In this episode you will learn how to ask :How much

HSK2

Learn how to ask Money-多少钱

Where do you usually spend time with your friends?

Listen to how I answer this particular question, and get some short English explanations about some vocabulary and expressions I use in my answer.  Try to answer the questions in the vocabulary examples using the new vocabulary and expressions.

Speak English With Muki

Episode 8: Spending Time with Friends

Host: Welcome back to the podcast everyone. I’m joined today by Naseem, an IT consultant from 
Delhi and Deepa, an HR consultant from Bangore. Today we’ll be discussing the increase in the number of people moonlighting and what the future holds for companies and workers. So, Deepa, I’ll ask you first: What has created this problem?

Deepa: Well, as with many places around the world, during the pandemic, there was a big increase in the number of people working from home and also economic instability. So, at the same time, we had more people working without any supervision and people were more worried about being able to make a living. So, the increase in online moonlighting was a consequence of that situation really.

Naseem: That’s certainly what happened to me. At the time, you read about all of these companies that were *laying off * their staff and there wasn’t much you could do about it if it happened to you. So suddenly working for just one company seemed like a bad idea. I have a family to feed: three boys and a girl. I felt a lot of insecurity and was terrified of losing money, or maybe even worse, my house. So, I took two jobs.

Host: What effect did that have on you and your family?

Naseem: It gave us some comfort, financially, as I started making more money than I had before the pandemic. But I was also working very long hours each day. I saw the children every day of course, but I couldn’t spend any real time with them as I had to work from almost as soon as I got up, until late in the evening. My wife was working as well, so it was quite hard to manage everything. When the crisis was averted, we had gotten used to having the extra money, so although I cut back on my hours in both jobs, I still continued to work at both.

Host: Do you see anything wrong with doing what you are doing?

Naseem: Not at all. I’m a professional and I work hard at both jobs. My main job is in IT as you mentioned, but my second is in design. 




English Conversation/Dialogue

MOONLIGHTING 

私の子供の頃の習い事の話をしています。みなさんは子供の頃どんなことを、習い事として習っていましたか？

日本語でおしゃべり　podcast for Japanese learners

＃22 子供の頃の習い事の話

Get ready for a special treat! In this episode, I talk with Cara Leopold, an English Teacher known as the Listening Expert. We covered a lot of topics, so this will be the first of two episodes with our conversation. The main theme of our conversation was building great listening skills in another language. In this first episode, we talk about the importance of listening when learning another language, including pronunciation, and what to do when you don’t understand your colleagues in meetings.  Here are some gems from this episode:

“People might think, “I spend most of my time speaking.” But listening is actually the skill that dominates. So by that logic, the foundation for also learning future languages should be listening.”

“So what’s really helped me to get fluent in French is observing what people say, understanding them, and then copying them.”

“Notice the expressions that people keep using and then use them. You will sound more authentic because you'll be using what the people around you actually say, as opposed to what you read in a book or what you got out of a list of 100 idioms.”

Tune in to get more valuable insights from Cara, so you’ll understand more of what people say around you! The second part of our conversation will be released in the next episode. 

Read the transcript here: https://www.express-to-impress.com/listening-skills/.

Original theme music by Lucas Knutter 

Express to Impress

How to Improve Your Listening Skills With Movies With Cara Leopold

On some tour buses, you'll hear the guide welcome passengers in a number of different languages.

And at airports around the world, announcements might be made in more than one language to help more travelers understand what's being said.

But in Belgium, a train passenger made an official complaint after the conductor used both Dutch and French to say good morning.

The problem for this passenger was that the train was traveling through a city called Vilvoorde in the Flemish part of Belgium, where Dutch is the main language.

But Vilvoorde is very close to the capital, Brussels, where both Dutch and French are used.

The French-speaking conductor, named Ilyass Alba, wrote about the complaint on Facebook.

He said that after greeting passengers, one had replied: "We're not in Brussels yet, you have to use Dutch only!"

And while many people have taken Alba's side, the person who complained was technically correct — only Dutch should have been used.

According to the country's language rules, only Dutch should have been used while the train was in the Flemish part of the country. And as Belga News Agency explains, Belgium's rules say only French should be used when trains are in the French-speaking part of the country.

But announcements can be French and Dutch in Brussels. And on trains traveling to Brussels Airport, Dutch, French, German — another of Belgium's official languages — and English can be used.

Some Dutch-speaking politicians have said it's important that conductors stick to language rules.

But the country's French-speaking transport minister said that making passengers feel welcome is the most important thing.

The train company, SNCB, agreed with the transport minister. "Saying hello in several languages is just nice, we can only thank our conductors for that," an SNCB official told Agence France-Presse.

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

Greeting in Two Languages Upsets Train Passenger

Lecture du synopis ( allociné sur internet) 
Lis avec moi le synopsis pour travailler ta prononciation.


Quand Jennifer, une lycéenne, disparaît dans la forêt aux alentours du tranquille village de Montfaucon, Océane et Maya, ses deux meilleures amies, semblent d'abord persuadées qu'elle va revenir. Mais rapidement, les éléments découverts laissent penser qu'il est arrivé quelque chose de grave. Mais Océane et Maya n'ont pas tout dit à propos de la disparition de leur amie. Que savent-elles qu'elles n'osent pas raconter aux enquêteurs ? Que penser des indices cryptiques retrouvés dans le cadre des investigations ? Que cache la forêt ? Pour le lieutenant Musso et le capitaine Decker, le jeu de piste ne fait que commencer…


Le français avec Virginie

Synopsis du film La Forêt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w0DsxTUsoJBTAKr2_IeHfwbTPEc9FRCl/view?usp=share_link

Amrutham 

prepositions

态度	/	tài dù	/	attitude
常见	/	cháng jiàn	/	common
自然	/	zì rán	/	natural
唯一	/	wéi yī	/	only
心态	/	xīn tài	/	mindset
抵触	/	dǐ chù	/	resistant
性质	/	xìng zhì	/	nature
奔着·······目的	/	bèn zhe ······· mù dì	/	Towards the purpose of
好奇	/	hào qí	/	curious
尴尬	/	gān gà	/	embarrassed
场合	/	chǎng hé	/	occasion
场景	/	chǎng jǐng	/	scene
局	/	jú	/	gathering
做客	/	zuò kè	/	be a guest
组局	/	zǔ jú	/	arrange a gathering