Archive for March, 2009
Culture: Happy April Fool’s Day
Mar 28th
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April Fool’s Day!
Have you ever celebrated this funny holiday? It is celebrated all over the world in different ways. In this episode we give you some vocabulary for playing tricks on people and tell you more about April Fool’s Day history!
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Jessie : Yeah, it is kind of like telling a lie.
Maura: But it is a fun lie, especially on April Fools Day just for fun.
Jessie : Exactly.
Maura: Right, so if I came today in shorts and a t-shirt and I said, “Oh Jessie, I was just at the beach and it was 30 degrees”. That would be a hoax. That would be a joke because unfortunately it is not that warm in Montreal yet.
Jessie : I don’t think I would believe you. I’m not that gullible.
Maura: Yeah, you probably wouldn’t. So what kind of jokes have been played on you on April Fools Day?
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast,
Photo credit: Freaking News – News Photoshop Contests
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Expression: Call Someone Names – Is this an insult?
Mar 21st
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Have you ever been called a name? It is not a nice experience. Mohammed from Egypt wrote to us and asked us about this expression, to call someone names? He wanted to know if it was insulting or not. To find out about this expression and to hear some example of names check out this episode!
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Robin : Absolutely.
Maura : So, for example we could say, “John called Paul an idiot and a jerk”. So John called Paul names.
Robin : That’s right
Maura : Hey, I got another example.
Robin : What is that?
Maura : Robin, did you hear that Sarah was calling Peter names?
Robin : Oh really, what was she calling him?
Maura : She was calling him stupid. Yup, not very nice.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Leonid Mamchenkov
Facebook updates
Mar 20th
Hey everyone!
Did you see our latest episode about Facebook? If you haven’t, go check it out!
This week Facebook made some changes that I wanted to let you know about. In the epsisode we talked about the Facebook “status” where you write a short setence about what you are doing or how you are feeling. But this week things changed and there is no longer a “status”. Instead it asks “What’s on your mind?” which means, “What are you thinking about?”. It is really exactly the same thing with a different name!
A lot of other changes were made at Facebook and many people do not like them. I read this funny article called What was Mark Zuckerberg Smoking When He ReDesigned Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg is the creator of Facebook and the title implies that he was smoking (drugs) when he redesigned Facebook OR that the Facebook redesign is so bad it was like he was on drugs. Ha ha!
Culture: Facebook
Mar 14th
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Have you already heard of Facebook? Are you already on Facebook? Facebook is a very popular website and so we wanted to tell you a little bit about it, in case you don’t know about it. It is fun to use and helps you stay connected to people you care about. To find out more and learn some Facebook vocabulary, listen to Harp and Maura talk about it here!
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Maura: Right. So before they had MySpace, which was pretty popular and I know in Japan they have Mixi. Do you know any other ones?
Harp: There is Bebo, I think that’s in South Korea and there’s more out there.
Maura: Right, social networking sites are everywhere but Facebook is for sure the biggest one in North America, in Europe as well. It’s almost everywhere now.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Culips Team
Daylight Savings Time
Mar 12th
Twice a year in the most parts of Canada and the US, we have a special day where we either set our clocks forward or set them backwards. At the end of winter we set them backwards in order to gain an extra hour of light throughout the day. The farther north you live in Canada, the less light you get during the day. I’ve lived in a city quite far north in comparison to most towns in Canada where sometimes it would get dark before four o’clock in the afternoon.
Around this time of the year waking up in the morning becomes a bit of an ordeal. I find my alarm clock doesn’t necessarily get the same amount of respect early mornings. Instead of shutting it off and getting up, I tend to just let it ring incessantly, disturbing probably both my roommates and neighbours. I’m sure they understand though. I mean, after all, if I’m tired it’s not my fault. You gotta blame Daylight Savings Time!
Robin
Vocabulary
set one’s clocks – to adjust the time on your clock.
An ordeal – a tough experience that you go through
To shut something off – To turn something off.
