Real English® is listening

2013-05-11T05:12:00.000-07:00

Simple Instructions for Using the
Real English® Site

Thanks to recent translations from Sunggyung Hong and Narine H., we now have Korean and Armenian translations of the instructions for using the Real English site, in addition to 35 other languages.

Real English® Mobile

2013-03-12T02:42:00.003-07:00

Screencast / Brief Demo of
Real English® Mobile

It's a bit early for me to be presenting the new Mobile version of Real English®. Only a quarter of the Lessons are finished. On the other hand, the numerous videos and quizzes which have been completed provide beginners and pre-intermediate students on the go with at least 40 hours* of fun work.

Besides, it will take me until the end of the year to finish the job. More importantly for myself and other social-oriented content creators, a minimum of general feedback seems essential in order to continue the longish job with relative confidence concerning the final outcome.

Moreover, in a case like mine, the job will be interrupted by new filming in the streets, as I make brand new videos, and then new edits and finally new lessons for the new clips (BTW, a "lesson" is a collection of interactive quizzes for a small portion of a main video). So the job is never completed, really. It will only be finished the day I stop filming and make a lesson for my last good clip.

So here she is in demo form:

If you just spent 6 minutes watching this entire clip, I hope you'll leave a comment, or try it out on your own mobile device before making a comment.

Concerning feedback, I was very lucky to learn that this site works pretty much the same way on Windows and Android phones. Android devices are especially important since their market share is increasing much faster than Apple's iDevices at the present time.

So I tried to find someone to try it out on an Android device, and I simply googled "Mobile ESL" and within minutes I succeeded in contacting David Read, who surprised me with a screencast showing me how it looks on his Samsung Galaxy Note 2. David has created a Google+ ESL Community which he continues to develop and which is definitely worth a detour. His screencast, below, inspired me to find a way to do the same for the iPhone. He had a look at the Alphabet Lesson (Lesson 3).

I have made improvements to Lesson 3 after carefully watching Dave's screencast, but I haven't found all the solutions yet.

The URL of Real English Mobile is http://realenglish-mobile.com/
Regular updates concerning Real English Mobile, on the tradional Real English site are here.

My next screencast will show you how the ProProfs Quiz Maker works. This is the application I have chosen for all the quizzes on Real English Mobile.

* It's impossible to make an accurate estimate of the time to be spent to complete the existing 21 lessons. Here I write "40 hours" and in the screencast, I say "80 hours". The latter estimate might be closer to the truth when speaking about a real beginner, starting with lesson 1, while also learning English with other tools.

ProProfs: the Ideal Quiz Maker?

2012-11-12T01:38:00.002-08:00

ProProfs Quizmaker & Real English® Videos
How Students Learn English on Our Sites

In order to ensure that Real English® videos are truly useful for learners, we have implemented "Interactive Lessons", i.e., collections of quizzes for our entire library of videos.

And in order to ensure that the learning experience is user-friendly for all levels of students, we break up each video into small parts for each quiz, in our case this means one, or sometimes 2 street interviews per quiz. In this way, students do not have to search or navigate back and forth to the relevant part of the video for compleing the quiz at hand.

This quiz strategy works well, which brings us to an even more important question: which tool is best for making quizzes for our videos?

We put a lot of thought and research into this question, and installed trials of 6 different quiz programs before making our choice. Our requirements for a quiz maker included the following criteria:

1 - The program must provide us with quiz output which works on both mobile devices such as the iPhone and other iDevices, as well as Android phones & tablets AND computers. In other words, all the quizzes we create must work well on all devices.

2 - When we create quizzes for our own students at The Marzio School, we want to personalize the activity, i.e., to know which students took which quiz, in order to be able to help them in the future after looking at their mistakes. We also want to test our students from time to time using the quiz application.

3 - The quiz maker must be easy to use, without requiring the teachers to use HTML (only half our teachers are familiar with HTML basics). Along the same lines, the instructions for the students must appear in contexts directly related to the quiz they are taking. Here's one of many examples:

4 - There must be some variety in the types of quizzes, including Multiple Choice, True or False, Fill in The Blanks, and Matching Exercises.

5 - Given the fact that our quizzes are based on our own videos, the possibility of embedding these videos into the quiz must be included as a built-in feature.

6 - The students must get "double feedback", i.e., feedback concerning why the correct answer is X and not Y, but also a score at the end showing all of the students' results.

We had been using the Hot Potatoes quiz maker for the past 10 years, because it fulfills our most important requirements except for #1, which is now the most important feature for us in 2012 - 2013. This old venerable "Hot Potatoes" program is now truly "old software", since it does not support mobile platforms, and its creators have no intention of making it mobile-compatible.
ProProfs failed in only one area - the last point in # 2: there are no matching exercises. This is a tiny fault compared to the fact that Hot Potatoes is useless for mobile devices.

ProProfs also includes features that will certainly be useful to our students, such as the fact that students can acess the quiz from their laptops using ProProfs "embedded link" feature. There are also options for working with the ProProfs-generated files off-line, a truly unique feature.

There is really no comparison between Hot Potatoes and ProProfs relatively new entry into Web 2.0 interactivity. Just a few examples:

Many teachers who don't have time to produce completely-original content all the time will be happy to know that theQuiz Maker includes the largest library of pre-made questions on the Web (more than three million of them according to the information we find on the site) and also quiz templates (over 300,000).

It automatically converts any user uploaded documents, including PDF & Word documents, into HTML5 so they can be loaded seamlessly across mobile devices.

