Archive for January, 2009
Kitty cats?
Jan 30th
I thought I would write a blog in response to some of the comments left on Harp’s post about President Barack Obama. Jun-hee and Kevin Chang both commented on how it can be complicated to talk about politics. It is true! So many people have so many different opinions.
So this time I am blogging about something fun!
A website I like to check out is called Itty Bitty Kitty Committee! “Itty Bitty” is slang for little. “Kitty” means cat. And “committee” is a group or organization.
An American woman fosters (cares of temporarily) kittens and takes beautiful pictures which she uploads to the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee website. She also gives the kittens names and tells little stories about them.
This is my cat above! She flips her ears back sometimes! Cute, eh?
Interview: Rita the Montrealer
Jan 25th
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There are so many different people in Montreal from all over the world. Not one of us in the Culips team is actually from Montreal (we’re from other parts of Canada). But we have a friend Rita who is actually from this city! In this episode, Maura chats with Rita about growing up in Montreal, and her experiences with all the cultures and languages here! Thanks Rita!
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Rita: It was great. I grew up in an Anglophone community so a lot of my friends were English. I’m first-generation Italian-Canadian. My parents came to Canada, to Montreal, in 1968 with my two brothers and my mom was pregnant with my sister.
Maura: Ok
Rita: But we had a lot of family here with us as well, so it made that transition a lot easier. I grew up in a great neighborhood, it was very multicultural. I had Greek friends, I had Jewish friends, I had Italian friends. So it was just a lot of friends.
Maura: That is something else that I think is really special about Montreal, there are so many different cultures and often they live all together. So they are not just living separately, there’s all kinds of cultures interacting together.
Rita: Absolutely, absolutely. You can see anyone from anywhere anytime.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Rita d’Amico
President Barack Obama!!!
Jan 22nd
Politics is in my blood and I have to say I was very excited about yesterday. I have been exposed to politics from a very young age as my grandfather told stories from his time when he was a politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly in Punjab (a province in Northern India) in the 1950s. My grandfather was a hero of mine; he spoke 7 languages, travelled extensively and had a heart of gold. After living half of his life in India he immigrated to the United States with my grandmother to live with his youngest son, my uncle, and become an American citizen in the 1990s.
Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago, I miss him a lot and I would have loved to discuss the current situation with him.
I am a HUGE Barack Obama fan and watching him become the 44th president was great! Yesterday represented a day of hope for people all around the world (including myself), while I don’t know what today, tomorrow and the next 4 years will bring it is nice to feel hopeful about politics. The Audacity of Hope is the title of President Barack Obama’s second book and although I have not yet read it (I just finished his first one, Dreams from my Father) the title really touched me. Audacity means to have a daring spirit, resolution or confidence. In his speech addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama said:
“I’m not talking about blind optimism here — the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!”
Most people are typically very cynical about politics so it was a very refreshing change to see millions of people who are excited and hopeful for the future.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/20/obama-speech-text.html
I have attached a link here for you all to see the inauguration speech.
Bye Everyone.
Expression: Are you getting Cold Feet?
Jan 17th
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Have you ever had cold feet? As an expression this is not actually connected to the temperature of your feet! If you have cold feet it means that you are not sure about a big decision. You are reconsidering that decision and you are not certain if you really want to do it. Don’t have cold feet about this episode – Listen to it!
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Maura: A lot! I’ve heard that used for marriage a lot.
Jessie: Yeah, sometimes someone will say that they’re starting to get cold feet about their wedding.
Maura: Exactly.
Jessie: Yeah! If people start to maybe get worried that they shouldn’t get married or start to change their mind…
Maura: Right!
Jessie: They might say, “Oh, I’m starting to get cold feet about this wedding.”
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: This year’s love
Needing a Holiday after the Holidays
Jan 14th
Hello all,
Happy New Year! I can?t believe it is almost the middle of January already!I recently came back to Montreal from a 2-week holiday visiting my family in Edmonton , Alberta . It was a wonderful time, even though the weather was HORRIBLE the whole time. And when I say horrible, I mean HORRIBLE. The temperature was about -38 most of the time I was there. I had the opportunity to drive to the mountains for New Year’s Eve and visit some of my friends who are living there. We went snowshoeing (special shoes for walking in the snow )and it was beautiful. I really think that everyone who has the opportunity to visit Canada should see the Rocky Mountains. They are spectacular!
A lot of my coworkers also took a vacation during the holiday season and it seems like we are all more tired after our vacation than before. Everyone is complaining of wanting another holiday. It is so funny that I spent 2 weeks sleeping in every day until about 10am (at least 10 and sometimes until noon) and now I feel so tired this week. Did you go away for a vacation during the holiday season? Do you feel more tired after your holidays as well?
Hope you have all adjusted to being back at work, I know how hard it is.
Harp
New Year's Resolutions?
Jan 12th
Hello everyone!
Did any of you make New Year’s resolutions? Is there something that you want to do differently in 2009?
I didn’t make any specific resolutions this year. Usually I say that I want to improve my French and get more focused in general!
I found this great video on youtube.com today. A guy named Jon interviewed different people and simply asked them “What’s the one thing you are going to do differently in 2009?“
In this video you will hear the slang for “going to” A LOT! Native English speakers often say “gonna” in place of “going to” when they talk. There are a lot of examples in this video.
Also, at around 4:30 minutes we see a red-haired girl who talks about using less “puns“. A pun is a play on words, or a word play where the word or expression has two meanings. The first example is that she says she can’t drive a car, but she drives her mom crazy. The pun is with the word “drive“. Listen for the other examples too!
Enjoy all the resolutions!
Expression: Call it a day
Jan 9th
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Here we look at a question about the expressions, Let’s call it a day and Let’s call it a night. These expressions are used often after work has been done or you are feeling tired. Listen to this episode for specific cases of when these expressions are appropriate! You’ll also learn about another similar expression, Let’s call it quits!
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Maura: Yes relaxing is good. We could use it in any situation where you are working. It doesn’t have to be at your job. For example, maybe you are a student and you have been working on a school project with your friends and you have been working all afternoon. So you could continue working all night too but you decide that that is enough, that is enough studying, that is enough work. You can say “let’s call it a day”
Jessie : So it kind of means the same thing as “let’s stop working now”.
Maura: Exactly.
Jessie : So if it was last night but we had been working all day and into the night, could we still say “let’s call it a day”?
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Paul Hocksenar
Snow Storm!
Jan 8th
Here in Montreal the snow is coming down hard! It started snowing sometime yesterday morning and it hasn’t stopped. This morning I woke up to more snow!
It is so beautiful…especially from inside. Although, I think that a tropical beach is beautiful too 
Have all of you out there experienced snow?
This is a picture of my friend from my balcony in Montreal? Check out the snow behind him.
Happy New Year!
Jan 2nd
Happy 2009 to everyone out there! No matter what time zone you are in, it is 2009!
I hope everyone had a fun New Year’s. In Montreal it was a super cold New Year’s Eve but there were still tons of people out celebrating!
Here is a video of the classic New Year’s song I wanted to share. The name of the song is Aud Lang Syne (which is not English, so don’t worry about it) and many English speakers do not know the name of the song, the words to the song or what it means. They only know the song as “the New Year’s song”.
Through my searches on the internet, I only found people asking more questions about the song. Many people don’t know the words, but we know the tune (the melody) of the song and it always makes us think of New Year’s. It is generally about looking back (or forgetting) the past and looking to the future. I like it! Hope you enjoy it too.
This is the part of the song that some people can sing along too (no words in the video though, unfortunately):
Should old acquaintances be forgotten,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintances be forgotten,
And days of long ago !
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. 
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