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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English. On today's program, Brian Lynn has advice on some amazing houseplants. Ana Mateo and I report on a popular game that had its start in Mexico. Jill Robbins has advice about avoiding falls on the health report. Then, the lesson of the day explores can and can't, but first… If you are looking for houseplants that do not take up a lot of space and are easy to grow, air plants might be the right choice. There are more than 500 different species of air plants. Officially, they are known as Tillandsia. These plants are native to places in North and South America that support year-round plant growth. Air plants belong to the same family as the pineapple. Instead of soil, these plants attach themselves to things like trees, rocks, and buildings. They do not cause problems for the objects they grow on. Air plants do not have roots. They depend on specialized cells called trichomes to permit their leaves to take in water and nutrients. Associated Press gardening writer Jessica DeMiano has experimented with air plants and offers these guidelines for people wanting to grow them. Air plants require bright, indirect light. So they should be placed near an east or west-facing window, but not directly in front of it. Direct sunlight can burn the plant's leaves. In homes with average humidity levels, put air plants in a bowl of room-temperature water once a week for 30 to 60 minutes. In homes with drier air, this process can be repeated when needed. Lightly shake the plants to remove extra water, then place them upside down on a cloth to dry for several hours. This step is necessary to prevent water from collecting on the plant's leaves, which can cause damage. If using chlorinated water, it is best to let the liquid sit for 12 to 24 hours to permit the chemical to dissipate before watering plants. Air plants are especially sensitive to chlorine. Growers should feed their air plants with any all-purpose houseplant, bromeliad, or orchid fertilizer. The substance should be added to the soaking water monthly to provide added nutrients. Use about half the amount suggested by the fertilizer manufacturer. Air plants bloom only once. The resulting pink, coral, purple, or white flowers are a signal that the plants are nearing death. However, air plants produce offshoots known as pups. These can be separated into new plants once they grow to about one-third the size of the parent. Notable air plants include Spanish moss, which can be found hanging from large trees in tropical or subtropical areas. In the home, Spanish moss is grown in a humid environment, such as a bathroom. Another kind is Tillandsia aianatha, which is also known as the sky plant. It is a shaggy-looking plant with green bracts. Bracts are leaf-like structures that grow from the area just beneath a flower. The tops of bracts can turn pink or purple before flowering. Tillandsia caput medusae is named for its similarity to the snake-haired head of Medusa from Greek mythology. The plant is popular because of its long, wavy leaves that grow upward from a fat, round base. Perhaps the most unusual species of Tillandsia is the xerographic air plant. This kind is known as the king of air plants. It can grow up to about one-half meter. The plant's long, thin silver leaves curl downward to produce a round shape that sets it apart from other air plants. You can place air plants in just about any spot that provides the required sunlight and good airflow. Glass containers or terrariums are popular choices. But growers can also put air plants inside seashells or on rocks. One could even create a floating Tillandsia garden by hanging several plants from fishing line. The plants can also be attached to natural wood pieces with wire or glue. Some choose to grow them inside hanging frames. When choosing placement possibilities, the main thing to keep in mind is to make sure you are fully meeting all the plant's needs. I'm Brian Lynn. On a Sunday afternoon in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood, Rosa Maria Espinoza joins about 80 men in a park to play Pollyanna. The almost 100-year-old game was created in a Mexican prison and requires luck and thinking skill. Pollyanna still carries a stigma connected to its birth as a prison game. However, it is growing popular as people from different backgrounds discover its appeal. Espinoza says she likes the excitement of the game. But sometimes, she adds, the dice aren't lucky. Pollyanna is played with four people and a square wooden box with a sunken center for dice rolling. Each player has four pieces that they race around the box. They use dice combinations and math to govern how to move their pieces strategically. At the same time, they must also try to block moves by their competitors. The board represents the limits of a prison and getting out of it before others. Winning freedom is the game's goal. People used to say these folks know how to play because they've been to prison, said the 62-year-old Espinoza. Thank God I've never been, but I like to play. That was the first time she had competed against anyone besides her family and friends. She usually plays on Tuesdays and Sundays in the small church in her apartment building. Alejandro Olmos studies ancient cultures at the National Anthropology and History School. He has studied and played Pollyanna for years. He has followed the game's roots to the Indian game Chopper, or Pachizi. He found evidence of the connection dating back 1,400 years. After British colonization of India, the game spread to Western countries under different names, including Ludo, Aggravation, and Pachizi. In 1915, the American company Parker Brothers marketed a similar game. Parker Brothers named it Pollyanna, after a popular 1913 children's book by Eleanor H. Porter. Sometime