There is a "statistics dashboard" that allows teachers to generate reports for each quiz-taker, or for individual questions, or for groups of students, and includes the average time spent per question, and percentage of correct/incorrect answers, for example.

Once a test or quiz is created, the teacher receives a specific URL where it resides online. An embed code ensures that the test or quiz can easily be placed on a school Web site for secure access.

This quiz maker does exactly what it says it does. The interface is simple, and it is completely customizable.

And it's free if you don't mind the ads and branding that accompany the quizzes you make. Otherwise, there are reasonably priced subscriptions to choose from.

All in all, ProProfs is probably the program which most educators will find the most useful and the most complete. It's close to perfect for our particular needs, allowing us to serve both our world-wide audience with "anonymous quizzes", and also for the needs of our own students & teachers in our language school, allowing us to track all aspects of student performance with ease.

2012-11-08T03:11:00.001-08:00

Are you a serious YouTuber like myself? I just found an excellent tool that allows you to reply to your subscribers to thank them for subscribing, for example, without having to type individual messages to each person. But that's just one of the features of this useful time-saver. You can either send your personal message to the subscribers which they receive as email messages, or have your message automatically appear in the comments box on the subscriber's channel.

I don't like to "leave my subscribers in the dark" after they subscribe, but I was spending so much time writing to all the student subscribers to explain that they can do the exercises concerning my videos on my site, that it was becoming ridiculous.

This is, quite frankly, a marketing tool, and I have never before written about commercial stuff like this. However, it saves me so much time, I thought I should share.

I have mentioned only one of the Tube Toolbox functions. Have a look and you will see that you can automate any action which you now do manually. The 2 guys who created it are also very careful that the YouTubes Terms of Service are strictly respected, and they keep up with YouTube's constant changes on a daily basis.

Real English Mobile Update

2012-10-21T00:59:00.001-07:00

I have not finished the new Mobile site yet, but there are already 15 complete lessons up, with quizzes (about 80 hours of work for real beginners). You are more than welcome to use it now, while it is still under construction.

I have added most of the videos (58 videos already up), and I will soon go back to add the quizzes with the short individual-interview clips, which allows the learner to do quizzes based on very short extracts from the main video of each lesson.

Making these short clips for the quizzes is the longest part of the job, but it makes the learning experience much more effective, and especially more user-friendly.

"Old" quizzes already exist for lessons 1 to 12, including the 4 lessons in unit 8, giving us a total of 15 complete interactive mobile lessons as of October 22, 2012. I update progress on a weekly basis at the traditional Real English® site at http://www.real-english.com/mobile-info.asp

The URL of the new mobile site is http://bit.ly/real-english-mobile

Hope you like it. And it's definitely going to get better in the very near future.
PS: I bought my first iPhone yesterday October 21! Up until yesterday, I was testing the new site using Mobile Device Emulators like this one, on my computer, with Safari. They are good for essential testing, and their most important advatage is that they allow one to test not only the different iPhones, but also Android phones such as the Galaxy, as well as tablets, and certain Blackberry phones as well.

However, using a real iPhone has opened my eyes. I see now that I must redo the quizzes in a different format (change of widths, especially, according to the nature of each quiz). Everthing else looks great! The videos are very crisp and clean, even better than the videos I see on the traditional Real English® website!

Two New Kids on the Block - A New Type of Spontaneous Street Interview for ESL Students

2012-10-09T13:13:00.003-07:00

Did you know that the slang word "sick" means cool? Neither did I until I discovered a brand new site and YouTube channel called "Slargon". I couldn't believe it. An old guy like me had to check out the Urban Dictionary to confirm it. The new "sick" is now being used as a near-antonym of the traditonal "sick". This young lady goes on to say that if something is "sick", it's something you really like.

The site has been and is being created by the Corbo Brothers, Stephen and Jimmy. They both have MA degrees and work in the New York City Department of Education as Speech Language Pathologists We're obviously not talking about the usual cowboys we often find in the world of ESL who throw up new sites on a wing and a prayer.

On the other hand, they learned how to make video and a site just like I did, without any training, learning by doing.

"Growing up in New York", Jimmy writes "we have been exposed to many different dialects of English and we are fascinated by the different ways in which people can use language. That is what prompted us to dedicate our video language library to slang, idioms and other peculiar language".

Their videos are all spontaneous steet interviews, just like Real English. No boring actors. You meet a lot of people filmed in different parts of New York City who agree to make a "language donation" as they call it.

The videos are very short - some less than 12 seconds. The longest clip I've found so far is 30 seconds. We're talking sound bites here, and it's really a hoot!

In some of the clips, we find classic idioms such as "the cat's pajamas", but in other cases we find cool everyday expressions which are widely used by native speakers but never, or almost never taught in the ESL/EFL classroom. One thing I learned that is very important when building a coherent language library based on the spontaneous speech of street interviews, is how to approach prospective interviewees, or "donators". I am lucky to have a friendly, attractive French wife who does this job. She puts people at ease and makes them want to give us an interview.
This is what Jimmy says about their approach: "Stephen tends to be the bolder brother but we do switch off approaching people to ask for language donations. We usually approach them with a short pitch about our project. "Hey, how are you? We are from slargon.com, and we're creating a video language library of slang, idioms and other peculiar language. We are looking for language donations... Do you have a word or phrase that you would like to contribute?"
They obviously make a good team. Jimmy told me "Slargon is something that has really grown from my brother Stephen's ambition to merge technology and language services... Once we decided that we would do the project together we hit the ground running. Stephen went to work building a website for Slargon and I went to work learning about Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects for the purpose of editing".He goes on to say "This is a mouthfull, so sometimes we spend an additional 15 minutes explaining our project, and sometimes people jump right in with a word or phrase, and other times we are completely blown off. All in all our general success rate is 50-70%".

