In this episode, Spencer talks with Curtis about her dream house. Students can listen and see what she would do with her kitchen, bathroom, livingroom, outside of the house and yard. 
Go to elllo.org for the full episode with script. audio, media and quiz.

Episode 29: Dream House (Views 1371)

Today on the elllo podcast, Win from Vietnam, Michael from Norway and Goron from Italy talk about Hollywood movies and films made in 3D. This is lesson 1351 on elllo.org. Go to the website for the complete lessons with downloadable audio and printable worksheets.
Below is the transcript to the interview.
Michael: Hello, my name is Michael. Next to me I have Goron from Italy and Win from Vietnam, and today we are going to discuss movies and specifically we are going to discuss about Hollywood movies. Do we like Hollywood movies? What is typical in our own countries, and so on. So, were going to start with you Goron, please?
Goron: Oh, I would say that generally, I like Hollywood movies. If I want to be, without thinking anything, I just like to lie down on my couch and just eat something and drink and watch a movie, I would choose a Hollywood movie. They are pretty fun. They are well done. They have a huge budget for those kind of movies, like the last superhero movies about Ironman, Spiderman, Avengers. all those kind of movies. The plot is really weak, but you know, you have this like visual effects which the impact on your is strong, and you just think that, at least I think, "Well, how did they do that?"
Michael: Yeah, I would give a good example there. You have Avatar. You know the story, it's a huge cliche. 
Goron: Yeah, we heard about this story before. 
Michael: I knew how the movie would end, but you know, just going there to see the good 3D effect that movie had, I think it had good 3D. It really immersed you in this whole world. You know, you saw those flying things in the forest.
Goron: But if you think it was recorded by a 3d camera because the camera was a million dollars, but the other 3D movies are really crap, because everything was post-production, so you can tell, oh this is 3D, and it's dark and you have to wear glasses, and if you already have glasses, it's uncomfortable so it seems like a technology that is trying to steal your money.
Michael: It was a huge hype. They were charging more for it, and everyone tried to get on the 3D bandwagon. All of the movies went into 3D and it became more normal for there to be 3D movies in the cinema than the normal movies, but I agree totally with you. They went to far. Avatar was made from ground up. The idea was to make in 3D and they really worked hard to provide a great experience, while the other movies. It's just not the same.
Goron: The technology is not ready yet.
Michael: And I also agree with you, you know, that there is movies that you watch for the story, which are really good, and you love them. You don't have to have then in 3D. They don't have to be. You just focus on the story, but then you have like, you know, even Transformers, with lots of explosions, lots of effects. It's entertaining in the other way.
Win: I mean, it depends on how we look at entertainment. Some day, you could, I mean you want to watch something emotional, romantic, and some days you just want some r

Episode 28: Hollywood Movies (Views 1351)

This week on elllo.org, Abidemi and Jeremy talk about teachers that had a big impact on their lives. See the transcript below. 
Remember that you can go to the website to see the video, learn now words, download the audio and take a quiz.
Transcript of conversation:
Jeremy: Abidemi, so looking back at your life as a student, can you tell me a little bit about your experience with the best teacher that you had, and maybe a little bit about your worst teacher?
Abidemi: Sure. I think I’ve had many, many great teachers. I’ve been really blessed in that way. Thinking back now, I remember my teacher when I was in primary 6 in Nigeria, actually. His name was Mr. Oleaer. And this teacher was a math and science teacher. And I think the best thing about him was he really took a personal interest in all of us. We could tell that he really cared. Although, he was very much a teacher, he took that authority role but at the same time, he was like our friend. Like during the break time, we would approach him, we would talk to him. And over the summer, he tutored a few of us for the entrance examination to high school because we have that system in Nigeria.
So it was just fun. Every time we saw him, we just have a good time with him. And I remembered he talked to me. He mentored—he was like a mentor. He came to me, and he was wondering what I wanted to be in the future and he made some suggestions because of the scores I had in his class. And to this day, I still remember him. He sticks in my mind. And having taught for a little bit as well, I think for me too, he’s one of the people that I tried to model myself after. I model myself after him. Maybe not even consciously, but I liked the fact that he was a teacher and we knew it but at the same time, he was very friendly. So I really love that aspect of him.
How about you, Jeremy? Anyone comes to mind?
Jeremy: You know, it was more just sort of teacher qualities that I remember from a number of different teachers. And what I always really—when I look back and think about teachers that made a difference, it was teachers that recognized students’ weakness and tried to counsel them or to sort of—in my case, it was that I was a very, very shy person. And a teacher who would talk to me a little bit and give me encouragement if I did a presentation, which was just the worst thing I could possibly ever do because I was so nervous. But teachers that recognized I had a real serious shy problem, and that they would just give a little bit of encouragement. And those with little bits of encouragement, over time I started to gain a little bit more confidence. And by the time I was in university, I still had a problem with giving presentations but—even in university, I had teachers who would compliment me on a job attempted—and I wouldn’t really say well done, but I tried.
And those were the things that really stood out, teachers that recognize when people have issues in their life and they really try to

