Hi, I'm Nancy Buswell and I've been teaching people how to improve their English for over 16 years! I'm an American who teaches in a university in southern China. The Ten Questions ESL (English as a Second Language) Podcast is for people around the world who want to improve their English listening comprehension and English accent (intonation). I produce two kinds of podcast episodes. 1) TQ: My original idea was the Ten Questions ESL Podcast. I interview native and non-native English speakers and ask them the same ten questions. You can practice your listening comprehension and learn about other people and other cultures at the same time. 2) LnR: These podcasts are for people who want to improve their intonation and pronunciation. I say a sentence or phrase and you can repeat after me. The LnR podcasts with even numbers (such as 042, 044) have dialogues that I write that use informal speech, that is, the kind of language that friends use with each other. The LnR podcasts with odd numbers (such as 043, 045) use selections from novels, poems or speeches. In December I simplified my podcasts and stopped making the Sun3 episodes, and changed LnR into two kinds: formal and informal language. I'm just one person doing all of this,because I like podcasts and I love helping people to improve their English. My goal is that my podcasts will help individuals around the world as well as English teachers around the world. If you are an English teacher, please share these with your students and/or use them in class. If you are an English-language learner, please share these with your friends, classmates and teachers.
Hello from Nanning in southern China! I arrived back home (I have two homes, in China and in the US) on Monday. I still have jet lag, which means I feel more tired than usual and I have trouble sleeping at the normal times.Here's a replay from a couple of years ago. This is part of a series I did using words from French, German, Chinese and Spanish. I'm going to post the podcast episodes about Chinese and Spanish words in the next two days, then next Friday I will start to make new recordings. I...
Aug 30, 2018•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast
LnR 052 Words from French (Replay) >>> I'm in a hotel room tonight because I leave early tomorrow morning for China! My mother lives 2 1/2 hours from the airport, and my flight is early in the morning, so the easiest thing to do is spend the night in a hotel. That way we don't have to drive in the dark Here's an episode from two years ago. I think you'll learn some interesting words in this podcast! In this episode I'll give you some French words that we use in English. You can see how to pronou...
Aug 25, 2018•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast
LnR 050 If I were . . . (Replay) This was recorded two years ago. I'm still on vacation at my mother's house in the U.S. The unreal conditional: If I were . . . , I would/could . . . . I sing the song "If I were a rich man" from the movie "Fiddler on the Roof". I'm sorry if I hurt your ears! 1. If I were you, I would tell your girlfriend the truth. Otherwise, she'll be furious if she finds out from someone else. 2. If I had a son, I would teach him how to play football. But I have three daughter...
Aug 19, 2018•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast
TQ 106 Matthew from Shanghai, China Matthew, age 14, will enter the 9th grade this fall. I interviewed him while he and his mother stayed with me and my mother in Arkansas. He came to the U.S. with a singing group to compete in the Golden Gate International Choral Festival. After that he and his mother traveled to several places in the U.S. to visit friends. Listen as we talk about his name, which classes he likes, and how Chinese students have to do lots of homework in the summer. In the summer...
Aug 17, 2018•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast
LnR Around the World in Eighty Days 8 As for Passepartout, he was a true Parisian of Paris. Since he had abandoned his own country for England, taking service as a valet, he had in vain searched for a master after his own heart. Passepartout was by no means one of those pert dunces depicted by Moliere with a bold gaze and a nose held high in the air; he was an honest fellow, with a pleasant face, lips a trifle protruding, soft-mannered and serviceable, with a good round head, such as one likes t...
Aug 14, 2018•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast
LnR 048 Throw under the bus (Replay) My Chinese friend Lina and her son left yesterday. I hope you have listened to her interview. I'll post her son's interview next Wednesday. ===== Two friends are talking on the phone: A: Hi, Monica, this is Joanna. B: Oh, hey, Joanna! What's up? A: Nothing much. I haven't talked to you for a while, so I thought I'd give you a call. B: Yeah, I've been busy with a project at work. Our team had four weeks to renovate ten rooms for a law firm downtown. A: Four we...
Aug 12, 2018•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast
TQ 105 Lina from Shanghai, China I met Lina 18 years ago when I taught in Hangzhou, China and she was getting a master's degree in English. After that she got a job at the best university in Shanghai, Fudan University. Fudan has sent her to the U.S. twice, and both times she visited my parents' house. She became like part of our family. She calls my mother "Mom", and Mom considers her to be one of her bonus daughters. In the interview we totally forgot to mention that Lina was a tour guide four ...
Aug 10, 2018•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast
LnR Around the World in Eighty Days 7 Chapter 2 IN WHICH PASSEPARTOUT IS CONVINCED THAT HE HAS AT LAST FOUND HIS IDEAL "Faith," muttered Passepartout, somewhat flurried, "I've seen people at Madame Tussaud's as lively as my new master!" Madame Tussaud's "people," let it be said, are of wax, and are much visited in London; speech is all that is wanting to make them human. During his brief interview with Mr. Fogg, Passepartout had been carefully observing him. He appeared to be a man about forty y...
Aug 06, 2018•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast
I'm still enjoying the summer with my mother in the US. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up an old friend from China, who is visiting the US with her son. By the way, if you are Chinese, you can find me on the English language learning app called PalFish. Search for Miss Buswell. I specialize in preparing people for the IELTS speaking exam. Actually, anyone can use PalFish, but I think it's more complicated for non-Chinese to pay for any lessons they want to buy. There are some free "Live" lessons tha...
Aug 04, 2018•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast
LnR Around the World in Eighty Days 6 A young man of thirty advanced and bowed. "You are a Frenchman, I believe," asked Phileas Fogg, "and your name is John?" "Jean, if monsieur pleases," replied the newcomer, "Jean Passepartout, a surname which has clung to me because I have a natural aptness for going out of one business into another. I believe I'm honest, monsieur, but, to be outspoken, I've had several trades. I've been an itinerant singer, a circus-rider, when I used to vault like Leotard, ...
Jul 31, 2018•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast
