Say Hello to Elllo!

Okay, my new favorite website for English learners is http://www.elllo.org/

That's with three l's, by the way.

Here's what I like about Elllo:

1. It's got a million, zillion cool videos - conversations, stories, all kinds of great stuff. You can listen to people talk, read a transcript of what they say, answer questions about the conversations, and learn, learn, learn English. All kinds of English, too - the videos feature native speakers from many different English-speaking countries, plus non-native speakers.

2. In that little search box up on the right - you can type in something you're interested in, such as cats, dragons, technology, race cars, you name it, and you will get conversations on that subject. (You have to look below the Google Ads to find the conversations. They are all numbered. Why? I don't know.)

3. You can listen to all this stuff on your computer or download it onto an MP3 player so you can listen on the go.

Here's what I don't like:

1. For me, the website is visually confusing. I am an extremely visual person and when there is a lot of visual information, my brain takes it all in and if this visual information is disorganized and there is a lot of it, my brain lights up and big red letters flash "WARNING WARNING WARNING - OVERLOAD OVERLOAD OVERLOAD" and there is a beeping sound during all this and then suddenly! Crash! My brain shuts down and I can't look at that confusing plate of too much information anymore.

Okay, not really. Not exactly. But you get the idea.

For me, it's a visually confusing website.

I am guessing this website was created and is maintained by brilliant people who are auditory learners. I mean, hey, this is all stuff to listen to, right? This website is all about listening and understanding English - more than watching videos. These are not silent movies!

So... what to do?

Well, these folks could pay me to give them my opinion about what would make their website easier to look at and use.

Or not.

And you can check out this website.

Or not.

If you ask me, I think you should.

It's pretty amazing.

Pretty darn amazing, very definitely.

So if you've got a headache from crazy English, my prescription is:

Take a look -

Give a listen -

To Elllo

Today.