Episode 27: Best Teacher

This lesson on elllo.org we hear from Dan from Tropical MBA Podcast as he shares basic living costs for working in Southeast Asia. You can see the full lesson here!
Transcript of Conversation
Todd: So I'm here with Dan, and he lives in Bali, Indonesia. And he’s talking about slow travel, which is the concept of living in a foreign country for a long time to experience the culture and the lifestyle.
Dan, can you talk a little bit about the cost, like if somebody wants to really do this, how much money do they need for housing, transportation, food, things like that?
Dan: Well, when I quit my job four years ago, I had a mantra in my head. And I always said, all I need to be happy in life is a thousand bucks and a backpack. And I thought, if I could really simplify my life and take away all the overhead cost of car payment or a mortgage on a house or student load debts, credit cards, things like that, all I would need is a thousand dollars of income a month in order to own my time and to spend my time going to anywhere I wanted.
I think realistically in places in Southeast Asia, if you want to move around every two or three months or go visit friends at another city, you're going to want at least $1,500 to $2,000 a month. And that’s going to give you, I would say, a quite luxurious lifestyle.
Obviously, you could come here to Bali and live for $700 a month and you could do the same in Nha Trang like we’re talking earlier, maybe even easier in Vietnam. But the real cost come in is when you want to explore and move around internationally. So if you’re living in Nha Trang and you’d like to visit a friend in Bangkok every three months or something like that, you’re going to want more like 1,500 to 2,000 a month.
Todd: So could you like break down the cost? So what kind of cost are we talking here? Like how much would you pay for housing? How much would you pay, you know, for food every month? How much would you pay for health insurance? Things like that.
Dan: Sure, I mean, if we can make like a vast generalization across Southeast Asia in general. I know it’s a huge place but in most places for a furnished apartment, for a solo traveler, you’re going to look at anywhere from $250 to $750 a month. So let’s just ballpark it and say $500. You know, in a place like Manila, you’re going to get a great apartment for $500. In a place like Bangkok, you’re going to get even better apartment for $500. And again, you have to commit to a month at least to get these kinds of rates. But if you’re willing to do that, stay for few months, you’re going to get really good advantage there.
Let’s take Bangkok as an example. $500, you’re going to have a great apartment. For another $500, you are going to eat like King Midas. And then let’s say your internet is $30 a month and your health insurance in $120 a month. We’re at about $1,200 a month now. And I’d say, on top of that, it's all about the most dangerous habit for your wallet on th

Episode 26: Cost of Living

This week on elllo.org we hear from Dan, an Americna businessman working abroad, and he talks about why he likes to live in Bali and why it is a good place to set roots.
The full episode online comes with a video, quiz, audio vocabulary and a speaking/listening challenge. You can get it here or at the link below:
http://elllo.org/english/1301/T1323-Dan-SEA.htm
Transcript of the Conversation
 
