Learn American Idioms with the VOA

Logo for the U.S. government news agency, Voice of America.

Learn American Idioms with VOA
The U.S. has long had a public news agency aimed at foreign audiences. During the Cold War (1945-1993), the federal government beamed radio and television programs behind the Iron Curtain (Communist USSR & Eastern Europe.) Not only was this a channel for American propaganda, these broadcasts also spread U.S. culture and language. To people living outside the U.S., these broadcasts were the “Voice of America,” which is the program’s name. These days, we use just the letters VOA. VOA is the closest America has to U.K.’s BBC, which also reaches all parts of the globe.

In many countries with heavy censorship and controlled media, VOA & BBC have been the only alternate sources of information. After the Cold War, VOA shifted its emphasis away from political propaganda towards more educational and cultural content. Because all VOA content is designed and intended for audiences outside the U.S., the program is not publicized or promoted Stateside (i.e., within the U.S.) Therefore, many people living here are not aware of this great, free educational resource.

Following its tradition of presenting news stories and current events in American English, VOA now offers a huge number of videos, many with subscripts to help people who did not learn English as their first language. The vast range of subjects insures that everyone can find something interesting.

One special focus of VOA is helping people learn and practice American English. Instead of calling it “English as a Second Language,” VOA calls their program “Special English,” because it is especially for non-native speakers. Besides the documentary videos and activities, VOA adopts the latest media innovations to engage learners. Recently I tried out VOA’s explanation of some common idioms (slang, expressions). The brief lessons were interesting, informative, and well-produced in my opinion. You can directly view the following idioms by clicking their links”

• Up in the Air
• Out to Lunch
• Rain Check
• Veg Out
• Piece of Cake
• Old Wives' Tale
• Hit The Roof!
• Chill Out
• Cats and Dogs
• Bells and Whistles
• Break a Leg
• Play it by Ear
• Eye to Eye

You can view an entire dictionaryof American idioms compiled by VOA, as well as “brush up on” (practice, improve) your grammar, spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Let me know what you think of this resource and if you have any suggestions!

More on how to improve pronunciation of English consonants: B & P

Happy Thanksgiving! Painting by Norman Rockwell.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how to improve pronunciation for B and P in English. This has been one of the most viewed topics so far. In addition to writing my opinion on the subject, luckily I received some great feedback from readers all over the world. I also found excellent pronunciation tips from BBC. The video has a U.K. accent but the message is the same: learn the 40+ sounds of English. Watch the short video! Also check out the BBC’s General & Business English site. Of course the BBC is an English organization, so the accent is slightly different than American English.

Kimmo Kosunen, Director at Tellus Group LTD, kindly suggested some additional comments that I will incorporate in my own teaching. Kimmo is an expert and has allowed me to share his thoughts, which clarify and amplify my own words. He writes, “When you explain how to pronounce the /b/ sound, worth mentioning [is] that – although there is no actual sound produced in the throat – the student should be able to feel his/her vocal cords constrict AND VIBRATE slightly. “

Kimmo also points out that, “When you tell the student to produce the bbbbuuuuh sound, might this possibly encourage him/her produce a vowel sound after the /b/ - especially confusing with /b/ in final positions (students producing ‘bibbuh’ instead of ‘bib’)?

Finally he offers “a practice we have found useful to demonstrate the difference between /b/ and /p/: students can practice this with a sheet of paper, the top of which they hold a couple of centimeters/an inch or so from their mouth, HANDS HOLDING THE PAPER HALFWAY DOWN THE SHEET; when they RELEASE the pressurized air /p/, the top of the paper should move noticeably and there should also be a noise produced by the air hitting the paper – in case of /b/, the top of the sheet should not move at all, nor should there be any sound of air hitting it.

Finally, it might be a good idea to illustrate the different positions of the tongue when these sounds are produced – the back of the tongue [should be] raised to direct some of the air through the nose in case of /b/ but not so with /p/… To demonstrate this to the students, they COULD BE asked to pinch their noses shut and then produce the sounds – there should be a noticeable difference in the airflow through the nose.”