I can't help comparing this figure to Real English. After our first filming campaigns in the US and the UK in the mid-90s, we got about the same success rate. The problem comes later when we have to decide who is "good enough" to include in our library. That was my problem 3 months ago when we filmed in my new favorite spot in South Beach, Miami. I thought everybody was great while filming, but in the end, we only used about 20% of our footage.

You will also find donators who speak English as a Second Language. You see a French girl below who explains the slang version of "J'adore" (i.e., without an object) which is not exactly the same as the literal meaning. Several foreign languages have already been included in Slargon's library.

And finally, Slargon's Web 2.0 clincher: "Generally speaking we have gotten a great response on the street, people seem to love the idea. Filming is a great part of the job but we are hoping that eventually users will make their own online contributions by uploading their videos to Slargon".

A word of caution in regard to young children learners. You will find some vulgar clips here too. In fact they have divided their clips into 27 categories so far, and that includes the "gross" and "lustful" categories.

Star Speller

2012-10-05T11:50:00.001-07:00

Hi Teachers! My friend, Ryan Detwiler, has just published a new iPhone/iPod App for children learning English. It's his 1st app:

Star Speller -- Reading and Spelling games for beginning English students. Great pronunciation practice too. Have a look!

He's a great developer. Here are the main features:
- Teacher developed content
- Reading Power and Spelling Power games
- 30 levels of game play (10 words per level)
- Track player's high scores
- Adjustable game speed ("Challenge Speed")
- Option to delete all current scores
- Option to turn audio instructions on or off
- Professionally recorded American English
- Flash Cards activity (read and swipe)
- Simple, easy-to-navigate interface design

Congratulations Ryan!

2012-09-23T01:07:00.002-07:00

It really warms my heart when I receive messages like this one.

Alex Rosas wrote the following message to me this morning. The simple fact that she is so obviously aware of what I try to do to facilitate learning English, is what makes her words so special to me. I'm not very good about explaining what I try to do, nor promoting my learning site, so I'm really glad when someone "gets it".

She wrote:

"I just watched the zodiac signs video, the one where you ask "What are (scorpios) like?" and I think it is awesome because I can ask my students to watch it, listen and write all the adjectives they hear, and then use those adjectives in other activities! Believe me, your videos are a great help and a very important way to practice for non native students/speakers!

Your videos not only help students to learn grammar,comprehend a real conversation and improve pronunciation but also realize the importance of interaction, how people interact in the different situations you present in your videos. I do believe you do a great job with your videos. I like that you take the time to edit with and without CC (closed captions) on separate videos because in that way you understand everything you did not understand in the video without CC. Thanks a lot Real English!!!!

Simple Instructions for Using the Real English Lessons in 34 Languages

2012-03-30T13:29:00.004-07:00

Reminder: these basic native-language translations of the instructions will help real beginners get started! Updates will appear at the top of this section of this blog. We now have 34 languages. If your native language (mother tongue) is not here, please contribute your translation of this text in English:

How to Use Real English®
1 - Go here http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp and choose a lesson.

2 - Watch the video at the top, without subtitles.

3 - Click on "Exercise 1". Follow the instructions. Do all the exercises.

4 - Now watch the video with subtitles.
5 - Problem, Question or Comment? Contact us on our Facebook page or write mike@real-english.com<== To the top of this blog post
<== Back to the Lessons

Lora sent me the Serbian translation on New Year's Eve, 2012-2013

Kako da koristite Real English®
1 - Idite na http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp i izaberite lekciju.
2 - Pogledajte video na vrhu, bez titla.
3 - Kliknite na "Exercise 1". Pratite uputstva.Uradite sva vežbanja.
4 - Sada odgledajte video sa titlom.

Ilse Bielen from Belgium has provided us with the Dutch translation:

Is jouw taal hier? Nee? Wil je dit dan vertalen voor je taalgenoten die ook Engels willen leren:
1.Ga naar http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp en kies een les.
2.Bekijk de video bovenaan, zonder onderschriften.
3.Klik op "Exercise 1". Volg de instructies. Maak alle oefeningen.
4.Bekijk de video nu mét onderschriften.
5.Problemen? Stel je vraag op deze pagina of op de Real English Facebook Page.

Slovenian by Anja

Kako se uporablja Real English®
1 - Pojdite na http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp in izberite lekcijo.
2 - Oglejte si zgornji video, brez podnapisov.
3 - Kliknite "Exercise 1". Sledite navodilom in naredite vse vaje.
4 - Sedaj si oglejte video s podnapisi.

<== Back to the Lessons

Slovak by Sona

Ako používať skutočnú angličtinu...
1 - Choď na http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.a vyber si lekciu.
2 - Pozri si video hore, bez titulkov.
3 - Klikni na cvičenie 1- "Exercise 1". Riaď sa podľa inštrukcií. Sprav si všetky videá.
4 - Teraz si pozri video s titulkami.

