L3 - Intermediate | Easy Stories in English: Recent Episodes
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Enough is enough. Something has to change. I’m sorry everyone, but I can’t do episodes every fortnight anymore.
The post I Can’t Keep Doing This first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Download as a PDF Watch on YouTube Attributions Even just learning about those experiences, seeing the history, talking to people who had been alive affected me so deeply, like it made me so, so sad that I don’t even want to really talk about the things that I learned. [intro] Welcome to Easy Stories in […]
The post Cambodia is Hard to Talk About first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Comedy is hard enough, but doing it in Chinese? Oh, Ariel, you do love a challenge! Hear all about my performance adventures and upcoming travel in this laughs-packed episode.
The post Doing Stand-Up Comedy in Chinese first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Have you ever eaten bone marrow? You know, the fat inside of animal bones? Have you ever wondered whether ancient humans sucked out the marrow like a tube of yoghurt? Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I've been doing recently. Have a listen.
The post It’s My Podcast and I’ll Ramble If I Want To first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Download as a PDF Watch on YouTube Attributions Hello, my lovely learners and welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good and from Good to Great! I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s episode is a conversation about Hangzhou and the joy of […]
The post Hangzhou and the Joy of Cycling first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Listen to me articulate every word as I discuss unusual beverages, insane apps, Pilates in Chinese, and how I'm feeding you all worms.
The post How Slow Can I Go? first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Spicy bullfrog, fights with policemen and getting locked out... my first two weeks in China have certainly been eventful!
The post Hello from China! first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
In the last week before moving to China, I recount awkward goodbyes, the British tradition of caterpillar-shaped cakes, my sneaky strategy to avoid jet lag, and my super secret language study hacks. Keep listening to learn English!
The post I Ate Colin’s Face first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
So I recently went to my cousin’s wedding in Edinburgh, which turned out to be much colder than expected, ESPECIALLY since I was camping! Fortunately, the beauty of the Quaker wedding ceremony more than made up for it.
I couldn't stick around for long, though, as I had to whiz back to London on the train to take the highest level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Sounds boring, but in fact it allowed me to process old failures, reconnect with academia, and set me up on a good mental path for my move to China. Learn all this more in this episode of Easy Stories in English!
The post Freezing to Death in Scotland first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Yes, that's right, I was kicked out of a public building... Not only that, I went to a wild party in Cambridge, and I'm setting the house on fire with incense. Sort of.
The post I Got Kicked Out! first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Tobias arrives at St Gummarus' School for Nasty Children. At first, he thinks his parents might have made a mistake, because all the kids here are badly behaved and nasty. But he soon realises that deep down, they are good, and they're threatening his mission to do evil. So Tobias decides to use goodness as a weapon...
The post Doing Evil Part 2 first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
When Tobias's parents ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says, 'Evil.' There's just one problem: his parents are devoted Christians! As Tobias does more and more bad things, his parents try to find ways to make him good, until finally there is only one option left...
The post Doing Evil Part 1 first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
A man who has lived in Antarctica all his life visits the UK for the first time. Technically, he is a British citizen, as he grew up on British Antarctic Territory. And he has an important message for the king! It's just that, the king has no idea who this man is...
The post A Visitor from Chilly Bottom first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
A blind boy lives in Greenland with his parents and his aunt. The aunt is always complaining, so the boy's mother sends her away, but one night, there is a storm and the boy hears his aunt being struck by lightning. The aunt goes mad, and only the blind boy can save her, but he'll have to travel far from home to do so...
The post How the Narwhal Got Its Tusk first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Download this episode as a PDF. Transcript Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great. I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for intermediate learners. The name of the story is The Water Monster. You can […]
The post The Water Monster first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Red loves playing tricks on the adults in her village, so one day her mother sends her to bring bread and milk to her grandmother. On the way, Red meets a strange man, Wolf, who suggests they play a game: he'll walk the path of pins, she'll walk the path of needles, and they'll see who gets to Grandmother's house first. But when Red arrives, she finds something very different to what she expected.
The post The Path of Pins and Needles first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
An elephant is travelling to meet his family, bringing delicious honey as a gift. He stops to give a hare a ride over the river, but the hare smells the honey and can't resist just having a taste...
The post The Elephant and the Hare (Intermediate) first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Two people live in buildings next to each other: a clean man and a messy woman. Each day, they look through the window into the other's flat and imagine what their life is like. But in the end, only one person knows the truth...
The post Four Windows first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Recently, I worked with Alastair Budge on Pioneers of the Continuum, an eight-part audio drama featuring your favourite ESL podcasters as narrators. Today, we talk about Pioneers of the Continuum and Alastair's other work. Alastair also hosts the English Learning for Curious Minds podcast, where you can learn about history and inspiring stories in accessible English.
