Powered by RND
PodcastsEducationA Little English

A Little English

Edward Cooper Howland
A Little English
Latest episode

Available Episodes

5 of 45
  • Forty Stories - "Alone"
    This is a story about popcorn, mostly. It's also about religion and weddings and cleaning. But mostly it's a story about microwave popcorn. It stars Matthew, who was sort of the villain of the story called "Flow." And if we're being honest, he's the villain of this story, too. But I love him. I hope you do as well. 👉The story begins at 2:00 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:12👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. Before we begin, I’d like to say thank you for listening, and ask you to tell your friends about the show. I don’t do any advertising, so you spreading the word is really the only way that the audience can grow. Thank you so much!NowWhere I come from, we were always taught that there are two things you don’t discuss at dinner: religion and politics. The reason for that is, because people will start shouting at each other. But this story opens with a conversation about religion. Ok it’s not a conversation, it’s people shouting at each other. But don’t worry. This is not really a story about religion. Actually it’s mostly about….popcorn? Anyway, the name of this story is, “Alone,” which is also the name of my favorite song to sing at karaoke. —------“If it’s in a church, I’m not going,” said Matthew. Mom and Dad were already dressed for the wedding. Dad was wearing his suit and Mom even put on earrings. They looked at each other and sighed. “He gets this from you,” said Mom. Dad rested his head in his hands for a moment. Then he stood up and spoke to his son. “Matthew, it’s a wedding. Of course it’s in a church.”“Well if it’s in a church, then I am not going. I will not worship your false gods. You’ll have to leave me here.”“You don’t have to worship anything. Just sit there like a normal human being and then we go and have cake. It’s a party. It’s a celebration of love.”“It’s a lie!” shouted Matthew. “It’s all lies! It’s a scam! They scare you with stories of hell and pain forever. Then they take your money.”“Matthew, it’s a congregational church. They don’t have any money.”“I don’t care! They get money for free and then they don’t pay any taxes! It’s the biggest scam in the world. And if you go, or if I go, we are saying that this scam is okay. So you can do whatever you want, but I’m not going.”“This is just some stupid stuff you saw on the internet. You need to get off the computer and get out in the real world.”“I AM in the real world, Dad! I believe in science and YOU PEOPLE believe in magic!”“You don’t have to believe in the religion to go to a wedding, Matthew. You just go to support your family and friends on their big day.”“I’m. Not. Going.” Matthew sat down on the floor. His parents went to the living room. Matthew could hear them shouting at each other through the closed door. After a few minutes, they came out. Mom was fixing her eye makeup with a tissue. Dad spoke first.“Fine. You’re fourteen years old now. If you want to stay home alone, you can. We will be back by ten pm. Try not to burn the house down.” Four hours later,
    --------  
    20:36
  • forty Stories - "Mixtape"
    Have you ever lost a friend? Not, like, lost them at a concert. I mean, have any of your friends died? A few of mine have. This is a story about losing a friend. And the pain of losing that friend. It's a story about how groups of friend cope with the loss of a member. And about family, and brothers. But mostly, it's a song about the power of silly pop songs. I hope you love it, because I'm very proud of this story. Season 3 Episode 16 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 03:20 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:45👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT:Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. I hope you guys are all enjoying this Forty Stories project. If you are, please do me a huge favor and share this show with a friend. Do you know anyone else who likes podcasts? Or who is trying to improve their English? Please share this show with them. I don’t do any advertising or anything, so I need your help to reach a larger audience. Thank you!I think I can safely say that we have entered act two of forty stories. Pretty much every story has three acts. There is a beginning, a middle and an end. Middles are usually the hardest part to write. But actually I’m really excited about this, because it means I’m done introducing characters. The world is built. So it’s time to really explore these people and this world. Time to have them meet each other and interact! I think it will be really exciting. By the way, there is a content warning on this story. It’s about death. Specifically, it takes place a few years after someone commits suicide. So nobody dies in the story, but somebody did die a few years ago. So if you don’t feel good about listening to that right now, come back another time. It’s a good story, and important, but it’s kind of…heavy. Also, there are a lot of song titles in this story. And I think that if you don’t know the songs, it would be very helpful for you to read the transcript, get the names and listen to them on youtube or whatever. I think the story will make more sense when you hear the songs. So anyway, here’s the story. It’s called “Mixtape”I thought I was early, but they were already waiting for me. Kevin and Ben were sitting in camping chairs around