Bachahahaha ... What a Spirited Performance

Those who made it to Roy Thomson Hall were not deathly disappointed, including Roya, Firouzeh, Reza, Yan, Helena, Diana, Jenny, Di, Jeff, and Edward (did I miss out anybody?). Thanks to Peter, most came with him on the subway in the moaning, but some groan-ups came on their own.

Organist Christian Lane unearthed his sometimes grave, sometimes shrieking, repertoire of vital organ sounds that kept all souls fastened throughout the entertombment. When we finally departed for the ghoul, drizzly outdoors, I bereave many would agree it was an exhumely phantasmic concert.

See you tomb morrow! More pictures below:

Field Trip on Wednesday and Monday's Assignment

Halloween Spooktacular

Meet at 11:25 a.m. at Roy Thomson Hall. Free Choir and Organ Concert Series: Christian Lane, Organ – A Hallowe’en Spooktacular. Here are a couple of what pieces you will be listening to:

• Bach: Toccata in D
• Boëllmann: Toccata from Suite Gothique

No children below 6 years old. Those leaving from Don Mills should meet Peter in front of the coffee shop in the station at 10 a.m. and depart for St. Andrew Station by 10:15 a.m.

 

Monday's Assignment

Today we begin on the theme of Customer Service!
 

1. Complete all your blog corrections using Peter's documents from the Writing Workshop.
2. Role Play: Complaining about Customer Service 
3. Listening Comprehension—Customer Training Video

Friday's Assignment

Having enjoyed Anna and Armine's workshop on accessing Ontario's health services, as well as Peter's writing workshop, let's complete the following tasks:

Some people dress up in medical costumes for Halloween.

1. Write a 10-point summary of what you learned during the workshop and mutually check your writing with a partner. When finished, upload it to your blog.
2. Watch and discuss one surprising thing you see in this clip. Can you remember what this has to do with Halloween?
3. Listening & Role Play: Scheduling a Medical Appointment 

Should my new password be "24awtewLNCSTDY3"?

Or, should my password be "password"?

If your password is iloveyou, trustno1, letmein, monkey, dragon, or jesus, you've got one of the 25 worst passwords of this year! Passwords are important, especially for online banking, email, and blogging, and it's frightening to know that someone might be able to get into your data and mess with it.

It's also embarrassing to find out your password is on that list. But what's worse is when you forget your lousy password.

So you really want to make sure that your password is a good one and that you have good security habits to keep yourself and your messaging safe.

Following is a list of secrets to create a strong yet manageable password. Please comment on their ideas. Then enjoy the following video:

Whither Thy Language, O Canada?

The National Post has an interesting article today tracing where language is going in Canada.

Can you answer the following questions?

1. Which of the 25 top immigrant languages most spoken at home is growing the fastest in Canada?
1. Arabic
2. Hindi
3. Mandarin
4. Tagalog
2. Which are the top 5 immigrant languages spoken at home in Toronto?
1. Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, and Russian
2. Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Chinese, and Vietnamese
3. Cantonese, Punjabi, Chinese, Urdu, and Tamil
4. Italian, Portuguese, Cantonese, Tamil, and Tagalog

Answers below:

Wednesday's Assignment

Welcome to this afternoon's learning tasks!

1. Listen and Role Play: Doctor-Patient Confidentiality
2. Vocabulary: Medical Advice
3. Read and Role Play 1 Question: Q&A about Ontario's Health Program

 

Monday's Assignment

 

Welcome to a new week on the theme of Ontario's healthcare system!

 

1. Write five sentences using the words we learned today, e.g. toothache, to set something off, big time (adverb), periodontist, tuft, embedded, aggravated, to floss.
2. Read about free dental care in Toronto; then discuss with a partner.
3. Listening & Role Play (with a partner): Seeing a Dentist 
4. Listening & Vocabulary: Friendly Dental Care

Friday's Assignment

Welcome to another great day of looking at entrepreneurship.

1. Using your editing checklist, make corrections on your blog.
2. Listen and Role Play: Describing Brisk or Slow Business
3. Click through the Amazon Associates website, and place a widget on your blog.

Bonus Activity: Watch this clip and write a paragraph using the vocabulary learnt.

Wednesday's Assignment

Welcome back from the Small Business Forum! Glad most of you met or heard some entrepreneurs, saw some innovations, had a fabulous time!

1. Read the most recent posts on this blog for about 10 minutes. Add your pictures or steal mine!
2. Write about your experience yesterday. If you were not at the Forum, write about what you did, where you were, the things you saw, how you felt, etc. That should take you to about 1:30 p.m.
3. Listen to this podcast, role play with a classmate, and post on your blog a list of items you will need to start an online business. Complete this task by 1:45 p.m.
4. Watch and discuss Season 7, Episode 3, of Dragons’ Den until 2:20 p.m., and discuss.

