A Little English

Edward Cooper Howland
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Aprendizaje de idiomas
  • Serie semanal

What if the stories in your English course could make you laugh? What if they could break your heart?What if you just had to know...what happens next?My name is Cooper, and I'm an English professor in Hiroshima, Japan. I love teaching, I love English literature, and I love podcasts. So, I decided to combine all three into this show! Each episode, I will read a short story in English. Some of them are famous, some not-so-famous. Some of them I even write myself. For example, I read stories by AA Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh), Ernest Hemingway, and Philip K Dick. I choose the stories carefully and read slowly, so they're easy to understand. After each story, there are three tiny lessons. Not too much, just A Little English. Visit https://www.alittleenglish.com to get a Podcast User's Manual with some idea about how to study using this podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  1. Episodio 1

    Forty Stories - "One"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 1 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 03:10 and the tiny lessons begin at 14:30 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  Well. Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you are enjoying a little vacation, and staying warm.  This week’s story is the scariest one I’ve ever read on the show. Why is it scary?  Because I wrote it.  In fact, from now on, unless I say otherwise, all the stories will be written by me. That was actually my plan from the beginning, but I wanted to figure out how to….you know…make a podcast before I started sharing stuff that I wrote.  So here’s the plan: This year I will write and record forty stories. Each of the stories will have the normal three tiny lessons. If you pay close attention, you’ll see that all the stories are connected. The characters in each story are all connected to the characters in other stories. It’s all one world. And if you listen to all of it, I hope, one large story will emerge. But each story is complete on its own as well, so don’t stress about it too much. This is the biggest, most complicated, project I’ve ever started, and I really hope I can get through it in a year. More than that, I hope you all enjoy it.  The name of this story, appropriately enough , is:  “One” The timing is the most important thing. Ben knows that she will arrive at the bar just after eight o’clock, like she does every Wednesday night. She and her girlfriends will come in laughing and joking. They’ll pull off their scarves and blow into their cold hands and order enormous  glasses of cheap red wine. Then she will sign up for karaoke. She will sing sad songs by U2. Ben knows this because she only ever sings sad songs by U2. Ben knows that when it’s her turn, she will place her glass of wine carefully on the stool behind her, hold the microphone with both hands, and sing like this is the most important song in the whole world. Her voice will be flat, and she will probably forget some words, but Ben won’t care. He loves her because she sings from her heart. The timing is the most important thing because when she comes in just after eight o’clock tonight, Ben will be on the stage, singing U2’s best, saddest song.  He is nervous about singing the last part of the song. There are a bunch of very long, very high notes, like “ooOOooOO, and “HaaaaHaaHaAaaa.” Then he has to do some rock star “yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!” stuff. During his lessons, his voice cracked almost every time he tried to hit the high notes. When he tried to say “yeah!” like a real rock star, he always felt like an idiot. He practiced again and again, until his teacher said it was good, but he never agreed. The end of the song is the best part, the most important part, and it has to be perfect. You can’t smoke indoors anymore, but somehow the bar still smells like an ashtray. None of the chairs match, as if they were bought from different yard sales. His cheap table wobbles, and if his beer falls off it, he can’t afford another one. He sees the bartenders look at him, then talk quietly to each other, then look at him again. He assumes it’s because he doesn’t drink as much as everyone else does. He wonders why she loves coming here.  It’s almost eight o’clock now, and she hasn’t arrived yet. Two boys are on the karaoke stage, singing some new rap song that Ben’s never heard. He only listens to real music. Music from before he was born. His name is next on the list. He is starting to panic. The timing is the most important thing. The rap song is finished, and the boys are cheering with their friends. Now the bar is silent. It’s 8:01. He got the timing right, but she’s not here. Ben is walking as slowly as he can to the stage, trying to take as long as possible, trying to give her a chance to arrive, to park her car, to do whatever she does before she comes in through that door.  The guitar intro is playing on the speakers, signaling the start of the song. Ben carefully places his beer on the stool behind him and grabs the microphone with both hands. The little ball on the karaoke screen is bouncing onto the first word. This is it, their big moment together, and she’s not here.  He only misses the first few words before he starts singing. He has been practicing this song and only this song with his music teacher twice a week for three months, ever since he realized that it’s the only sad U2 song that she never sings. He doesn’t have to think about it any more. It’s automatic now. He’s finishing the first section. It’s slow and minimal, but the lyrics are already sad. They’re about loss and blame, yes, but also hope and love. The drums are playing softly and he has a moment to look around before the second verse starts. She still isn’t here. Maybe she was in an accident, or maybe she’s singing to someone else in another bar. The second section is much heavier. There are more instruments, and the lyrics are darker. Ben is singing about regret, and he is singing from his heart, because he knows about regret, and about how relationships can fall apart. If only she were here to see him sing this verse. Then she would know about his pain. She would know that all he needs is someone beautiful to love him.  The song keeps building, adding strings and more guitars for the third section. This is the darkest part of the song, full of accusations and pain. She’s not here. How could she do this to him? He spent months and thousands of dollars learning how to sing this song perfectly and she didn’t come on time. He’s singing perfectly, but he wants to just give up and go home.  As the song reaches its climax, Ben is starting to cry. Everything was supposed to be perfect. If she had just come on time, she would know his heart by now. She would know his pain, and she would know that he loves the same music as her, and she would know that they’re supposed to be together. Now, of course, it’s all a disaster.  She’ll never see him sing from his heart. She’ll never fall in love with him. Ben is arriving at the end of the song. There are a lot of lyrics about hope and support and grief and loss, and then name of the song is repeated twice. Just as he is singing that second, “One…” he feels a blast of cold air from the other side of the bar. The door is halfway open. She’s alone, shivering from the cold, pushing the heavy door with her shoulder. When she hears what song is playing, she stops and stares at the stage. This last part of the song is the most difficult for him. But now she is here. She is looking right at him and she is starting to cry. He has to do it perfectly. The timing is the most important thing.  So that’s it. That’s the first story in the collection. Only thirty-nine left to go! How did you like it? What do you think about these characters? how do you feel about Ben? Is he a romantic? Or a creep? Or both? I mean, I know how I feel about him. But actually….I’m not going to tell you. I want you to draw your own conclusions.   The thing is, one of my rules for this project is that nobody can be the protagonist more than once. So maybe Ben, or one of the bartenders, or this girl he’s got a crush on will show up later, but the story will never be ABOUT Ben again. So….bye, Ben! Let’s do some tiny lessons.  First, let’s take our first look at the big picture.  My question for you is:  what song is he singing? I think I made it clear in the story, but did you figure it out? Yeah it’s “one.” Like the name of the story. I gave it away at the end there, by singing. Sorry about my singing , by the way. I recommend you go watch the video for that song, or listen on your phone or whatever, then read the story again, thinking about that music, in that moment. Does it change the story for you? Now, how about a quick visit to the dictionary disco The first vocabulary word is: flat. YOu probably know flat like not-curvy, or maybe even an apartment in UK English. But in this case, singing FLAT means that your melody is wrong. The pitch is just a little BELOW where it should be. Like my singing. Very flat.  The second one is grief. Grief is sadness, but it’s a very specific kind of sadness. It’s sadness about LOSS. Like after someone dies, or a relationship ends, you experience grief. You grieve.  And last, let’s rest for a melody moment.  I wanna talk about the word: O’clock. I teach English almost every day, and this one is really tough for students. There are two O’s in this word, But they make totally different sounds. If you’ve listened to the first season of ALE, the Winnie-the-Pooh episodes, you know the first one. It’s our old friend, the SCHWA. So it’s an unstressed syllable. UH. The second O, though. That one is even harder. It’s an AH sound. Yeah. The letter O, makes an AH sound. So the two vowels together are….uhAH. Try it. Don’t worry, the guy next to you on the subway won’t notice. Just say…uhAH. Now say, O’clock using those same vowels. Ho

