Today I'm going to talk about...

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently, unfortunately I’ve been having root canal treatment. (Dental treatment which takes a lot of time and it’s painful!)

In the meantime, if you want to listen to broadcasts in English, here’s a website full of talks on different subjects – from politics, to culture, to science, to art, to business. They’re in English, and can be shown with subtitles in English, or in 82 other languages. The videos are from 3 to 30 minutes long. The website is called TED Talks.

http://www.ted.com/

Often people find it easier to learn English when they are reading about or listening to subjects they already know well, such as your job or industry; or areas they are interested in, such as hobbies like cooking, football or films.

These talks can also help you to improve your own presentations skills, and to become more familiar with linking words and developing an argument, e.g. "in the meantime", "also", "however", "but", "for example", etc.

Here are a few examples!

The magic of truth and lies (and iPods) (5 minutes 7 seconds)

http://www.ted.com/talks/marco_tempest_the_magic_of_truth_and_lies_on_ipods.html

Could a Saturn moon harbour life? (3 minutes 27 seconds)

http://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_porco_could_a_saturn_moon_harbor_life.html

Obesity + Hunger = 1 global food issue (9 minutes 33 seconds)

http://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_gustafson_obesity_hunger_1_global_food_issue.html

On the intelligence of crows (10 minutes 4 seconds)

http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html

Hopefully next week we will be back to updating as usual!