wordsworth

Some of the most profound insights I have ever had as a student of poetry occurred in the classroom of Paul Fry, and so this episode really is a dream for me. Paul Fry joins the podcast to talk about William Wordsworth's poem "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal." 

Just an eight-line poem, but it opens for us into some big questions: Where does Wordsworth fit into the history of autobiography and poetry? How should we think of his phrase "spots of time"? Who was "Lucy," the girl who seems to be memorialized in this and a handful of Wordsworth's other poems? What does poetry have to tell us about death? Can it console? Why do we read literature at all, and what does that have to do with the relation between "doing" and "being"? 

Paul Fry is William Lampson Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, where he has taught for many decades. He is the author of several books, most recently Wordsworth and the Poetry of What We Are (Yale Studies in English, 2008) and Theory of Literature (Yale UP, 2012), a book based on his brilliant Yale lecture course, which you can find online (and entirely for free!) here.

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Asish Dutta: The Super Learner!

Asish is a determined language learner who is dedicated to improving his English skills by taking one-on-one online lessons with different teachers. At the same time, he uploads all of his sessions on his YouTube channel so that other learners can learn with him. We call that a win-win-situation.

Recently, one of his videos took off🚀 and reached over 1.2 million views, which is unbelievable. 

Imagine, million of people watching you how you progress in your language journey!

➡️ Do you have a story to tell? Do you have a book about languages 📖? Then it's time to get interviewed on My Fluent Podcast! Drop me an E-Mail: myfluentpodcast@gmail.com 

Key Terms:

• Language: Language learning takes more than just learning vocabulary. It's about food, culture and many more
• Having different teachers will help you grow: Every teacher or language partner is different. You'll learn different methods and learn about different types of characters. This will help you in your language journey.
• Stop being afraid of making mistakes: Asish overcame his fear and uploads his learning sessions. It sort of gave him an extra boost. He doesn't care what others are thinking about him and his errors.

Vocabulary:

• Sanskrit: Sanskrit is an Old Indo-Aryan language that arose in South Asia. It is regarded as the ancient language in Hinduism, where it was used as a means of communication and dialogue by the Hindu Celestial Gods. Sanskrit is known for its structure, writing, and alphabet, and has been used as a philosophical language in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism
• Swami Vivekananda: Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world

Table of Contents:

• What does Language mean to Asish? (00:06)
• English Language in India (3:42)
• The Languages Asish Speaks (4:19) 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
• The different learning methods (8:56)
• Writing and Correcting Process (9:53)
• Asish Dutta's YouTube Channel (11:31)
• The Video that got over 1.2 Million Views (14:30) (THE VIDEO IS NOT AVAILABLE ANYMORE)
• Meditation in Language Learning (17:13) 🧘🧘
• Long-term Goal (19:06)
• Acting and Cartoons in Language Learning (20:29)
• Having your own Talkshow to Improve in your Target Language (21:53)
• The Researcher (23:20)
• Favorite English Word (26:37)

Links and Resources:

• William Wordsworth: 📜William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. He attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and, it is believed, where he made his first attempts at verse. He is best known for Lyrical Ballads (1667), which he wrote with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

• Clapingo: ☎️Clapingo is a platform that allows users to practice conversations with various speakers across the country. It provides a judgment-free space for people to improve their English speaking skills through 1-on-1 video calls. 📱

• Cambly: ☎️A website that connects language learners with native speakers for language exchange. 🌍

• Quillbot ai: 🤖QuillBot is an AI-powered paraphrasing tool designed to help people rewrite and enhance any sentence, paragraph, or article. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to rearrange word order and natural language understanding (NLU) to understand the context of the text.📝

This is the story that started it all—the fairy tale that baptized C.S. Lewis's imagination and inspired countless fantasy novels such as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In this week's episode, Drs. Crystal and David C. Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss George MacDonald's dreamlike fairy tale for adults, Phantastes. Join us as explore the symbols, dream sequences, the meaning of the Marble Lady, the journey of Anodos, and the interrelated themes of disenchantment, death, sehnsucht, self, pride, and longing.

Jane Hunt interviews Rachel Bell, from heritage steam cruise company, Ullswater Steamers, about the heritage vessels that visitors to the English Lake District can board, if they wish to soak up the glorious scenery and history of England's most stunning lake or, alternatively, use the steamers as a means of connecting with some much-loved walking routes, including those trodden by poet, William Wordsworth.

Show host, Jane Hunt, talks to show guests about 13 extraordinary Cumbrian heritage attractions, welcoming guests back after extended pandemic closures, and about the joys of life around an authentic Italian wood-fired pizza oven and why even top celebrities can't resist one.

C.S. Lewis labeled himself a Christian Romantic, but what is Romanticism? And how did it influence not just Lewis, but all of the Wade authors? This week Drs. Crystal and David Downing sit down with Producer Aaron Hill to discuss Romanticism as a literary and cultural movement and to explore these questions. This week's episode features so many great references to amazing paintings, poems, books, and Romantic figures that we've created a list for you. Click on the link below to explore all the works mentioned in this week's episode. - https://tinyurl.com/y9wvk6wu

Sheri Berman, professor of Political Science at Columbia University's Barnard College offers a historical perspective of democracy, along with some very useful definitions of concepts like illiberal, liberal, fascism, populism, and democracy. She argues that polarization, even at the scale we're experiencing today, is very common throughout history; what is unique about today is that a lot of changes are happening all at once.

Sputnik and an uncle inspired George Allison, K1IG, to become a radio amateur. George had a long and successful US Navy career where radio was always the center of his activity including MARS stations, a visit to the South Pole, and the operation of very high powered VLF and ELF stations around the World. George promotes the Wordsworth method of raising CW speed above 40 words per minute.  K1IG is my QSO Today.