This is the trailer for A Little English - Learn English by listening to stories. ALE is a new way to study English by yourself when you have the time.

We will release Season One very soon!

You can read 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 2023 Edward Cooper Howland

Transcript:

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 Howland, 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! 

In each episode, I read a short story in English. Some of them are famous, some not-so-famous. Some of them I even write myself. 

I choose the stories carefully and read slowly, so they're easy to understand. After each story, I teach three tiny lessons. Not too much, just A Little English.

If you go to my website, www.alittleenglish.com, you can connect with me, and you can download the Podcast User’s Manual, which will give you some ideas about how to study using the show.

I can’t wait to share all these great stories with you. See you soon!

Mentioned in this episode:

Listener Survey

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

Thank you for downloading the very first episode of ALE!

I'm very excited to begin this journey with you.

👉Check out some of the original art by EH Shepard:

Pooh and Christopher Robin coming downstairs.

"Under the name of Sanders"

Pooh hangs from his balloon

👉The story begins at 2:20 and the tiny lessons begin at 21:12

👉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 2023 Edward Cooper Howland

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

TRANSCRIPT:

INTRO 0:00

Hi. My name is Cooper Howland, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. 

If you’re really serious about studying using this podcast, please go to my website, www.alittleenglish.com. I’ve made a Podcast User’s Manual that can give you some ideas about how to study with podcasts. If you just want to listen, then relax and enjoy. 

So, let’s get into this story. Today we are reading Chapter One of Winnie-the-Pooh by AA Milne. I’m really excited about reading this book. When I was a kid, my dad used to read it to me before bed, or when I was sick. I have some really great memories of this book, so I’m very excited to share it with you. 

Now, this first chapter is a little confusing because it’s actually two stories. The first one is about a boy named Christopher Robin, and his stuffed bear, Pooh. Christopher Robin’s father is going to tell him a bedtime story. The second part is the story that the father tells. Then at the end, we return to Christopher Robin at bedtime. I hope that it’s not too confusing, but don’t worry. The rest of the stories aren’t like that. 

In order to maybe make it easier, I’ve brought in a guest to help me tell this story. This is Tabatha TABBY WORDS and she’s going to be playing Christopher Robin. 

And in the end, if the structure is too confusing, the best thing you can do is just….don’t worry about it! It’s a beautiful, funny little story. Just relax and listen to the melody and the rhythm of it. Enjoy yourself! Are you ready? Let’s begin. 

STORY 2:20

I

In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees, and the Stories Begin

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t. Anyhow, here he is at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you....

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

Thank you for downloading this episode.

👉Check out some of the original art by EH Shepard:

Pooh goes visiting

Pooh has some trouble

All Rabbit's friends and relations

👉The story begins at 1:34 and the tiny lessons begin at 16:14

👉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 2023 Edward Cooper Howland

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

TRANSCRIPT:

INTRO 0:00

Hi. My name is Cooper Howland, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons. 

If you’re really serious about studying using this podcast, please go to my website, www.alittleenglish.com. You can get the Podcast User’s Manual, with lots of ideas for self-study. If you just want to listen, then relax and enjoy. 

So, let’s get into this story. Today we are reading Chapter Two of Winnie-the-Pooh, and I have once again invited Tabatha to play Christopher Robin. I think that this is probably the most famous Pooh story. Or, at least, it’s the one that I remember the most clearly from my childhood. The good news is, it doesn’t have that story-within-a-story thing that the last one had. It’s just a story about Pooh going to visit his friend, and…well…you’ll see. 

STORY 1:34

Edward Bear, known to his friends as Winnie-the-Pooh, or Pooh for short, was walking through the forest one day, humming proudly to himself. He had made up a little hum that very morning, as he was doing his Stoutness Exercises in front of the glass: Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, as he stretched up as high as he could go, and then Tra-la-la, tra-la⁠—oh, help!⁠—la, as he tried to reach his toes. After breakfast he had said it over and over to himself until he had learnt it off by heart, and now he was humming it right through, properly. It went like this:

Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,

Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,

Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.

Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,

Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,

Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.

Well, he was humming this hum to himself, and walking along gaily, wondering what everybody else was doing, and what it felt like, being somebody else, when suddenly he came to a sandy bank, and in the bank was a large hole.

“Aha!” said Pooh. (Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.) “If I know anything about anything, that hole means Rabbit,” he said, “and Rabbit means Company,” he said, “and Company means Food and Listening-to-Me-Humming and suchlike. Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.”

So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:

“Is anybody at home?”

There was a sudden...