Hot at the Library: Learn English on Audio Book in Your 1st Language

Learning English in English is what we do in LINC classes.

However, there are other methods, one of which is to learn English in one's own first language. For some of you, this means learning English with a Farsi-, Korean-, Spanish-, Mandarin-, Arabic-, or Portuguese-speaking coach.

Well, while you're at home this Christmas break, why not check out this free resource at Toronto's public library website? Then come back to class and share your findings, maybe in a class presentation!

Based on the pictures in this post, are you able to find the right pages? Hint: You'll need your library card number to get there!

St Nick, Kriss Kringle, Santa Claus?

Ruins of Myra, Turkey

Some of you have kept asking me this season about the identity of Santa Claus. Well, he's not Jesus Christ, for starters! Not even close.

But who really was Santa, historically?

Here's an article that delves into the history of this person but doesn't explain how the modern red-and-white jolly old fellow came about.

For that, you'll have to read up on American artist Thomas Nast of the 19th century.

Ho ho ho!

An Experiment in Intonation

Speaking English involves not just mouthing the right consonants and vowels in succession, which is hard enough, but also singing it right, making the sounds go up and down, fast or slow, and pausing at the right time.



Listen to this video, read this article, and then do the following:

1. Play the video, but instead of trying to follow her words, aim to follow the pitch of each syllable by saying "chee chee, chee Chee chee chee ...." Do it twice.
2. Type out the transcript of what she is saying (checking the article could help), underlining where the pitch goes up, and putting in a slash mark (/) where there is a pause. Check the transcript against the video to make sure the it's correct. E.g.  “It wouldn’t be fair / for all the girls to buy princesses / and all the boys (price) / to buy superheroes!”
   
3. Read the transcript silently, then aloud, with the video. Then read it without the video, slowly at first, and more quickly the next few times.

Feel free to videotape your reading and post it to Youtube! Have fun! Don't forget to post your results!

New Year's Job Fair January 5 in North York

Even before school starts again on January 10, there's going to be a job fair at North York Centre that you're encouraged to check out.

Participating organizations include the Government of Ontario's Settlement.org, Poczo Manufacturing, RBC Insurance, WorleyParsons Resources & Energy, YWCA Canada, Cilia Payment Solutions, and the Academy of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences.

This is a great opportunity not only to survey the employment market and make yourself known but also to brush up on your spoken English. I look forward to reading your blogs about your vacation activities including, hopefully, this job fair!

Best wishes on your job hunt!

Win 1 of 5 Prizes If You're an Internationally Educated Professional (IEP)

 
The annual IEP Conference is coming around again, the next one scheduled for February 10, 2012.

Take this survey and you may win a DVD player or any of four other prizes!

Today's Assignment

1. What are some resources to help the busy mom-entrepreneur, or momtrepreneur, get ahead in business? How about a Gmail application called Boomerang? Check out this article. Then scroll to the bottom and click on Toronto if you enjoyed your read and want an invitation to their launch party in Toronto!
2. Need some IT skills but don't have the money? How about free courses for those skills you need? Check out Teach Me Today! This two-week vacation's too precious to waste, as my parents would say! :D
3. Role play: Ending a Business Relationship.
4. Watch Dragons Den Episode 10 together and fill in the Chart: http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/episodes.html

Aww, isn't that sweet--Yuletide Scenes at Pearson

Christmas time (Yuletide) is a time for much nostalgia, warm-and-fuzzy feelings, and happy memories, and this Toronto Star series captures some of the mood of the season.

Sure, go ahead and cry a little.

You may miss your classmates over the next two weeks, but we'll see you back on Tuesday, January 10, in the new year.

Today's Assignment

1. Check out the entreprisetoronto.com website, and describe on your blog a 2012 morning workshop worth visiting. Alternatively, describe your experience in business using the verb tenses you have learnt.
2. Role Play with a partner: Negotiating a Business Deal.
3. Watch Dragons' Den together as a class.
   
    

Today's Assignment

More wonderful cartoons at http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/starting_up.asp

1. Check out this free Business Planning Resource.
2. Watch this video on “GYBO” and assess it with your partner.
3. Role Play with another partner: Making Business Contacts

Thank you!! And Merry Christmas!

It was a supremely Christmassy time we had today, and I'd like to thank everybody for making our graduation-cum-celebration-cum-potluck a success. Apologies, though, to Henry, Qiao Xia, Amar, and anyone else who didn't get their certificates--I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I'll try to make it up in the following week. Don't worry--your benchmarks are as good as gold, and you're making good progress.

