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1. The English expressions you learn may or may not appear in the main story. This will let us focus on those expressions that are most useful to you, whether or not you heard them in the first half of the lesson.
2. Each month will have a theme with three or four episodes. (The remaining four to six episodes will be about current events and trending topics.) This will let us intentionally create stories about a wide variety of topics, so everyone has something fun to listen to.

This month’s theme is fashion. The first episode about fashion will be on Thursday, when we’ll talk about why it’s so hard to find an outfit that fits you well.

Here’s a special episode I created about the topic:

And here’s the text of the special episode:

Well, I knew this would happen. I didn’t know when, but I knew it would happen someday.

Oh hi—it’s Jeff. We’re just coming off our summer series of episodes about daily life in the U.S. I wrote all those in June.

And over the summer, I had some time to think about the podcast. I’m going to introduce a few changes—no, not changes, that sounds scary—a few improvements. And I wanted to share them with you.

The first thing is something that’s been nagging me for a while. It’s not always easy to pick an English expression out of the main text anymore.

Here’s what I mean. Since the early days in Plain English, the episodes have all been the same. I tell a story in the first half. Then, in the second half, I show you how to use an expression. And I always look for the expression in the text of the story. So you’re learning an expression that you heard that day.

But here’s the thing. We’re now 700 expressions in, and I can’t always find a new expression in the story to use. Don’t get me wrong: there are still many more expressions and phrasal verbs for us to learn together. They just don’t always appear in the main podcast text.

So what am I getting at? Starting this month, I’ll still share an English expression with you in every episode. But it won’t necessarily be one that you heard in the main story. And I might refresh some expressions that we’ve talked about previously.

That’s the first ch—improvement. Here’s the next one. I looked back in our catalog of old episodes and I noticed that I tend to talk about the same types of topics a lot—business, technology, politics, things like that. I want Plain English to be for everyone. So I need to fill in some of the gaps with new types of topics, so that everyone has something fun to listen to.

So starting this month, I’m going to pick a theme for the month. And each month, three or four episodes will be on the theme. And in the first few months, I’ll pick themes that haven’t gotten a lot of love around here. Of course, all the other episodes in the month will be about what’s going on in the world, just like normal.

Now, we haven’t talked a lot about fashion here at Plain English. So this month, our theme is going to be fashion. And I’ve got four episodes in the month of September that will all be about fashion.

I’ll pick a new theme every month. And you never know…I might give you the chance to vote on one of the future themes, too.

That’s enough change for one day. Look out for that first episode about fashion on September 12. It’s about why it’s so hard to find an outfit in a good size.

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Contents

• Toolkit
• Casual Dictionary
• Story pages
• Expression pages
• Archive pages
• New Dashboard

Toolkit

The video lessons have been renamed the “Toolkit” and each entry in the Toolkit is called a “Toolkit workshop.”

What’s new

Previously, each “video lesson” included a video about one term or expression that you can use to express more complex ideas. (Examples include, “even if,” “barely any,” and “not necessarily.”)

Now, we’re in the process of expanding the existing video lessons to help you learn even better. We’re updating the videos to include:

• A written summary of the lesson content
• A new exercise type, where you write a sentence based on a situation
• A multiple-choice quiz

Each video lesson is now called a Toolkit workshop.

Where to find it

Find the Toolkit from the “Learn” menu at the top of the page:

You’ll also see the most-recently-updated Toolkit workshops on your Dashboard, in a section called “Toolkit”:

The Toolkit page is arranged so that you can see every workshop all on one single page.

To help you find what you need, we’ve put each workshop into one of three tabs:

• Essentials: These are essential tools you need to express ideas in English (Click here)
• Extensions: These tools help you express more complex ideas (Click here)
• Differentiators: These are advanced workshops that will help you elevate your conversation (Click here)

Like all content at Plain English, you’ll see a gray checkmark by the workshops you’ve click on in the past:

Casual Dictionary

You might remember a feature called “Learn the Lingo.” We’ve renamed this feature the “Casual Dictionary.”

You can find it via the “Learn” menu at the top of the page:

The Casual Dictionary page has an A-Z dictionary layout, so you can easily review entries from our archives:

And you can also see a preview of recently-updated content on your Dashboard:

Previously, we added a new term with every lesson set. We’ll still be adding new entries, but we’ll also be updating previous entries.

Watch the Dashboard to see entries that have been recently updated.

Story pages

We’ve refreshed the organization and design of the main story pages (about the current events and trending topics).

Here are some of the changes:

New playbar

We’ve made some updates to the audio player in our lessons:

• The new audio player is sticky at the top of the page, so you can control the audio as you listen.
• Look for the down-arrow icon on the playbar to download the audio in either the slow or fast tabs (circled in the image below).
• Hint: As you’re listening, press the <spacebar> to pause and resume the audio.

Like always, you can easily switch between the slow and fast versions of the audio:

Exercises

Looking for the old “Exercises” page? Look no further. The interactive exercises now appear on the Story page, in the section called “Learn.”

Then click on the tab called “Activities”:

That’s where you’ll find the lesson quiz, pronunciation, vocabulary, listening, and grammar exercises.

We’ve decided to retire the flashcard feature.

Check out the Activities section here.