Romanian by Gabriela

Cum sa folositi Real English

1. Intrati aici: http://www.real- english.com/new-lessons.asp si alegeti o lectie.
2. Vizionati videoclipul din susul paginii fara subtitrare.
3. Dati Click pe Exercitiul 1. Urmati instructiunile. Efectuati toate exercitiile.
4. Acum vizionati din nou videoclipul cu subtitrare.

<== Back to the Lessons
<== To the top of this blog

Latvian by inara

Kā lietot Real English®
1 - Aizej uz adresi http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp un izvēlies mācību stundu.
2 - Noskaties pirmo video versiju bez subtitriem.
3 - Uzklikšķini "Exercise 1" (pirmais uzdevums). Izpildi visus uzdevumus pēc instrukcijām.
4 - Visbeidzot, noskaties otro video ar subtitriem.

Note from Inara:
"... My Latvian isn't perfect, it can be understood but I'm sure someone can improve the sentence construction and make some words more precise..."

French by Mike Marzio

Comment utiliser Real English®

1 - Rendez-vous ici: http://www.real-english.com/new- lessons.asp

Choisir une leçon.

2 - Regarder la vidéo en haut de la page, sans sous-titres.

3 - Cliquer sur "Exercise 1". Suivez les Instructions. Completer tous les

exercises.

4 - Regarder la vidéo avec sous-titres.

5 - Si vous avez une question, posez-la: mike@real-english.com or our FaceBook page

<== Back to the Lessons

Finnish

Kuinka käytät Real English® sivustoa
1 - Mene sivulle http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp ja valitse oppimistehtävä.
2 - Katso ylimpänä oleva video, jossa ei ole tekstitystä.
3 - Napsauta "Exercise 1". Seuraa ohjeita. Tee kaikki harjoitukset.
4 - Katso sitten video, jossa on tekstitys.

<== To the top of this blog

Malaysian by The English Lounge

1 - Taipkan http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp dan pilih aktiviti yang dikehendaki.
2 - Tengok video dari mula tanpa senikata.
3 - Klik "Exercise 1". Ikut arahan yang diberi dan buat ke semua aktiviti.
4 - Sekarang. Tengkok video dengan senikata.

<== Back to the Lessons

Vietnamese by Vũ Đức Tiệp

Hướng dẫn học Real English®
1 - Bạn truy cập vào trang http://www.real- english.com/new-lessons.asp và chọn một bài học.
2 - Xem đoạn phim ở đầu trang, và không có phụ đề.
3 - Nhấn chuột vào "Exercise 1". Và làm theo hướng dẫn. Nhớ là làm hết các bài tập nhé.
4 - Bây giờ bạn hãy xem đoạn phim cùng với phụ đề.

<== To the top of this blog

Danish by Anne Fox and her daughter

Hvordan anvender man Real English®
1.Tag hertil http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp og vælge en lektion
2.Se den øverste video uden undertekst
3.Klik på ” Exercise 1”. Følg vejledning. Lav alle opgaverne.
4.Se nu den anden video med undertekst.

<== Back to the Lessons

Farsi by Azadeh

چطور از

(Real English®)"انگلیسی به روز" استفاده کنید.

وارد آدرس (http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp) شوید و یک درس انتخاب کنید.
ویدیوی بالای صفحه رابدون زیر نویس ببینید .
روی تمرین شماره ی 1 کلیک کنید. از دستورالعملها پیروی کرده و تمام تمارین را حل

نمایید.
حالا فیلم را با زیر نویس آن دوباره

ببینید.

Arabic by Mona

هذه كيفية استخدام موقع

(Real English®) ( الأنجليزية الحقيقية )

1-     انتقل الى (http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp) واختار الدرس

2-     شاهد الفيديو الموجود فى الأعلى بدون نصا حواريا مكتوبا على شاشة

العرض

3-     اضغط على رقم التمرين اعلى الفيديو "تمرين1"

واتبع التعليمات .قم بمتابعة التمرين كاملا.

4 -     الآن شاهد الفيديو متضمنا ظهور نصا مكتوبا به الحوار

على شاشة العرض .

Japanese by Aka Ken

これが「Real English」の使い方です。
１（ww.xxx）をクリックしてレッスンを選んでください。
２トップにあるビデオを字幕なしでみてください。
３ Exercise 1をクリックして指示に従ってすべてのexerciseをしてください。
４次に字幕付きでビデオを見てください。

<== Back to the Lessons

Bulgarian by George Alex

Как да ползваш Real English®
1 - Иди тук http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp и избери

урок.
2 - Гледай видеото в горната част на екрана, без субтитри.
3 - Кликни на "Exercise 1". Следвай инструкциите. Направи всички упражнения.
4 - Сега гледай видеото със субтитри.

<== To the top of this blog

Ukrainian by misha

Misha

Як користуватися Real English®

1. Зайдіть сюди http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp і

виберіть урок
2. Перегляньте відео сверху без субтитрів
3. Клацніть на "Exercise 1". Слідуйте за інструкціями. Виконайте усі вправи
4. Тепер прогляньте відео з субтитрами

<== Back Home

<== To the top of this blog

Russian also by

misha Misha

Как использовать Real English®

1- Пойдите сюда http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp и выберите урок.

2 - Посмотрите видео сверху без субтитров.

3 - Нажмите " Exercise 1". Следуйте за инструкциями. Сделайте все упражнения.

4 – Теперь посмотрите видео с субтитрами.

<== Back to the Lessons

<== To the top of this blog

Hindi by Namrata Arora

Real English® कैसे प्रयोग करें
1- यहाँ जाकर http://www.real-english.com/new-

lessons.asp एक पाठ चुनना
2- ऊपर की ओर, उपनाम बिना वीडियो देखो
3- "Exercise 1" पर जाएं। निर्देशन का पालन करें। सारा अभ्यास करें
4- अब उपनाम के साथ वीडियो देखो

Argentinian by Pablo E. Pittaluga

Cómo usar Real English®
1 - Entrá aquí http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp y elegí una lección.
2 - Mirá el video de arriba, sin subtítulos.
3 - Hacé click en 'Exercise 1'. Seguí las instrucciones. Completá todos los ejercicios.
4 - Ahora mirá el video sin subtítulos.

Why is there a separate entry for Argentinian, in addition to Spanish? Pablo

explained:
"Argentine Spanish is a variant of the Spanish

language unique for its features about intonation, person conjugation and word construction, and is internationally known

as Rioplatense Spanish; it is spoken across the whole of the Southern Cone (namely Argentina, parts of Chile, Paraguay and

Uruguay, together around 60 million people), and at different degrees intermingled with the forms of Peninsular

Spanish."

"People entering the site from any of those countries are likely to click on the Argentine link more than on the Spanish

one; the language is fresh, informal, and used when addressing anyone with confidence."

And this also made a lot of sense to me because I live in a part of France where the "Laungue d'Oc" (Provençale) is still

spoken: "The Rioplatense Spanish is somewhat the case of Quebec French, Cape Dutch (Afrikaans), Gaelic languages in

Britain, or Langue d'Oc in France."

<== Back Home

<== To the top of this blog

Mongolian by Nyambayar Turbat

1. Манай http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp веб хуудас

руу орж хичээлээ сонгоорой.
2. Эхлээд хадмал орчуулагагүй видео хичээлээ үзээрэй.
3. "Дасгал 1" дээр дарж зааврын дагуу ажиллана уу.
4. Одоо хадмал орчуулгатай видео хичээлээ үзнэ үү.... See More
5. Хэрвээ танд ямар нэгэн асуулт байвал манай Facebook болон Real English блог вэб хуудсанд үлдээгээрэй.

<== Back Home

Turkish by Kürşat Durmaz

1. Buraya gir: http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp ve bir

ders seç.
2. Üstteki videoyu izle, alt yazısız.
3. "Alıştırma 1'i " tıkla ve açıklamaları takip et. Tüm alıştırmaları yap.
4. Şimdi videoyu alt yazısıyla birlikte izle.
5. Eğer bir sorun varsa lütfen sor! ( Burada Facebook'da yada The Real English Blog'da)

Polish by Małgorzata Majewska

Jak korzystać z "Real English"
1. Wejdź tu http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp i wybierz lekcję.
2. Obejrzyj wideo od góry bez napisów.
3. Kliknij na "Ćwiczenie 1". Postępuj zgodnie z instrukcjami. Wykonaj wszystkie ćwiczenia.
4. A teraz obejrzyj wideo z napisami.

<== Back to the Lessons

German by Ingrid Braband

Wie Sie "Real English" benutzen können:
1. Gehen Sie zu http://www.real- english.com/new-lessons.asp und wählen Sie eine Lektion aus.
2. Schauen Sie sich das Video oben auf der Seite an, ohne Untertitel.
3. Machen Sie die "Exercise 1" (Übung 1). Folgen Sie den Anweisungen. Machen Sie alle Übungen.
4. Schauen Sie sich jetzt das Video mit Untertiteln an.

Students of German can perhaps benefit by comparing these 2 versions.

German by Marian Heddeseimer

So benutzt man "Real English".
1 - Gehe zur Website: http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp und wähle eine Lektion.
2 - Schaue dir das Video am Seitenanfang ohne Untertitel an.
3 - Klicke auf "Excersise 1" und folge den Anweisungen. Führe alle angegebenen Übungen durch.
4 - Nun, schaue dir das Video mit Untertiteln an.

<== To the top of this blog

<== Back to the Lessons

Czech by Luboš Milařík

Jak používat Real English®

1 – Pojď sem http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp a vyber si lekci.
2 – Sleduj video nahoře bez titulků.
3 – Klikni na „Cvičení 1“. Řiď se instrukcemi. Udělej všechna cvičení.
4 – Nyní sleduj video s titulky.

<== Back to the Lessons

Traditional Chinese by Benna Lin:

如何使用真正的英文
第一：到這個網站http://www.real-english.com/new-

lessons.asp 並點選任一門課。
第二：先看最上面沒有字幕的影片。
第三：點選練習一(在最上面的Exercise 1)，照著指示完成全部的練習題。
第四：做完之後，現在請再看有字幕的影片。

<== Back to the Lessons

Simplified Chinese by Benna Lin:

如何使用真正的英文
第一：到这个网站http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp 并点选任一门课。
第二：先看最上面没有字幕的影片。
第三：点选练习一(在最上面的Exercise 1)，照着指示完成全部的练习题。
第四：做完之后，现在请再看有字幕的影片。

Hungarian by Robert

Musits

1 - Nyisd meg a http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp internetes oldalt és válassz ki egy leckét.

2 - Nézd meg a felső, feliratok nélküli videót!

3 – Kattints az 1. feladatra (Exercise 1)! Kövesd az utasításokat! Old meg az összes

feladatot!

4 – Nézd meg a videót feliratozva!

<== Back Home

Calalan by Joan Rubíes

1- Entra aquí: http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp i tria

una lliçó.