    22 min

  2. Episodio 2

    Forty Stories - "Sleigh Ride Together"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 2 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 1:44 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:30 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: “Sleigh Ride Together” Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  Today’s story is about sledding. “Sleigh” is just a fancy word for a sled. I come from Massachusetts, USA, and when I was a kid, sledding was a big part of winter life. The story is also about family, and about having - or…being - a big brother. Some of it comes from my real life, and some of it is just made up. I’m not gonna tell you which parts are which, though. You can try to figure it out for yourself.  So anyway, let’s listen to it.  “Don’t worry,” said Kevin. “We used to come here every year on Christmas break.” “Who’s ‘we?’” “Me and the guys. Mark and Ben and Tommy.”  “Tommy who broke his arm crashing this same sled in seventh grade? That Tommy?” “Yeah and he was always the first one calling me up and asking me to bring it out. He knows how awesome it is.” And with that, Kevin carefully laid the sled down in the middle of the trail, straddled it slowly, and sat down.  He was gone in an instant, the sled rocking wildly as he barely avoided a large rock on the right side of the trail and shot out into the sunny soccer field. As he slid under the goal posts at the far end of the field. Kevin popped up off of the sled, jumping up and down. He was tiny from this far away, no bigger than her finger. He was waving his arms, probably yelling something, but she couldn’t hear. It took nearly ten minutes for him to haul the sled back up. His wool hat was coated with snow. His cheeks were red and his smile was enormous. “Go!” he said. “It’s so awesome!” Mandy’s hands were shaking as she took the bright red plastic sled. She hadn’t ridden it since elementary school, but she remembered it well. She knew that the tiniest error could bang her into a tree or dump her out onto a rock, especially since Tommy’s famous crash had ripped the safety belt out. She tried to pick out a safe route and sat down, holding tight to the sides of the sled. She felt Kevin’s boot against her back, but she had no time to say anything before he pushed with his leg and she was flying. There was no time to think, no time to breathe. Her cheeks hurt and she could hear the bottom of the sled scraping along the packed snow and ice of the sledding trail. Pine needles stung her face and the wind froze her eyes.  When the sled got to the bottom of the hill and soared out into the warm sun and the wide-open field, she realized that her eyes were closed. She opened them as she sped across the field, barely slowing down until she, too, had arrived near the goalposts. She was alive. She was free, and nothing could touch her. He was right. It was awesome.  The sunlight bounced off the perfect icy crust of the snow directly into Mandy’s eyes, blinding her. She held one gloved hand up to guard against the glare and grabbed the rope with the other. She started back towards the hill, her feet crunching through the thin sheet of ice into the fluffy snow beneath, dragging their sled behind her. She was going to murder her older brother.  “You idiot,” she shouted when she got to the top. “You can’t do that to someone on this sled! You remember what happened to Tommy.” “Oh, come on,” he said. “You’re fine. You did a great job.” “If you push me like that again, I’m going to throw you off this hill myself, Kevin. I swear to God.” “OK, OK. I promise.” They sledded for hours, each time starting a little higher, going a little faster, a little less in control of the sled. It was only four PM, but the sun was already close to the trees around their old elementary school, the shadows growing long on the snow. The soccer field was marked with dozens of fresh paths, each a little longer than the last, reaching out closer and closer to the street.  “Just one more?” he asked her. “Let’s go together,” she said. “Then neither of us has to wait at the bottom, or walk down from the top of the hill.” “OK,” Kevin smiled. “Like the old days.” Kevin sat in the back of the sled and Mandy sat between her big brother’s legs. They both kept their feet outside the sled, holding it in place in the snow and ice.   “Are you ready?” he asked her. “Ready.” He wrapped his arms around her and she was safe for just one moment.  “Three…two…one…GO!” The sled shot forward as they both brought their legs in. Pine trees, rocks, bits of greenery flew past them. Mandy screamed, terrified but thrilled. She kept her eyes open, focused on the mouth of the trail, the point where the forest ended and the fields began, where they would fly out into the sun and then they could go home and have hot chocolate.  The tree stump was only a few centimeters around and barely stuck out of the snow at all. The school’s gardeners must have cut it down in the autumn, preparing for the winter. Anyone could have missed it.  They were going full speed when the bottom of the sled hit the stump. Mandy was in the air before she knew what was happening. Kevin was below her, and then he was above her. Blue sky and white snow and brown, dead winter forest spun around her like a kaleidoscope.  When she opened her eyes she was on her back in the snow. The steam of her breath floated off into the cloudless sky. Kevin’s face appeared, blood streaked across his nose and mouth.  “Are you OK, Man?” Was he laughing or crying? Both?   Mandy patted herself. Her arms and legs were working. She coughed and tried to sit up.  “I….think so.” He helped her to her feet, and they stood there for a while, hand on their knees. He spat some blood into the snow and they laughed.  “The sled is totally busted,” he said, holding up the two halves. “And I’m pretty sure my face is too.” She held his face in both hands, checking the cuts. “You’re fine,” she told him. “But Mom’s gonna kill us.” “Don’t worry.” He gave her a bloody smile. “I’ll tell her it was just me.” What do you think? Is Kevin a good older brother or a bad one? If you ask me, nobody is all good or all bad with their family. We all make mistakes. We do things we don’t really mean to. Sometimes we hurt each other and we don’t even know why. That’s just part of being family. But so is apologizing, and so is forgiving family members when they do stupid stuff. Like kicking their little sister down a mountain.  Let’s do some lessons.  The Big Picture is cold and snowy today.  Where are they sledding? I mentioned it only once. See if you can find it. They are in their hometown, on a hill near their elementary school. They’re quite a bit older than that now, but a good sledding hill is hard to find.  Can you dance in the Dictionary Disco when it’s this cold outside? The first vocabulary word is….”awesome.” This is such a great word. See, in English, Awe is like a feeling of respect and wonder, mixed with fear. Like if you met an Angel or something, you’d feel Awe. So awesome originally meant something that makes you feel respect and wonder and fear. Now we use it more just like “cool” or something.  But Awe…it’s still in there.  The second word is “stump,” as in a tree stump. Maybe you figured it out from the story, but it’s pretty important, so I’ll explain. When you cut a tree down, the part that’s still sticking out of the ground, attached to the roots? That’s a stump. Not fun to hit at high speed on a sled.  And today’s melody moment?   We talked about MMM a couple weeks ago. How about NNNN? They’re pretty close sounds. This one is usually spelled with an N. So what’s the big difference between MMM and NNN? There are actually two. The first one is, with NNN, you gotta keep your lips open. The second is your tongue. To make NNNN correctly, your tongue has to touch the top of your mouth. Near the front, but not on your teeth. So like the word “Man,” you start with lips closed, and tongue just kinda…chilling. And you end with lips open and tongue…up. Try it…Mannnnnnnn Let’s do the credits.  Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 1 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.  If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.  This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.  Again, thank you  so much for listening. For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    21 min