A Harvest of Knowledge, Opportunities, and Trinkets

Unique view of the CN Tower

It was a good outing.

Some of us on the 9:15 a.m. train from Sheppard Yonge took the Skywalk and PATH network leading to the South Building of the Convention Centre. Hamid, Miao Ying, Di, Yan, Roya, and Radwa got to see the CN Tower from the inside and outside of the elevated walkway.

At the Small Business Forum, we joined Mohammad, Reza, Ghafour, and Jeff.

Through face-to-face conversations, a ton of brochures, workshop sessions, tradeshow drop-ins, and a lovely quarry of souvenirs, all participants were able to learn the lay of the entrepreneurial land in the city.

More pictures below:

One man, one jump, three world records!

One small step, one giant leap for mankind--you Armstronged it for us, literally!

What an exciting Sunday afternoon it was, watching Felix Baumgartner rising in his balloon-borne capsule, stepping out of it, and jumping down through the sound barrier on his way home!

What went through his mind when he was about to jump? He must have been terrified. I would have been, as most people would. That was the question a reporter posed in the news conference that followed.

Check out the video (below) and see if you can write out the transcript for 14:49 - 15:02, beginning with "What went through your head ...."

Post your transcript on your blog and check it with a partner or with the words below.

Field Trip Instructions and Monday's Assignment

Our field trip is to the Small Business Forum at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Tuesday. If you have not preregistered, please do that right away. The program starts at 9 a.m., and you are encouraged to go there directly.
If you cannot get there on time due to child minding or other commitments, you may wish to join me on the Southbound Platform at Sheppard Yonge Station, departing at 9:15 a.m.

We will all be meeting at 12 noon for lunch and a group photo at the registration area.

1. Final Opportunity to Preregister for Small Business Forum
2. Listen and role play: Making Business Contacts
3. Write three paragraphs reflecting on your Thanksgiving week off, describing the who, what, and where of your celebration/leisure activities.

You're kidding! That's a Rejoinder?

Mahshallah!

Moming qimiao!

Good grief!

Vous plaisantez!

Itu bagus sekali!

Hē im.

Here are some words in different languages used to show emotions--sometimes indicating surprise, sometimes following, or sometimes happiness or sorrow--depending on the situation.

If you watch a movie and see a car crash, what do you say? "Really?" "That's great!" "Oh no!" or "Uh huh." Most people may think the answer is "Oh no!" but the expression you use--called a rejoinder--really depends on what one sees and feels before the car crash. What might you have said if the car crash happened after a building collapsed, a bomb went off, a truck plowed into a busy sidewalk, and a hundred other mishaps?


Check out the this Liveleak Freaks website and see if you can find any rejoinders. A number of those spectacular video clips have gone viral; so enjoy them. Feel free to respond by posting your Comments there, whether you agree, disagree, or have something to say!

Friday's Assignment

UPDATE: Sorry, guys, if you were unable to login to the Small Business Forum bonus activity on Wednesday. I've just got it fixed to enable self-enrollment. So if you'd like to give this crazy thing another try, here's the link.



One more day this week on the topic of Starting a Small Business:

1. Listen and Role Play: Making Business Contacts 
2. Browse the Enterprise Toronto website and tell your partner 3 surprising things you find there
3. Write about your Thanksgiving plans, or look at these charts and write at least three sentences based on your study of those charts, e.g. “Toronto’s industrial property tax used to be over 10%.” 

Wednesday's Assignment

Welcome again! This afternoon we'll be segueing from Thanksgiving to our next weekly theme of Starting a Small Business. Here are your tasks:

1. Read and leave a comment on one of these posts on the original Canadian Thanksgiving document: Post 1 or Post 2.
2. Listen and get a partner to role play: Types of Business Entities 
3. Write a 10-sentence post on your blog starting with, “If I started a business in Canada, I would (verb: e.g. build, sell, import, manage, offer, invest in) …”

BONUS activity: Do this exercise on Gnomio (Guest Password: linc4-5), and leave your comment on this post (below).

Monday's Assignment

Next Monday is Thanksgiving Day! Here are some exercises to put us in the mood:

1. Oops, first we have to register for the Small Business Forum on Tuesday, October 16.
2. Listen and Role Play to this lesson on The American Thanksgiving. 
3. Watch the following video clip from the movie Blind Side and discuss it with a partner. How similar or different is the culture from what you grew up with?
4. Clean up your blog using Peter's feedback.
5. And please, let's clean up the kitchen--this is our month to do it! 

1.