Todd: So now Dan you live in Bali, Indonesia, which is a very beautiful place and you do a lot of business in Southeast Asia. Why do you think Southeast Asia is a good place to do business?
Dan: Well, one of the primary reasons is the lifestyle. If you are generating a reasonable income on western standards, you can—what we do is, you know, perform some global arbitrage. You can take that western level salary and move it to a developing area of the world like here in Southeast Asia, and your purchasing power is much greater.
So if you’re selling products in a higher valued economy like Germany and you’re living in Vietnam, you’re going to be able to experience a much higher lifestyle. And we call that concept arbitrage. You know, currency markets and stock traders have used that kind of concept all the time because they’re dealing with very liquid assets. In our case, you know, our locations weren't always so liquid. It wasn’t always so easy to change your location. Now with internet style business, it’s getting easier.
So primarily, the lifestyle, I found that that’s a great tool for recruiting because staff, they want to have a great lifestyle too. So if you can set up an office in a place like Bali, Indonesia, it’s like paradise on earth. It’s so beautiful here, people want to join you, and so it’s great for recruiting as well.
Todd: Do you find it’s harder to get work done in a beautiful place. I mean, Bali is basically paradise. Can you still follow the nine-to-five work grind and get things done?
Dan: I find that I get more work done in Bali because the cost of living here is lower on all fronts. Not only is food cheaper, rent cheaper, but it’s easier to get people to help you out to do things. For example, in United States, I can't afford to pay somebody to do my laundry. It’s too expensive. But here in Bali, I have somebody do my laundry and that saves me two hours a week.
Simple things like that start to add up. It’s a very relaxed and healthy place that helps me focus on work. I have a lot of friends that live in New York city for example and they spend so much time traveling on the train, making money to afford living there, and I see that as a much more stressful, difficult environment to really be productive and creative. Here in Bali, I have no problems focusing on my work.
Todd: So what kind of work schedule do you follow, like do you work every day? Do you work like eight hours straight? Do you work at night? Because you’re dealing with different time zones with people all around the world. You said your mar

Episode 25: Working in Bali

This week Paul from England and Aimee from Scotland discuss where they would like to live.
Go to elllo.org for the full lessons with audio, video, vocabulary, and more. 
See transcript of interview below:
Paul: So, we were talking about climates, Amy. Uhm, you know are there any sort of climates that you’d like to live in?
Aimee: I would like to live in Iceland or Scandinavia.
Paul: Interesting. Why would you like to live in that sort of climate?
Aimee: Uhm, The snow is just so beautiful and my image of those countries is that their infrastructure is sufficient enough to keep you warm when you’re inside. You know? But I’d say it's just so beautiful. The snow is amazing, It quietens everything. I think it’s glorious. I just really like it. I used to ski when I was younger. So I always ... I like skiing and I like the hills, and yeah, and the snow on hills is just beautiful for me. How about you?
Paul: Well I, I love snow too, but I don’t like it when it gets so slushy and sloppy you know, and your feet are freezing. You know I think like, the ideal of snow is really appealing. I’m not sure about, you know, living in it. I prefer, I don’t know maybe the climate of like Southern Italy, kind of Mediterranean, climate I think that would be really quite pleasant. You know? Not too hot, by the sea, although yeah, in the summer, it does gets hot. But I don’t think it’s the humidity.
Aimee: Right, I was just thinking about that. What kind of heat is it? Is it a dry heat?
Paul: I think it is a drier heat. Yeah, yeah, whereas the heat we obviously we get here is unbearable at times, right?
Aimee: Yeah, it’s really bad. Yeah.
Paul: So, uhm….
Aimee: What’s the highest temperature? What’s the range of temperature in Southern Italy , what kind of climate, do you know?
Paul: Not sure, I guess maybe at this time of year it starts getting up towards 20 degrees C. 
Aimee: That’s nice.
Paul: And then I think it does you know places like Sicily, I think it does get pretty hot, probably like high 30s? Yeah, yeah, so and I think the winters are probably quite mild, unless you’re from the North of Italy of course, near the mountains. 
Aimee: Yeah.
Paul: Down in the south it remains kind of pretty mild, you know?
Aimee: Aha, if it’s in the Med ... It's my images of that. I’ve never been to Italy so I don’t know. I’ve been to the South of France and it got really hot. That was a nice temperature. It was dry, and yeah the nighttime wasn’t too hot either, it was really nice during the day. That was a nice climate, I think.
 
