About
EnglishConversations.org started as a collaboration between Mark White and Aaron Campbell as the internet and the digital revolution suddenly made audio and video technology freely and easily available. We set out to provide a source of free language learning materials on the internet because we believe that education is the key to making this world a better place.
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| Aaron and Mark in the Higashi Chaya district of Kanazawa – Jan ‘05 |
As the site has taken up more of our time we have gradually begun to see it as a full-time job. In addition to all of the free language learning resources we make available on the site – all under a Creative Commons share-alike license – we are now beginning to offer more premium content for sale.
We believe strongly that education is the key to a healthy, thriving society. In the long term, a society that provides free knowledge will be able to solve all its problems. A society that limits the free flow of knowledge, however, places internal divisions on itself and thus hampers human growth.
Human knowledge is stored and transmitted in human language. This means that language is a key to understanding, and in order to act wisely we need to understand our situation and our neighbors first. Understanding is the key and because of this, language learning, in many ways, must be the basis of an educational system.
That goes for every language. We should all try to master other languages, not just English, in order to expand our outlook. Language is not just a means of communication. It is also the framework upon which we build our ideas; the operating system we use when we think.
Why has English become the world language? It is not because of any innate superiority of English culture. It is the result of an historical accident. Both the British Empire and the English language economic empire which America developed in the vacuum after World War Two have greatly contributed to the spread of the language. In some parts of the world, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili or Mandarin are more effective as the regional lingua franca. English however is the second language that is most widely spoken on earth
We recorded most of our early podcasts with Audacity using the built-in microphone on Macintosh laptops. Since early 2007, however, we have been using Edirol R-09s by Roland, which give us much better quality field recordings. For most of our premium content, we have been using an AKG 414 B-XLS mic with a Presonus Eureka Preamp to record, along with ProTools to edit and master. All of our participants are fully aware that we will use the recordings on this site and we have their permission to do so.
Most of the photos we use on the site come from Flickr users and, like the content on this site, are published under creative commons licenses. We are using the audio player kindly developed and provided by 1 Pixel Out. We warmly welcome any feedback and/or suggestions to the work we have been doing here.
The header is a collage of creative commons photos from Flickr. They are (from left to right):
Yuki – http://www.flickr.com/photos/semansco/69424291/
Diwali Sadhu #1 – http://www.flickr.com/photos/meanestindian/160791405/
Natural Beauty – http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigblonde/361192173/
Big B Fan – http://www.flickr.com/photos/meanestindian/333519903/
Untitled (Connie) – http://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/168875315/
Malawi n001 – http://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/5398817/
My New Employee – http://www.flickr.com/photos/frischmilch/99659191/
sally – http://www.flickr.com/photos/72146625@N00/621415883/
California Girl – http://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/210262232/
Aiden – http://www.flickr.com/photos/lidarose/227514578/
Mason I – http://www.flickr.com/photos/elroy/130966340/
Kashmir – http://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/1302175379/
To learn more, visit How to Use This Site. If you still have questions, please contact us.
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Hey Aisha
It is great to hear from someone who loves learning any language. I really like the idea of making the site more user-friendly as a forum and as an interactive feedback venue.
Aaron is much more tech savvy than me but I know the problem is related to finding the right kind of software to do what we want to do.
Specific language for professions is needed, right?
Business Writing (correspondence) Skills are needed, right?
We will get to work on that.
Many thanks mate
cheers
Mark
ps : keep us posted on how it works so we can keep working to improve it
Hi!, I’m trying to take a job in an multinational company. To do that I need to speak English very well, so, I search in google about ” english conversations” and find you.
This site is great,
Thanks for it !!!!
Hi Fernando…glad to see that you enjoy the site. Let us know if you have any suggestions.
We’re coming out with a dialog soon for business English. Stick around.
Cheers,
Aaron
Hi aaron and mark,
hello… its been a long time! i have a question on how to use who and whom in a sentence particularly in adjectival phrase and adjectival clause.
let’s say:
The runner who came in first won the trophy.
I can use who in this sentence because the noun is the object of the verb.
The woman who I wanted to see run away quickly.
In this sentence, its the same as the first sentence but I can possibly use whom in this sentence.
The woman whom I wanted to see run away quickly.
My question is, how can I determine when to use whom or who in a sentence? In the first sentence, I can only use who, but in the second sentence, I can use both, whom and who or that… and the rule is the same in that two sentences…
please help… i’m really confused!
Thank you…
Hi Lynie….long time no see!
Who vs. Whom is a confusing question, even for native speakers. Grammatically speaking, ‘who’ is the subject of the verb, while ‘whom’ is an object pronoun. Another easy way to remember it is to try to rephrase the sentence or question using ’she’ or ‘her’. If you need to use ’she’, then ‘who’ should be used, while if you need to use ‘her’ then ‘whom’ should be used. For example:
“The runner, who came in first, won the trophy.”
She won the trophy. So, ‘who’ is correct.
“The woman, who I wanted to see, ran away quickly.”
“The woman, whom I wanted to see, ran away quickly.”
‘She ran away quickly’, not ‘her ran away quickly’. So, ‘who’ is again correct.
“With whom will you run away?”
I will run away with her. So, ‘whom’ is correct.
“I will run away with whomever I choose.”
I will run away with her. So, ‘whomever’ is correct.
Do you understand? That’s the best I can do to explain it right now.
In the end, just remember that even native speakers don’t always get it right, so whichever way you say it, people will understand you. Good communication is really what matters!
Hi Mark,
Hope you are doing great !
I happened to visit BBC English Learning website for english learners. The most useful feature of the website is that every lesson has its a relevant quiz on the same page. User can read, learn, listen and even test himself without moving to another page. Its quite helpful to not let break the consistency till end. Its really time saving. have a look at it
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml
Your work is of great worth to me and as a regular visitor of your web site I would suggest you to put small true false quizes. They will definitely make your work more useful.
I offer you my help in creating these quizes
, although my english is not very good but I would love to make a little partcipation in your tremendous effort for English lovers !
Have you found your required software? Or still working on it?
God Bless You!
Aisha
I just wanted to say thank you for the responsible use of my photo on your web page :
http://englishconversations.org/
I appreciate the attribution.
Write Pics
Interested In Paid Text Link Advertisement!
Hello,
I am a webmaster by profession just like you. I came across your site “http://englishconversations.org/” while looking for some material for my site. I must say, you have done exemplary work on your site. I would like to make you a business offer.
I am principally interested in buying a number of text-links on your site.
Let me know if you would like to hear more of this.
Warm regards
Hi Mark,
I am working on a package for the Indian English learners.
I would like to use some of the recordings of yours. Can I download and incorporate the samples of English across the world in my package?
I should appreciate the GREAT work you are doing.
Thanks and regards,
Ramani
Hi Dr. Ramani….
All content on this site is available under this copyright license. You are free to use any of the recordings according to the terms outlined in the license. Should you need further permissions, you’ll have to hear from Mark directly.
Glad to see that you enjoy Mark’s work!
my girl crazy, man!
great wedsite in the world!! having find more here!!!
Hi apc33,
thanks for the explanation… i understand it… your explanation is so clear… i guess i wont be confuse again…
i want to ask question again… its how to properly say “the” and “a”
of course i know that they are articles…. indefinite and definite… i also know how to use them….
my problem is how to pronounce them….
example:
She is a tall girl. (the article ‘a’ should be pronounced /a/ or /ey/?)
I have to give the pen to my daddy. (’the’ is pronounced /dha/ or /dhe/?)
I’m confused…. please help me…
I hope my question is clear also, its better if im in front of you speaking ‘the’ and ‘a’
anyway, thank you very much….
you really helped a lot…
God Bless….
Hi Lynie….
Good to hear from you again. To answer your question: both pronunciations of ‘the’ and ‘a’ are perfectly fine; you can use either without any problem. Typically, ‘ey’ and ‘dhe’ are only spoken when the speaker is talking slowly, but you will still hear all four different pronunciations regardless of the conversation pace.
I hope that answers your question.
Aaron
hi Aaron,
thanks for answering all my questions… thank you very much. I was just confused on how to pronounce them…
now i understand….
Thank you and more power to your site… This site is really helpful to me…
always,
Lynie
hi
fyavng99i8×0ltc5
good luck
I want to improve my converstation
Hi all. i was just like to confirm to the management of this site that they really did a good job. and this material which they providing for free is really high quality material. i just felt that the management may need to listen my comment as a guest. and also i felt whlile i’m checking the site that i have to say thank you.
Good luck
Taher
Hi. I just recently found your webpage, and noticed that it was licensed under creative commons. I’d like to put links to your material from the website I listed so that persons learning English at this site can benefit from this great project of yours. Do you I have your permission to use your picture when I submit your information as providers of the material? Thanks in advance for your response.
How silly of me! I just realized that the picture is at flickr, creative commons licensed, too, right?
OK. Or maybe not? Just to be sure, I’ll wait for your response.
Hi Lyn….feel free to link as much as you want to the recordings! They are all published under creative commons licenses. All we ask is for attribution when linking to or sharing the files. As long as you are not outright selling them…….
The photos should all be under CC licenses as well, but you may want to verify that before using them. Sometimes people change their license or we make a mistake!
All the best….
Aaron
Thanks, Aaron, but for the picture, I was talking about the one with you and Mark in particular because I want to put it next to where I credit you as the provider of the recordings.
Hi Lyn……that one is fine, too. All the content on the site is CC licensed. Thanks so much! Good luck with your project!
Thanks. I really appreciate it.
Teacher…..
I don’t useing your webcite.
I’m kyungil university student.
i want finish subject.
help me………………………….
hi everyone
can everyone tell to me what’s the topic right now ? I don’t know what should talk about it