Upper Intermediate

Welcome to the upper intermediate page of Meditecna English 2018! Here you will find information about classes etc.

Let's get the ball rolling! 

The phrase to get the ball rolling comes from croquet. Croquet \kroʊkei\ is a sport that involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court.

Today it means to set something in motion, frequently a process.

Wilmar Hobart: The Croquet Game1864

Massed produced modern croquet equipment

 So "Get the ball rolling" is what is called an idiomatic expression or an idiom. These are phrases or groups of words that become a set expression usually the original meaning become lost to us. Nobody today thinks of croquet when they say this phrase.

Podcasts

Recently someone asked, "how can I get better at English?" Podcasts are a great way to practice listening skills, acquire spoken grammar and learn real vocabulary. The speed of the speakers varies based on the speaker.

But what is a podcast? A podcast is essentially radio on-demand on the internet. A podcast may or may not appear on a radio station. So the length of podcast will vary. They may be a little less than an hour or a half an hour, but they may also be irregular times since that don't have to fit into a traditional broadcasting format. Below I will list some of my favorite podcasts. Are there any podcasts that you like? Leave a comment.

 This American Life

This American Life is in some way the mother of all podcasts. It's been on the air since 1995 and has given birth to many podcasts such as Radiolab, Invisibilia, StartUp, Reply All, Snap Judgment, Love Radio, Heavyweight. iThe simply is about telling stories, about regular people and experiences in way that seem extrodanary.


https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

 Freakonomics

Freakonomics is about the intersection of  economics and behavorial science.