Thanks for listening.

Episode 24: Sun vs Snow

This week Sorie and Mark talk about the future and money and saving for retirement.
Go to elllo.org for the full lesson online on the web or mobile phone.
http://elllo.org/english/1301/T1307-sorie-retirement.htm
Transcript
Mark: Hi, Sorie. Talking about money, do you worry about money?
 
Sorie: Yes, I do. I especially worry about the future, about my retirement plan. And I’m not saving any money at the moment. And I have friends around me that are already saving up for their retirement. I’m 27 years old right now and I’m not sure if I should be concerned or not. Are you concerned?
Mark: Well, what kind of options are there? How would you want to save up?
Sorie: Well, first of all, right now, I don’t have the option to save for retirement.
Mark: Because you don’t have any money?
Sorie: Yeah, the present is plenty to think of. I haven’t got my head around the future yet. Do you have any recommendations at how I could do it?
Mark: Well, national pension plan or kind of put a little bit aside every week or forget about it. You’re only 27.
Sorie: Yeah. It’s very interesting, you know, because I know some people that instead of having a retirement plan, they decided to have a lot of kids and have their kids pay for them when they grow up and they get older. So that may be an option for me.
Mark: Yeah. And from where from also, that’s kind of the norm perhaps.
Sorie: Yeah, that’s right. How about you?
Mark: Yeah, I’m a bit older than you and I don’t have a pension plan either. But I’m not quite so worried about it right now.
Sorie: The time will come though.
Mark: The time will come and the more I think about, the more we talk about it, it’s definitely something to be considering. But it’s interesting in national pension plan, isn’t it because what if we leave? What if we won’t live in this country anymore, we had to move to another country and then we work there a little bit. And then we move to another country.
Sorie: So as an international person, it’s difficult to commit to a national pension because you don’t know where you’re going to end up, right?
Mark: Exactly.
Sorie: That’s what you’re saying, I see.
Mark: So if that was the case, it would seem that putting a little bit away every month or every week personally in an account would be a good idea.
Sorie: And are you committed, like, can you do that every month? Can you?
Mark: Yeah, I think I can do that. Yeah, but it’s interesting that I haven’t considered such things. And now when we consider it and realize how important it is, it’s probably a good thing to be considering.
 
 

Episode 23 - Money and Retirement

This interview is great for Business students. It is advanced but if you spend a little time working with the transcript and repeating phrases and words you don't know, you'll really improve your English and sound smart! 
Go online to elllo.org and look for #1284 to read the transcript and take the quiz. 

Episode #18 - Evaluating the Euro

Spencer talks about how her accent has changes over the years and Joel gives students some advice: be proud of your accent! 
For a full transcript, interactive quizzes, and vocabulary go to elllo.org and look for #1282. 

Episode #17 - Local Accents

Carlo and Vesna talk about the food and wine in Croatia. 

Go online at elllo.org and look up 1279 to read the entire transcript, watch the slide show, and take the interactive quiz. 

Episode #16: Croatian Cuisine

Sarah and Peter talk about the difference between people in Southern US and the rest of the country. 
After you have mastered all the vocabulary and phrases in this episode, try to explain the differences people have in different regions where you live. 
For the full transcript, go to elllo.org and look for episode 1276. 

Episode #15: Southern Style

Peter and Sarah talk about North Carolina, a state in the US. 
Go to elllo.org and look for episode 1275 for the full transcript. 

Episode #14: North Carolina

Ade talks about some of the popular dishes in Spain. She goes into detail about paella, one of the most famous dishes, but also one of the dishes with the most different variations. 

For a full transcript of the audio and to practice vocabulary, go to elllo.org and look for #1273. 

Episode #13 Spanish Cuisine  (Views 1273)

Abiedemi and Todd talk about how people prefer to watch movies in her country.

Go to elllo.org for the full transcript, vocabulary, and activities that go with this lesson. 

Episode #12 Viewing Habits (Views 1272)

Abedimi and Todd discuss one of the biggest industries in Nigeria. Only India produces more of this product worldwide. Can you guess what it is?