around 1940, the game spread to prisons in Mexico City, including Le Camberi. That prison's physical structure is very similar to the design of the game board. So experts say Le Camberi may have been the birthplace of modern Pollyanna and its new set of rules. Olmos said that in Mexico, the game reflects the roughness of prison life. Mistakes are not pardoned. Six years ago, Jonathan Ruggieri started a family business, marketing Pollyanna. His goal was to bring together people from different backgrounds. One of the early difficulties was establishing common rules for the game, which in Ruggieri's words has been spreading from below from prison to the street, and from the street into neighborhoods. The 37-year-old man learned to play while serving a sentence in a prison outside Mexico City, the capital. After his release, he struggled to find work. He and his wife launched a food delivery service. However, the business proved unsuccessful. This led him to accept an offer to make a Pollyanna board for a friend. Then came another offer. Soon he began to post his creations on social media. He said they gave up the food business and started making Pollyannas instead. The business, Pollyanna Canada Frogs, has organized 55 Pollyanna tournaments. They are family-friendly, including people of all ages. We want to remove the game's stigma, Ruggieri said. I'm Ana Mateo. And I'm Mario Ritter Jr. To age well, doctors say we should remember the importance of good balance. It matters when you wash yourself, put clothing on, and generally move around in your home and elsewhere. As we age, good balance permits us to live more independently. Difficulties with balance can be dangerous. The United States Centers for Disease Control reports that 3 million older people in America seek medical care for fall-related injuries each year. But we can prevent some falls, said Rupa Anmolsing. She is a geriatrician, a doctor who specializes in treating old people. She is also the creator of the Balance Class program at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She said that some people have a misconception that part of getting old is, you're going to fall. That's not true. You can control how you fall or if you fall. To prevent falls, geriatricians say people should start asking themselves questions about their balance as early as 50 years old. Here are the questions. Do I ever feel unsteady? If you feel unsteady or lose balance from time to time, ask your doctor to check all your body systems that can affect balance. Along with muscle and bone problems, unsteadiness can also result from poor blood pressure, inner ear problems, nervous system issues, and more. Maybe you do not have unsteadiness but wonder about your skill at balancing. You can test yourself easily and at home to find out if you need any medical intervention. Stand next to a wall or something that can provide support if needed. Raise one leg. Can you hold that position for 10 seconds? Now try the other leg. If you can stand on each leg alone for 10 seconds, you should be fine, said Greg W. Hartley, a professor of physical therapy specializing in geriatrics at the University of Miami in Florida. If you can't do that, then you should probably go see a physical therapist, he said. A physical therapist treats people with conditions or injuries that affect body movement. Another at-home test is called TUG or timed up and go. Hartley suggests doing this test with supervision. You begin the test from a seated position. Then stand up and start a timer immediately. Walk 3 meters, turn and walk back to your seat. Stop the timer as soon as you sit down. If the test takes you longer to complete than 15 seconds, your risk for falling is very high. But if you do it in 12 seconds or less, your fall risk is almost zero. Also, the National Council on Aging offers an online set of questions to predict your risk of a fall. What can I do to improve balance? Because muscle mass lessens in most people during their 30s, geriatricians say the best way to keep good balance is to stay physically active throughout life. Anmol Singh says it is never too late to act on that advice. Activities including Tai Chi and Yoga are good for older adults because they involve controlled movements while shifting body weight. There also are simpler exercises people can work into their everyday lives. Anmol Singh says standing on one foot while waiting in line at a store is good. Or at home, sit down and stand up several times straight without using a support. Another easy exercise is the three-way leg lift. Hold on to a support, then lift the leg to the front, then to the side, and then to the back. How often should I do the exercises? The National Institute of Aging says people should spend at least 150 minutes per week in general physical activity to improve balance and overall health. Hartley said exercises done on a usual basis help train the brain to react correctly when you start to fall. Just like an athlete needs to do repetition to train for a sport, you're doing repetition to train for everyday balance activities, he said. I'm Jill Robbins. Hello, my name is Ana Mateo. And my name is Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. You're listening to the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series, Let's Learn English. This series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Let's jump right in with a short clip from Lesson 20 of the series. We'll play the clip three times in a row. Listen to Ana ask a question and then make a statement. And listen for how she pronounces the small word, can. Can you teach? You can be a teacher in a school. Can you teach? You can be a teacher in a school. Can you teach? You can be a teacher in a school. There's a difference between how she pronounces the word can when she asks the question, can you teach? And how she