2- Mira el video de la part superior, sense subtítols.

3- Clica a "Exercise 1".Segueix les instruccions. Fes tots els exercicis.

4- Ara mira el video amb subtítols.

Italian by Paola Rosetti

"Come usare Real English"

1 - Clicca qui: http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp e

scegli una lezione.

2 - Guarda il video in cima alla pagina, senza sottotitoli.

3 - Clicca su " Esercizio 1". Segui le indicazioni. Fai tutti gli esercizi.

4 - Ora guarda il video con i sottotitoli.

5 - Se hai qualche domanda, chie...di qui su Facebook o sul blog di real English.

<== Back to the Lessons

<== To the top of this blog

Many thanks to these volunteers who posted their translations of the instructions on our Facebook site.

Portuguese by Tiago

Catelam

1 - Acesse http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp e escolha uma das aulas disponíveis.

2 - Assista primeiro a versão sem legendas do vídeo.
3 - Clique em "Exercise 1". Siga as instruções. Faça todos os exercícios.
4 - Agora assista a versão legendada do vídeo.

Spanish by Gloria Arboleda

1. Entra a http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp y escoge una lección.

2. Mira el video de la parte superior, sin subtítulos.

3. Haz click en "Exercise 1". Sigue las instrucciones. Haz todos los ejercicios.

4. Ahora mira el video con subtítulos"

5. Si tienes alguna pregunta, puedes recurrir a Google Friend Connect, al blog de Real English o a Facebook"

<== Back to the Lessons

Greek by Christiana Tziortziou

1 - Πηγαίνετε εδώ http://www.real-

english.com/new-lessons.asp
και επιλέξετε ένα μάθημα.
2 - Παρακολουθήστε το μάθημα στο πάνω μέρος της σελίδας, χωρίς υπότιτλους.
3 - Κάντε κλικ στην εντολή "Exercise 1". Ακολουθήστε τις οδηγίες. Κάνετε όλες τις ασκήσεις.
4 - Τώρα, παρακολουθήστε το βίντεο με υπότιτλους.

<== Back to the Lessons

<== Back Home

Please contribute your translation of the English version into your native language:

How to Use Real English®
1 - Go here http://www.real- english.com/new-lessons.asp Choose a lesson.

2 - Watch the video at the top, without subtitles.

3 - Click on "Exercise 1". Follow the instructions. Do all the exercises.

4 - Now watch the video with subtitles.

Post your translation here, as a comment, or post on The Real English Facebook Page.

What's this blog for?

2012-03-08T09:15:00.007-08:00

I don't use my blog very often. I used to use it for Real English® activities almost every day. Facebook has replaced this blog for this essential function.

Today I will use it for a personal post: http://wapo.st/yVDWT9

When there are so many blogs already posting exactly what I think myself, I would only reproduce, albeit in my own words, what others have already expressed more elegantly than I would.
The Republican Party used to be relatively reasonable. Even Reagan made sense in a relative way, and you had to give him a little bit of respect, however reluctantly, and espite the fact that the country started going way south beginning with this actor.
But nowadays, it's sheer insanity. The GOP is a horrible joke. Its past is so much better than its present. Just read Gore Vidal's classic "Lincoln" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_%28novel%29 or http://www.amazon.com/Gore-Vidals-Lincoln-Sam-Waterston/dp/B00028G75C to get an idea of what this party used to represent.
He's a million miles away from today's GOP. And they haven't got a clue.

Trying To Understand Google Plus

2012-02-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

I have been using 2 social tools on the Real English® site - Facebook and Google Friend Connect. Now Google has decided to retire Friend Connect. Normally, this would not be a problem since the Facebook page has been working very well as a forum for students and teachers who use the Real English videos and lessons.

Google Friend Connect, which will be dead on March 1st (except for Blogger blogs, according to a rumour) has been more limited in its usefulness, but apparently essential in the sense that students and teachers sign up for either Facebook or Friend Connect, but never both. I wish everyone would simply sign up on my FB fan page. Instead, this old dog has to learn a new trick, namely Google Plus.
Right below, we see the G+ badge which I have added to my site. I wish I could see it as a user, instead of the person trying to create it. If anyone could leave me a comment here, by clicking on the reg "g+" button, and telling me if they see posts similar to those on my Facebook page, I would be very grateful!

Do You Want to Hang Out?

2011-11-16T02:59:00.001-08:00

I am available for "Hangouts" with students on the Real English Google Plus.

How to Use Real English - Our 31st Translation: Slovenian

2011-10-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Anja, we now have the translation of the instructions in 31 different languages. Thank you Anja, and all the other contributors!

See Anja's translation at the top of this post:

http://the-original-real-english.blogspot.com/2010/02/instructions-for-beginners-for-using.html

Anja wrote:
Kako se uporablja Real English®
1 - Pojdite na http://www.real-english.com/new-lessons.asp in izberite lekcijo.
2 - Oglejte si zgornji video, brez podnapisov.
3 - Kliknite "Exercise 1". Sledite navodilom in naredite vse vaje.
4 - Sedaj si oglejte video s podnapisi.

Andrew and Andy - Rolls off the Tongue

2011-04-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

Rolls off the Tongue

Thanks to The English Blog, I discovered an excellent site which deserves additional observations.

The idea is simple and inspired. Look at a cartoon, and then try to figure out which idiom is illustrated by it.

Instead of looking for existing pictures to illustrate meaning like I am constantly doing, the site is made by 2 artists who make original drawings, which are a lot of fun in themselves.