  3. Episodio 3

    Forty Stories - "Mustang"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 3 Thank you for downloading this episode. You really, really should watch this video to understand just what kind of car we are talking about: CLICK HERE TO WATCH 👉The story begins at 1:42 and the tiny lessons begin at 16:50 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  Today’s story comes with a Content Warning: it’s about a panic attack, and there’s a conversation about mental illness. Nothing too serious, but if you’re not in the mood to hear something like that, maybe stop and come back later. Don’t worry, though. There’s other stuff in the story. In fact, if you don’t know what a 1967 Ford Mustang looks and sounds like, go ahead and pause right now. Look in the show notes, I’ve added a link to a youtube video . Check it out. It’s pretty awesome… So, of course, the name of this story is… Mustang.  Carl was dying. He was standing in his kitchen and he couldn’t breathe, and he was dying.  The edges of his vision were blurry. He couldn’t breathe.  He heard a noise. Short and sharp and fast, it repeated again and again and again, identical. Dottie was in the next room, finishing her coffee. If he called her, she would come and take him to the hospital. But they couldn’t afford an ambulance. They couldn’t even afford to keep what they had.   The noise was coming faster now and his vision was narrowing to a tunnel. He was in a white tunnel. He was sure that he was dying. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t find the breath to call his wife’s name.  Suddenly, he was sitting on the floor. His back hurt. Had he fallen?   He could feel his heart pounding against his ribs, like it wanted to escape. Like it wanted to burst out of his chest and run screaming down the hall. He was having a heart attack, and he was going to die here on his own stupid kitchen floor. He could hear her voice. It sounded like she was underwater. Or maybe like he was underwater and she was on the beach, calling to him. Like she was miles away. She was saying his name.   The noise was starting to slow down. It sounded like a dog panting on a summer day.  It was him. The noise was him.  It was his own breath, and it was starting to slow down. The tunnel widened, and he could see the kitchen door, and the Mustang in the driveway. Her hands were under his arms now, lowering him onto his back.  He was laying on the floor and she was there with him. “Dottie?” he gasped. “I’m having a heart attack. I’m dying.” “You’re not dying, Carl. It’s just a panic attack.” “How do you know?” he said. “I can’t breathe and my heart’s going to explode and I’m going to die.”  “You’ve never had a panic attack before?”  “I’ve never felt anything like this in my entire life. I couldn’t see.”  “Well, you’re pretty lucky, then. Jean used to have them all the time. Just focus on your breath for a little while. Breathe in through your nose, slowly, and now breathe out through your mouth.” In eight years, Carl had never cried in front of Dottie. He hadn’t cried when he put that nail through his foot. He hadn’t cried when the dog died.  He had cried when his mother died, but he did it in the coat closet when Dottie was out of the house.   He knew he was crying now because he could see the surprise on her face. He could feel the tears on his cheeks and suddenly his whole body was shaking as he turned and hid his face in his hands. He sobbed like a child.  “I’m sorry,” he bawled into his hands. “This is so stupid.” “Shhhhh,” whispered Dottie. “It’s fine.”  She was on the floor with him, stroking his hair with one hand. With the other she picked up a crumpled piece of paper from where it had fallen when Carl sat down. “What’s this?”  “It’s the bill of sale for Dad’s Mustang.” He had pushed himself up onto one arm. “The buyers sent it over. We just need to fill out our info, and then we all go  to the DMV together. ” “And then it’s theirs?” “Yeah.”  “But for now it’s still ours, right?” She was standing now, pulling at his hand. “Get the hell up, Carl. Let’s go for a drive.” They walked out into the sun, Carl wiping snot and tears from his face with his sleeve.  The Mustang sat in the driveway, cherry-red and polished chrome. “Come on,” she was walking around to the passenger’s side.  Carl got in the driver’s seat and breathed deeply. It smelled like leather and oil and Dad’s cigar smoke. He turned the key. The engine thundered for a moment before settling into its neutral purr. It was breathing, slowly and steadily. He reached down and put it in reverse. “You said Jean had those all the time, when you were kids?” She looked at him. “Panic attacks? Yeah. She still does sometimes.” “Do you know why?” “I do. And it’s none of your business.” He waited a moment at a stop sign. “And, like, how did she deal with it?”  “She didn’t for a long time, and it just got worse and worse. Eventually she had to spend a couple weeks in a center.” “Like…a…?” “Like a residential psychiatric hospital. And they got her sober and into therapy and yoga and breathing and stuff, and when she got out, she taught me how to help her when she couldn’t help herself. I was eleven.” “Well. Yoga. I dunno if I can do yoga.” “It helped her.” They drove on in silence for a few minutes. She rolled her window down and he breathed deeply, carefully, smelling the summer air and the exhaust and her perfume. He turned on the AM radio and found a ball game. When they hit the deep country and Carl was pretty sure there wasn’t another car for miles, he started to stand on the gas. The Mustang roared like a circus beast pulling on its chain. Carl could feel it, vibrating up through the seat and into his whole body.  When they hit fourth gear, the vibration smoothed out and Dottie put her hand on his, both of them holding the gearshift together.  “Just keep going,” she whispered. “Go to Vermont. Go to Canada. Let’s just go somewhere for the weekend. We haven’t signed the papers yet. It’s still ours.”  Carl looked at his wife, and he thought about how far they could get with the money they had in the bank. He thought about last week when he had to put just sixteen dollars worth of gas into the tank, because sixteen dollars was all he had until payday.  “Nah,” he said. “That’s what Dad would have done. And this isn’t his car anymore. It’s mine. Let’s go on home.” Well, there you go. That’s my story about a 1967 Red Ford Mustang, and a man’s first panic attack. Have you ever had a panic attack? I have. More than a few, especially these last couple years with COVID and everything. That one actually came straight from my life. I really thought I was having a heart attack and that I was gonna die. But I survived.  I think it’s really important to talk openly about mental health issues. I think that pretty much everyone is carrying a lot of pain, now more than ever. And I think if we talk about it, we might realize that it’s not strange or bad. It’s just part of life. So a lot of these forty stories are gonna be about people struggling with their pain. Because…everyone is.  Let’s do a couple tiny lessons. It’s a beautiful day for a drive. What a lovely Big Picture.  Why did Carl have a panic attack? Take a moment and think. It’s because he had to sell the car. But more than that, it’s because he had to sell his dad’s car. And clearly, Carl has some…issues with his Dad. But hey, who doesn’t? And the Dictionary Disco? Think we can dance all night? Our first vocabulary word is: panting. Like I said in the story, it’s the sound that a dog makes after it’s been running. With its tongue hanging out. You know that sound. I’m not gonna do it here, because…it would be a little gross.  Speaking of gross, the second vocabulary word is: snot. Snot is a great word. It’s mucus. From your nose. Like when you’re sick, or crying. Snot. Really sounds like what it is, right?  Snot Finally, we need to slow down and breathe for our melody moment.  Back at Christmas, we talked about the Hyperschwa. That’s when a schwa is so tiny that it actually deletes itself. The technical term is vowel deletion. But Hyperschwa sounds cooler. But what about the word “dunno?” It’s actually two words: “don’t know” but the O in don’t, it’s so reduced, so deleted, that it actually deletes the T, and drags the two words together. Two words become one! And why do we do this?  Because it’s faster and easier. Try it: Don’t know…dunno. Much easier. Maybe we can call this… an ultraschwa! Let’s do the credits! Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 3 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.  If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.  This season, all the stories a

