improve significantly your portuguese accent through Samukas' tips about portuguese phonology, the phonetic alphabet, and listen and repeat exercises. Because practise makes perfect! 

Português com Samuka

After consonants, the vowel letter pairs а/я, э/е, о/ё, ы/и, and у/ю represent 
essentially the same vowel sound. Their only difference is that the letters in the bottom 
row tell you that the preceding consonant is palatalized, or soft.*

HARD CONSONANTS             SOFT CONSONANTS

Да-да! - Oh yes!                       дядя - uncle 
мэр - mayor                             мер - of measures 
быт - daily life                          бит - computer bit 
живот - belly                            живёт - he/she lives 
музыка - music                        мюзикл - musical (show)

* a palatalized consonant is pronounced with the blade of the tongue pressed up 
against the hard palate, it sounds like a consonant plus the [y] sound of “yes” pronounced at the exact same time.

Russian Pronunciation wilth Lubov

HARD / SOFT CONSONANTS PRACTICE. Живот Или Живёт? Listen and Repeat.

Cuando estaba conociendo el país de Lao, un día antes de visitar las Cataratas Li Phi, coincidía que en un hostal de mala muerte, el vigilante nocturno, era un apasionado del fútbol y esa misma noche, España jugaba la final de un torneo importante. Me convenció con señas para ver el partido juntos a lo que acepté de buen agrado. El problema es que que no teníamos ninguna lengua en común para comunicarnos, y por eso decidí usar el traductor de Google para que pudiéramos comunicarnos durante la retransmisión del partido de fútbol.

AUDIO-ARTÍCULOS (Nivel B2-C1)

¿Traductores o Traidores?

This story is made from '2000 most common words in English'

The owner spoke, as if he was a host on a TV cooking show. 

“Both these dishes are mighty fine, and soon it will be revealed which will take the title of World’s Best Main Meal.” 

The owner prepared his chopsticks and reached to pick up Little Ball. But then, a mysterious noise sounded, a kind of ring-ring. 

“Ugh, what is it now?” groaned the owner as he returned to the living room. 

Little Ball turned to the serving of shredded, dried kelp. “Did you hear that? World’s Best! That’s us. You’ve got no chance at winning the title.” 

Dried Kelp, who hadn’t made a sound or a movement until now, slowly came to life and said, 
“Whatever, dude, titles are for books…” 

Little Ball whispered to its 5-piece family, “Pfffft, did you hear that? I know Dried Kelp secretly wants the title and we can’t let it win. If it does, then the owner will look down on us, and shame us, and never buy us ever again. We will bring shame to all the unborn octopus balls. No. I won’t allow it. Dried Kelp is the side dish and we’re the main dish.” 

Raising its voice to an intimidating roar, Little Ball, with all of its power, said, “We’re six large balls, but you’re only a few dozen little strips. Good luck beating us!” 

Dried Kelp took a moment to think. “It’s not the amount of pieces that’s important; It’s the owner’s experience that truly matters.” 

Little Ball was confused. Did Dried Kelp just prove my point? We’re less in numbers, but far superior, thought the bite-sized mashed octopus ball. “Exactly, pieces don’t matter—it’s about flavor! And you’re bland!” 

Dried Kelp seemed insulted, or so Little Ball thought. 

Being a Cloud

Little Ball the Octopus Ball 

Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on drinks Americans consume, the top doctor in the US has said.

The US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy made the proposal as research and evidence mounts about the effects that alcohol has on human health.

His suggestion for a label would require approval from the US Congress.

Americans should be better informed about the link between alcohol and cancer, in particular, Murthy argues, noting that alcohol consumption was to blame for nearly one million preventable cancer cases in the US over the last decade.

About 20,000 people die every year from those alcohol-related cancer cases, he said.

Bottles of beer, wine and liquor already carry warning labels that say pregnant women should not drink alcohol and that alcohol consumption can impair a person's ability to drive a car.

But Murthy's proposed label would go even further, raising awareness about the risk for cancer, too.

"It's pretty crazy that there's a lot more information on a can of peas than on a bottle of whiskey," said Timothy Naimi, who directs the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

"Consumers have the right to basic information about health risks, serving size and drinks per container."

Consuming alcohol raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer, including liver, breast and throat cancer, research has found.

Murthy said that as a person's alcohol consumption goes up, so does the risk for developing those illnesses.

However, it's unlikely that Congress would act quickly to enact a new warning on alcohol products.

It's been nearly four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label on alcohol and no updates have been made since then.

Any effort to add a cancer warning label to alcohol would face significant pushback from a well-funded and powerful beverage industry, which spends nearly $30 million every year lobbying Congress.

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

US Doctor Wants Cancer Warnings on Alcoholic Drinks

Muchas personas dicen que 10.000, otras que 6.000, pero, en realidad a la luz de la ciencia, ¿cuantos pasos son? En este podcast compartimos una reciente investigación que nos aclarará todas nuestras dudas.

Learning Spanish with Daily news

03: Cuantos pasos debe dar una persona para vivir más tiempo?

Communicative Technique and Coaching In Spoken English Development

What is communicative technique?

What is coaching?

How does it blend and why?

What are students goals when it comes to language learning?

What are their challenges along the way?

What makes language tutors, instructors, teachers different from one another?

How can English teachers improve their teaching game?

These points above and soooo much more is covered in this recording.

Enjoy the easy pace of speaking, soothing and relaxing voice and dive deeper into Your unconscious improvement that are taking place every second of your everyday life and listening to the words I speak...

Have fun.

Anatoly

The Habits of Professionals Growing Into Strong, Confident English Communicators

Communicative Technique and Coaching In Spoken English Development

A brief discussion about flying and eating.   Also there will be a new group class coming on the topic of relationships.