Learning English Podcast - January 22, 2025
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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English. Coming up on the show...

Alice Bryant and John Russell bring us Everyday Grammar. We close the program with the lesson of the day. But first, Andrew Smith has this report.

Nepal's Supreme Court has struck down disputed laws that permit water power centers, visitor housing such as hotels, and other business development in protected natural areas. Environmental defenders say the January 15th ruling is a victory for efforts to protect the country's natural areas.

Nepal has recognized one-fifth of its territory as protected natural areas. The country has 12 national parks and 6 conservation areas. They include lowland areas such as Chitwan National Park. The park is home to many wild animals such as tigers and rhinos.

other protected areas include sagarmatha national park home to mount everest water power or hydropower and tourism represent major economic sources for nepal

Last year, its government passed laws to permit development of large projects in some parts of national parks, forests, and other protected areas. Padam Bahadur Shrestha is a Nepalese environmental activist who took legal action against the laws.

He told Agence France-Presse that the law's passage showed that the government lacked insight and was only seeking to please business investors. Shrestha praised the Supreme Court's ruling, saying it preserves ecology and biodiversity.

Nepal is recognized worldwide for its actions to protect its wild animal and plant life. Nepal's environmental protection laws have helped the local tiger population increase from 121 animals in 2010 to 355 in 2023.

And while only about 100 one-horned rhinos were living in Nepal in the 1960s, their number increased to 752 in 2021. Nepal also increased its tree cover by almost 100% between 1992 and 2016.

Wood industry activities, or logging, had deforested many areas of the country for tens of years earlier. Rampreet Yadav is a former conservation officer of Chitwan National Park, Nepal's largest protected area. He said the recent laws should never have been passed.

if development projects are allowed in protected areas they will destroy our nature and animal habitats he added the nepalese government wants to develop its hydropower industry especially along rivers in the himalayan mountains

Last October, it signed agreements with India and Bangladesh to export thousands of megawatts of hydropower. Nepal also earns much money from tourism. Last year, around one million foreign visitors came to Nepal, and the government has been spending money on the development of its airports.

I'm Andrew Smith. Businessman Elon Musk said a third person has had a special electronic device directly connected to their brain. The unidentified person received an implant from Musk's company Neuralink, which makes devices that link the human brain to computers.

Neuralink is one of many groups working to connect the human nervous system to machines. On the social media service X, which he owns, Musk said, We've got three humans with Neuralink and all are working well. Neuralink announced its first brain implant one year ago. Recently, Musk said, the company has improved its devices.

Musk also said Neuralink hopes to implant the experimental devices in 20 to 30 more people this year. The second patient reportedly has a spinal cord injury and got the implant last summer. The person was playing video games with the help of the device and learning how to use design software. The first patient, also paralyzed after a spinal cord injury,

said it helped him play video games and chess. Many other companies and research groups are working on similar projects. Two studies published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine describe how brain-computer interfaces, known as BCIs, helped people with haemiotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, communicate better.

ALS is a nervous system disease that affects cells in the brain and spinal cord. Nature magazine reported last September that there were published results from 28 trials worldwide of BCIs over the past 25 years. Rajesh Rao is co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington.

Rao said that many research laboratories have already shown that humans can control computer cursors using BCIs. Rao said Neuralink might be different from the others in two ways. First, the surgery to implant the device is the first to use a robot to implant flexible electrical connectors into a human brain to record brain signals and to control devices.

Second, those connectors might record from more parts of the brain than interfaces from other research efforts. Rao said other companies such as Synchron, BlackRock Neurotech, and Onward Medical are carrying out BCI tests on people using methods that are different from Neuralink. Marco Baptista is chief scientific officer of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

He called BCI technology very exciting, with possible benefits to people with paralysis. Through clinical tests, we'll be able to see what's going to be the winning approach, he said. It's a little early to know. A clinical trial follows established rules on how to design an experiment involving human subjects. Neuralink announced in 2023 that it had received permission from U.S. officials

to begin testing its device in people the food and drug administration or fda is responsible for approving the sale of medical devices dr rita redberg studies high-risk devices at the university of california san francisco redberg said that most medical devices go on the market without clinical trials

However, high-risk devices that are seeking approval from the FDA before they go on the market need what is called an investigational device exemption. Neuralink says it has this exemption. I'm Jill Robbins.

Sherlock Holmes is an imaginary private detective created by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1880s. Doyle's stories about the detective have been turned into movies and television shows. One of Sherlock Holmes' great skills is a powerful memory.

In a recent BBC television series, the character uses a memory technique called a mind palace or memory palace. On one show, for example, Holmes has been severely wounded in a shooting and retreats into his mind to search for ways to survive. He visits rooms in his mind palace looking for helpful memories.

In one room, he finds his childhood dog and the memory helps calm the detective. The memory palace idea was not a BBC creation. The method for remembering has existed for thousands of years. Many language educators today teach their students how to use the method to improve their language skills.

But what exactly is a memory palace? It is a real structure such as a home or building that you can picture in your head. You then imagine placing things you want to remember inside the structure. You can use a memory palace to remember words, phrases, facts, or even the order of events.

If you can see the inside of a house or building in your mind, you can make your own memory palace. On today's education tips, we will show you how. Start with a list of words or phrases that you want to remember. Then close your eyes and choose a physical space that you know well.

such as your home, a school you attended, or a current or former workplace. If your chosen space has only one or two rooms, do not worry. You can also use things like doors, passageways, steps, or other permanent places along the physical path.

The next step is to imagine walking through the space using the path that you would normally take through it. As you walk through, put objects that you want to remember at specific places along the path. Leave the objects there to pick up later when you visit your memory palace.

Now let's try this technique by using six ingredients for a pizza. Flour, water, dry yeast, tomato sauce, cheese, and basil. Close your eyes and picture a home. First, you open the front door and see a bag of flour on the floor. The bag is broken and some of the flour has spilled.

You are worried that you might slip, so you carefully step over the area. Second, you walk into your bedroom. On top of your bed sits a cup of water. The cup is shaped like an upside-down piece of pizza. You think about how funny that is and laugh about it.

Third, as you enter the living room, you see a very large spoon of dry yeast sitting on the sofa. The spoon is watching a cooking show on television. Fourth, while standing in the living room, you notice the room has a strange smell to it. You look above the television and see a block of cheese hanging on the wall.

Fifth, you walk into the kitchen and see two tomatoes chasing each other around the room. Suddenly they crash and explode, covering the floor in red. And sixth, you open the back door and go outside. There you see a group of very tall green basil plants.

In a funny voice, the tallest plant says, Choose me! Choose me! Did you notice anything strange about the palace? It was full of extraordinary and humorous imagery. We will say more about that in a few minutes. But first, let's check how well our technique worked. See if you can answer these questions. 1.

what was on the wall above the television two where were the tomatoes and what were they doing three which object was sitting on the bed four where was the yeast and what was it doing five which ingredient spoke and what did it say six what did you see when you opened the front door

My guess is that you remembered everything in our memory palace. That's good news. Experts offer some advice for making strong memory palaces. For instance, if you want to remember a lot of words, memory trainer Anthony Metivier suggests first drawing a simple map of your memory palace.

Then, number the places along your path where you will put the things that you want to remember. You can put more than one thing in each room or area. Later, you will add the mental imagery. English teacher James, of the YouTube channel JamesESL English Lessons, has additional advice.

in his video on memory palaces he says that there are three keys to a strong memory palace they are emotion movement and connections between the object and something permanent both he and metivier say imagining things in a humorous or crazy way improves your ability to remember them

These experts also agree that connecting images to actions or movement will create lasting memories. For instance, "The tomatoes were chasing each other and the basil spoke." And finally, Teacher James suggests placing the objects next to or on something permanent in your palace.

Beds, sofas, floors, walls, doors. All of these are permanent. The block of cheese was on the wall, for example. Now it's your turn. Pick a list of English words or phrases that you have trouble remembering and try this method on your own. Let us know how it goes. I'm John Russell. And I'm Alice Bryant.

My name is Ana Mateo. And my name is Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. You're listening to the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C.,

In our last lesson of the day, we listened closely to the pronunciation of a small but important word, the verb "can." We also listened to the verb's negative forms, "cannot" and "can't." In today's lesson, we're going to connect this small word to something important Anna wants her friend Pete to know.

