It’s been a long time since my last update. My apologies for the delay. I’m back and ready to help bring you more useful links to help your learning than ever:-)

Let’s kick things off with one of my favorite sites: This I believe.

You’ll find hundreds of short but powerful essays written by famous and not-so-famous authors. You can also listen to the audio for each essay, so there is plenty of English practice waiting for you. Here’s a description of the This I believe project:

This I Believe, Inc., was founded in 2004 as a not-for-profit organization that engages youth and adults from all walks of life in writing, sharing, and discussing brief essays about the core values that guide their daily lives.
This I Believe is an international project engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. Over 70,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here on our website, heard on public radio, chronicled through our books and television programming, and featured in weekly podcasts. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.

Hello everyone,

I am very pleased to introduce my friend Andrew’s latest project, English Star, an English video site with lots of interactive listening and general comprehension support. There are many kinds of practice, plenty of study content and a growing community of English learners there. You can use subtitles in English or Japanese, as well as some other languages. Register for the site to have full use of all site functions.

Hi everyone,

A fellow teacher who lives in Kyushu, Peg, kindly passed along this link and I was amazed to find real picture books on the website. You can turn the pages just like if you were holding the book in your hands. Please have a look. You won’t be disappointed:-)

Have a look…and a listen!

Enjoy:-D
Steven

My friend Charles Kelly, who runs manythings.org and a4esl.org with his brother Larry, has set up an easy-to-access listening resource. Please check it out by clicking on the image below

If you like music, you are going to LOVE this.

Midomi is a site that helps you find audio and video of your favorite songs.

Don’t know the name of the artist? Don’t know the name of the song?

DON’T WORRY!!

Just sing–or hum!!– the song for ten seconds or more and Midomi will search for a match.

I have Midomi on my iPhone and it works great. You can use it from your pc or mobile phone, too!

Here’s a funny example I found on Youtube:

Have fun

Hi everyone,

My friend Marc recently introduced me to this site, and I think it’s a brilliant idea! Members can upload videos and have them transcribed and translated by other members. Have a look!

Enjoy!

Steven

Today, I saw one of my students for the first time ina few weeks. She really surprised me with her rapid improvement in such a short time. She told me that she has started practicing English everyday on a social networking site called iKnow! I checked the site today and it looks great for all students learning English in Japan. Here’s an article with information and a link to their site. You can login with one of your current usernames, and it’s FREE!

英語学習SNS「iKnow!」が4月1日より共通認証規格「OpenID」に対応し、Yahoo!JAPANやmixi、Livedoor、はてななどのIDを使ってログインできるようになる。運営会社のセレゴ・ジャパンが3月18日に発表した。

　すでに上記サービスのアカウントを持っているユーザー（セレゴ・ジャパン推計で約4000万人）は、初回に会員登録をすることなく、iKnow! の英語学習アプリケーションやSNS機能を利用できるようになる。セレゴ・ジャパンでは、新規アカウント作成によるサービス利用のハードルを下げることで、より多くのユーザー獲得を目指すとしている。

　4月1日からは以下のような形で、トップページに外部サービスに対応したログインボタンを設ける。ヤフーやmixiの他にもボタンの数はできるだけ増やしていくという。
iknow YahooJAPAN IDでのログインに対応したトップページ（クリックすると拡大します）

You can login here.

Watching cooking videos on Youtube can be a great way to learn about other cultures while practicing your English AND learning to make yummy food. Here are a couple to get you started…

These recipes are excellent!!!

Italian Gnochi

Chocolate Layer Cake (This one makes me want a big glass of milk!)

The English in this one is pretty fast, but boy do those quesadillas look good!

And these are not so serious….

First some basic cooking vocabulary, and some not so delicious food;-[

And how to make sandwich making more fun….

Enjoy,
Steven

Hello everyone,

Have you tried singing simple English songs for kids? It can be a lot of fun to practice singing with your kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews. Don’t be shy, just click on the link and start singing:-D

and while you’re at it, how about trying some tongue twisters (早口言葉) to practice your pronunciation?

http://www.esl4kids.net/tongue.html

Have fun