day is going to be so helpful for you.
And of course, there are lots of episodes uploaded and if you
want to listen to more on one day, you can.
So really, I think podcasts are an amazing tool to help you
learn English. I honestly think they're
probably the best way to practice online without, you
know, a teacher, for example, possibly the best content that
you can be consuming for English language learning, particularly
if you're, you know, beginner to intermediate levels.
It it's a great way. And that's why I do this.
I think that people have very busy lives and podcasts are a
great way of doing things alongside other areas of your
life. So remember, make listening to
podcasts a habit and with time you will see real improvements
to your speaking, your listening and your understanding skills.
And of course, that is probably one of the most important bits
of language learning understanding.
So thank you so much for listening to the Easy English
Podcast. If you're new, please subscribe.
If you're not like the video, if you enjoyed it, and I will see
you in the next episode. Have a wonderful day, goodbye.