Free video documentaries on the Internet

I hope that everyone is enjoying the World Cup! The timing works out well for viewers in the UK as South Africa time is the the same as here so we get the matches at the perfect time of day. As is usual for the UK, we have an over optimistic view of our own chances in the competition – as was proved during England’s disappointing draw with USA after the English goalkeeper made a terrible mistake. The headlines in the UK were “Green’s howler!” so there’s a non-academic word to learn – howler, meaning big mistake!

I have again been looking at the FRONTLINE website. Frontline is a website packed with good television documentaries about a variety of subjects such as: the digital world, the world’s aviation service, Haiti’s earthquake, the banking crisis, Obama’s policies…the list goes on. Some of these have transcripts of the whole programme and they all have introductions, accompanying debates and extra articles and materials to exploit. This is fantastic stuff for students of advanced English. Frontline is here.

Captioned videos

If you are thinking ‘Patrick hasn’t posted anything for a long time’ then you’d be right! That usually means that it has been particularly busy at work and yes, it is marking time again. But, better late than never as the saying goes.

Readers who are interested in Britain may have been following the General Election in the UK which I mentioned a few times over the last few weeks. Well, it’s over at last and well, it was really exciting! You might remember me mentioning this guy:

and saying that nobody knew who he was. Well, now he’s our Deputy Prime Minister! Nobody saw that coming. (If you know his name then you win a prize.) We are in for a real test to see if our political system can manage a coalition government. The worst thing of all is that now I am older than the Prime Minister.

Everybody is getting in on captioned videos. I have to say I think this is where internet technology is really useful for language learning. When you can listen and read what people are saying your language learning can really take off. My advice to learners is to listen first, then read afterwards to get the bits which you missed and then listen again and read at the same time. If you listen to the hard bits several times as you read the words then you can start to separate the flow of sound into distinct words. The latest site with captioned videos which has come to my attention is 22frames.com. I had an e mail telling me: It is well known that that captioned and subtitled videos are useful for learning English. However, many are scattered across the Internet and mixed with the billions of other videos. 22frames aggregates them so that they can be found easily. Several users are now using the site to train themselves with English, particularly idioms, slang, and commonly mispronounced words. Well, I had a look and I liked it. Tell us what you think by leaving a comment. 22frames.com is here.

Volcano chaos

If you aren’t in Europe you might not be aware of the chaos going on over here. There have been no flights into or out of the UK for five days because of the volcano erupting in Iceland! Some of my students are stuck in Spain. Another one of my students was lucky enough to get a lift in a car from Spain to England from the airport when there was no plane! The British navy is bringing Brits home from the continent on battle ships! I am glad that I have no plans to go anywhere until July! The other exciting news in the UK is that we are in the middle of a General Election campaign. Students of British culture and politics should note that this is suddenly an unusually exciting election because the third party in the country (The Liberal Democrats – who??) have suddenly become very popular because their leader did very well in a TV debate so Nick Clegg (who I’m sure you’ll never heard of!) is the man of the moment:

Unusually for a Briton he is multilingual, speaking lots of European languages. He ought to keep this quiet if he wants to get lots of votes because many British people will be highly suspicious of someone who is too European friendly!!

Anyway, back to some language practice! I’m sure you’ll be itching to practise your listening skills with another University of Plymouth video snapshot. Here’s Sophie talking about her graduation:

Hi, my name is Sophie, I have finished my degree in Geography and I graduate today. My ceremony starts at 10am so I’m off now to collect my robes and to meet my family on Plymouth Hoe.
I’ve really enjoyed my time at university and I’ve made the most of everything it has to offer. I’ve been the Social Secretary for the Geography Society, a Geography Course representative and a Student Ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society.
Just going to collect my robes now, just got my tickets so hopefully they’ll have them here.
Robing: Hello
Sophie: Hi, Sophie Neville. Thank you.
Graduation is an important occasion. It’s a culmination of all your hard work during your time at university. It’s a proud day for you, your family and your friends and a chance to celebrate all that you’ve achieved throughout your university career.
Dad: Hello Sophie.
Sophie: Hello.
Dad: I think it’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant, very proud of her. It’s just the culmination of all the years’ effort.
Grandfather: Wonderful
Grandmother: Wonderful, she’s worked hard so it’s nice to see her get her degree.
Ceremony speaker: Ladies & Gentlemen please be seated. It’s a privilege and a great pleasure to welcome you to this ceremony.
Ceremony speaker: David Meeks. (Applause) Sophie Neville. (Applause)
Ceremony speaker: Congratulations Sophie.
Sophie: Thank you.
Family: Cheers Sophie, well done Sophie. Brilliant.
Photographer: Say ‘Champagne’.
Sophie: Champagne.
Friend: We have to get a big bunch of us together and go and chuck our hats in the air.
(Hats thrown, shrieking)
Sophie: I was really nervous before the ceremony but it felt great when my name was called out and I went up to collect my degree.
Student: Really sort of got myself ready for the adult world of work, been really good, great memories.
Student: At first it’s quite, kind of a, bit of a culture shock when I got here. But then I can safely say hand on heart that I grew to love it here. So nice and chilled out and just really laid back.
Sophie: I’m a graduate now. It’ll be really sad to leave university life behind as it’s given me so much but at the same time it’s really exciting to see what the future holds for me.

Mike talking about his finances

I have found that out that some of the most popular pages on this site are those with videos of students talking about university. So, time to add another one! Here’s Mike talking about his finances. I think you’ll find his comments on the cost of living very interesting. The new page on this site with his video is here, and you can view other video clips from the University of Plymouth here.