This is not only for students of English. On the contrary, it's made for anyone interested in idioms and a quiz to go along with it. It's over the heads of most English learners, but that's not the point. The ones who are really good at quizzes will find the idiom! Everyone else will simply click on the answer button, or on the button giving more complete information, such as this for the cartoon above:

Idiom: ON A ROLL
Meaning: To be very successful over a period of time
Usage: Informal, spoken general English
Origin: Gambling – rolling dice as in craps. When you continually roll winning combinations. Also based on the idea that an object in motion continues in motion.
Sample Sentence: The hot dog couldn’t shut up; he was really on a roll!

The mind blowing aspect for me was to see that both the literal and figurative meanings were illustrated, and that a multiple choice quiz is even provided. This would help teachers in classes where everyone is stumped.

There's also a Hint button for generating more classroom activity.

Hats off to Andrew and Andy.

From Newsweek: Finland's Educational Success? The Anti-Tiger Mother Approach

2011-04-06T00:05:00.000-07:00

Excellent article:

The "Tiger-Mother" approach to education is common in South Korea, Singapore, and China for example, meaning "work VERY hard to to be the best" while in non-competitive Finland, this type of motivation is completely absent, while Finland nevertheless remains at the top of global testing results along with the "tiger mothers".

This article attempts to explain why.

CNN News for Students - April 5 - with Transcript and Questions

2011-04-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

Watch the first 3 minutes of today's CNN News for students

Then:

do the 4 Multiple Choice Questions and
read the Transcript made by CNN. I will try to improve the transcript since it was made in a rush.

Students try to answer the questions BEFORE reading the transcript.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The important point about the first news story concerning 9/11 trials is that:
A- Obama has not kept his promise.
B - Most Americans want terrorist suspects tried in civilian courts, not military courts.
C - Most Americans don't want 9/11 terrorist suspects tried in the USA.

Key word: "try" in a court of law: To examine or hear (evidence or a case) by judicial process, in a trial.

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Second news story concerning "Plane Investigation":
A - The Boeing-737 airplane is an old model
B - 79 people were hurt in the accident.
C - Southwest airlines has not found any other airplanes with cracks.
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Third news story concerning "Air France Mystery":
A - The flight data recorder (the black box) is damaged.
B - The flight data recorder (the black box) has not been found yet.
C - If they find the black box, it will probably end the mystery.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Fourth news story concerning "Japan Radiation Fears":
A - The combination of a tsunami and earthquake is simply too destructive for an old nuclear plant like this one.
B - Japanese officials say they have several choices, but they prefer to dump millions of gallons of radioactive water into the sea.
C - Japanese officials say they have not yet used a great deal of water to prevent a meltdown.

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What to do: Type the 4 letters which are the answers to the 4 Questions, for example " C - A - B - A" as a comment to this post, and ask any questions or/and let me know if you find a mistake in the transcript :-)

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Transcript:

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR:
You're locked in for 10 minutes of commercial-free news headlines! My name is Carl Azuz, it is Tuesday, April 5th and CNN Student News is up and running.

1 - First Up: Change in Plan

AZUZ: The Obama Administration announced yesterday afternoon, that five suspected 9/11 terrorists will get military trials at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Here's why that's significant: before he won the 2008 election, candidate Obama promised he'd close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. And his Justice Department said the terrorism suspects would be tried in civilian courts -- not by military tribunals. Most Americans didn't want those suspects tried in civilian courts. When Attorney General Eric Holder announced the trials at Guantanamo, he criticized Congress for restricting the Justice Department's ability to prosecute the five suspects.

2 - Plane Investigation

AZUZ: Hundreds of flights aboard Southwest Airlines have been canceled over the past few days. It's because one of its Boeing-737 passenger jets had a problem on Friday: this. A hole measuring five feet long and one foot wide. It opened up over passengers' heads on a flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Sacramento, California. The pilots made an emergency landing in Yuma, Arizona, and no one was seriously injured. Southwest grounded 79 of its planes to check them out afterward. The model with the problem is an older one. One that's not made anymore. Southwest found indications of cracks in three other aircraft while dozens of others have been inspected and returned to the flight line.

3 - Air France Mystery

AZUZ: It's not known exactly what caused the crash of an Air France jet two years ago, though. Flight 447 was traveling from Paris to Rio de Janiero, Brazil, when it went down in the southern Atlantic ocean. That was on June first, 2009. And until recently, large parts of the plane had not been found. On Monday, though, a French government minister said search teams located this: what's believed to be the wreckage of the Airbus 330 plane. The 228 people aboard were killed in the crash. And even if the flight data recorder is located, it's possible it won't be working anymore because of corrosion and water pressure. This area of the Atlantic typically has rough and quickly changing weather.

4 - Japan Radiation Fears

AZUZ: This is a shot of radioactive water leaking from one of Japan's damaged nuclear reactors. It's spilling into the Pacific Ocean. Japanese workers have tried a couple different methods to stop this leak; nothing has worked yet. But because so much water has been used to prevent a nuclear meltdown, Japanese officials say they have no choice but to intentionally dump millions of gallons, into the sea. They're hoping a planned silt fence will keep radioactive material from spreading into the ocean. This is just one of the major problems caused by Japan's March 11th earthquake and tsunami -- it killed more than 12,000 people; more than 15,000 are still missing. And Kyung Lah explains how concerns about nuclear contamination are reaching far beyond Japan.