pronounces it when she makes a statement. Listen one more time. Can you teach? You can be a teacher in a school. With her statement, you can be a teacher in a school, she says the word can a bit faster. And the vowel sound changes from a, like in apple, to the schwa, a. This change of vowel sound is something that happens when we talk faster. That's a funny word, schwa, isn't it? When English speakers do not put any stress on a vowel, it sounds like this, a. We write it with the upside down e. Why do you think we have a special word for this sound, Jill? I think we need a special word for it because it can be written using a, e, i, o, u, or y in words. It is the most common vowel sound in English because it represents unstressed vowels. Lesson 20 of Let's Learn English has a pronunciation practice video that explains this change of vowel sound. Let's listen. In slow speech, can sounds like can. In fast speech, it often sounds like can. Listen to Anna talking to Pete about being a teacher. Can you teach? You can be a teacher in a school. But now, let's listen to the negative forms of the verb can. These, of course, are the words cannot and can't. While it might seem simple, we want you to know how and when native speakers use each form. When we want people to clearly understand that we are unable to do something, we sometimes use the longer form cannot. For example, when you talk on the phone and you have to explain a problem, you want to be sure that the other person understands you. So, you might choose to use the form cannot. For example, if you are locked out of a room or locked out of a building, you might say, I've tried the key over and over and I cannot open the door. Cannot gives emphasis to the meaning. As we explained in a previous lesson of the day, emphasis is spelled E-M-P-H-A-S-I-S. It means extra importance and is similar to the word stress. Another reason we might choose to say cannot when speaking on the phone is because there is only a small difference in pronunciation between the positive form can and the negative form can't. Sometimes you can hear the letter T when we say can't, but other times it is harder to hear and it just sounds like this, can't. In American English, we call that a held T. Instead of pronouncing the T, your tongue just comes to a stop against the hard part of the roof of your mouth just behind the upper front teeth. Maybe we'd better say that location one more time. Good idea. I'll repeat that. The tongue comes to a stop against the hard part of the roof of your mouth just behind the upper front teeth. In the pronunciation video of lesson 20, you can hear Pete first pronounce can't with the letter T, and then the next time you hear him pronounce it with the held T, can't. Let's listen. No, I can't code, I can't teach, I can't cook, I can't do anything. I notice that when people send text messages, they often send a message saying I can, when I'm sure they mean I can't. I think that's because they're using their voice to write or dictating, you know. The text and the phone software cannot tell the difference between the two words. How can we help our listeners hear and say the forms correctly? Listen to these examples. I can, I can't. When we say the positive form, we pronounce the letter N longer. The N sound, n, n, n, lasts longer than in the negative form. In fact, in the negative form, because the tongue and voice stop, there is almost no sound of the letter N. Can't. So again, listen to the difference. I can, I can't. There is a difference, but it is small. If you cannot hear the difference, don't worry. Usually, you will know that it's the negative form just from the situation, from all the other information you get from the conversation. And, if you are speaking and want to be very clear, simply pronounce the letter T, like can't. I'm Jill Robbins, and you're listening to the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Andrew, earlier in the lesson, you said you were going to give the listeners more examples. That's right. We are going to give examples of how we pronounce the verb can when we speak quickly. Jill, you can just ask me a question, and I'll answer it. That sounds pretty easy. Are you ready? Ready. Can you do it? Yeah, I can do it. Can you see it? Yeah, I can see it. Can you come over? Yeah, I can come over. Can you send it to me? Yeah, I can send it to you. Can you hear a difference? Yeah, I can hear a difference. Can you smell it? I can smell it. Can you put it in the oven? I can put it in the oven. Can you open the door? I can open the door. Can you give me a hand? I can give you a hand. Can you give me a minute? I can give you a minute. Can you give me all your money? I don't think so. I cannot give you all of my money. Just checking to see if you were really listening. What can you give me? Hmm. Good question. I can give you... Let's see. I can give you free advice. Advice? You mean you can give me suggestions for how to fix a problem? Sure. Well, I don't have any problems. You don't have any problems? Not today. Well, lucky you. I think maybe you should give me advice. So, how about this? I can thank you for helping me and our listeners with the Learning English Podcast. It's the high point of my day. But I can't believe we spent the whole lesson talking about this one little word. I can. Getting all the details of American pronunciation takes time. And people need lots of examples. And there's much more our listeners can learn from Lesson 20 of Let's Learn English. In our next lesson of the day, we'll talk about an important topic from Lesson 20, having skills and knowing how to use them. That is a great topic. I look forward to speaking with you about it. Until then, thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English Podcast. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. And that's our show for today.