    22 min

  4. Episodio 4

    Forty Stories - "Cold Feet"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 4 Thank you for downloading this episode. Here is the video about "dude" that I was talking about. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO 👉The story begins at 02:15 and the tiny lessons begin at 16:30 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  Today’s story is about the theater. I did some acting in college, so I know a little about what it’s like to be on a stage. The play in the story is a real play. It’s called “Take Me Out,” by Richard Greenberg, and it’s about baseball. Specifically, it’s about what would happen if the best player in all of professional baseball came out as a gay man. It’s an amazing play, and if you ever get a chance, you should definitely see it. It also has a lot of naked men in it. So yeah, content warning, you will hear the word naked at least nine more times in this podcast. There’s nothing sexual, but…the story is about taking off your clothes on stage. I’ll talk more about this play after the story, because I don’t want to spoil anything. For now, let’s enjoy. The name of this story is….Cold Feet.  Act One - Tech Rehearsal “Look,” said Tom, “I get it. It’s a locker room. We’re in the shower. People shower naked. It makes perfect sense. But I’m just saying, why do I have to be naked?” Tom stood on stage, in his bathing suit. All the actors were wearing bathing suits. He could hear the air conditioning rattle. He could hear the lights humming. Everyone was staring at him. Raymond got up out of his seat and ran his fingers through his hair. “You have to be naked, Tom, because everyone has to be naked. You knew that when you signed up for the play. You already agreed to it.” “I know I did. But maybe, like, can’t I just wear a towel? I’m just one of the guys on the team. Dante and Robbie, those guys, the show is about them. They’re the really important ones. But I’m just in the background anyway, so why does it matter if I’ve got a towel on or not?” “Because you agreed to it, Tom! Because everyone agreed to it. Because you’ve known for six weeks of rehearsal that everyone gets naked!” “ I thought I could do it,” said Tom, shifting his weight from side to side. “I really did. It didn’t seem like such a big deal when I signed up. It’s just like, my mom’s gonna see it. And my sister.” “Oh my god.” It was hard to see anything from the stage, with all the lights, but Tom could tell that Raymond was furious. He was walking up and down the aisle, shouting. “Six weeks rehearsing with these Americans and now Tom wants to change the whole script.” Robbie stepped to the edge of the stage. “Raymond? Ray? Maybe we should stop for tonight? I’ll talk with Tom. Okay?” Raymond disappeared into the foyer, swearing.  “Come on,” said Robbie. “I’ll buy you a beer.” Act Two - The Shack “Just think about the rest of us, OK? We all gotta go through this together, man. It’s just like in the show. We’re a team. Everyone gets naked. Together. We’re a team.” The two of them sat at a cheap table, drinking cheap beer. On the karaoke stage, some college kids were singing old hair metal, their friends cheering them on.   “Is it really about your mom?” “No, I told her as soon as I got the part. She thinks it’s pretty funny, actually. My sister, too. And the thing is, I know they will make fun of me for it. And that’s fine. They always do.” “So…..? What’s up, man? You’ve been working out. We all have. You’re gonna look great out there. Unless….do you have something…you know……..weird down there?” Robbie was pointing.  “Me? No, no.” Tom leaned back in his chair. “That’s all really, incredibly normal and boring. I think…it’s just…So many people, you know? Like, hundreds of people. Every night. Strangers. They’re gonna see me. All of me. I just hate it.” “Yeah but that’s the thing, right?” Robbie leaned in. “That’s what the show is all about. It’s about vulnerability. It’s about being honest with strangers about who you are. And, like in the show, some people love it when you’re honest and vulnerable, and some people just hate it. Because you being honest makes them uncomfortable.” “Maybe…being…vulnerable….makes…….me uncomfortable.” “Well, Tom, I think you may want to change careers. How can you be an actor if you can’t be vulnerable? That’s what we do. We get on stage, and we open ourselves up. We show the audience something true. Something honest. And maybe they like it and maybe they don’t. But that’s not really our problem. We just have to do our job.” They stared at each other for a moment.  “Now, look. Let’s just rip the band-aid off, ok? Let’s go get naked. Right now. ” “What, like here? In the bar?”  “No, dude, I don’t wanna get arrested. Come on, we’ll go to your place, and we’ll take off all our clothes, and stand in the living room and practice our lines.” “That's the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life. What if my roommates come home?” “They can read Dante’s part. Come on, man, let’s go be vulnerable.” Act Three - Opening Night It was easy.  It was just as easy as wearing the bathing suit was. He took off his robe backstage, and he walked out into the warm lights, and he was naked.  Tom was naked on the stage, pretending to take a shower with his buddies. He pretended to shampoo his hair while his friends argued about what it means to be a man, and a hundred and fifty people, - including his mom and sister - watched them silently. Until - “Oi! You horrible little creature! Give it here! No, no, give it!” The lights were so bright, Tom couldn’t see anything offstage. Raymond was in the audience. He was screaming, swearing, and…was he…fighting with someone? “You give me that phone right this instant, young lady!” Someone was making a video. Some girl was making a video of Tom and Robbie and everyone else on stage.  “I swear to god, I’m going smash that phone into a thousand pieces. You’ll go to prison for this!” Raymond and the girl were rolling in the aisle now, fighting over the phone. The whole audience was talking, standing up, trying to see what was happening. They all had their phones in their hands, taking video of the fight. Tom looked at Robbie, then the other guys. They all, very slowly, reached for their towels.  OK, so you should know, I wasn’t in this play back in college. But a bunch of my friends were. And they all had to take off their clothes and pretend to shower together, and…more. No spoilers. And the thing with the camera? That’s real. In May 2022, Jesse Williams, who you might know from Grey’s Anatomy, was starring in “Take Me Out” on Broadway. And somebody took a video from the audience, and put it on the internet. It was a big scandal. I’ve been reading about it all week. And kind of obsessing over it because back in 2005 or whatever, when my friends were doing this play, we didn’t have smartphones. There wasn’t such a big risk. But now…it’s much scarier to do stuff like that on stage. Oh, and the thing with the director attacking the audience member? It didn’t happen with Jesse Williams, but it has happened. You can google it. Do not use your phone in a theater. It’s a really bad idea.  Let’s do some tiny lessons? The Big Picture tonight was definitely NOT taken on a phone in a theater. My question is, what is it that Tom is so nervous about? Why is he uncomfortable taking his clothes off on stage? Take a minute and think about it…..I think it’s just like he said. He doesn’t actually want to be honest. He’s afraid of getting hurt.  And do you think we can keep our clothes on in the Dictionary Disco? We are gonna talk about one of my favorite words. DUDE. It just means, “man.” But you can use it absolutely any way you like. “Dude, that’s so cool.” “Hey dude, are you hungry?” “Wow, look at this dude over here.” I’ll put a link in the show notes to a scene in a film where the only dialogue is…”dude.” The other vocabulary word is “vulnerable.” It just means you can be hurt. So like, Superman is invulnerable. Bullets just bounce off him. But going on stage, and trying to share something honest and true. That makes you vulnerable. You can be hurt. That’s what the story is about.  And how about a Melody Moment? We’ve talked about MMMM. And we talked about NNNN. But. There’s another one. It’s like their cousin. NNNNGGG. It’s the sound at the end of the words SING, and THING. So. You start with NNNN, so your mouth is a little open, and your tongue is touching the roof of your mouth. Then move your tongue back about a centimeter. The whole tongue. And then, I don’t know how else to say this, you push the sound….out your nose. NNNNG. Watching. Waiting. Thinking. Oooh, that one has it twice! Let’s do the credits! Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 4 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in H

    23 min

  5. Episodio 5

    Forty Stories - "Frog Pond"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 5 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 1:40 and the tiny lessons begin at 12:56 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  And we are back into Forty Stories! So, this story was written by me. I have to apologize, I have tried to do two different accents. Now to be fair, I’m from Massachusetts, and I spent six years living in South Carolina, so I think I’m probably OK at doing accents from those places. But I guess I’ll let you decide. If it’s hard to understand people talking, go check out the show notes! Read along with the text as I’m speaking. It’s good practice for weird American pronunciation. Let’s check it out! Frog Pond It was not a good day to be outside. Kim shivered in her overcoat. Her cheeks hurt, even inside the mask. Boston Common in February was not beautiful. It was gray, and the parking in the garage was twelve dollars an hour! Cassie was excited, though. She pulled Kim’s hand as they approached the  Frog Pond. “Look, Mom! They’re skating!” There were maybe fifteen people on the ice. They were trying to go in circles, but the wind pushed them back, crashing them into the railing and each other.  Kim and Cassie fought their way to the ticket counter. “That’ll be thirty-two dollars, ma’am.” The woman in the booth shrunk down into her enormous parka as Kim stared at her.  “Thirty-two?” Kim couldn’t believe it.  “Yes, ma’am. It’s eight dollars for you, free for your daughter. Plus skate rental is fifteen for adults and ten for kids.” Kim sighed, and pulled another twenty-dollar bill out of her wallet. “You shouldn’t be out here in this weather,” said Kim.  “I haven’t got much else to do,” said the lady. “and I’m used to it. Some days are awfully pretty, especially after a good snow.” Kim looked around. “Pretty like today?” “Oh, no,” said the woman. “But tomorrow should be nice. Is this your first time in Boston?” “No,” said Kim. “Well, sort of. It’s our first time in the Common. We’re renting a place in Cambridge. But Cassie just HAD to go skating before the season ended.” “Is it her first time skating?” asked the woman. “It’s both of our first times. We’re from South Carolina, originally. My husband got a job, and we just…moved up here. Just like that.” “Well, you might want to try a lesson.” The woman pointed to a poster on the wall. “We can’t afford that much,” Kim turned to take Cassie’s hand, but she wasn’t there.  “Cassie? Cassie? Cassandra?” She was trying to sound calm. She clapped her hands, but the gloves muffled the sound, and the wind carried it away.  “Cassandra Norton, you come out right now!”  Kim half-walked and half-ran over to the railing. She leaned on it and stared at the ice.  Most of the skaters weren’t very good. Couples on dates held hands and laughed. Children fell over and cried. Their parents rushed to them, wiping snow from their coats and tears from their eyes.  And Cassandra was gone.  “Is something wrong, ma’am?” It was the woman from the ticket counter. Kim realized now that was standing up, that she was tiny.  “Oh, well, I’m very sorry. My daughter wandered off.” She sounded so natural. Like it was no big deal. Her daughter was lost in a snow storm in a public park in this strange city, and she was acting like it was no big deal.  “Oh dear,” said the lady. “Did you check the ice?” “That’s what I was just doing, but I don’t see her.” “Well, don’t worry,” said the lady. “Let’s go check the bathrooms.” “Thank you so much. What’s your name?” asked Kim.  “I’m Mary.” “And do you work here?”  “Oh, no not really. I’m a volunteer.” She showed Kim a  badge with her face on it, pinned to her parka. Her hand shook slightly.  “I retired a few years ago and I don’t have much going on. So this keeps me busy. Now, let’s look in the stalls. What’s the girl’s name?” “Cassandra. Cassie.” Mary opened each of the toilet stalls, one by one. Cassie was not there. Mary looked back to Kim. “Well. We’ll have to-“ Kim interrupted her. “We’ll have to what? My daughter is missing! It’s below freezing outside. She’s only six years old!” She pushed past Mary, through the gate and onto the ice. She was screaming now, “Cassie? Cassie! Have you seen a little girl? I’m looking for my daughter.” She was flat on the ice before she knew what had happened. She tried to stand and immediately fell again. And again.  Slowly, she got to her hands and knees. The pain where her hip had hit the ice was incredible. Skaters did their best to avoid her as they passed.  “Hey, you gotta wear skates on the ice, lady.” “Watch out! Whatcha doin?” Kim started to cry. She felt a small hand on her shoulder. Mary was standing next to her, reaching down to take her hand. This tiny old woman was perfectly balanced on the ice in her big hiking boots. Kim was afraid to lean on her, afraid she’d pull them both down to the ice. But she took Mary’s hand and got to her knees, then her feet.  “Mommy?” Cassie was standing in the gate that Kim had just come through, getting ready to walk onto the ice. She had skates on. She looked worried.  “You know you have to wear skates on the ice, right Mommy?” Kim slipped and slid her way over to the railing, holding on to Mary for balance.  She got the feeling Mary had done this before.  “Where have you been?” she grabbed Cassie’s shoulders, maybe a little too hard.  “Oh, I went to get my skates.” Cassie pointed ot her feet. “The guys at the rental desk were really nice.” All three of them sat down on a bench in front of the cafeteria. Kim did her best to pretend she wasn’t crying. “It’s just so hard, you know? Robbie’s at work all day, and then at night he’s practicing for this stupid play that he’s in, and I’m home alone, and well, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have behaved that way. “ “Tell you what,” said Mary, smiling at her. “Let me grab my skates and I’ll take you around the rink a few times. Just show you the basics.” “Okay,” Kim smiled down at Cassie, who was jumping up and down in her skates. “We’d love that."  I have to tell you a secret. Everything is connected. All of the Forty Stories tie together into one big thing. All the characters you meet are connected, somehow to all the other ones. I don’t want to make it too obvious, and I won’t mention it every time, but yeah, if you listen or read closely, it’s all there.  Which leads me to tonight’s Big Picture: How is this story connected to Episode Four, “Cold Feet?” Go back and listen to both of them if you’re not sure, but I think I didn’t hide it too well…this time. (pause) Yeah, this is Robbie’s wife and kid. That’s how it is with all these stories. Maybe they take place in the same…bar? Or maybe one character in one story is the roommate, or the mother of a character in another story. Who knows? You’ll have to listen closely to find out. And the dictionary disco is…ice disco? Is that possible? The first vocabulary word for tonight is MUFFLE. To muffle something is to wrap it up. In fact, a lot of people use the word “muffler” where I, an American, would say “scarf.” But ”muffle” can also mean to make something quiet. Like the muffler on a car does. Kind of like if you….wrapped it in a scarf. Right? The second vocabulary word is INCREDIBLE. This one is interesting because it literally means you cannot believe it. Like a liar. But somehow, now, incredible just means…really strong or amazing, or…awesome.  And tonight’s Melody Moment?  Let’s keep going with voiced and unvoiced pairs. So…..”T” how do you make a “T” sound? You tap your tongue on the top of your mouth. Can you feel the bumpy part on the top of your mouth? That’s called the alveolar ridge. Easy to say, right? Alveolar ridge. So anyway, just put your tongue on those bumps, and…tap. “T” Easy right? Now, do it with a little vibration in your throat. What do you get? “D” Yup. They’re a pair. Let’s do the credits.  Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 7 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.  If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.  This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.  Again, thank you  so much for listening. For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    18 min