To check out the full transcript of the audio, go to elllo.org and search for interview 1271. 

Episode #11: Nigeria's Big Industry (Views #1271)

Vesna talks about Pula Croatia.

Go to elllo.org for the full transcript and lesson with vocabulary.

Episode 10: Travels Tips for Pula (Views 1270)

Daniel talks to Hana about how much they sleep. They talk about taking naps as well.
You can go to the elllo.org for the full lesson.

Episode #9 Sleeping Time (Views 1268)

In the spirit of Halloween, we talk about scary movies. Listen to Akane tell Ruth how she feels about horror films.
Go to elllo.org for the full lesson. 
Ruth: So Akane, is there anything that you’re frightened of?
Akane: Well… I’m, I’m really scared of horror movies. I never watch them, cuz they really really frighten me.
Ruth: Horror movies wow. Have your ever seen a horror movie?
Akane: Well, um, when I was little I used to watch them with my friends, because, back in the 80’s, horror movies used to be really popular. Like ah “Jason”, and “Freddy Cruger”. (Oh yeah) and things like that yeah. But ah, they used to keep me up at night and I couldn’t sleep.
Ruth: Yeah, my friend actually had a “Freddy Cruger” poster. It used to frighten me.
Akane: Did she?
Ruth: Yeah, it wasn’t my favorite. So, ah, what don’t you like about horror movies?
Akane: Well, um, I think, I think uh, I don’t know, I think it’s the psychological aspect of it. They just really make me feel scared.
Ruth: Ah, heh.. What was the last horror movie that you watched?
Akane: Um, the last one I watched was, I think it was the “Blair Witch Project”.
Ruth: Oh I know that film, yeah
.Akane: The first one, I saw it in the theatre with my friend. And I couldn’t sleep properly for a week after that.
Ruth: Oh no!
Akane: Ya, I mean, I know it’s stupid. A lot of people think it’s a pretty stupid movie. Um, but I think it was just, just the psychological aspect of it that really made me feel scared. And uh, I think, with that movie, after people saw it, they weren’t really sure whether it was real or not. 
Ruth: Oh yeah.
Akane: And so there was that element as, as well. 
Ruth: Was that the same film that I’m thinking of. The one where they filmed people in a forest, is that right?
Akane: Yeah, that’s right. It was in a forest. And the whole thing was done with a camcorder. A hand held camcorder. And so, it was, a lot of it was, I think, black and white. I can’t remember. And uh, and the camera was very shaky, and…
Ruth: So it wasn’t professionally filmed?
Akane: Um, I guess it didn’t look like it was.
Ruth: Right.
Akane: Yeah, I heard that the movie actually only took um, It didn’t take a lot of money to film it. But it, it made a lot of money.
Ruth: Yeah, I can believe that actually, I can believe that. Well, thanks for that.

