L先生要求我学习写一篇如何使用Markdown的文章，可是我真的不会…。于是我强行把标题改成了Comparisons and comments on three English podcasts. An extension to previous blog.不接受反驳。
In previous blog Mr. L introduced two(and a sub branch) English teaching podcasts. I personally want to add another one, 潘吉Jenny告诉你丨学英语聊美国丨开言英语. As you can tell from the name, it's hosted by a Chinese girl Jenny and her awesome English speaking friends. Mr. L and I listened to those three podcasts almost everyday on our commute just to familiarize ourselves with English circumstances and, of course, learn some useful hints. Here are some comparisons and comments on them.
Firstly I have to admit one thing: I always fell asleep when I listen to Luke's English Podcast. No offence Mr. Thompson but your podcast can be really long, reaching almost one and half hour! OK let's be serious. Luke has a beautiful London accent that makes him easy to understand though from his podcasts I got that he is actually from Birmingham. (Hooray! I've been studying in Birmingham for some time and got my master's degree there. There is no reason why I don't become a fan of Luke!) I can't help wanting to ask Luke, Birmingham accent is so different from London's, how did you manage to master the latter? It's even hard for Mr. L to abandon his Chinese accent LOL. Another point I appreciate is that Luke likes to share with us his daily life, such as his trip to the US and that his family is welcoming a baby. It makes me to feel like I'm listening to an old friend of mine casually catting about things going around him. Every time he bring's about a sophisticated word, he'd patiently explain it till he thinks everybody from non-English speaking country can get it. Wow so sweet! I even like him catting with his friends better. Amber, Paul Taylor, Luke's father, he'd chat with them about casual life and critical topics such as how language change over time or do languages are merging into several major kinds. I love to here people's mind crushing, broadening my mind a lot. Though I have to say that despite being too long, Luke's English Podcast is a bit complicated for beginners as in each episode Luke is trying to dig deeper in specific topic, making his podcast educational on the issue itself but not on language learning purpose.
Here comes my favorite one, All Ears English. If you are a big fan of US comedies and soap operas like me, you'll love these girls. Yes different from Luke's English Podcast which is mostly solo, All Ears English has three hosts, Lindsay, Michelle and Jessica, all coming from USA and are OMG chatty. Each episode is around 14 to 20 minutes, which sounds reasonable to me as we'd like to make use of our fragmented time. Michelle and Lindsay would answer a question from their listeners each day, or raise their own ideas. That can be helpful as you know, second language learners like us always pop up with some cultural and habit related questions that are better answered by natives. It can be awkward if I construct a sentence that's grammatically right but actually weird, isn't it? The sub branch IEITS Energy podcast focuses on the test but it's also helpful, as it not only mention some test tricks but also giving out brilliant words and phrases we can use daily. I can proudly say that, after I left UK, my only source to English speaking practices is TV drama, which hardly improves my fluency and accent. But this program is like magical, I subconsciously follow these girls' accent and mimic their way of talking. My IELTS speaking score did rise, and this time when we travel to NZ, I got praised by a lot of people of my spoken English and some even thought I was native. Haha I like that.
As to 潘吉Jenny告诉你丨学英语聊美国丨开言英语(let's refer it to OpenLanguage, their official name), I'd say it's the best choice for starters. For most of the time the hostess Jenny is speaking Chinese, and her partner Adam or Spencer would be speaking English for the rest of time. In each episode they'd introduce some interesting facts about English, and they are keen to be trendy. You'll hear how people in the US go cyber shopping when it's double 11 in China, and how do Americans feel when they see silly advertisements. To some extent OpenLanguage is like All Ears English, they all do podcasts in order to attract potential subscribers or customers to their charged programs. That's a brilliant thing, handing back the choice to their listeners. If you'd like to go further in English, try the charged service. If not, just enjoy the show that is also beneficial anyway. Don't forget to follow OpenLanguage Official wechat account, a lot of useful summaries and hints in it.