Dig deeper

If you like the main topic, click on the “Dig deeper” tab to find two hand-selected articles about the main topic. This is a great way to continue learning about the topic in a real-world environment. Each article has been chosen to provide a balanced, trustworthy perspective about the topic at hand.

See an example here.

Your turn

The tab called “Your turn” is the place you can practice discussing the main topic. Add your opinion, ask a question, and join the discussion. Try it out

Expression pages

If you read the section about the Story pages, you’ll find the Expressions pages are similar. Here are the updates we’ve made to the Expression pages:

• The playbar is the same as on the Stories (<spacebar> to pause and resume the audio; download the fast and slow audio)
• We have added a new quiz to the Expressions page. This four-question quiz will help you confirm your understanding of the Expression before you practice using it
• The “Your turn” tab is the place to practice writing a sentence using the Expression and get personal feedback from me

Try it out with the expression, “Carve out”:

• Audio & transcript
• Quiz
• Write an example

Archive pages

It’s now easier than ever to find the Stories and Expressions from our rich library of lessons:

Stories

The Stories archive page highlights the most recent lesson topics. At the bottom of the page, you can browse our rich history of topics by category. This is what it looks like:

We’ll also hand-select four stories from the archives for you to explore. This month, we’ve chosen four stories about American television hosts.

You can access the archives via the “Learn” menu.

Check out the story archive page now.

Expressions

Can you believe we have over 650 lessons about English expressions? And we’re not even close to doing them all!

The Expressions archive page is now even easier to explore. At the top, you’ll find the most recent expressions that we’ve produced.

At the bottom, you’ll find a dictionary-style index of Expressions. Now you can browse our whole history of Expressions from A-Z and click through to the ones you’d like to learn. Here’s how it looks:

New Dashboard

You’ll also notice we’ve refreshed the Dashboard, to make it easier for you to take full advantage of your Plain English Plus+ membership.

From the Dashboard, you’ll see images of the newest Toolkit workshops, Casual Dictionary entries, and quick links to get you Expert Answers, the fast version of the podcast, and more.

Browse the new Dashboard, click around (you can’t break anything–don’t worry!), and enjoy the refreshed Plain English experience!

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The Quizlet flash cards were one of the first features of Plain English Plus+ when we first launched the subscription in 2020. And we were happy to include them in the Starter membership, too.

However, the time has come to bid a fond farewell to this feature of the membership. The last flashcard set was last Thursday, Lesson 653.

The flashcards will be removed from PlainEnglish.com starting this week.

Why we are retiring the flash cards

Our main goal is to provide you with the tools you need to upgrade your English and to do it via storytelling. We created the flash card feature to help you learn five new words from each main lesson.

However, there are some challenges to this approach:

• Flash cards are a good way to remember something you have already learned. They are not a good way to learn something new.
• We produced flash card sets with five terms for each lesson. However, flash cards are most effective in large sets, where you can use spaced repetition to reinforce your learning over a long period of time. Our approach was not ideal for learning.
• Quizlet is a good free tool for sharing flash card sets. However, Quizlet sets do not flexibly fit into external websites like PlainEnglish.com. As we continue to improve the online experience for our members, we want to make sure that every part of the site gives our users a consistent, high-quality experience.

In short, it became clear that creating one short flash card set per lesson is not the most effective way to teach new words. And Quizlet is not the best tool for a membership website like Plain English.

Add the flash cards to your Quizlet account

The new layout of the website, scheduled for March 4, 2023, will not include the flash cards. However, you can still access the flash cards from previous lessons via our Quizlet page.

• Log into (or create an account at) Quizlet.com
• Enter this URL: https://quizlet.com/class/11089078
• Browse the sets. You can click “Save and Edit” on any set to make your own set.
• You can study the sets combined by using the “Combine” tool

Additional benefits to your subscription

At Plain English, we don’t like to take things away. So every time we retire a feature, we want to make sure we add new features to your subscription, so you get as much or more total value.

Here’s what you can look forward to at each level:

Starter members

Previously, the Starter membership included access to the flash cards and the interactive translations inside each lesson. We are proud to announce that the Starter membership will now include all our interactive exercises on the Lessons and Expressions page, including:

• Review quiz (for each Story and each new Expression)
• Pronunciation practice (voice recorder)
• Vocabulary practice (match the words)
• Grammar (verb test and preposition fill in the blanks)
• Listening practice (write what you hear)

These exercises are a fantastic way to become more active in English and reinforce your learning. They will be available to all Starter members beginning this week.

Plus+ members

In the Plus+ membership, we have recently revised the way we present the video lessons. What we previously called “video lessons” are now called the Toolkit (check it out here). The individual lessons are now called Toolkit workshops.

We are in the process of revising the existing Toolkit workshops. As we do so, we are adding the following exercises to each one:

• A new weekly quiz on the Expressions page (starting this week)
• A new quiz on each Toolkit workshop (previously called video lessons)
• New interactive writing exercises in new and revised Toolkit workshops

These exercises are a great way to get immediate feedback on your practice and they are all new as of this year.

We can be sad that we’re saying goodbye to Quizlet, but the flash card sets have served us well. Remember, you can always review previous sets via the Quizlet link above. We have no plans to remove the sets and can guarantee they will be available at the above link at least until June 2024.

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