A Must-Read for Teachers

2011-04-04T02:29:00.000-07:00

David Deubelbeiss of EFL Classroom 2.0 has some words of wisdom for all teachers, and not just for those involved in EFL.

Read about his 10 nuggets of truth, explained with his usual clarity and modesty:
"1. Teach students not the subject" to...
"10. There is a difference between “busy work” and “busy working’,"

You will find some of your own experience here, and will be reminded of the best paths to take for most every important teaching context.

It's all here and should simply not be missed!

Real English® News # 1

2011-03-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time reading and watching the news. I thougt it would be a good idea to share my favorite reports, while providing some vocabulary interruptions for students. This is for Upper Intermediate and Advanced levels.

This the first paragraph of the article:

New York Times - Published: March 27, 2011
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and KAREEM FAHIM

TRIPOLI, Libya — American and European bombs battered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s most important bastion of support in his tribal homeland of Surt on Sunday night, as rebels seeking his ouster capitalized on the damage from the Western airstrikes to erase their recent losses and return to the city’s doorstep.
batter has a few definitions as a verb and a noun.
In this case, it is a verb of course: "to hit heavily and repeatedly with violent blows."
bastion: " A well-fortified position." is the best of several definitons in this case.

ouster: "removal" is a good synonym in this case.

A New Lesson for Beginners: Spelling Test

2011-03-09T03:22:00.000-08:00

The new spelling test for beginners starts here:

http://www.real-english.com/reo/3b/3b-1.htm

The other 2011 lessons recently added include

"Dream Job" and "Describe Your Loved Ones".
These two are for intermediate students.

In Search of the Perfect Lesson

2011-03-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

I just finished a new Real English lesson - 40b, about how we describe other people, beginning with our loved ones.

http://www.real-english.com/reo/40b/unit40b.html

The videos in each exercise are even shorter than usual, and highly specific for the needs of the exercises, and correspond to very small parts of conversations. There are 27 exercises, many with several questions.
I hope you like these,
Mike

The First 2011 Clips - # 3: Dream Job

2011-02-27T11:08:00.000-08:00

I recently finished lesson 24b. It's called "Dream Job".

I experiment a lot with exercise techniques. In this case, I wanted to make a relatively difficult lesson easy enough for pre-intermediate students and not just for the upper intermediate levels.

So, as an exception, I used subtitles in some of the short exercise videos for this experiment. The design of the exercise dictates the nature of the clip.

Let's look at Exercise 2 an example. I give the subtitles for the question, which are difficult for the "pre-intermediate" student. So they have a chance to read the question while they listen to it.

Then in the next exercise (3a),

2010-12-20T10:23:00.001-08:00

How to train your dog

I learned how important I was at the Mike & Val Marzio house in Carro in terms of basic dog responsibilities and behavior. If you are on vacation, the dog forgets everything you taught him, out of spite, one reflects, after a certain length of absence... THEREFORE, due to dog destruction of home, I WILL NEVER LEAVE HOME AGAIN until I am sure that Barack and his side-kick Emmy-Lou will never be such bad dogs ever again.

I am the only one who instructs basics to the dogs. The women are in a make-believe-land of dogs-without-discipline, which ia a big no-no !

On top of this, the dogs have now trained me not to leave them.

PS: no photos of dogs on purpose! I'll show photos of all the valuables which they destroyed instead.

Feb. 2011 Update: Instructions for Beginners in 30 languages

2010-07-04T01:17:00.000-07:00

The instructions are simple but real beginners must understand them too!
Please contribute YOUR native language if you don't find it here:

http://the-original-real-english.blogspot.com/2010/02/instructions-for-beginners-for-using.html

2010-07-04T01:15:00.001-07:00

Globish or English?

2010-07-04T01:14:00.000-07:00

Do you sepak Globish http://bit.ly/b2SfcB or English? If you do speak Globish, is that good enough for you, or do you want to speak more correctly?

"Globish" is an approximate English, not correct English. Is it good enough? If you can communicate most of the time in "Globish" is that sufficient for you?

Real English® is listening

Real English® Mobile

Screencast / Brief Demo ofReal English® Mobile

ProProfs: the Ideal Quiz Maker?

Real English Mobile Update

Two New Kids on the Block - A New Type of Spontaneous Street Interview for ESL Students

Star Speller

Hi Teachers! My friend, Ryan Detwiler, has just published a new iPhone/iPod App for children learning English. It's his 1st app:

It really warms my heart when I receive messages like this one.

Simple Instructions for Using the Real English Lessons in 34 Languages

What's this blog for?

Trying To Understand Google Plus

Do You Want to Hang Out?

How to Use Real English - Our 31st Translation: Slovenian

Andrew and Andy - Rolls off the Tongue

From Newsweek: Finland's Educational Success? The Anti-Tiger Mother Approach

CNN News for Students - April 5 - with Transcript and Questions

A Must-Read for Teachers

Real English® News # 1

A New Lesson for Beginners: Spelling Test

In Search of the Perfect Lesson

The First 2011 Clips - # 3: Dream Job

Feb. 2011 Update: Instructions for Beginners in 30 languages

Globish or English?

Do you sepak Globish http://bit.ly/b2SfcB or English? If you do speak Globish, is that good enough for you, or do you want to speak more correctly?

"Globish" is an approximate English, not correct English. Is it good enough? If you can communicate most of the time in "Globish" is that sufficient for you?

Screencast / Brief Demo of
Real English® Mobile