TALC Chats Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Would you mind if I asked you a personal question, Latonya? No, I wouldn’t mind if you asked me a personal question but remember I don’t have to answer it.  That’s a perfect answer, Latonya!  You wouldn’t mind if I asked you a personal question, but you may choose not to answer it. Your question and my answer are examples of using the expression “ would you mind ” when we are aski...

Send us Fan Mail Latonya and Diana talk with Violetta, a new tutor with the Tacoma Area Literacy Council (TALC), the organization that sponsors this podcast. Violetta is a new tutor  from Ukraine who began learning English 3 years ago when she arrived in the U.S. Violetta shares how she went from having nearly zero knowledge of English a few years ago to having the skills to tutor others who are l...

Send us Fan Mail Do you ever think about what you can do to keep your brain healthy ? I listened to an interesting radio program last week about how to keep our brains healthy and I’d like to share what they said with our listeners. What was the name of the program? It is one of my favorite programs. It’s called “On Point”. The host of the program is Meghna Chakrabarti. Last week Meghna interviewe...

Send us Fan Mail Hey! How are ya, Latonya? Pretty good! And you? I’m okeydokey! That’s one way that we exchange greetings in English.  How many ways do you think people say “hello” in English? According to Berlitz – a language learning organization: 107 ! Today let’s talk about some of the common and some of the interesting ways we greet each other in English and how we can respond to those greeti...

Send us Fan Mail How many books did you read last year? How much time do you spend reading every day? When do we use “ how much ” and when do we use “ how many ?? If we’re asking about something that we can count , we use “how many”. How many eggs are in your fridge? How many sisters do you have? Eggs, sisters  -  nouns that we can count. They are countable nouns. We use “how many” to ask question...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever seen those drive though coffee kiosks called “Bigfoot Java”? Yeah, they have a big brown footprint on their signs. First, what’s java ? Right! Java is a word we use for coffee. Why java ? Because it is a part of Indonesia where coffee is grown. We should devote an entire podcast to coffee. We should! But today let’s talk about Bigfoot . Great idea! What is Bigfoot? B...

Send us Fan Mail L: How long have you known me? D: I have known you for four years. L: When did you meet me? D: I met you in 2022. L: You met me 4 years ago. D: That’s right.  I have known you since 2022.  We used for, since and ago in our conversation. We use each of these prepositions to talk about time, but they are used in different ways . Each preposition looks at time from a different perspe...

Send us Fan Mail Do you know any songs by heart ? Interesting question. Let’s make sure our listeners know what “ by heart ” means. “ By heart ” means that a person can recite, say, sing or play something on a musical instrument from their memory . They don’t have to read the words or music. So, back to my question: Do you know any songs by heart ? To sing a song or recite a poem by heart is just...

Send us Fan Mail  Have you noticed all the red heart s in the stores? Absolutely! Soon it will be February 14th -  St. Valentine’s Day!    Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day? That’s a long story! It started as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine hundreds of years ago – in the 3rd century.  What is a martyr? A martyr is a person who is persecuted or killed because of their beli...

Send us Fan Mail How are you this morning? I’m happy. How is the weather today? It’s warm.  I want to know how happy you are and how warm it is. OK! I can use qualifiers and intensifiers to tell you how happy I am or how warm it is. We use them to express more precisely or exactly what we want to say. Qualifiers are words we use to limit or restrict the meaning of describing words (adverbs or adje...

Send us Fan Mail I have to say one thing this morning. What’s that? Aaaaah ! Autumn!  Yes, it’s officially autumn, isn’t it?  The first day of autumn began on the 22nd of September. It was also the fall equinox in the northern hemisphere. On that day the number of hours of daylight and darkness are nearly the same - about 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. Every day until December 21, we...

Send us Fan Mail Yesterday that young man was yelling !”  - practice with the  beginning “y”  sound D: Did you hear about that young man in Yelm, Latonya?  L: Yes, yesterday that young man was in his yard yelling something. D: What was he yelling? L: He was yelling that he couldn’t sleep because his neighbor’s dog yapped (yap! yap! yap!) every night of the year. D: Every night of the year?? That’s...

Send us Fan Mail I have a riddle for you.  Shoot!  " Shoot” is an expression we use when we want someone to tell us something! So, “shoot”! Tell me!        ! OK! Here’s the riddle; I’m red or green, a tasty delight, a fruit to munch, morning, noon or night.” What am I? ( Munch is one of those wonderful words that sounds what it means - to eat something - often loudly. if I have " the mun...