In lesson 20 of Let's Learn English, Pete looks sad. Anna wants to know why. And then she gives him some important advice. Let's listen to the beginning of lesson 20. Washington DC is a great place to work. Many people here work in government and politics, but there are many other jobs. You can work at a hospital, a university. You can work in a coffee shop.

Wait a minute. I think I see a friend of mine. Pete, is that you? Hi, Anna. Different. Your beard is really big. You don't like it, do you? No, no. You just look different. So what's wrong? You look sad. I don't have a job. Sorry, I can't hear you. I do not have a job. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Pete.

I don't have a skill. Everyone has a skill. You need to find yours. Ana said something really important in those last two sentences. Let's hear them one more time. Everyone has a skill. You need to find yours. Your skills are special knowledge and abilities that help you do something well. For many skills, you need time and training to develop them.

For example, doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, musicians, and athletes all have special skills that take time to develop. In Lesson 20, when Pete is not feeling good about himself, he doesn't think he has any useful skills. Jill, I think this is a feeling that perhaps some of our listeners can relate to. Maybe they have felt the same way from time to time.

Yeah, me too. And you know, what's interesting to me is that sometimes people cannot really see the skills they do have. That's right. It takes another person to help them see what skills they have. And that's what happens in Lesson 20. Anna helps Pete realize that he does have some skills. Let's listen.

No, I can't code. I can't teach. I can't cook. Ana, I can't do anything. This is sad. I'm gonna write about my feelings in my blog. You write a blog? Yeah, I write a blog. How many followers do you have? I don't know. 59,538? Pete, that's a lot of followers! You can make money writing. Writing is easy.

It can feel good to realize that you have a skill that is useful. But some skills are more obvious or easy to see than others. For example, an airline pilot has the obvious skill of knowing how to fly a plane.

And we generally call these kinds of obvious skills hard skills. Other examples of hard skills are computer coding, engineering, painting, construction, automotive repair, and cooking. Hard skills are generally actions that you can see or actions that produce a product like a new computer program.

But there's another category of skills, and we call these soft skills. Soft skills tend to be a bit more difficult to see because they relate less to actions and things like fixing a car or a bicycle. Instead, soft skills relate to the way people think and behave with other people. For example, a soft skill can include being a good listener,

The person who is a good listener might not get much attention from others or produce a product like a new computer program. So sometimes other people do not realize how important soft skills can be. I'm Jill Robbins, and you're listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. Andrew, in addition to being a good listener, what are some other soft skills?

The ability to communicate well, to keep things well organized, to manage conflict or disagreements, to be creative, to keep a positive attitude, to help people connect with each other, and to think carefully to help solve problems. All of these are soft skills. I can see how all of those soft skills are important.

But I can also see how people might not even realize they have them or they might not realize how important those skills are. And if you think about it, universities do not give degrees in things like being a good listener. That means it can be harder to show that you have these soft skills when you are trying to get a job.

But HR departments look for both hard skills and soft skills. So you should list those soft skills on your resume or CV. HR stands for Human Resources. That's the area of a business or organization that deals with hiring people to work. Your resume or CV is a list of your education and work experience.

Jill, what can we say about skills for learning a language? Well, there are obvious skills like speaking, reading, listening, and writing. But there's another whole category of skills that help with language learning. And these skills involve understanding different cultures and sometimes changing the way we communicate based on those cultures. Do you have any examples?

Sure. In some cultures, it's normal or okay to say no in a very obvious or direct way. For example, French people disagree a bit more directly than Americans, but Japanese culture is less direct. Instead of just saying no, they might pause for a few seconds or say something like, maybe the listener is supposed to understand that the pause means no, even though the Japanese person did not say it directly.

Communicating across cultures is another big and interesting topic we can talk more about in another lesson of the day. In the meantime, we invite our listeners to think about the skills they have. And if you are feeling like heat in Lesson 20, remember that you might have skills that you are not aware of. Talk to your friends and family, the people who know you best.

they might be able to tell you something about yourself that you did not know before. And it takes skill to learn English and to understand everything from the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. So we hope you feel good about your own language learning and keep developing your skills with all of the programs from VOA Learning English.

Thanks for listening to our program. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our show for today. But join us again tomorrow to keep learning English on The Voice of America. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Mario Ramos.