Thanks to Kimmo for the additional explanation! As written in the previous article, mastering spoken English requires mastery of all the vowel and consonant sounds. However, once you achieve basic mastery of each sound, your English will sound much more fluent. Later you can work on further improvement of each sound.

Please email me with your questions or suggestions! Also, just clicking on even one of the ads here helps support me, so please take ten seconds to help. 

Food remaining after a meal that is stored to eat later is called leftover food. I am having leftovers for dinner tonight. What about you?

The season to shop and buy in the U.S.

In the U.S., the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest day in retail- "Black Friday."

Yesterday a student asked whether “to shop” and “to buy” means the same thing. Though the two words are related, they generally have different meanings. Shopping is browsing, looking for something to buy, whether or not you actually find something. Buying is the actual transaction at checkout time, when you pay for the product.

People shop for various reasons and with different results. You may need or want some product, or you may just want to learn what is available for sale. “Window shopping” means just looking in the store windows, without going into the store. Window shopping is a way to pass time while waiting or simply looking around. Retailers try to make window displays as enticing as possible to lure people into or back to the store.

Window shoppers hardly ever actually purchase something unless they later return and actually enter the store. Depending on the kind of store, shoppers are more or less likely to buy something. For example, few people go shopping at the supermarket without buying anything. However, many people browse high end merchandise, like jewelry, without every buying anything.

In the U.S., shopping is dominated by women. In fact, women make most of the purchasing decisions in American families. In every mall, you can find helpless men following their wives or girlfriends around to carry the packages. When men shop buy themselves, they often simply enter the store, retrieve the products they want, and buy them, without looking at everything else in the store. Such behavior is so common that a lot of comedy is based on it.

But shopping and buying in the U.S. is no laughing matter. In fact, the U.S. economy, the largest in the world, is based on consumer spending. In the U.S., shopping and especially buying is now considered patriotic because it supports the economy. Right now, the problem is that most people don’t have enough money to buy enough products to support the economy. The few people that do have enough money already own second and third homes, private jets, and yachts. They don’t need to buy much. Only people without much need to buy a lot.

Next week is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, starting the holiday shopping season. Many retailers make all their profit between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so this season is a big deal economically. The total sales for the day is used to predict future economic results. Watch the news next Saturday. If total retail sales are at or above expectations, everyone will be happy. If sales fall short, that will be a bad sign. Like many things in the U.S. this is contrary to common sense. For example, if people buy less stuff during the holidays, they will have more to invest and save for the next year.

The biggest change in retailing recently is Internet shopping. The Internet makes shopping and buying so easy, you don’t even have to leave home or get dressed. Just ask Amazon, eBay, and all the other companies making money. Everyone knows that advertising creates most Internet profits, especially since TV, newspaper, and magazine ads are seen by fewer people each year. 

Alfred Sloan

There is nothing wrong with advertising itself, I suppose, but can’t seem to forget the words of Alfred Sloan. Some consider him the designer of the modern corporation because of how he managed General Motors for many years. The Sloan School of Business at MIT also is named in his honor. Modern corporations cannot exist without marketing. Sloan quickly adopted astute marketing techniques, such as offering a wider selection of options, and providing financing for buyers. The words I still recall? “The purpose of advertising is to make people dissatisfied with what they have.”

A few people reject the materialism and wastefulness of over-consumption. On the day after Thanksgiving, they celebrate “Buy Nothing Day.” Going to the store next Friday is a bad idea unless you love crowds and long lines. People say prices are very low on this day. Trust me. If you can wait about 6 weeks, until January, prices will be even lower.

How to improve your English pronunciation of consonants: B & P

Previously I wrote about exercises to master pronunciation of vowels in English. Vowels (a,e,I,o,u, maybe y) all are open-mouth sounds. Lips, teeth, and tongue usually do not touch. The shape of vowels is round. All the other letters in the English language are consonants. I can easily remember 5-6 vowels in order, but not 20-21 consonants. To remember consonants, I recite the alphabet and delete the vowels. By that system I skip over the first letter of the alphabet, which is also the first vowel. The first consonant is the second letter, “b.”

