Every time I sit down at my PC, I discover lots of great new videos that I want to recommend to my students. Some are educational, some are funny, others are just news. Every week I like to post my favorite videos here, just for my students to enjoy. Though technically not English study videos, they are none the less useful to my students in their English studies. Although they may not always be able to completely catch all of the expressions or local dialects, the variety of accents and colloquialisms they can learn from these videos is invaluable. Don’t worry if you can’t understand all of it- it usually takes at least 5 years of focused study to be able to understand 100% of what you hear or see in these videos. Cultural differences also add to the difficulty in understanding. I’ve studied French and Japanese and I don’t expect to be able to understand everything I hear in either of my second languages, nor do I expect to catch every word I hear. We just do our best and hope to come out the better for it. For maximum learning, I suggest you watch each video at the least 3 times- the 1st time just to get the general idea behind the clip the 2nd time try to get better detail, the final time to really bring it all together. Taking notes while watching and checking your dictionary is also helpful, and for some of us necessary. Keep up the good work!
This week I wanted to post something about the Olympics, and I found this Kiwi news coverage which I think is excellent. They broadcast daily highlights and post them online for people around the world. Although I’m not from New Zealand, I enjoy seeing their highlights and hearing the pride when their athletes win medals. I randomly selected Day 5 highlights, but for those of you who are keen, you could watch every day! Enjoy and good luck.
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