Why bother? 

I don’t often ask myself that question, but every once in a while, it crops up. Why bother making a podcast if I don’t get a thousand downloads?

In today’s English listening episode, number 49 🙌, I remind you of the value of listening to podcasts for English language development, in addition to their psychological and social benefits. For example:

• learning new pronunciation, expressions and advanced English vocabulary

• getting exposure to different English accents and "messy" English

• improving active listening skills

• sharing personal stories that build connection

• fostering our imagination

• bolstering our cognitive abilities

While Hear You Go will never be the most famous podcast in the world (and that’s OK!), it's my way of offering you authenticity, interesting topics, and this year, it was a vehicle to highlight and elevate the voices and work of women in the English language teaching community. 

As season two starts to wrap up, I encourage you to reflect on the topics shared and my wonderful guests who offered tips and guidance, and moving stories about their love of learning English. 

💫 Listen right to the end to learn more about my upcoming courses. 

I’ll be offering two starting in September: WILDE and TIDES are courses that focus on listening skills, language development, and pronunciation. 

Click on the links for more info:

1️⃣ Are you WILDE: A Woman Interested in Listening to & Discovering English through podcasts?

2️⃣ TIDES: Teachers Into Decoding English Sounds.

Thanks for listening, and stay tuned!

Witness the art of conversation in action in today's intermeiate English conversation.

The delightful Anastasia Sakarova, who you might know on Instagram as @heart_to_heart_english, joins me to share stories, teaching methods, and some thoughts about what makes a conversation a conversation. 

You'll hear her talk about her early love of the English language, how she learns new vocabulary so that she uses it, and how active listening is really a key ingredient to having meaningful conversations.

Listening Challenge:

This episode, while full of good stories and great ideas for learning, is also chock-full of idiomatic expressions that you can listen for.  Keep those ears open!

If you'd like some guidance on what to notice in terms of language like phrasal verbs, advanced vocabulary, or collocations, be sure to get the colour-coded transcript when you receive my newsletter.

Thanks for listening!

Catherine 

You can find Anastasia in these two ways:

1. Instagram: @heart_to_heart_english

2. Website: www.hearttoheartenglish.com

Are you a sun worshipper or a seeker of the shade?

Me, I'm often found under a tree or an umbrella, never baking in the sun. I'm confused though because I recently read a news story that suggested I might need to get a bit more sun on my skin. How much to get is the million-dollar question! 

In this English listening episode, we're going to try to understand the sometimes confusing messages we receive about sun exposure and health. The sun is often vilified for its role in causing skin cancer, yet new research indicates that there are surprising benefits. We need to rethink things.

So, today we'll explore:

• the real dangers of too much sun,

• the unexpected health advantages of sunlight, and

• how different countries are updating their guidelines to help us enjoy the sun safely.

Whether you're a sun worshipper or someone like me who's covered up in the shade, this episode will encourage you to reflect on the messages you've received about soaking up the sun, and how to balance the pros and cons of catching some rays. 

Thanks for listening!

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As always, I encourage you to listen a few times, to transcribe 30 seconds of the podcast, and see if you can really hear these features of messy, spoken English.

Thanks for listening!

Pronunciation. 👏👏👏

I am over the moon excited to bring you my conversation with pronunciation expert and fluency coach, Yasna Lártiga, who you might know as Pronunciation with Miss Oh.

You'll hear about the challenges of teaching and learning pronunciation: from the importance of individual sounds to the frustrations of connected speech patterns, NOT rules!

Yasna shares insights from her experience teaching English learners and overcoming her own pronunciation challenges: mindset matters! As does having crystal clear expectations.

Find out how Shakira and a certain American president inspired us in our learning and teaching practices. You might be surprised! 

As always, Hear You Go English conversation and listening podcast episodes offer something for everyone, from teachers to learners. You'll hear some good stories, gather useful recommendations, and you'll hear lots of messy, ungrammatical spoken English, otherwise known as normal, conversational English: imperfect, but full of connection and communication.

✅ Please follow Yasna on Instagram, where you can then link to her YouTube and TikTok channels: Pronunciation with Miss Oh.