Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to the Kantalk users all over the world!

Learn from Fast Company

Fast Company is a young business magazine started in 1995 that covers innovations, digital technologies, and management. It’s no longer as hot as the Internet stocks during the dot com days. But it manages to stay on the edge.

Fast Company TV went live in 2008, producing video reporting under three channels: Fast Company Live for short features (“Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg“), Scobleizer TV for longer one-on-one interviews (“Guy Kawasaki Gives A Reality Check”), and WorkFast TV for half-hour long interview show (“David Allen: Get the Thing Done“)

You can also watch the videos at Fast Company TV’s at YouTube.

Learn from Howcast

Don’t know how to detect a lie, improve your memory, or even kiss creatively? No need to sweat. Meet Howcast.

It has endless videos giving tips on almost any topics that you can think of. Each video is short (usually less than three-minute long), with a simple and easy-to-follow format, and really funny. All the videos are available at Howcast’s website, and many of them are also featured in the popular video site like YouTube.

Learn some new tricks, have a few good laughs, and improve your English skill. What more can you ask from Howcast?

Learn from Academic Earth

Academic Earth offers thousands of video lectures from the world’s top scholars in  the six leading American universities: Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, UC Berkeley and Standford, covering 17 subjects in liberal arts, engineering, business, law, and even religion.

Here are the samples of a few top-rated courses and lectures: Introduction to Psychology,  Financial Markets, Loving What You Do, The American Novel Since 1945.

Don’t get too frustrated if you were struggling with the course. It might have little to do with the level of  your English proficiency; it’s just that the subject itself is tough for even the brightest students in the Ivy League schools.

Learn From Travel Channel

Trans World Airlines (TWA ) launched the Travel Channel over 20 years ago. It thought to excite its audiences with the exotic places in the world, hoping to generate their interests in traveling more and flying with TWA.

TWA got everything right except the business part. It filed bankruptcy in 1992 and the Travel Channel has changed its owner several times. But people have been traveling more, and the Channel has visited many fascinating places.

The Travel Channel has another unexpected benefit. Its programming can be great learning material for English learners. Many of the videos are available at its website or its YouTube channel.

Learn from University of California Television

Many study English because you want to come to the U.S. for the college or graduate education. And when you come, some are nervous about whether you will survive in all English-speaking lectures and seminars.

Thanks to the University of California Television (UCTV), you can have a taste of what’s like through Internet. UCTV broadcasts lectures in science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities, and the arts from the campuses of the University of California system, one of the best in the nation.

You can watch the videos either at the UCTV’s website or its channel at YouTube.

Learn from Seventeen

We have recommended People magazine before. Now meet the People Jr.– The Seventeen magazine.

Both are about fashion, celebrities, and beauty. But Seventeen, as its name suggested, targets a younger age group. You can watch over 200 video clips either at the video section of its website’s or at the magazine’s YouTube channel.

The only side effect of learning from Seventeen is that it unmistakably tells you how hopelessly you are out of fashion. Or old.

Learn from The Weather Channel

Mark Twin used to quip that everyone talks about weather but nobody does anything about it. Learning to talk about weather is what every English learner should do something about.

The best place to start is The Weather Channel. It talks about weather all day long and has the videos available in its website. You may feel sorry for those reporters in the fields, who usually had to shout to the camera in the middle of a hurricane or snow storm. They are quick to the points, though.

Besides learning all the weather-related terms, you’ll also get to know a lot about the geography of the U.S. That’s the bonus.

Something Stupid

It’s something stupid, but might be the great way to learn:

A Talented Beijing Cop