  6. Episodio 6

    Forty Stories - "Flow"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 6 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 01:58 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:32 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  Today’s story is about ping pong. I’m not very good at ping pong, but Tabatha is. We played together a couple weeks ago, and of course, I thought, “This would be a good story.” So, here we are.  The name of the story comes from psychology. Have you ever been doing something you really like and suddenly you realize that, like, an hour or two has passed? And you didn’t even realize it? That’s called a flow state. It’s also called, being “in the zone.” Usually when I’m working on a story or even editing this podcast, I’ll enter a flow state. And I love it. It’s an amazing feeling. What gets you into a flow state? And what does that have to do with ping pong? I guess we’ll find out.  Flow The ball came in fast and low, just over the net. It bounced on the back right corner of table number four and flew off into a corner of the gym. Alexander watched it go.  “Hey, I thought you said you would go easy on me,”  he whined.  “I am going easy on you,” replied Matt. “Your serve.”  Alexander walked slowly over to where the ball had stopped rolling. He picked it up and stared at it. He sighed and walked back to the table where Matt stood ready, holding the paddle in both hands straight out.  Alexander bounced the ball once and hit it straight into the net.  “Zero-two,” shouted Matt.  “I don’t get a double fault thing? Like in tennis?” “No, bro. This is TABLE tennis. Different game. Your serve.” Alexander served again. This time, the ball floated weakly over the net. Matt returned it to Alexander's left side. Alexander reached for a backhand, but missed. The ball skipped away through the open doors and into the hall.  “Zero-three, your serve.” Matt was smiling.  Alexander retrieved the ball from the hallway. He tried to focus on Matt’s left side. He thought about the best angle for the paddle. He planned the whole point in his mind. Curve the paddle down a little bit at the end. Keep the ball low, just above the net. Go to Matt’s backhand. He had a plan.  He breathed deeply, bounced, and served.  The ball went into the net. “Zero-four!” He made another plan. A soft hit, just hard enough to go over the net. He could make Matt reach for it. Make him mess up. Make him serve for once. He bounced and served, slowly, carefully.  Matt leaned in and returned it easily, with a smash. The ball went back into the hallway. “Zero-five. You want me to serve?” Matt was laughing at him. Alexander walked off to retrieve the ball, his head hanging low.   — The girl must have been in high school. She was blonde, and she was taller than him. And she was holding his ping-pong ball in her hand, smiling.  “Did you lose this?” “Uh. Yeah. Sorry. Uh.” Alexander reached out and grabbed the ball. “Thank you.” “No problem.” She was probably seventeen years old, and she was smiling at him.  He nodded at her, never making eye contact, and walked back to his table.  Alexander prepared to serve again, at the same time looking around the gymnasium for the girl. Was she playing volleyball? No. Was she watching from the stands? No. Where was she? “Hey, nice point!” said Matt. “Five-one. My serve.” He didn’t realize that he had been playing, but there it was. Matt was kneeling down under the table to get the ball. He’d gotten a point! Matt’s next serve came in just as Alexander found the girl. She was with another high school girl. She was playing ping-pong. She was at table number six.  Just two tables away. How long had she been there? Had she seen him losing point after point? Alexander felt himself blushing as he returned the serve.  “Five-three! OK! Now we’re talking!” Five…three? Alexander realized that he had won the last TWO points without paying attention. He was back in the game. He had a chance to win! What if the girl was watching now? He had to focus. He had to win. Don’t look at the girl, don’t look at anything, just make a plan and win. He lost the next three points in a row.  “Eight-three! Oh, yeah. You’re going down, bro.”  The ball came in fast and low over the net, and bounced. It was too far away. Alexander stretched out to hit it and the paddle flew out of his hand. It landed right on table five with a loud BANG. The guys at table five stopped playing. So did the high school girls.  Alexander froze. There was no way to play this off like a cool, normal dude. He had just thrown his stupid paddle and disrupted everyone’s game, and everyone knew it was him. Now he had to go get it, and he wanted to die.  He walked over to table five, staring at the floor. “Uh, I’m sorry, man,” he mumbled, as the guy handed him back his paddle.  “I guess it just, like, slipped out of my hand.”  The guy didn’t say anything, and Alexander turned back to his table. Matt was laughing and pointing at him. The tears came up behind his eyes. He felt them fall onto his cheeks, hot and wet and he ran. He ran into the hallway searching for a bathroom, but he couldn’t find one, so he just kept running until he came to some kind of bench. He sat and cried, his shoulders shaking, his face in his hands until he felt someone touch his arm. It was the high school girl. She looked worried.  “Are you OK, kid?” Alexander tried to puff out his chest a little. Like he wasn’t just crying in the gray, concrete hallway of a YCMA.  “Me? Oh, yeah. I’m, like, pretty OK. Thanks.” He wiped snot and tears from his face with the back of his arm.  “Your friend is kind of a jerk.” “He’s not my friend, he’s my cousin. I don’t want to hang out with him, but my mom makes me.” “Well, I think you need to go and win this game. Teach him a lesson.” “How? The only time I even get a point is when I’m not paying attention.” “That,” said the high school girl, “is because you’re thinking too much. The ball is too fast. By the time you think about what you’re gonna do, and then get your body to do it, the ball is gone. You have to clear your mind and just….flow. No plans, just movement. Reaction. I don’t really know how else to explain it. Just….flow. It’s the only way to win at ping pong.” Alexander stood up, rubbing his eyes with his shirt sleeve.  “What’s your name?”  “Amanda. People call me Mandy.”  “I’m Alexander. Uh, thank you.” “Go kick his butt.” So there you go. That’s my ping-pong story. Now I want to be very clear. This story is not what happened when I played with my kid. First of all, Tabatha is the real ping-pong monster. She absolutely destroyed me when we played. But there were a few moments when I got into a flow state. When I didn’t think about what I was doing, and I was able to just…flow. Just play. And at least I scored some points.  But there were these two boys next to us. They were maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. And they were so, so nerdy. They reminded me of myself when I was in middle school. And I wanted to write a story about them. About what it’s like to be a nerdy teenage boy. Especially when girls are around. So…how did I do?  Anyway, wanna do some tiny lessons? The Big Picture is looking lovely. What was Alexander’s big mistake when he was playing? Why couldn’t he win? Take a moment and think about it. Like Mandy said, he was over-thinking. When you play sports, you can’t think. You can’t plan. You just have to do it. That’s the flow state. When your brain shuts off, and you just act.  How about the Dictionary Disco? The first vocabulary word is “Blushing.” Everybody blushes. It’s when you get embarrassed or emotional, and your face turns red. But really really white people like me? We REALLY blush.  The second vocabulary word is “paddle.” That’s the thing you hold in your hand when you play ping pong. But also, it’s any kind of thing that’s shaped like that. A thin handle on one end, and a wide flat surface on the other. Like when you go in a canoe. You use a paddle.  So, can we have a Melody Moment? We’re gonna do another pair of sounds today. K and G are pretty close to T and D. So for T, you tap your tongue on the roof of your mouth. The alveolar ridge, right? For K, you keep your tongue up at the top, but….you don’t tap it. And it’s further back. Lips open, jaw relaxed. And tongue just kinda….up. Try it! K….K….K. Now, add some vibration in your throat and you get….G. They’re a pair.  Let’s do the credits.  Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 8 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.  If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.  This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t