To be someone’s fault – To be the result of someone’s actions.
To blame – To say that something has been caused by someone else.
No language required!
Mar 9th
Hi Everyone!
Have you ever seen one of these viral videos? A viral video is a video that becomes very popular online. A video becomes viral when many, many people watch it and then talk about it with their friends. Sometimes these videos are then shown on TV, like on the news. They are called “viral” because the spread like a virus, very quickly.
Over a year ago there was a famous viral video called, “The Evolution of Dance.” In this video Judson Laipply does different dance moves from all different eras to all different types of music. According to YouTube this video has been watched over 115 million times! Wow!
Below is a video that I watched last week 5 times! I laughed so much. I love this video. And there is absolutely no language so everyone can enjoy this video! (P.S. The dog is sleeping and dreaming!)
Expression: Once in a blue moon
Mar 7th
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How often do you go to the beach? Everyday? Sometimes? Once in a blue moon? We use the expression once in a blue moon to talk about the frequency of something or how often you do a certain activity. We hope you listen to Culips more than once in a blue moon!
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Jessie: Exactly, I only see her once in a blue moon.
Robin: Do you have any other examples?
Jessie: Yeah, you could say, I usually drink tea. Once in a blue moon I like to have a cup of coffee.
Robin: Ok, so you drink tea every day but once in a while or every now and then you drink coffee.
Jessie: Exactly.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: different2une
Happy National Grammar Day!
Mar 4th
Did you know that today’s a special holiday? Of course you did! It’s National Grammar Day! What’s that you say? You DIDN’T know that March 4th is National Grammar Day?
Well that’s okay. Actually I only found out about it a couple of days ago myself.
The first National Grammar Day was celebrated in the United States on March 4th last year. The “holiday” was founded by an organization called the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), that prides itself on being a group for people who love good English. They’ve even published a book about funny grammar mistakes, called “Things That Make Us [sic],” the word “[sic]” in the book’s title is a pun on the word sick.
I thought that was a pretty good name for a book about grammar, so to celebrate National Grammar Day, let’s talk about the word “sic” !
Have you ever seen “[sic]” in a magazine or newspaper article? The word “sic” is actually latin word that means something like “as such” or “like that”. Writers use it when they’re quoting someone who made a mistake — like a grammatical error or a spelling mistake — to show that it was the person being quoted who made the mistake and not the writer.
For instance, in a newspaper article you might see something like the following:
Last week we published a story about bad spelling and many of you wrote us to complain. Mike from Canada wrote, “I don’t think bad spelling is a problem. Reading your article was a waist [sic] of my time!”
In the above example, the word “[sic]” was added by the author of the article to show that it was Mike, and not the author, who made the spelling mistake. (By the way, can you figure out what Mike should have written instead of “waist”?)
So now that you know a little more about English grammar, I hope your National Grammar Day celebration will be even better!
Do you think my boss would mind if I took the day off work? It’s a very important holiday today, after all! Happy National Grammar Day everyone!
Clothing Swap
Mar 2nd
A couple of weeks ago I attended my first clothing swap at Maura’s house. The basic idea is that everyone goes through their closet and finds clothes that they don’t want anymore. Either they don’t like the clothes anymore or they don’t fit into them anymore, or perhaps they just realize they will never wear it.
Instead of just throwing the clothes in the garbage or giving it away to a charity, we decided to see if any of our friends wanted them. It was a very fun event!
There were about 8 friends there and we all showed each other the clothes we brought and sometimes told a story about it. For example, I brought a shirt that I wore to my 21st birthday party.
After everyone had showed the clothes they brought it was a bit of a free for all (there were no rules) and we all grabbed whatever pieces we liked. It was so much fun as it was similar to shopping but without having to pay.
I left the clothing swap with a new purple dress and a beautiful green scarf among other things. I can’t wait to attend my next clothing swap, maybe next time I will host it at my house.
Thanks Maura for being a great host! She made delicious tea and chocolate chip banana bread for everyone.
Harp
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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