Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does ESL stand for?
A: English as a second language.

Q: What is the purpose of this site?
A: This site gives advanced students of English the opportunity to learn from actual conversations between native speakers.

Q: How do I use the site?
A: Each posted conversation contains both a verbatim transcript and an mp3 audio file. Press the play button at the top of the conversation to hear the audio, and follow along with the transcript. You can also pause the audio by hitting the pause button, or jump to any point within the conversation by dragging the slider bar right or left.

Q: How are the conversations organized?
A: The conversations are organized by category. You can browse through the categories under the “Categories” section located along the site’s righthand column. You can also search for conversations by entering relevant keywords into the search box, which is also located in the site’s righthand column.

Q: What is AltaVista Babel Fish?
A: AltaVista Babel Fish is a software program that translates the text of the current page into other languages. To use it, click the flag of the country whose language you want read the text in. The software can translate this site’s content into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, German, Italian, French and Portuguese.

Q: Can I view this site in languages other than English?
A: You may view this site in eight other languages using the AltaVista Babel Fish software (see above).