Improve your English in a more interesting way

Hi, I'm Alastair 👋.

I'm an English guy from London, who has spent 35 years on this earth studying foreign languages, working in technology, teaching English to foreigners, and thinking about learning languages.

I'm a native English speaker, am fluent in Italian and French, have a Masters in Mandarin Chinese, and have studied Russian, Latin and Greek, as well as dabbling in Spanish and German.

I've lived in the UK, France, Italy and China. I now live in Malta, am married to an Italian, have a little (almost) trilingual baby, and have friends from all over the world, so I've spent my life thinking about how best to learn a language.

I'm building Leonardo English to help people like you improve your English while learning about the world.

At the start, learning a language is about being out of your comfort zone.

If you are too comfortable, it means you aren't learning.

If it feels hard, then this means that you are learning, even if it is a bit painful at the start.

Yes. When you become a member you will receive a unique link to add the member-only episodes to your favourite podcast app. You can read more about this here.

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We do not currently have lessons specifically on grammar or vocabulary, although by listening to the podcasts you will improve both your grammar and vocabulary through understanding the words and structures used by native speakers.

The key vocabulary is provided for every podcast, with an average of 100 words highlighted with definitions.

Depending on your level, and how you use the podcasts, you could learn 100+ new words per week.

We're language learners ourselves, and know firsthand that just focussing on vocabulary and grammar isn't what makes you fluent.

No, we have something better. You can use all of the learning resources for a selection of podcast episodes for free, with as long as you like. You don't even need to create an account. You can also listen to lots of our podcast episodes here or on your favourite podcast app.

If you want to unlock the learning materials and all the bonus episodes, and support our work, then we'd love for you to become a member.

What's more, we have a 30-days 'no questions asked' refund policy. Full refunds are all processed within 24hrs.

The majority of our content is in a British 'BBC' accent, otherwise known as The Queen's English.

On occasion we may have content in an American, Australian, or South African accent.

Leonardo Da Vinci was the quintessential renaissance man - a painter, philosopher, artist, mathematician, and more. We believe that everyone can aspire to broaden their knowledge, and be a bit more like Leonardo.

Sure, if you are a member you can request topics for us to make.

We want to make the podcasts that our members want to listen to - join today and start requesting topics within minutes.

It is for Intermediate speakers and above.

If you can read and understand most of this website, you will be able to understand the podcasts.

Every podcast comes with key vocabulary and a transcript, so you should be able to follow easily, even if you don't immediately understand every word.

We release new episodes twice a week, on a Tuesday and Friday.

Members get unlimited access to every episode.

We make 1 episode per week available for non-members.

What a lovely thought! Yes, of course you can. You can do this on the Gift Memberships page

Great question. Generally these sessions cover an interesting topic, a presentation, or a community discussion.

They take place virtually, typically on the last Wednesday of the month at 7pm CET (Paris/Rome time).

It's a great opportunity to learn something new, practise your English with other curious minds (but speaking isn't required), and have some fun at the same time.

Past topics include "How to actually use podcasts to improve your English", "Accents in English", "What British people really mean", and "Brexit".