    20 min

  7. Episodio 7

    Forty Stories - "Sentimental Items"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 7 Cooper is back from the attack of the hideous POLLEN ALLERGY! Thank you to Tabatha for filling in! Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 02:01 and the tiny lessons begin at 14:30 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  First of all, I’m very sorry about last week. This year is the worst pollen allergy in ten years in Japan, and I had it really, really badly. Believe me, you did NOT want to hear my voice in your headphones last week. But today I’m doing a lot better and I have a new story for you. It’s about…well, do you know who Marie Kondo is? She’s a Japanese cleaning and organizing expert who’s super famous in the US, but not at all famous in Japan. Kinda funny how that works. Anyway, I love her method, but I also recognize that there are some issues with it. So, I decided to write a story about it. I hope you enjoy.  Sentimental Items 1. “No,” said Jean. “We throw everything away. Everything that doesn’t make us happy. That’s what the book says, and that’s what we’re gonna do. And when we get done with it, we’ll just be surrounded by things that make us happy, and then we can be happy all the time.”  Her children looked at each other, sighed, and walked to their rooms. Jean called after them. “Think about it, do we really need your third grade report cards, Kevin?” She put her hands on her hips and looked around. It was time to clean out the attic.  She pulled box after box after box out into the hall, opened the lids, and started dumping their contents onto the ground.  “Don’t forget to throw away by category,” she yelled down the steps. “Start with clothes, then books, then papers.” Following her own advice, she collected every single piece of clothing into a pile. Then she stood over it.  Most of it was easy.  Winter coats from elementary school? Send them to Good Will.  Tiny mittens, their fuzzy lining stolen long ago by mice? Garbage. Her maternity dresses? Horrible garbage.   A photo album.  “Mandy,” she called, “Come look at this.”  Amanda appeared in the doorway. “Mom, I’m right in the middle of doing my clothes. What do you need?”  “Look at this album. It’s from Pawtucket back in the eighties. Here’s me and your Aunt Dottie on the pier. We must be….eight years old. Here’s your grandpa Frank cooking lobsters. Every year he would go down to Marten’s seafood and buy a dozen of the biggest lobsters you’ve ever seen. ” “Mom, the book to save sentimental items for last. Don’t get distracted by that stuff. Just put it in a pile and deal with it later.” “You’re right, we gotta follow the system. We can look at all these later.” Jean put the album aside, reached into the pile, and pulled out a pair of low-rise boot-cut jeans from her college days.   “Oh my god,” she said. “Why in the world did we think that this was a good look?” —— 2.  By the end of the month, only sentimental items were left. The three of them stood in front of a table in the dining room, looking down. Postcards, gifts, drawings from elementary school art class, all piled on top of each other, all incredibly important for one reason or another. “I don’t even know where to start,” said Kevin. “I don’t want to throw away any of it. Can’t we just, like, keep it all?” “The book says we don’t think about what we are throwing away, we think about what we want to keep,” said Jean. “So, what’s important to you to keep?” “Frosty,” replied Kevin. “I wanna keep Frosty’s ashes in my room.” “….where is Frosty?” said Mandy.  They searched the pile, slowly at first, then faster and faster.  “It’s a little stone box,” said Kevin. “It looks like something precious.” “We know what it looks like,” said Jean. “It’s gotta be here somewhere.”  Old birthday cards and finger paintings fell to the ground as Kevin searched the table. “Why would you throw him away? You threw away my cat’s ashes!” “No, honey I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. We’re just gonna keep searching and we’ll find him.” “No, we searched already! And everything else in the house is cleaned, just like in your stupid book! Are you happy? Everything is organized, the cat’s ashes are gone, and we’re supposed to be happy. But I’m not feeling real happy right now, Mom!” He stormed out of the house,  slamming the door on his way out.  Jean felt her knees go weak. She leaned on the table as Mandy grabbed a chair for  her to sit in. She sat down heavily. She wasn’t breathing correctly. Too short and fast. Close to another attack. Slowly. In through the nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Out through the nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds.  Box breathing.  Just like the quarterback for the Patriots.  When she opened her eyes, Mandy was in front of her, the photo album in her hands.  “We’ll find Frosty.” She was smiling a little. “Tell me about these photos.” --- 3. Jean was waiting for Kevin when he came home after eleven pm. She heard him open the kitchen door quietly and slowly, just a few inches at a time. He was sneaking past the dining room door when she said, “Kevin?” She heard him swear quietly.  “Did you find him?” “No, we didn’t. I’m sorry, Kevin. Your sister and I searched every box and bag of trash and bookcase in the house, and we didn’t find Frosty’s ashes.” Kevin swore again, and Jean didn’t say anything. Instead, she handed him a slender book with a photo of a cat glued to its front.  “Your sister and I worked all evening on this. She went through all the photo albums in the house and looked for pictures of him. ”  She watched him sit in a chair and open the book. He smiled. He turned the book around to show her a picture of himself, six years old, holding up his new kitten like the beginning of the Lion King. He went through all the pages, occasionally stopping at a picture of Frosty wearing a little hat for Halloween, or elderly Frosty napping in the sun.  “He was a good cat,” said Kevin.  “Yes, he was,” answered Jean. “And I’m sorry that I lost his ashes. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard to throw everything away. I just want to live in a nice house, and the book says that if we get rid of everything that doesn’t make us happy, then we’ll be happy all the time. Don’t you want to be happy all the time?” Whooooo that was kind of emotional for me. How are you doing? Like I said, I love Marie Kondo, and I really want to live in a clean house. And I really want to be happy. Who doesn’t? But like, I think that it’s really important to be careful when you are throwing stuff away. And we already know that Jean, she’s not exactly a stable person. So, like a lot of things, cleaning and organizing is good, but if you go too far, or do it for the wrong reasons, you can get into trouble.  I’m doing a lot of throwing away garbage now, because, well, I’m moving.  Yup. I’m moving to Chiba, which is basically a suburb of Tokyo. I got a new job, and I gotta go. So, it’s possible that I may miss an episode or two in the next couple weeks. I’m gonna try my best not to, but….my whole studio has to get broken down and moved across the country. So, we shall see.  Let’s do some tiny lessons  Our big picture is kinda sad. What happened to Frosty? Well, he got old and died, like pets do. And he was cremated, which means, to burn a dead body. But then, some time, somebody lost the box with his ashes. It’s not clear who, and I think that’s most realistic. You never know HOW something gets lost. You just know that it’s lost. How about the dictionary disco? The first one is - garbage. Garbage is trash. Stuff that you throw away. Stuff that you don’t want any more. Like your maternity dresses, when your kids are already in their teens and twenties! The second one is - sentimental. Sentimental means related to your emotions or your memories. So sentimental items might be old love letters, or photos of your dead cat.  And a good old melody moment.  In this story, at different points I say “gonna,” “gotta,” “kinda,” and “wanna.” We talked about these kinds of words a while ago, but I am very happy to repeat myself, since these are super common. These are contractions, kind of smashing words together. So “going to” becomes “gonna.” “Got to” is “gotta,” “Kind of” is “kinda” and “want to” is “wanna.” Right, so all these words, the smaller word gets smashed into the bigger one, and then reduced. TO? No, “tuh.” OF? Nope. “uh” These are schwas, and we do it because it’s easier! Go back to season one if you want to hear ALL about schwas! Let’s do the credits.  Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 7 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan. For now, anyway.  If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is th