B is a difficult sound for many people. In some languages, the letter “b” is spoken like the English letter “v” as in “victory." By using simple exercises, you can quickly improve your consonant pronunciation. To speak b properly, you need to close your lips, and then suck them in between your front teeth. In this position, no air and little sound can leak out your mouth. Look in the mirror. You should not be able to see either your upper or lower lip. If you do not start in this position, the sound will not be correct.

Next, blow air into your mouth from your lungs to create pressure, then suddenly release your lips and let them explode outwards. You should be able to hear a popping sound, even if you make no noise with your throat. The correct pronunciation of b combines this explosion of air from between your lips with an “uh” sound from your throat: bbbbuuuuh.

Practice saying this sentence:

The boy hit the ball with the bat. Watch yourself in the mirror. Play around with how much pressure you need to make your lips explode outwards. After you master the b sound, you don’t need to suck in your lips as much as in the beginning. So why learn in this way?

Learning this way will help you make distinct sounds for “b” and “p” which sound very similar. However, for me, the sound of p has a different beginning position and different breathing. To start, the lips are puckered up, like in a kiss. Then, air is suddenly pushed about between the lips. With p, you must expel a lot more air. In fact, you can blow out a candle when you say the letter p. Speaking the letter b will barely make the candle flicker because much less air is being released. Now, some native speakers also suck in their lips as shown The Sounds of American English. This website shows anatomical pictures of the mouth and videos of each letter.

Try this: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. (this is an old English nursery rhyme). Now, look in the mirror again and repeat these words:

Bat, pat, bet, pet, bit, pit, but, putt, Bat, pat, bet, pet, bit, pit, but, putt, Bat, pat, bet, pet, bit, pit, but, putt, Bat, pat, bet, pet, bit, pit, but, putt. This should give your lips a real workout. You need to hear and produce different sounds for these two consonants.

Improve your English conversation skills

Conversing in English takes practice

People trying to improve their American English conversation skills face a common obstacle. This obstacle is that we all prefer to hang out with people who are like us, look like us, speak like us, talk about the same things, are interested in the same things, share the same history and culture, etc. If English is not your first language, then you are less likely to find yourself among English speaking people. Even if a group of non-native speakers all want to practice and improve their English, they usually wind up speaking in their native languages, even while living and working in the U.S. Many of my adult students work for high-tech Silicon Valley companies, which employ many foreign workers. Instead of mixing together and developing their English skills through practice, each nationality forms its own closed circle. The saying we have is, "birds of a feather flock together."

This is true in neighborhoods as well. Near my home we have Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, and Persian neighborhoods, each with their own stores and restaurants. In these small areas, even all the store signs are in a foreign language, sometimes without English sub-title. Many people choose to live in a neighborhood surrounded by their countrymen, their own familiar stores and products, and customary social behaviors. Human nature causes us all stay inside our "comfort zones." This is a low risk strategy because everything is familiar.

Living in a foreign country to learn the local language is called "full immersion" because you jump right in over your head into the new language. This strategy is considered very effective or maybe even the best method. However, if you come to the U.S. but live and work around people from your home country, you will not learn much English. Full immersion means ALWAYS speaking English to everyone, not just once or twice a week in class or with your tutor.

If you live outside the U.S., your opportunities to practice with native English speakers are much fewer of course. But, you can seek out chances to use your English to interact with native speakers through social, work, and educational networks. Just watching TV and movies is not as effective because you are only listening, not speaking. Using Skype to practice speaking with native speakers is much more helpful because you talk as well as listen. 

Going outside your comfort zone always feels uncomfortable and risky, but self-development of every kind requires new behavior before you can learn new things. You have to become comfortable both starting and responding to verbal interactions. Start with something easy, and exchange a few words with the checker at the supermarket in English. Or, while shopping in a store, talk to the salesperson-- they are paid to be nice to you.

The best way to start a conversation is to ask a question, which is usually very trivial or unimportant. One sample question is "What do you think of this weather?" Maybe you don't really care what they think, but it allows a conversation to start. Asking someone for their opinion or help is practically guaranteed to start a conversation. Good conversations consist of questions and answers. After the other person answers, they might repeat the question back at you, asking your opinion. If the other person merely answers but does not offer another question, it's your job to simply ask them another question! This can be a follow on question, such as "Do you think the weather is warmer than last year?" or "What is your favorite weather, warm or cool, sunny or rainy?"