a pile of wood. And there was another person with them. Maybe a girl? Or a little kid? Either way, I was pretty upset. It took a few minutes to climb down from the top of the sand dune, and a few more to get close to where they were sitting. The mystery person was sitting on the other side of the pile of wood. I dropped my case of beer down next to me and just started yelling. “Guys, what is this? This is supposed to be our night. Remember, we talked about this? No girlfriends, nobody but us and - “ The kid stood up, and I could see that it was Finn. He was apologizing. “Tommy, I’m not gonna stay. I was just talking to Kevin last week, and I told him about this thing that I found, and we thought you all should see it. Or, like, hear it.” I was so shocked that I just sat down in the sand. “Oh Finn,” I said, “I’m so sorry, kid. I had no idea it was you. I thought one of these knuckleheads brought their...
    --------  
    20:26
  • Forty Stories - "Brave"
    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 15 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 03:40 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:15👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT:Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a favor. I really hate social media, and I don’t really want to pay for advertisements. That means, the only way to grow the audience of A Little English is…you. If you’re enjoying the show, and you think it’s helping you learn, please go tell someone about it. You guys must have done it the last couple weeks, because listeners are going up! Please keep going! I’m very grateful for the help!This week’s story is about horses. Have you ever ridden a horse? I have. Actually, I grew up in the country and our neighbors had a horse boarding business. That means that rich people from Boston, who didn’t have any space to keep a horse, they would rent a spot for it from our neighbors. And then come ride them on weekends and stuff. So I grew up like right next to horses. They were around all the time. But I never got to ride those, because they were someone’s like private, luxury item. Later, when I was a kid at camp (like we talked about last episode), I did learn to ride. We went for two or three or five-day camping trips, riding horses all over Colorado. I was probably 12 years old, and I just can’t believe how lucky I was that I got to do that. Man I gotta write a story about that camp, one of these days. Anyway, let’s get to the story. It’s called “Brave,” and it has nothing to do with the animated movie. Sorry, nobody turns into a bear.—-------------“Careful now,” said Dad. “Don’t show him your fingers. He might think they’re little carrots and take a bite.” Cassandra froze, terrified. “It’s OK,” the teacher said. “Just be careful. Turn your hand around and let him smell the back of it. Like with a dog.” Cassandra got a little closer. The horse was enormous, and it smelled like sweat and dust and grass. She took another step towards it and held out her hand.The horse leaned its head in and sniffed her. Its breath was so loud! When it opened its mouth, Cassandra could hear the sound of its lips separating. When the mouth closed again, she could actually hear its teeth bang together. It was like hearing someone breathe or talk right next to your ear, except it wasn’t even that close! Cassandra knew a lot about horses. She had a few books and a lot of youtube channels on her mom’s phone. She knew about bridles and saddles and she knew how to brush a horse’s fur after a ride. She knew that you start from the front and go to the back, never the other way. She knew how much horses love being brushed. But she didn’t know until today what they smell like. And she didn’t know how noisy they were.The horse didn’t bite her. It breathed in and out over her...
    --------  
    20:45
  • Forty Stories - "Shelter"
    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 14 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 01:50 and the tiny lessons begin at 11:40👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT:Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a favor. If you’re enjoying the show, and you think it’s helping you learn, please go tell someone about it. The best thing you can do for a podcast is to share it with someone who might enjoy it. Thank you so much!Today’s story is about camping. Do you go camping? I used to go a lot. But this year, since I moved to Chiba, I haven’t been yet. I really miss it. When I was a kid, I went to summer camp every year and it was amazing. Actually, I should make that one of the forty Stories. Hey, good idea!Anyway, this story is called “Shelter,” and it’s about how frustrating it is to put up a tent. And some other stuff. —---The sky was orange and the clouds were pink. The sun’s reflection was sparkling in the lake, and my father was swearing quietly. “Dammit,” he said. “I told you, Evan. I told you we had to leave earlier. Now we’re gonna have to set up the tent in the dark.” His t-shirt was already soaked in sweat. We arrived in front of the main office, and the car skidded a bit in the dirt. Dad sat very still for a moment. Then he slowly took his hands off the steering wheel. His fingers were white. He looked around at all the campsites full of happy families, and took a deep breath. “At least we have a reservation. Come on.” We dragged all our gear past rows and rows of brightly-colored tents and fantastic barbecue smells. I could barely see over the bag of groceries in my arms , and I almost tripped over running, screaming kids. Pop music thudded from a speaker somewhere. Dad frowned and whispered to me, “Maybe other people don’t wanna listen to your crappy music, guys. Know what I mean, Evan?” I liked that song, but I didn’t say anything. Finally, we came crashing into the last empty campsite. We threw all the equipment down and stood there for a moment sweating and breathing hard in the thick summer air. We must have looked pretty funny, because our neighbor smiled at us when he waved. This guy didn’t even have a tent, just a fancy-looking hammock hanging between two trees. He was sitting on his little cooler, smoking a cigarette and messing with his fire. “Come on, Evan,” said Dad. “Let’s get this stupid tent up.” He stared at me, waiting for something. “The poles!” I found the bag of poles and tried to get one out. “Just dump them all out. Come on, man. We have to hurry. Everyone else is already eating. Look, just hold the pole. Just hold it right there, while I fix it on this side. It’s not that hard.” He was sitting on the ground cross legged, trying to fit his end of the pole into the little loop at the corner of the tent and making little...
    --------  
    16:34
  • Forty Stories - "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons"
    I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇CLICK HERE FOR THE SURVEY Season 3 Episode 13 Thank you for downloading this episode. 👉The story begins at 02:40 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:10👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ TRANSCRIPT: Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. So, let’s start with some notes! I got some feedback on the last episode. First of all, I made a mistake with someone’s name, which made the whole story very hard to understand. Sorry! I fixed it now. Second, I’ve heard that sometimes it’s hard to know when we have changed scenes. So I have made up a new sound. It sounds like this: (ping) That’s how you know that some time has passed between the last scene and the new one. Now! This is a story about Dungeons and Dragons, or DnD. Do you know what that is? Do you play? I do. But if you don’t, don’t worry. The story’s not really about playing the game. Just go watch the first episode of Stranger Things and you’ll understand everything you need to. It’s more about what it means to be a nerd. Because, well, that has changed a lot over the years. These days, being a nerd is cool. But when I was a kid, it really, really wasn’t. And there are still a lot of people who are pretty upset about those old days and…well, I’m giving away the ending. So, let’s just listen! This story is named after my favorite episode of the TV show Community: It’s called….Advanced Dungeons and Dragons!“If Alexander doesn’t get here in the next ten seconds, we’re starting without him,” said Frankie. The kids around the table all nodded. “Three, two, one. OK, screw him. Let’s go around the table and introduce our characters. Babe?”Mandy looked up from her phone and said, “I’m, uh, Kai Highfeather, a wood elf wizard.”“Cool! Corey?”Lonnegan said “My name is Bimble Bogwater. I’m a halfling sorcerer.“ He stopped and stared at the floor as everyone started laughing. “A halfling?” gasped Finn. “You’re a halfling?” “What’s funny about that?” “Dude, you’re like, eight feet tall. Why don’t you play an orc?”Lonnegan’s face turned red. “I dunno, I thought that like, the whole point of the game is we can be anything.”Frankie put out his hands. “You guys. You guys! Come on! Let him be a halfling. If he-“ and now he was interrupted by the sound of the door banging open. Everyone looked up the stairs to see Alexander standing in the doorway. His face was bright red and he was completely out of breath. He was holding a large book to his chest. “YOOOOO!” He shouted. “You guys gotta see this. You GOTTA see this.” He jumped down the stairs two at a time, and slammed the book onto the table. Dice and pencils fell on the floor.“Dude, calm down!” said Frankie.“Don’t worry about that, dude. Look at this.” He pulled the book open and showed it to everyone. It was a photo of three boys, posing...
    --------  
    20:25

More Education podcasts

About A Little English

What if the stories in your English course could make you laugh? What if they could break your heart? What if you just had to know...what happens next? My name is Cooper, and I'm an English professor in Hiroshima, Japan. I love teaching, I love English literature, and I love podcasts. So, I decided to combine all three into this show! Each episode, I will read a short story in English. Some of them are famous, some not-so-famous. Some of them I even write myself. For example, I read stories by AA Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh), Ernest Hemingway, and Philip K Dick. I choose the stories carefully and read slowly, so they're easy to understand. After each story, there are three tiny lessons. Not too much, just A Little English. Visit https://www.alittleenglish.com to get a Podcast User's Manual with some idea about how to study using this podcast!
Podcast website

Listen to A Little English, Keep The Change and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app

Get the free radio.net app

  • Stations and podcasts to bookmark
  • Stream via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
  • Supports Carplay & Android Auto
  • Many other app features
Social
v7.18.1 | © 2007-2025 radio.de GmbH
Generated: 5/12/2025 - 11:00:22 PM