Episode #8 Scary Movie

Happy Halloween. This week we listen to an older recording of Mike and Adrienne talking about Halloween.
Go to elllo.org for the complete lesson.
Transcript of the Conversation:
Todd: OK, guys we're going to talk about Halloween. So, what do you think about Halloween?
Adrienne: I actually like it. It's a fun holiday for kids especially because you get to dress up in costumes and you get lots of candy if you go trick-or-treating. I have a lot of good memories. of Halloween growing up.
Todd: OK, what is trick-or-treating? Why do you trick-or-treat?
Adrienne: Trick-or-treat is when you go, you dress up in your costume on Halloween and you go door-to-door ringing doorbells, knocking on doors. One person comes to the door, you say, "Trick-or-treat" and usually these days they give you a treat which is candy or apples or something like that but in the older days, you could, if they didn't give you a treat, then you could play a trick on them or they could play a trick on you, instead of giving you a treat, something like that.
Mike: I always thought that it was they performed, the person at the door performed some kind of trick for the kids because they didn't have candy to give, but I could be wrong.
Adrienne: Yeah, I don't know exactly. It's one of those three options.
Todd: Yeah, I think it's you play a trick on them.
Mike: Oh, really
Todd: You throw trash against their house.
Adrienne: Toilet paper their.
Todd: Toilet paper, eggs,
Mike: Egg their window.
Todd: Dog pooh in the paper bag on fire. On fire!
Adrienne: Yuck.
Todd: Yeah, that's gross. So, Mike, you're from Canada, so do you have Halloween American-style in Canada? Do you celebrate trick-or-treating? Do you do trick-or-treating?
Mike: Oh, yeah, I think it is the same as in the U.S. I believe it is a little bit different in Europe, maybe. They don't have the same kind of traditions but, yeah, exactly the same as in the U.S. We watched all the Snoopy, Charlie Brown Halloween kind of things, just like everybody....
Todd: OK. That's good. I'm glad because now we can diverge. What was, what were your costumes when you were younger?
Adrienne: Ah, I had so many. My mom was a seamstress so she used to make a lot of my costumes. I designed them and she would make them for me and my sister so one year I was bat girl, another year I was Wonder Woman. Another year I was Princess Lea from Star Wars, I was a rainbow and a clown and a cat, and a witch and everything, basically that you're supposed to be for Halloween I was.
Todd: A lot of heroines in there.
Adrienne: Of course. Strong women!
Todd: Mike, how about you?
Mike: I was goat boy.
Todd: Goat boy!
Mike: I was always goat boy because there...
Todd: Every year?
Mike: Yeah, we, I couldn't afford to get a decent costume every year.
Todd: So how were you goat boy? What did you look like?
Adrienne: Where did you get goat boy from?
Mike: They just put some sort of, they put a lot of trash on me, and forced me to eat a can. It's OK. 
I got lots of candy

Episode #7 Trick or Treat (Views #289)

Today in the podcast, Abidemi talks about the music scene in Nigeria.
Go to elllo.org for the full lesson.
Transcript of the audio:

Todd: So Abidemi, you're from Nigeria. Can you talk a little bit about the music scene in your country?
Abidemi: Yes. Nigeria is just amazing now in terms of music and even in the past we’ve had and we still do have great music, great musicians. We love to party just as much as we love to eat, there's nothing that Nigerians loves more than parties. We love to have a good time. So of course, music plays an important role in that. One of the music that we have now is like fusion. A mix of old traditional Nigerian music and instruments with more Western Hip Hop, R&B kind of sound and even reggae and Jamaican music and some Spanish too mixing with it.
Todd: Oh wow, that sounds like a nice mix.
Abidemi: It is actually and because we love to dance as well, it's something that you can move your body to, you can dance to, and also some ballads as well, that makes people think. In the past, Nigerian artists were either they sang traditional songs which they sang in the languages that we had in Nigeria or they sang in English for the most part because we do have many languages. So if you want to reach a wider audience, you needed to sing in English. But these days the interesting thing is many people are mixing. 
Todd: Oh, nice. 
Abidemi: They will sing a little bit in English as well as in their ... mostly in their native language which makes for very interesting mixes because then people that do understand that language, it attracts them to it. And it becomes more our own thing in our own country. 
Todd: So what are the languages that are mixed with English?
Abidemi: For example in my region, I speak Yoruba, so Yoruba, they use a lot of Yoruba. They use Igbo language too, it’s from the southeastern part of Nigeria. And there’s also Pidgin, Pidgin is a kind of ... it's Nigerian English or ... I know in other parts of west Africa they use Pidgin as well. But it’s more like slangy English, I would say. So there's a mixture of that. So the music becomes more Africanized, Nigerianized, if that’s a word. So it makes it much more our own thing and people enjoy it. Yeah, and it’s really good. So new artists now, they’re doing that and one of the results of that is it’s more accessible actually to people that are not Nigerians. So a lot of people download Nigerian music from YouTube. For example, there’s D'Banj. He’s an artist that’s gone over to the United States and he sings with Kanye. 
Todd: Oh, wow! 
Abidemi: Yeah, and some big top Hip Hop artist in the United States. There was a guy who they used one of his songs in one of the American - Black American movies in the States as well. 
Todd: Oh, cool! 
Abidemi: And he got a lot of exposure through that. So our artist are, yeah, they become more more famous it seems like. And they're leading other areas of Africa too.
Todd: Well I’ll be sure to p

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