Word games

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. I could lie and say that I've been busy putting the world to rights, making a change so that we all have a brighter tomorrow. But the sad truth is, I haven't done anything of the sort. No, the reality couldn't be any further from this. The fact is, I have an addiction, and I need to share it with you all.

Like many people nowadays, I've become hooked on the internet. Or more precisely, I've become addicted to a particular website. Once I power up my laptop, I retreat into my own little cyberworld and can spend hours, days even, on this site without eating anything or speaking to anyone. It drives my girlfriend mad! I am what you might call a cyber-junkie. The irony that I'm writing this blog is not wasted on me.

So what website has done this to me? What site has got so far under my skin as to make it almost impossible to do any work? I'd like to tell you, but I feel I must absolve myself of all potential blame and attach a health-warning before you click on any of the links below - THIS WEBSITE IS VERY ADDICTIVE AND WILL TAKE UP ALL OF YOUR FREE TIME IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL!!!

Phew! Got that out of the way. Okay, the website in question is www.sporcle.com. It's a great collection of "mentally stimulating diversions". Guessing games mostly. They cover a wide range of topics and there are, at the time of writing, over 2,000 games which have been played over 130,000,000 times! So I'm not alone with my addiction.

In terms of improving your english it's a fantastic website, especially the language section. See below for a few of my favourites. Good luck, and try not to become a Sporcle-junkie!

http://www.sporcle.com/games/common_english_words.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/usuk_words.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/common_english_adjectives.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/3letterbody.php

http://www.sporcle.com/games/corplogos.php

Image from www.freedigitalphotos.net

Glossary

putting the world to rights solving all the problems in the world

a brighter tomorrow a better future

to be hooked on to be addicted to

to power up to switch a machine, such as a computer, on

to retreat into your own little world to become so interested in something to the point where you ignore everyone else

to drive somebody mad to frustrate, irritate or annoy somebody

cyber related to computers and the internet

junkie informal expression for an addict

to get (so far) under your skin to be unable to stop thinking about or do anything else

to absolve yourself of all blame to make it public that you are not responsible for something

mentally stimulating diversions activities or games that require the use of your brain

Using Podcasts to Learn English (Part 1)

The internet has changed the world. We now live in an instantly connected global society. As long as you have access to an online computer, you can find out about events almost as soon as they happen. Take the sad story of the death of Michael Jackson as an example. Within seconds of the event, millions of people all around the world knew what had happened: The King of Pop had died.

It’s not all sad news stories though. The internet can be a really useful tool to help you learn English, and there are lots of ways to do this. You can read blogs, like this one. People are blogging all the time, about lots of topics. If you like, you can blog about your own life too. As well as that, you can use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to try and make friends and chat with other people around the world. You can use Twitter, in order to keep up with the latest conversation topics, follow interesting people, tweet about yourself and read other people’s tweets. You can also use YouTube to watch videos on almost any topic in English, or to upload your own videos for the world to see.

In my opinion, podcasts are one of the best ways to use the internet to improve your English. There are lots of podcasts on the internet and almost all of them are free. But, which are the best ones out there, and more importantly what actually is a podcast?

This is part 1 of a series of blog posts I’m going to write about podcasts. In this series, I’ll explain what podcasts are, how to listen to them and how to use them to improve your English. I’ll also recommend some good podcasts that you can find on the internet and can download for free.

So, watch this space for more blog posts about podcasts in the near future. For now though, have a look at the definitions of some of the useful ‘internet vocabulary’ I have used in this blog post, and feel free to write a comment or ask a question if you want to.

Luke.

podcast - n (C) an audio programme which you can listen to on the internet, or download and listen to on your computer or mp3 player. 'Pod' comes from the word 'iPod' and 'cast' comes from the word 'broadcast'. So, a podcast is like a broadcast (e.g. a radio show) on your iPod.

online - adj connected to the internet. The opposite is offline. E.g. my computer is offline at the moment because I don't have an internet connection at home.

blog - n (C) a website on which someone can regularly write posts, comments, stories, reports, diary entries, etc. Blogs are regularly updated. Blog is short for web-log.

blog - v to write on a blog. E.g. "I'm just blogging about how to use the internet to learn English".

blog post - n (C) an article, story, report, etc which has been written on a blog, by an author of the blog

social networking site - n (C) a website which people use to make friends, chat to people and share music & video, and make social arrangements

to chat - v this has two meanings. The most common meaning is to have an informal conversation with someone (it could be face to face or on the telephone), e.g. "I was just chatting with your Mum about what you want for your birthday...". The second meaning is newer than the first, and it means to have a text conversation with someone on the internet, using a messaging service like MSN Messenger or in an internet chat room.

chat - n (C) an informal spoken conversation, or a text conversation on the internet. E.g. "I had a chat with Mum about what you wanted for your birthday..."

to keep up with something - phrasal verb to stay up-to-date with something. E.g. "I like to keep up with the latest film reviews by using the BBC's film review website" or "I use Facebook to keep up with what my friends are doing"

tweet - n (C) a status update or comment which has been written on the website Twitter. It's a new word which is used for updates written on Twitter only. E.g. "Follow our tweets by visiting the LSE Twitter page"

tweet - v to write a status update or comment on Twitter. E.g. "The London School of English tweets about something every day"

upload - v to put an audio file, video file or photograph onto the internet from your computer. E.g. "Click here to upload your profile picture" or "You can't upload videos onto YouTube which are longer than 10 minutes"

download - v (and a noun sometimes) to take an audio file, video file or photograph from the internet and save it on your computer. E.g. "I downloaded Skype last night, so we can use it to chat from now on" or "Click here to download the mp3"

watch this space - fixed expression this is a common expression that people use to say a development is coming so pay attention to this. it is often used in newspapers, on TV and on websites. E.g. "Watch this space for news of the latest iPhone release"