The content of your words is not important or significant. In fact, social chatting avoids controversial subjects like politics and religion, and sticks to generalities, like "How are you today?" Even if you think you English is pretty bad, you can easily master simple questions and answers like these. No doubt in your native language, social chatting is similar. English is the same way, but you have to jump in the water and splash around before you can swim. Let yourself make mistakes. Ask native speakers to help correct your accent or explain words you don't understand. As already mentioned, people love to help and offer their opinion if you give them a chance. But if you don't say "hi" they may help someone else. 

Since you are the one who wants to learn, you have to put yourself out there. You have to go outside your comfort zone. Take a class that is only conducted in English. Try out a hobby like painting where you will many native speakers. Outside the U.S. choices are more limited, so you have to use your imagination more, or look for Internet chatting opportunities.

Did you learn English outside the U.S.?

This 1812 cartoon from Massachusetts pokes fun at contemporary political maneuvering that continues today.

If you learned English outside the U.S., you never have studied American cultural and historical references used every day by native speakers. Many expressions depend on historical contexts never taught in schools outside the U.S. One example is the word "to gerrymander." This word refers to the division of voting districts in favor of one party or another. Voting district maps are drawn by state legislatures. Normally, voting districts correspond to areas which neighbor each other. However, voting districts could also join end-to-end, resulting in a long, skinny district that can wind around like a snake. Why bother with this impractical arrangement? The reason is that dishonest politicians can group together favorable neighborhoods into a strongly supportive voting district.

What does this have to do with gerrymandering? To purposely arrange unbalanced voting districts in named in honor of Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812.

General Ambrose Burnside, c. 1862

In a similar way, during Civil War General Ambrose Burnsides was famous for his facial hair. His moustache was connected to his hairline by means of a bushy connection of facial hair. Today, if a man has facial hair in front of his ear, we call it a sideburn.

Can you think of any modern words that are based on celebrities or historical figures? Why are all stuffed bears named "Teddy?" Email me if you want to know!

Since people growing up in the U.S. take a series of U.S. history classes, students often learn what these terms mean from history class, not English class. Popular U.S. media commonly use terms like these, often with no explanation. Since non-native speakers usually learn academic English, which is sort of artificial and does not include everyday expressions used in the real world.
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Another reason to improve your English: your kids

One of my favorite students wants to read bed-time stories to his two young daughters. Though he has lived in the U.S. for a long time, he wants to improve his fluency so that his girls can have a good role model. So, he selected a series of books for young children to study and improve his pronunciation. His strategy was completely new to me, and has proven very effective.

First, since the books are for young children, the words and ideas are simple and always have lots of pictures. Because the vocabulary is basic, students can focus on shaping the correct sounds with their voices and mouths. Wikipedia says, "The Magic School Bus is a series of children's books about science written by author Joanna Cole. They feature the antics of Ms. Valerie Frizzle, an elementary school teacher, and her class, who board a magical school bus which takes them on field trips to impossible locations such as the solar system, clouds, the past, and the human body. The books are written in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed student in "the Friz's" class. The class pet, Liz, a lizard, accompanied the class on their field trips." 

This series is surprisingly informative and subtly humorous. Though all the words and jokes are familiar to U.S. kids, their foreign born parents have trouble understanding everything. Before we work on pronunciation and reading out loud, we review all the text and discuss the cultural references Americans learn as kids but are not taught in schools. Children learn a lot of these sayings and expressions before they enter school. This knowledge is not normally included in academic study of English.

The book series we are using also includes numerous, puns-- word play-- intended for young children but completely wasted on their parents. My student's strategy includes analyzing the text details, as well as improving pronunciation. After learning to pronounce each word accurately, he can now connect the words in phrases, incorporate pauses for punctuation, and produce a pleasing, clear voice. 

Each meeting, he uses his phone to record me reading the book. Then he listens and practices while driving to work and around town. Even his co-workers have noticed his improvement and confidence. I think his skill will continue to grow.