Send us Fan Mail D: How are you? L:  Well, I haven’t felt well the past few days, but today I feel better. I think I’m on the mend . D: I’m glad to hear that. I heard you use an interesting idiom : “on the mend”. L: You “have an ear” for idioms! “on the mend” is an idiom that we English speakers use often. An idiom is a group of words- that together have a meaning that you can’t translate word by...

Send us Fan Mail May 18th of this year was the 45th anniversary of a big event in southwestern Washington state.  This huge geological event happened on May 18th 1980. It reshaped a mountain and the area surrounding that mountain.  We are talking about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.  We mentioned Mt. St. Helens in podcast # 38 - “Mt Rainier and the Cascade Mountain Range”. Mt. St. Helens, like Mt...

Send us Fan Mail L: Do you know me? D: Yes, of course I know you ,Latonya.  L: When did we meet ? D: We met about 3 years ago.  L: That’s right. 5 years ago, I didn’t know you, and you didn’t know me. We didn’t know each other .  D: Do you know my son? L: No, I’ve never met your son. I don’t know him. We’ve been using meet and know – two words that can be challenging for English learners. Let’s fo...

Send us Fan Mail D : Can I borrow $10 from you? L: Sure, I can lend you $10. D:   Thanks million! I’ll pay you back next week. “Borrow” and “lend” are two verbs that English learners often find challenging.  Let’s practice those verbs today. Shall we start with “borrow”? In our short conversation at the beginning of this podcast Diana asked Latonya if she could borrow $10 from her.   When I ask if...

Send us Fan Mail Gosh! It’s sure a beautiful morning! It is! You just said “Gosh!”   We have learned that sentences have subjects , verbs and objects .  What part of a sentence is “ Gosh” ?   “Gosh”  is an  interjection . An Interjection ? What’s an interjection? An interjection is a word that expresses an emotion.   It isn’t grammatically part of the sentence. Right! In fact, you can just use an...

Send us Fan Mail You look like you don’t feel well this morning. What’s the matter ? Oh, thanks for asking. I didn’t sleep very well, and I have a headache. You were concerned about me because I looked like I didn’t feel well.  You wanted to know if I had a problem, and you asked me “ What’s the matter?” That is one expression we can use when we notice that another person seems to have a problem o...

Send us Fan Mail L: Did you use to walk to school when you were a kid? D: Yes, I used to walk to school when I was a kid, Latonya. Did you?  L: No, I didn’t use to walk to school. I took the school bus.  Those are interesting verbal expressions “ use to ” and “ used to ”. When do we use them?  The verb “ to use” (the infinitive form) and “ use ” (the base form) means to put something into action t...

Send us Fan Mail How are you this morning? I’m fine, thanks! I just finished breakfast! You said you just finished breakfast. What does that mean? It means that I very recently finished breakfast - not hours ago, but in the very recent past. Notice that I used just with the simple past form of the verb finished. You could also say “I have just finished breakfast.” (present perfect tense) Yes! Both...

Send us Fan Mail I wonder if it will rain tomorrow. We want to go for a hike. Right! And I wonder if it will bed dry enough to walk on the trails. We use “ wonder if ” in those sentences... what do we mean to say? We are curious about what the weather will be tomorrow. Curious? When you want to know about something, you are curious. I see a new car in front of my neighbor John’s house. I am curiou...

Send us Fan Mail A correction! In our conversation Diana said that words that sound the same, but are spelled differently are homonyms. That isn't correct. Those words are homophones . Remember that in podcast # 48 we practiced using the possessive adjectives his and her ? Right! We use possessive adjectives to describe something that belongs to a person or people . Remind us please, what is...

Send us Fan Mail  I need to feed my dog, Rosie.   What does she want to eat?  She wants to eat tuna fish. Does she like tuna fish ? Yes! She loves tuna fish , but she doesn’t need to eat tuna fish for breakfast. That little conversation we just had about Rosie’s breakfast is a good example using “need” “want” and “like” and “love” in English.  What do you mean? Well, I said "I need to feed Ro...

Send us Fan Mail A correction: Diana said, "The boiling point on the Fahrenheit scale is 112 degrees."  The boiling point on the Fahrenheit scale is 212 degrees. What’s the weather like this morning? It’s cold, frosty and sunny this morning! Yes!! BRRRR! It is cold! Was it cold last night? Yes, it was below freezing. What do you mean :”below freezing”?The temperature at which water freez...