Luke's English Podcast - Learn British English With Luke Thompson

Comedian Sebastian Marx returns to the podcast in order to talk about Yiddish words which have found their way into the English language, including common words like bagel, glitch and schmooze and plenty more.

Is that a confusing title? Hopefully not. As you might expect, it's a little summary of what's included in the episode. To give you some more details, Alastair Budge is the host of a podcast called "English Learning for Curious Minds" and he has created a new audio drama for English learners called "Pioneers of the Continuum". It's a time-travel adventure for English learners, and Alastair asked me to be the narrator for episode 1. In this episode of LEP, we talk about Alastair's story, living in Malta, learning English by immersion, cliches and complaints from English speakers visiting Paris and Alastair's story about playing the bagpipes on the streets of Paris. The audio version includes 30+mins of rambling from me at the end. Enjoy!

Talking to my parents about the coronation ceremony of King Charles III which happened in Westminster, London on Saturday 6 May. Includes descriptions of the ceremony and discussion of some of the issues related to it, plus a few dodgy jokes along the way

In this final part of the series I'm going to evaluate ChatGPT's ability to work as a dictionary with definitions, example sentences, synonyms, phonetic transcriptions, etc. I test its ability to convert texts into British English or other varieties, see if it can help with sentence stress and word stress, and check its ability to create grammar and vocabulary quizzes and other useful exercises.Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sOb Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this series I am evaluating ChatGPT as a language-learning tool. In this part I'm experimenting with role-play conversations, job interview practice, creating texts and dialogues and seeing if it can help you prepare for Cambridge exams like IELTS or CAE.Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sND Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An episode exploring the various ways that ChatGPT might be able to help you learn English. Can it create study plans? Can it correct your errors and explain the corrections? Can you use it to simulate natural conversations? This is the first of a three-part series in which I test ChatGPT's usefulness as an AI language learning tool.Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sMP Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rambling on my own about getting stuck in a time-loop

How do we know when someone's English is good? Is it just about having a "British accent", knowing lots of big words, or speaking with no errors? In fact, there is a lot more to it than that. IELTS can show us how someone's level of English is assessed by looking at a wide range of skills and sub-skills and there is a lot more to it than making no errors while speaking with a "British accent". This episode should help you consider your own level of English level, get some perspective on what language competence really means, and hopefully cause people to think twice when making snap judgements about other people's English.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sNi Get the PDF transcript https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/819.-What-does-it-really-mean-to-be-good-at-English.pdf Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My friend Anna has written a book for children (7+) which has a full publishing contract and is available in all good bookshops now. The book tells the story of a boy who accidentally creates a monster when his secret collection of nose bogeys gets struck by lightning! This conversation includes lots of talk of snot and bogeys, as well as stories from Anna's time as a travel writer.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sN1 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn English with another short story. This time it's Parson's Pleasure by Roald Dahl, which is an intriguing tale of a dodgy antiques dealer with a nasty twist. Learn vocabulary while you enjoy a fascinating story.

Kate Billington returns to LEP for the third time, to drink tea, talk about my pod-room, learning the bassoon, exam results, learning Chinese, responding to listener comments and talking about her videos on TikTok.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sM1The British Council on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@britishcouncilenglish?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An episode all about studying at university in the UK, with loads of advice about student visas, funding your studies with scholarships, extra-curricular social activities and opportunities at the students' union and more. Features a conversation with a German student currently studying a master's in clinical neuroscience at UCL in London. This episode is published in paid partnership with Study UK and the UK Government's GREAT Britain campaign. For more information, follow the links below.Links

My dad has written a new book and he's come on the podcast to tell us about it. The book follows the path of the river Avon as it flows through the middle of England, telling stories of key moments in British history, nature and the current condition of Britain's rivers. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sLSA River Avon Year: The Wildlife and History of Shakespeare's Avon by Rick Thompson is available now!

A conversation with Anna Tyrie from English Like a Native (YouTube, Podcast) about children, the way we talk to children, and vocabulary relating to children and childcare, with a vocabulary quiz and some special news from the Thompson family...!

Steve Kaufmann is a very prolific language learner. He has learned at least 20 languages to varying degrees during his life. Some of them he learned during his career as an international diplomat and businessman, and others he has learned during his (semi) retirement. In this interview Steve talks about his language learning experiences, methods and motivations. We talk about various metaphors and similes for language learning including ocean voyages

To qualify for British citizenship, one of the requirements is to pass the "Life in the UK" test. Questions cover things like British history, British life & culture, British politics, British geography and principles of modern British life. What do you think? Can you pass the test? Join me as I test online English teacher Cara Leopold. How much does she know about her own country of origin? What can you learn about Britain? What IS Britain anyway? Find out in this episode! 

An episode about two (unconnected) situations, 1) the very recent earthquake in Turkey & Syria which has left many people in urgent need of help, 2) the humanitarian crisis in Iran. During the episode I read from various articles and explain some vocabulary.

A conversation with my brother about a specific musical genre, "ambient". We discuss Brian Eno's inspiration and approach to his first ambient albums, talk about the genre's origins in French 19th century classical music, jazz and the avant-garde and describe ambient trance music from the 80s and 90s including artists like Aphex Twin, The KLF, The Orb and The Irresistible Force. Enter the ambient zone on LEP.

An unedited conversation with Amber & Paul about toilet habits, Titanic (1997), weird videos on TikTok & YouTube and plenty more. Advanced level listening practice with the POD-PALs.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sKt Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.