Archive for October, 2008
Halloween Party
Oct 29th
It’s party time in Montreal! I have to say, I am quite excited about the party we’re doing this Friday. Parties are always fun because they are great opportunities to make new friends and spend time with old ones. Living in the city can be tough sometimes because we spend so much time keeping busy with work and other things and so little time with our friends and people that we like.
This party on Friday is a special one since it’s a Halloween party, which means that their will be a lot of people dressed up. Last year I dressed up like a nerd for our house party, but this year I haven’t decided what I am going to wear. It’s never easy deciding because we always want to be original. I am afraid that if I wear what I wore last year, people may recognize that I haven’t come up with a new idea for a costume. There is nothing worse than having a series of pictures posted by different people where you are in the same get-up – especially now that everybody is on Facebook watching what you are doing!
So if you are in Montreal listening to our podcast, come and check out the party this Friday. I am sure it’s going to be a great time!
Dress up – To put on clothes.
House party – A party at a friend’s residence that usually has a significant amount of people.
To be original – To act in a way that is different from what is considered normal or usual.
There is nothing worse than / There is nothing better than – These expressions are used to
emphasize how good or bad something is. For instance, there is nothing worse than losing your job. This statement suggests that losing your job is the worst thing that can happen to you.
See you at the party!
Halloween!!
Oct 29th
Halloween is coming soon! And I am looking forward to dressing up in my costume.
And yes, that is me as a child in the picture with our Halloween podcast. (click on our recent podcasts to see the photo) That picture was taken in the 80s and I was dressed up as a punk.
I also found this video on the history of Halloween. It’s pretty interesting…I didn’t know much about the history before watching it! Enjoy!
Culture: Halloween
Oct 25th
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
Halloween is a super fun day to wear costumes, visit haunted houses and eat candy. This day is especially for children but adults celebrate too. Harp and Maura talk about lots of Halloween traditions and explain new vocabulary, like trick or treat (this is important if you want candy!)
 |
 |
 |
 |
Maura :Yeah, the last day of October. Its become a pretty international holiday. I wonder if anyone out there celebrates Halloween.
Harp:yeah and maybe people do things a bit differently
Maura : Yeah, the costumes are usually part of it or the ghosts and the witches and scariness
Harp : Maybe there is different games you play. Write us, tell us how you do it. So lets talk about North American Halloween. What was your favorite part of Halloween.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Maura Smith
Vineyard
Oct 23rd
Hello all,
I thought I would share a lovely adventure I went on with some of my colleagues (people/friends you work with) a couple of weekends ago.
One of my friends discovered a vineyard close to Montreal . It sounded like a great idea and indeed it was. I am very happy that I decided to go. We started the day early and drove to the vineyard which was about 1 hour away from Montreal . The vineyard is called Vignoble La Bauge and it was beautiful. It is a family business and they make about 25 000 bottles a year of different types of wine. The tour began with a short history of wine making in Canada (specifically Quebec ) and how the family got into the business of wine. We then went and picked grapes for the rest of the morning. It was very nice, there were a lot of grapes on the vines and it was a beautiful fall day to be out in the country. We had a nice lunch with some delicious wine from the vineyard. In the afternoon we got a tour of the whole farm, which included some exotic animals, as well as an explanation of how to make wine from beginning to end.
An interesting feature of the whole experience was that the grapes we picked will be made into wine that we can get a bottle of next year when it is ready.
I have included some pictures here that my friends Chris and Natalya took during the day.
Harp
Vineyard Grapes
Vineyard Shop
Vineyard Sign
Vineyard Full Buckets
Vineyard Row
Nest
Harp
Closeup Cutting
Vineyard Barn
Vineyard
Idiom: He had better go to work soon.
Oct 18th
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
You had better listen to this episode! Did you understand this first sentence? If you didn’t, check out this episode and hear us explain “had better” for you. We will also give you lots of examples of how to use it.
|
|
 |
 |
Robin: Something bad will happen
Harp: Exactly so it is a fixed expression to say that you have to do something or something bad will happen and the something bad, we don’t always say that in the expression.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: moonwire
Mont Tremblant
Oct 16th
Hey everyone!
How is the weather where you are? In Montreal (and most of Canada) it is getting colder. It is definitely autumn (or fall).In Canada, during autumn, the leaves on the trees change colours from green to red, orange and yellow.
Then they eventually fall to the ground.A couple weekends ago, I went with my friend Marcus on one of his tours at Iko Excursions. He gives tours to international students in Montreal. We went to Mont Tremblant (which means Trembling Mountain in English) and visited the area.The leaves on the trees were amazing! Even the Canadians on the trip were impressed!Of course, I had seen the leaves before but in the mountains they are even better.
By now, the leaves have probably already fallen. It doesn’t last long.I included a few pictures from the trip. Check out the amazing colours of leaves in the photos!
P.S. Hello to anyone from the tour!
Culture: Birthday Parties
Oct 13th
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
In honour of Harp and Maura’s birthdays we decided to do a podcast about birthdays! In this episode, we talk about birthday parties (mostly for kids and teenagers) and what activities are a usually part of them. We also talk about the special birthdays in a person’s life, like the big 3-0!
|
|
|
|
Do you have all English idioms down cold? If you don’t know every English idiom, listen to this podcast to learn a couple more. The question this week is about the expression “to have something down cold.” |
|
|
|
Maura: “To have something down cold” means that you know something very well.
Robin: The meaning has absolutely nothing to do with “cold.”
Maura: Let’s look again at the example that we got with the question.
Robin: “She has been rehearsing the play for months. She has her part completely down cold.”
Maura: This means that she knows her part for the play very well. She knows every scene perfectly. She doesn’t make any mistakes because she has it down cold.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: -Nat
Facebook & Twitter
Find us on Facebook and Twitter!Subscription
Testimonials
Of all the podcasts with 'real world' English examples, I like yours the best. Maybe its the fun you put into the lessons. The students can here that in your voices. And they also feel your dedication to what you are doing - it's just not a job you do, but a gift you give to everyone who listens. And while the students like the Lipservice PDFs for all the information it contains, as a teacher I am impressed by the professional effort put into making them. I give the Culips podcast and the Culips crew my highest recommendation, both as a teacher, and a listener. 
— Jim Damico, ESL Teacher, Ulaanbaatar Mongolia.
Recent Comments