G'day mate, how are you going? Today, I am going to talk about how to make better use of economist.com? The Economist is one of the quality well-known magazines in the world. It's not completely free, but when you have a closer look at the website, you can find useful free articles, blogs and podcasts. Why don't we take full advantage of these opportunities? I will introduce you some of the free features economist.com offers. Let's begin.
First of all, economist.com's podcasts have heaps of high quality contents, which mightn't be suitable for those having yet mastered basic English grammar and vocabularies, but you still can learn everything from scratch, if you wish
Here is one example: https://www.economist.com/podcasts/
Personally, I frequently listen to podcasts here at economist.com. Even the excerpt is also a piece of useful information for gaining new knowledge as well. For instance, if you have a look at the above image, you might have some unfamiliar words, such as exacerbating, woes, upending and staycations. Do you know all of the meanings? Even if you've known them, can you use them in a practical way? If not, then this is a good indication of what you should do. That is, you can steal them, and formulate your own sentence for your self-talk immediately after you've found these sorts of words. This is the best way to get used to the use of unfamiliar words.
I particular like the page of "Open Future", in which encompasses heaps of new ideas and intriguing commentaries. You won't be bored rigid for sure. The topic are mainly associated with markets and technology, but professional commentators are discussing these areas in such a scintillating way. You can definitely learn much more things from this page, but of course there are couple of other Blogs as well. In my view, many articles are fairly easy to read thanks to the use of non-technical words. You can see the page like this:
For those preparing for GMAT or GRE, economist.com offers these prep online courses, which might not be free, but of great value to you. Unfortunately, GMAT course is currently being under construction, but it should be ready soonish. In especial, due to the lockdown period, online course is just wonderful. I had taken GRE once before I decided to go to Australia instead of Canada or the US for my study-abroad. But, if I these online courses had existed, I would have presumably chosen this GRE course. The quality could be assured, I reckon. https://gre.economist.com/?gsrc=economist_nav
Anyway, I am also teaching academic English online, so if you are stuck in English learning preparation, please let me know so that I can personalise your own packaged program.
Third, I highly recommend reading the Economist 1843, which contains so many interesting piece of analyses with regard to Life and Culture
You might want to not just read articles here, but reading them aloud for boosting your oral fluency and vocabularies as well as improving pronunciation. There are heaps of beautiful sentences out there. All yours! Try to steal some ideas and phrases. Mostly, articles are written in British English, so if you prefer British to American, then this is for you.
Finally, I highly recommend "The World in 2020" to increase your knowledge for English discussion with your speaking partner or online tutor
Here, you can see so many different perspectives in the realm of world affairs including politics, science & technology, culture and others. This page is more like summaries of old articles, so you've probably already had some prior knowledge. Might be a bit easier to understand contents, but you will find out some interesting analyses, which are useful for your regular conversation or discussion with your speaking partner or tutor. You can fully show off your acquired ideas, analyses and phrases coming learnt from the World in 2020 page.
Let's utilise these free sources for your daily English learning!
That's all for today. Thanks for reading!
Have a good one!