Random Languages Podcasts

In The Adventures of Ulysses, Charles Lamb re-tells the story of Ulysses’s journey from Troy to his own kingdom of Ithaca. The book uses Homer’s The Odyssey as the basis for the story, but it isn’t a direct translation of the Greek classic. The book is considered a modern version of the epic tale when it was published in 1808. In the preface of the book, Lamb said that he made the narration of the story faster so that more readers would be attracted to it. To begin with, Homer’s Odyssey is already a classic and in re-telling this story, Charles Lamb aimed to make this epic poem more comprehensible to the average person. And he was successful in doing what he aimed for. The book became very popular not just to adults but also among children because it was well-written and can be easily understood. Lamb was really talented in bringing deep, hard to understand works of literature close to the masses. Before The Adventures of Ulysses, Lamb also wrote Tales From Shakespeare in which some of Shakespeare’s plays were retold as short stories, so like Ulysses, they can also be easily read. The Adventures of Ulysses is filled with interesting characters including sirens, giants, warriors and enchanters. Each chapter is filled with new adventures and challenges which Ulysses must face and overcome. Lamb was able to retell the story of Ulysses’s adventures in a light and entertaining way without losing any of the important details of the original story. Readers who are into Greek mythology and are also looking to read a version of Homer’s Odyssey will surely enjoy reading this book. The original version of the Odyssey may not be easy to read for everyone. If you’re looking for a book that will let you understand the story of the epic tale with great accuracy this is the book for you.

Categories: Arts, Education, Kids & Family

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, Charles Lamb, ebooks, fantasy, fiction, free audio books, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Teen/Young adult, The Adventures of Ulysses

The Arabian Nights is a collection of Perso-Arabic folk tales and other stories. The collection, or at least certain stories drawn from it (or purporting to be drawn from it), became widely known in the West from the 18th century, after it was translated from the Arabic — first into French and then into English and other European languages. The first English language edition, based on Galland’s French rather than the original Arabic, rendered the title as The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment – and this, or simply The Arabian Nights, has been the title by which it has been best known to English-speaking people ever since.

Categories: Arts, Education, Kids & Family

Tags: Andrew Lang, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Fairy tales, fiction, free audio books, Kids, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Short stories, The Arabian Nights

Presenting short devotional Bible verses in both Mando’a and the World English Bible.

Categories: Society & Culture

Tags: Bible, Constructed, devotional, fiction, Languages, science, star, wars

Language Latte is a conversation about teaching world languages. Becky Morales looks at research and speaks with teachers from around the globe to find out the best and most efficient methods, materials, and tips to help students gain fluency. Topics include educational technology, getting students to speak in the target language, teaching vocabulary, using films and popular games in class, bringing in culture, using IPA’s, TPRS, CI, the role of grammar, and more. More educational resources, plus show notes and links can be found on kidworldcitizen.org.

Categories: Education

Tags: Education, english, ESL, french, German, Languages, linguistics, mandarin, spanish, teachers

This series of twenty programmes will allow you to review and improve your knowledge of French verbs in four tenses: present, perfect, imperfect and future. The podcast uses relaxation techniques to help you learn. Join thousands of French students across the world who are “sitting back, closing their eyes, and suddenly knowing their French verbs!” This podcast was developed through the Partners in Excellence project which ran in East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and Argyll & Bute. Funding for this project ceased in 2007.

Categories: Education

Tags: excellence, france, french, grammar, In, Languages, learn, lingua, Mark, partners, pentleton, PIE, piecast, radio, relaxation, verbs

A wandering king who’s a war-hero doomed to roam the earth by a vengeful God, a plethora of fantastic experiences, a wife battling the invasion of suitors who wish to replace her missing husband, a son in search of his father – the Odyssey is a rich tapestry of incredible experiences and unforgettable characters. A must-read classic for anyone who wants to understand the fundamentals of Western mythology, it is a sequel to the Illiad which recounts the magnificent saga of the Trojan War. The Odyssey continues on, describing the trials and tribulations of the Greeks under the leadership of Odysseus. Reputed to have been composed nearly three thousand years ago, its authorship is still being debated by scholars, though much of it is attributed to the blind poet Homer about whom very little is known. Yet the Illiad and The Odyssey remain the definitive foundations of all Western literature. The Odyssey is a magnificent epic tale that portrays the journey called life. In fact the word “odyssey” in English itself has come to mean a long and eventful journey. In the preceding book The Illiad, Odysseus called Ulysses in Roman mythology, the king of Ithaca, gets embroiled in the Trojan War through the trickery of the Greeks. But once inside, his wonderful qualities of intellect, strategy and leadership come to the foreground as he leads his soldiers to victory. The story of the Odyssey begins when the war of The Illiad ends. Odysseus and his men embark to return to Ithaca but his sworn enemy, the sea god Poseidon, stymies him at every turn, sending storms and foul weather, forcing the wanderers to take shelter in strange and sinister lands. The Odyssey is, besides, the story of Odysseus’ beautiful wife Penelope, whose life becomes a struggle, fighting off the innumerable hopefuls who wish to take over her kingdom and her fortune in the absence of her husband. It is also the poignant growing-up tale of Telemachus, a faithful and steadfast son, who refuses to believe that his father won’t return. There are many notable translations from the original Greek and it has also been extensively portrayed in art, literature, television and television in languages around the world. Full of human tragedy, bizarre and fantastic creatures, gods and magical beasts, the Odyssey is a treasure-chest of marvelous events. For modern-day readers, young and old alike, it provides exciting, interesting and relevant ideas of war, politics, exile and identity. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Homer, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, poetry, Sea stories, The Odyssey

Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace chronicles the lives of five Russian aristocratic families during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Many considered this book to be the best Russian work of literature of all time and it is massive in scale. The book is divided in four volumes and the chapters don’t just contain the narrative of the plot to the novel but philosophical discussions as well. This may be intimidating to average book readers but they shouldn’t be discouraged to try reading War and Peace. After all, this book was written for all and not just for intellectuals. The five wealthy families followed are the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys, Rostovs, Kuragins and the Drubetskoys in the early 19th century especially during the time when Napoleon invaded Russia. Like with Tolstoy’s other novels, it also tells about the different social problems in Russian high society like the fathering of illegitimate children of wealthy Russians, financial ruin of some families due to incompetence, their vanity despite the poverty which surrounds them and so on. The lives of the main characters from the different families are intertwined in the novel with friendships and conflicting interests. War and Peace is also a historical novel. Napoleon himself is one of its main characters and a huge part of the book was about him. It’s very impressive that Tolstoy was able to depict him very accurately in this novel. Besides him, Tolstoy was also very accurate about his descriptions of the historical events during that time like the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow and others. This book doesn’t just narrate the trials, problems and conflicts between the different characters in the novel but also provides philosophical insights to historical events. It’s always interesting to learn about history from another point of view not just from what was told in history books.

Categories: Arts, Education, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, Languages, Leo Tolstoy, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, War and Peace, War stories

The Symposium (Ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον) is a philosophical book written by Plato sometime after 385 BCE. On one level the book deals with the genealogy, nature and purpose of love, on another level the book deals with the topic of knowledge, specifically how does one know what one knows. The topic of love is taken up in the form of a group of speeches, given by a group of men at a symposium or a wine drinking party at the house of the tragedian Agathon at Athens. Plato constructed the Symposium as a story within a story within a story. This architecture creates the space for Plato to build his philosophy of knowledge. The speech of Socrates points out that the highest purpose of Love is to become a Philosopher, or Lover of Wisdom. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Education, Society & Culture

Tags: Ancient Texts, audio books, audiobook, Classics (antiquity), Dramatic Works, ebooks, free audio books, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Plato, The Symposium

Kabir (1440 – 1518) was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement.The name Kabir comes from Arabic Al-Kabir which means ‘The Great’ – the 37th Name of God in the Qur’an.Kabir was influenced by the prevailing religious mood of his times, such as old Brahmanic Hinduism, Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism, the teachings of Nath yogis and the personal devotionalism of South India mixed with the imageless God of Islam. The influence of these various doctrines is clearly evident in Kabir’s verses.The basic religious principles he espoused are simple. According to Kabir, all life is an interplay of two spiritual principles. One is the personal soul (Jivatma) and the other is God (Paramatma). It is Kabir’s view that salvation is the process of bringing into union these two divine principles.His poems resonate with praise for the true guru who reveals the divine through direct experience, and denounce more usual ways of attempting god-union such as chanting, austerities, etc. His verses, which being illiterate he never expressed in writing and were spoken in vernacular Hindi, often began with some strongly worded insult to get the attention of passers-by. Kabir has enjoyed a revival of popularity over the past half century as arguably the most accessible and understandable of the Indian saints.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Kabir, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, poetry, Songs of Kabir