The post Interview with Alastair about Pioneers of the Continuum first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Heorhiy lives happily as a peasant, but one day a rich man comes to his house and tells him he has a family debt. Heorhiy works three years to pay it off, but the rich man doesn't want to let him go, so he thinks of a way to trick him...
The post The Rabbit Man first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
You have nowhere else to go. Beth left. Kai attacked. Faruq crashed. You hid. So one day, you go to that place you've heard about, where you can buy a certain drug. It's a crazy idea, but maybe you'll feel less lonely. Your cat is your only friend left, after all.
The post The Hunt first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Every day, the lord of the castle goes hunting and Gawain stays in bed, bantering with the beautiful lady. Each night, Gawain and the lord exchange their 'gains' for the day. But Gawain cannot stop worrying about meeting the Green Knight, and when the lady offers him help, he can't resist...
The post Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Parts 3 & 4 first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table lIve peacefully at Camelot. But on New Year's eve, a terrible knight rides into the castle, made entirely of green. He gives them a challenge: a man must come and attack him with his axe, and if the Green Knight survives, he will attack the man in a year and a day. Arthur's nephew, Gawain, accepts the challenge, but things are not as they seem...
The post Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Parts 1 & 2 first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Angeline and Annabelle are a classic sister act. Annabelle writes the songs and they sing together, but Angeline gets all the compliments. When a music producer offers a deal to Annabelle, she realises she can't let the opportunity go. But what starts as a harmonious collaboration soon turns into a discordant nightmare...
The post Sisters, Sisters first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
In this episode, I present the story I won second prize with in the 2022 Summer Reflex Fiction flash fiction competition, and I also talk about my recent ADHD diagnosis.
The post I Bet I Could Taste It first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
Harold has terrible luck. Bus shelters collapse on him, he makes his dates vomit, and no matter how many good-luck charms he wears, his luck won't change. So he decides that this New Year's Eve, he's going to follow every tradition and superstition in the world, to see if he can change his luck around.
The post A Lucky New Year first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
It was the place he and Bulan had first kissed.
Hale fell to his knees and threw up all his beer onto the dirt. The edges of his armour plates cut into him, and he felt like a skeleton dancing inside it, like a sorcerer had used magic on him or something. He threw up twice, then three times, and finally stopped. A bit of sick slid down his chin and neck, leaving a stain on his shirt.
The post The Flesh and Blood We Share first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
But as the weeks passed, she thought more and more about the fat, and her thoughts began to turn selfish. She fantasised about going and eating the fat. It would taste so good!
So the cat came up with a plan. She came to the mouse and said, ‘Dear mouse, I have to ask you a favour. You see, my cousin has given birth to a beautiful little kitten with white and brown fur. He really is very special, and my cousin has asked me to come to the christening and be his godmother. As I’m sure you can understand, this is an honour. Would it be alright if I left you to look after the house alone, just this one day?’
The post Strange Friends (Intermediate) first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
‘My dear king,’ said the first brother. ‘We have travelled through the whole country, and we have heard all sorts of stories about your fantastic outfits.’
‘You have?’ said the King, satisfied that his efforts were being seen. ‘How wonderful.’
‘We have a proposal,’ said the second brother. ‘We wish to weave you a beautiful outfit, so that your fame might spread not only to our kingdom, but to the whole world.’
The post The King’s New Clothes first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
In the morning, he noticed there was less light in his room than usual, and when he went to the window, he saw why. Overnight, a beanstalk had grown, and it was huge! It rose above him like a tower, thick as an oak, and reached far away into the sky where he couldn’t see.
Jack and his parents were thrilled about the magic beanstalk.
The post Jack and the Beanstalk first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
I flew several feet into the air, still unable to scream, and I landed precisely on my right leg.
CRACK
Pain exploded through me, and now the screaming came. It felt like my leg had been torn apart, and when I looked down, I saw the white flash of bone. I immediately rolled over and threw up, which was worse, because it put more pressure on my leg.
The post A Holiday Gone Wrong first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
‘Why do I need to read in English?’
My students often ask me this. They think, ‘I go to classes, I do my homework, I watch films in English. Why should I read books?’
Actually, reading is the best way to improve your English. I will tell you why.
The post Why You Must Read (Introduction to my new book) first appeared on Easy Stories in English.
As he walked through the shadows of the trees, he saw an orange glow in the distance, shining like a star. It was a fire, and at once he headed towards it, as his feet were cold and his belly was empty.
‘But wait!’ thought Butcher Boy George. ‘What if that fire was built by evil thieves, who wish to beat me and rob me in the night? I cannot fall for such a trap!’
Of course, Butcher Boy George could have easily beaten any thief with just his pinky finger, but he had never been outside his village before, so he thought the thieves in this part of the land might be as strong as mountains.
The post Butcher Boy George first appeared on Easy Stories in English.