Thanks to our class choir and our pair of willing conductors, Ping and Sandy! Without you we might've ended up singing a different tune to a different beat. Mehrnoosh's discourse on Yalda Night and recitation from Persian poet Hafez really knocked it out of the stadium. Unfortunately, Nasrin couldn't join us, having to rush back to her fevered daughter after dropping off her dish for the potluck. And what a potluck, eh? Also, kudos to those of you who stayed to clean up, both upstairs and downstairs.

And thanks so much for the lovely surprise of cards and gifts and the kindest thoughts and wishes:

Thanks, Ping, Yan, Judy, Eva, Anny, Jessie, Huayu, Ling, Victor, Jane, Sheppard, Mizuho, and Bernice! Hope you had as good a time this year as I did, both in class and on our field trips!

Wow, what a card! My colleagues were pretty much blown away!

Ling and Mizuho put their creative juices together and look what we got!!

And thank you so much, Parastoo, Nelly, Alice, Hamid, Quinn, Sandra, Qiaoxia, Henry, Mary, and Fariba! It was such a joy having you guys each day of the week!

But that's not all ...

  

The cards alone would've been more than necessary, yet there was more--a generous gift card and a beautiful hamper of goodies guaranteed to spoil this teacher over the holidays.

Thanks so much once again, and thank God, above all, who first gave His Son to be the sacrifice to save us. What a gift! Because of that first Christmas some 2,011 years ago, we're truly able to say with joy, "Merry Christmas!"

We're Famous! Merry Christmas!

Not many Canadians can say they've appeared on a CBC live broadcast, but we can. About 10 MicroSkills participants enjoyed CBC's annual open house this morning and were taped, filmed, and live broadcast to the rest of the nation as part of the audience in the Glenn Gould Studio.

Year-End Special Activities--Dec. 13, 15, 16

That time of the year be upon us! And we at MicroSkills have lined up special activities to support your quest for language learning and social integration!

On Thursday, Dec. 15, our Level 4 - 5 class is headed for CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in the CBC Building at 250 Front St. for its 10:45 a.m. Sounds of the Season taping. We should leave the Southbound Platform of Sheppard Yonge Station no later than 9:15 a.m. and get into line at the Studio as early as possible.

And, finally, our Graduation Ceremony-cum-Christmas Concert-cum-Year-end Potluck Luncheon happens on Friday, Dec. 16. Please come to class on time on that day, bringing with you a big dish to share with your schoolmates. We will also be preparing a class presentation for the concert on that day. What rules of potluck etiquette can you can think of?

Today's Assignment

1. Make corrections to your blog (using the Editing Checklist) or write about yesterday's field trip. Feel free to use the pictures from this blog.
2. Read or view some of the performers at CBC Sounds of the Season during our visit: http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/community/sots-schedule.html
   Discuss your results with a partner.
3. Role Play with a Partner: Riding the Subway
   
   

What an Active Concert Day!

Brave souls from among our classmates past and presents taking a brisk tour of the environs before the start of the concert--and that's petite Nicole there, who covered the distance on foot and behaved through the whole performance!

Today's Assignment

1. Read the article on public transit and submit your comment at the 680News website.
2. Search for "TTC token" in Google News and tell a classmate what's the latest news.
3. Find out about the Toronto Mass Choir from its website, watch it singing, and then write a post on your blog about it, embedding some pictures and a video clip.
4. Listening comprehension: Getting Around

Today's Assignment

1. Pick a floor plan from these, calculate the mortgage, and blog your findings.
2. Listening Comprehension: Refinancing Mortgage Loans.
   

The Ups and Downs of Life

With real estate prices on the climb over the last decade, what do you think about the latest announcement about mortgage rates rising?

Will house prices go up or down with the change?

Comment on it on your blog and let's talk about it!

Buffet at Friendship Restaurant & Silent Night

A merry time was had by all at Level 4 - 5's first-ever official field trip luncheon, at Friendship Restaurant.

Participants, with class alumni Sheppard, Ling, and Mizuho, were Qiao Xia, Eva and daughter, Amanda, Alieh, and Alice, who had her very first Chinese meal.

Today's Assignment

I. Look at the charts on the Toronto Real Estate market. What can do you think will be the numbers for December 2011 in terms of:

1. Sales
2. New listings
3. Sales-to-New Listings Ratio
4. Average Resale Home Price
5. Affordability

Write your answers in your blog using the correct tenses.

II. Listening Comprehension: Understanding Interest Rates

Today's Assignment

1. Listen to Tom Lehrer's A Christmas Carol and see if any of the tunes sound familiar. Then follow along again with the lyrics opened in another tab. Discuss the song with a partner.
2. Role play on A Christmas Feast with a partner.
3. Read this article on Holiday Decorating, and write an article on your blog on your plans for this Christmas using the vocabulary and verb tenses you have learnt today.