A divinely beautiful woman who becomes the cause of a terrible war in which the gods themselves take sides. Valor and villainy, sacrifices and betrayals, triumphs and tragedies play their part in this three thousand year old saga. The Iliad throws us right into the thick of battle. It opens when the Trojan War has already been raging for nine long years. An uneasy truce has been declared between the Trojans and the Greeks (Achaeans as they’re called in The Iliad.) In the Greek camp, Agamemnon the King of Mycenae and Achilles the proud and valiant warrior of Phthia are locked in a fierce contest to claim the spoils of war. The gods in Olympus watch horrified as the best of Greeks and Trojans are slain. However, Zeus has prohibited them from openly interfering. But finally, even the gods cannot stay neutral. The mighty Zeus steps in to prod the Trojans into breaching the truce. Achilles, who is sulking in his tent refuses to fight and the Greeks suffer terrible losses. Achilles, a demigod is the son of the sea nymph Thetis and the King of the Myrmidions Peleus. He has been rendered immortal like the gods except for one spot near his foot where his mother held him while she dipped him in the Styx. He is the greatest hero in The Iliad and known for his rage, impulsiveness and courage. He watches as his comrades fall one by one and finally puts his pride aside. He sends his beloved friend Patroclus into battle. But Apollo, the savior of the Trojans, dashes away Patroclus’ armor and the Trojan prince Hector slays him. Maddened by anger and grief, Achilles vows revenge and resumes battle. And the epic goes on… The Iliad is purportedly written by the blind poet Homer some time during the eighth century BC. Its supreme importance in Greek literature slowly permeated to the rest of the Western world and in time to come, the two epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey became the reference points for thousands of works of art. European museums and art galleries are filled with works based on the themes, heroes and divinities from The Iliad. Contemporary films have portrayed the Trojan War, while tourists throng the sites mentioned in the poems. It was first translated into English in the sixteenth century and has since then, gripped the collective imagination for generations. As one of the defining myths of western literature, The Iliad is indeed a must read for anyone interested in an epic tale. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Classics (antiquity), ebooks, free audio books, Homer, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, poetry, The Iliad, tragedy, War stories

Brief, and in some cases incomplete, stories of magic from ancient Egypt.

Categories: Arts, Education, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Egyptian Tales, fiction, free audio books, History, Languages, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Series One, translated from the Papyri, W. M. Flinders Petrie

The Language Mastery Show brings you conversations with the world’s best language learners. Get an inside look at how polyglots, linguists, and everyday people master languages the smart way, and how YOU can, too. I’m your host, John Fotheringham, a linguist, teacher, and the author of Master Japanese and Master Mandarin. For more language learning tips, tools, and immersion resources, visit LanguageMastery.com.

Categories: Education

Tags: EdTech, foreign, Japan, japanese, language, Languages, learning, linguistics, nihongo, teaching, tips

Is the world of politics anything like “Yes Minister” or “The Thick Of It”? Are scientists all as geeky as Denzil Dexter from “The Fast Show”? This collection of videos looks at the funny side of different professions and the stereotypes within them, through the best of British comedy. Using clips from “Harry Enfield” to “That Mitchell and Webb Look” this series will give you an idea of where careers might lead you – from IT to social work.

Categories: Education

Tags: IT, journalist, judge, Languages, politician, scientist, social worker, teacher

Learn to speak Mandarin the same way you learned your native language: by imitating what you hear. No memorizing, no tedious grammar lessons, no superhuman willpower, just the sounds of Chinese, your ears, and you. Let’s start speaking Chinese for real this time. Subscribe to start building your Mandarin from the ground up! Logo artwork by Alex Wang • 老汪

Categories: Education

Tags: Chinese, Languages, mandarin, taiwan

This is the final installment in Sophocles’s Theban Plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus’s daughter Antigone deliberately breaks the laws of Thebes when she buries her brother’s body and is sentenced to death. She clashes with Creon, the King of Thebes, over what constitutes justice and morality: the laws of the state or the laws of the individual.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: Antigone, audio books, audiobook, Classics (antiquity), Dramatic Works, ebooks, free audio books, Languages, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, play, poetry, Sophocles, tragedy

Childhood, published in 1852, is the first novel in Leo Tolstoy’s autobiographical trilogy, which also includes Boyhood, and Youth. Published when Tolstoy was twenty-three, the book gained immediate notice among Russian writers including Ivan Turgenev, and heralded the young Tolstoy as a major figure in Russian letters. Childhood is an expressionist exploration of the internal life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and was a new form in Russian writing, mixing fact, fiction and emotions to render the moods and reactions of the narrator. Childhood is Tolstoy’s first published work. Translated into English by C. J. Hogarth.

Categories: Arts, Education, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Biography, Childhood (English trans.), ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Languages, Leo Tolstoy, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Memoirs

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the first of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (Based on Wikipedia article)

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: Adventure, anonymous, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Fairy tales, fiction, free audio books, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Short stories, The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night

English Synonyms and Antonyms is basically a vocabulary builder that students might use as they prepare for entrance or exit exams. Each entry gives a list of synonyms, followed by a paragraph that briefly explains or exemplifies the subtle distinctions between the listed words. The entries sometimes close with a few words on the prepositions that follow selected synonyms, but more often with a list of antonyms.By “synonyms” we usually understand words that coincide or nearly coincide in some part of their meaning, and may hence within certain limits be used interchangeably, while outside of those limits they may differ very greatly in meaning and use. It is the office of a work on synonyms to point out these correspondences and differences, that language may have the flexibility that comes from freedom of selection within the common limits, with the perspicuity and precision that result from exact choice of the fittest words to express each shade of meaning outside of the common limits.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, English Synonyms and Antonyms, free audio books, instruction, James Champlin Fernald, Languages, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction