Thinking in English

When I think of the USA, I picture New York's skyscrapers, Hollywood movies, and Silicon Valley technology companies. I think of the world’s largest economy, and the most powerful country, with a population of more the 340 million people. But what was the USA like when it was first founded? This year, the US is celebrating the 250th anniversary since it declared independence from the British Empir...

What is confidence? What does a confident English speaker look like? And how can you become a confident speaker? This episode is going to try and answer some of these important questions. You might assume that someone with perfect grammar, a huge vocabulary, and a native-like accent will be a confident speaker. But that is not necessarily the case. Over the years, I've met English learners with ex...

The World Cup is currently underway in North America, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about football, or soccer depending on where you are from. And specifically, we are going to explore the history of the world’s most popular sport. Most people probably think football has always looked more or less the same. Two teams with eleven players. Referees and clear rules. Ninety-minut...

Today, we’re going to talk about Warsaw. Warsaw is the capital of Poland and one of Europe’s most resilient cities. If you visit Warsaw today, you’ll find a modern and quickly developing European capital. There are skyscrapers, busy shopping streets, trendy cafés, and a growing economy. But history of city is dramatic and tragic. In this episode, I am going to explore the fascinating history of Wa...

The United Arab Emirates has announced that it is leaving OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) after almost sixty years as a member. Why does this matter? Well, oil is still one of the most important resources in the world. The price of oil affects how much we pay for petrol, the cost of transporting food, airline tickets, electricity, and much more. When oil prices rise, t...

Thousands of years ago, Ancient Greek travellers created a list of the most extraordinary sights they encountered: the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. These included places like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Colossus of Rhodes. Today though, only one still survives: the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. So, in the early 2000s, a huge international campaign...

Humans have been speaking languages for tens of thousands of years. We told stories around fires, passed down myths from parents to children, and memorised important information about survival and history. But for a very long time, nobody could write anything down. Then, at some point, humans invented writing. Writing allowed people to record laws, preserve stories, collect knowledge, and communic...

If you work hard, can you build yourself a better life? For a long time, millions of people believed the answer in the USA was yes. The “American Dream” is the idea that anyone, no matter where they start in life, can achieve success through hard work and determination. You could own a home, have a stable job, raise a family, and earn more than your parents. But today, many people in the US are qu...

You are invited to a party. The invitation says the party starts at 20:00. What time will you arrive? Your answer to this question has a lot to do with your culture. Some of you will have said 20:00 exactly, because that is when the part stats. Others will have said 19:45, because it is polite to be early. Others will have said 20:30… or 21:00… or later because it is awkward to arrive too early. Y...

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest minds in history. He painted some of the most famous works of art ever: the Mona Lisa, Last Supper, and more. He was also a scientist, an engineer, an anatomist, and an inventor. He is often described as the perfect example of a “Renaissance man.” A Renaissance man is someone who is skilled in many different areas, especially during the time of the Renaiss...

Four years ago, I made an episode titled “Should we boycott the Qatar World Cup?” As you might remember, the tournament in Qatar was surrounded by criticism. There were concerns about human rights, especially the treatment of migrant workers who helped build the stadiums. There were some calls for fans, players, or countries to refuse to take part. But despite all of that, the World Cup still went...

In the 1870s, about ten percent of Africa had been colonised by European countries. But over the next few decades, over ninety percent of the continent was taken, occupied, divided, and partitioned by governments far away in places like London, Berlin, and Paris. We call this period in history the “Scramble for Africa.” In a remarkably short period of time, countries like Britain, France, Germany,...

“I’m just not good at learning languages.” I’m sure many of you listening right now have thought this before. And I’m sure you’ve thought the opposite about people you have met in the past: “Wow, she’s so talented at English” or “He has a gift for languages.” These kinds of comments are incredibly common. Many people believe that success in language learning depends mostly on talent. Some people a...

In 1994, the small African country of Rwanda experienced one of the worst genocides in modern history. Over a one-hundred-day period, an estimated 800,000 people were murdered. The genocide shocked the world and left Rwanda devastated. But if you visit Rwanda today, you would probably be surprised at that history. The country is often described as one of Africa’s greatest success stories. Its capi...

Imagine living in a place so remote that the nearest inhabited land is over two thousand kilometres away. No neighbours. No easy escape. Just ocean in every direction. And across the island are hundreds of giant stone heads, carved by hand. This place exists… and people have lived there for centuries. This episode will look at Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it is known locally. Easter Island is in...

What does poverty really mean? When we hear the word poverty, I think many of us imagine extreme situations, like homelessness, starvation, or people living in very poor conditions. But poverty is far more complex, and far more widespread, than we often realise. According to the United Nations, more than 700 million people (around 10 percent of the world’s population) still live in extreme poverty...

Do you know how to ask great questions? A few years ago, back in 2022, I released an episode called How to Ask Better Questions in English. And today’s episode is an update to that original one. The core idea is the same, because it’s still important, but a lot has changed since then. I’ve changed as a podcaster and an educator, and I think English learners’ needs have changed too. In fact, the wa...

Is it becoming harder to move to a new country? Everywhere seems to be tightening the rules. Canada, the US, Australia, Europe, Japan, the UK. Countries that once focused on attracting people are now focused on control, limits, and conditions. And these changes are happening fast. If you’re thinking about moving to the UK, already living in the UK, or interested in how the world and immigration is...

Berlin is one of the most iconic cities in the world. Few cities have been destroyed so completely, divided so deeply, and then rebuilt so many times. Understanding Berlin’s past helps us understand the development of Germany and Europe. The rise of empires, the impact of nationalism, the horrors of totalitarianism, and the tension of the Cold War are all part of this city’s history. Berlin’s stor...

Every time you type a message, unlock your phone, or trust a computer to make a decision, you’re relying on the ideas of someone you may never have heard of and probably never learned about at school. That person is Alan Turing. He was a British mathematician, logician, and wartime codebreaker, and one of the most important figures in modern science and technology. Turing helped lay the foundation...

Grammar Study Pack - https://www.patreon.com/posts/prepositions-of-148657101?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Last year, I was walking on the street back home in the UK, and I started noticing just how many security cameras there were around me. There were cameras on lampposts, cameras in shops, and cameras at train stations, quietl...

Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now. We use it to write emails, generate images, recommend videos, and even help study English. Some people believe AI will completely change the world, just like the internet did. Others are more sceptical and worry that the excitement has gone too far. Every day on the news, we hear about new AI startups worth billions of dollars, governments investing...

Today we’re going to explore a topic that I notice again and again whenever I work with bilingual people, speak with people who are studying a second language, and actually notice inside my own family: code switching. You’ve probably done it yourself. You start a sentence in English, suddenly use a word from your native language, then switch back again. This is a form of code switching and is extr...

Grammar Study Pack - https://www.patreon.com/posts/prepositions-of-148657101?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link People often say history repeats itself… but does it really? When we look back at the past, certain events feel strangely familiar. Pandemics that spread across the world. Wars that change everything. Economic crashes that s...

In the 19th century, a quiet, curious naturalist named Charles Darwin proposed a theory that went on the shake science, religion, and philosophy. Darwin introduced a new way of thinking about life itself. His theory of evolution by natural selection revealed that every species (humans included) changes over time, adapts to its environment, and shares common ancestors. In today’s episode of Thinkin...