    19 min

  8. Episodio 8

    Forty Stories - "Great Blue Heron"

    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 8 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 01:50 and the tiny lessons begin at 11:22 👉You can find the transcript after the Credits! 👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/ A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland. All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me. Copyright 2023 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.  This story is really important to me, because this is the first story I ever wrote for this project. I actually started writing it in December 2021, and I was saving it for a special time. This is that time. I’m in the middle of moving and starting my dream job, and my life is totally crazy, so I thought now is a good time to share the story that started the whole project. I hope you enjoy!  One thing, you might want to pause before we start and look at a picture of a Great Blue Heron, if you don’t know what that is. They’re pretty beautiful birds, and it will probably help you understand the story a little better if you have a picture of one in your head.  Great Blue Heron Sarah sat by the river and wondered how to get more likes. Maybe she could take a selfie at sunset? Everyone likes sunset photos. She took her phone out of her bag and held it in front of her. She moved around on the park bench until she found a nice angle, and posed for the selfie.  It was a good photo. The river was flowing off towards the sun as it set behind her. The sky was red and pink, and the few fluffy clouds made it even prettier. She flipped through the filters for a while, trying to find the best one, but it just didn’t look right. She breathed out heavily, deleted it, and started to pose again. The sun was almost behind the mountains by the time she got a photo that she really liked.  She chose a good filter, and thought about which hashtags would get the most attention. #sunset #naturelife #river Behind her, an enormous heron landed in the river without a splash or a sound. It looked around cautiously, standing on one leg in the rushing water, searching for a fish for dinner.  Sarah knew what she had to do. She had to get a selfie with the heron. She tried to take one from the bench, but it was much too far away. The bird looked like a little gray bug in the background, blurry and out of focus. She would have to get closer. She got off the bench and crawled sideways like a crab down the steep hill until she reached the bank of the river. She crept through the tall grass, trying to get as close as she could. The heron stood perfectly still, staring down into the rushing water, pretending to ignore Sarah. As soon as Sarah put one of her feet into the freezing cold water, balancing on the slippery rocks, the heron raised its head and stared directly at her.  Sarah froze. The heron froze. They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither one moving. Sarah was holding her dress out of the water with one hand. With the other she reached into her bag, trying to look like she wasn’t moving at all. The heron stared right at her. It put its other foot down into the water, getting ready to fly away.  It was impossibly beautiful, blue and gray, with a white head and neck. A black streak like a halloween mask stretched from its eyes to a little cap of feathers on the back of its head. Its wings were just barely open, its long legs bent at the knee as it stared at Sarah, trying to decide whether or not she was a threat.  Her hand came out of the bag now, holding her phone. She unlocked it with her finger and raised it above her head, twisting around to get herself, the heron, the river, and the setting sun into the photo. This one would get hundreds of likes. #sunset, #river, #naturelife. Her movement startled the heron and it bent its knees a bit more, worrying that she was going to attack it. Sarah stopped moving, her body stuck in a very uncomfortable position. She didn’t even breathe. The heron didn’t either. They stayed there, frozen, the heron staring at Sarah and Sarah staring at her phone’s screen.  The setting sun reflected off the glass and she couldn’t tell if the shot was any good at all. She knew that she only had one chance, that the sound of the phone taking the photo would scare the bird away. She was starting to lose the feeling in her feet, and her legs and backhurt from crouching and twisting for so long.   Three things happened then, all at the same time. A little fish, searching for his own dinner, jumped out of the rushing water. Sarah, startled by the sound of the jumping fish, slipped on a rock. The heron, afraid that Sarah had finally decided to attack her, spread its enormous wings and took off into the sky.  Sarah reached her left arm behind her, trying to stay out of the water. Both of her feet slipped on the slimy rocks, one sandal flew straight up into the air, and her whole body collapsed into the river. Except, of course, for her right hand, which held her phone straight up, keeping it safe and dry while the rest of her got soaked. The shock of the icy water stole the breath from her body.   After she had crawled out of the river and collapsed, shivering, on the shore for a few moments, Sarah checked her phone. On the screen was a six-second-long video. It was perfect. The heron, the setting sun, the rushing river and her smiling face were all in the frame. She pushed “play.” She watched her eyes go wide as she slipped. She listened to her tiny scream get lost in a loud splash as she fell into the river. She watched the heron avoid her flying sandal as it flew away. The bird didn’t seem scared, or rushed, or even annoyed. It just flew off into the pink sunset, searching for a safer spot to go fishing.  Sarah shared the video to her page. #naturelife #river #heron. Then she stood up and walked back to her parents’ house, soaking wet, freezing cold, one sandal lost forever, and smiling. —------------------ So, that’s Sarah. We’ve actually met her before, but she didn’t get a name in that story. I’m not gonna tell you which story it was, though. You’ll have to search around yourself. But don’t worry, I have a lot of stuff to say about Sarah and her family and friends. We’ll see her again.  And just a reminder, the next episode will come out in two weeks, because my studio and I are not living in the same part of Japan right now. Thanks for understanding. Now, let’s do some tiny lessons.  The Big Picture is…a selfie? Why is it so important for Sarah to get a picture with the Heron? If you’re not sure, pause now and go back and listen or read the transcript. It’s because Sarah is totally obsessed with social media. Probably Instagram. She literally thinks in hashtags! Do you think we can get into the Dictionary Disco with only one shoe on? The first vocabulary word is - Collapse - It’s just a fancy way to say “fall down.” You can use it for a building, like in an earthquake, or a person who is sick or hurt. Or who just fell in a river in March.  The second word this week is - shiver - that’s when your body shakes, but you have no control over it. Like when you’re extremely cold, or frightened, or, um, excited. There’s a pretty awesome Ed Sheerhan song about that last one that uses it as a noun. He’s got….the shivers.  And finally, let’s slow down for a melody moment.  I’d like to talk for a while about intonation. Intonation is actually not that important in English. I know. Don’t get angry. But, for example, in Japanese, intonation affects the meaning of a word. So HAshi in Japanese is chopsticks. But haSHI is a bridge. Intonation affects meaning. But in English, we use intonation for emotion. You I could say the same phrase with two different intonations and it would show that I have different feelings each time. So like “hashtag naturelife” is showing how much I love nature and sharing it on insta! But “hashtag naturelife” is showing that I hate social media and think it’s kind of stupid. Going up is usually more positive and going down is usually more negative. I’ll talk more about intonation soon. Let’s do the credits.  Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 8 of A Little English.  Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan. At least for now. If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.  This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.  Again, thank you  so much for listening. For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    17 min
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What if the stories in your English course could make you laugh? What if they could break your heart?What if you just had to know...what happens next?My name is Cooper, and I'm an English professor in Hiroshima, Japan. I love teaching, I love English literature, and I love podcasts. So, I decided to combine all three into this show! Each episode, I will read a short story in English. Some of them are famous, some not-so-famous. Some of them I even write myself. For example, I read stories by AA Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh), Ernest Hemingway, and Philip K Dick. I choose the stories carefully and read slowly, so they're easy to understand. After each story, there are three tiny lessons. Not too much, just A Little English. Visit https://www.alittleenglish.com to get a Podcast User's Manual with some idea about how to study using this podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    Edward Cooper Howland
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