Chatterbox
Urban Legends, Old Wives’ Tales, and Superstitions from North America
Aug 29th
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In this episode we are talking about interesting, funny, and strange beliefs in North American culture. Robin and Maura share a couple scary stories that they have known since they were kids. They also review popular old wives’ tales like, An apple a day keeps the doctor away. They also talk about some superstitions that some people still believe in today, including Robin! This is a great episode is you are interested in learning more about North American culture.
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 What is a Member? |
| Robin: | The first thing we’re going to talk about today is something called an urban legend or an urban myth. |
| Maura: | Yes, so we’re definitely talking about culture today, and after we talk about urban legends or urban myths, we’re going to talk about old wives’ tales. |
| Robin: | Old wives’ tales, indeed. And this is…it’s a similar sort of thing. It deals with myths, once again, and stories. |
| Maura: | And if you don’t know what it is, keep listening and we’re going to explain it. |
| Robin: | Absolutely. And the last thing we’ll talk about today deals with superstitions. It’s a big word, superstitions. |
| Maura: | Right, so some general superstitions that most Canadians know about and maybe some believe in a little bit. |
| Robin: | Absolutely. |
| Maura: | OK, so let’s start with the first topic, which is urban legends or urban myths. So it’s two names for the same thing. |
| Robin: | What is an urban legend or an urban myth? |
| Maura: | An urban legend is a modern story that’s a scary story or a horror story. Most of them are scary and you usually hear about them from friends. So a friend tells another friend a story, this scary story, and you don’t know where it started, you don’t know where the story came from. |
Expression included from this episode in Lipservice:
| urban legend | urban myth |
| old wives’ tales | superstitions |
| around the campfire | do the talking |
| all by herself | widespread |
| classic | An apple a day keeps the doctor away |
| cure | Swallowed gum will stay in your stomach for 7 years |
| Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stay like that | The 5- or 10-second rule |
| If you hear ringing in your ears that means that someone is talking about you | |
| That’s just an old wives’ tale | superstitutions |
| If a black cat crosses your path it means bad luck | Breaking a mirror brings 7 years of bad luck |
| the number 13 | to creep out |
| knock on wood | jinx |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Jens Dahlin
Paul’s travel stories of North America
Aug 23rd
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Maura and Paul
Paul Kerrison is a friend of Maura from England who was visiting North America for the first time. In this interview you get to know Paul, and hear about his American adventures in New York City and the Independence Day celebrations he attended. You’ll also hear about Paul’s impressions of Montreal.
As Paul is from England, you have a chance to compare the Canadian and British accents when listening to this episode. Paul and Maura also discuss slang differences between England and North America.
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What is a Member? |
| Maura: | So what did you do after your time in New York? |
| Paul: | So after New York, I headed to western Massachusetts, to a town called Greenfield to see my friend’s family and experience Independence Day in America, which was a first for me. |
| Maura: | Yeah, I’ve never experienced Independence Day, but I imagine it would be pretty huge over there. |
| Paul: | Yeah, they have lots of flags out in the street and there’s a big festival in the town square with fireworks, and stores with candyfloss, and clams, and roasted chestnuts, the usual kind of festival stalls. We spent the day preparing for it, getting food for the barbecue and making different types of salads, like potato salad and green salad, and then we sat out on the lawn and waited for his family to come round, which was like 20 members, and all his friends as well from high school. And then in the, there was like a square green park and a mountain at the top with like a high tower, and the fireworks were set off from there at about 10 o’clock at night. |
Expression included from this episode in Lipservice:
| On air | Independence Day |
| Massachusetts | JFK |
| High Line | Meatpacking district |
| Heat wave | Sunscreen |
| Coney Island | Too much hassle |
| Candyfloss | Guy Fawkes |
| To be taken back | Taco Bell |
| Legendary | Cuppa |
| Chinwag | Can-do |
| To throw a party | -ify |
| whey-aye |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Paul Kerrison and Maura Smith
An interview with Ricardo Dasilva
Aug 8th
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Please meet another of our friends at Culips. This is Dasilva (also known as Ricardo) who is a friend with lots of interesting things to chat about. He is a Montrealer, born and raised. He is a first generation Canadian. He has taught English in Japan and traveled around Asia. And he is a writer. Get to know Dasilva because he will be helping us out in come upcoming episodes too!
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What is a Member? |
| Robin: | A lot of our listeners haven’t necessarily been to Montreal. What types of things would you recommend they do if they come to the city? Or what are the types of things that you like to do around the city? |
| Dasilva: | Well, what I like to do… I like the summer more than the winter. I like sunshine, I like, I don’t know… winter is a little bit too cold for me. There’s a lot of snow. When you’re a kid, when you’re young, the winter is fun. There’s lots of things you can do in the winter. You know, you build snow forts, you make snow angels, you… what else do you do in the winter? Snowball fights… things like that are lots of fun when you’re a kid in Montreal, because there’s so much snow. But the older you get, the less you like winter, it seems. For me, in the summertime, I like to ride my bike on the bike path. I’ll ride along the canal—the Lachine Canal. I’ll take my bike from downtown Montreal and I’ll ride all along the Lachine Canal to the west part of the island. |
| Robin | OK. |
| Dasilva: | There’s a lake. You can sit by the lake and relax. I also like to go to Mount Royal in the summertime. It’s really fun. It’s relaxing. |
| Robin | I hear it’s an interesting place, especially on the weekends. |
| Dasilva: | Yes on the weekends, on Sundays especially, on the mountain, it’s a lot of fun. Sometimes people have picnics in the summer, there’s something called Tamtams, also; people play drums and listen to music and dance around. |
Expression included from this episode in Lipservice:
| Dasilva (names and other names) | Snow forts, Snow angels, snowball fights |
| Bike paths | Lachine Canal |
| Mont Royal | Tamtams |
| Caribbean – pronounciation | To look back on |
| Okinomiyaki | to be touched/to touch |
| to keep in touch | middle class |
| standard of living | old wives tales |
| first generation |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Ricardo Dasilva
The World of Dating: Are you seeing anyone?
Jul 25th
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Are you single or dating someone? Are you in a relationship, but remember your days of dating? This is a fun episode with Harp and Maura talking about dating in North America. They talk about dating rules, some of their own experiences, and review from dating vocabulary. Is finding a romantic partner different in your country?
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| Harp: | …So those are some traditional ways where we find people to date. |
| Maura: | Right, but more and more people take classes, and they work, and of course they have friends, but they still don’t find someone that they want to date or be in a relationship with. |
| Harp: | Exactly. So there are some new ways that are coming out to find people to date. |
| Maura: | Yes, and they’re on the Internet. |
| Harp: | Exactly. There are a lot of dating websites out there now. |
| Maura: | Yeah, there are so many — I don’t think I can even count them. |
| Harp: | No, I agree. |
| Maura: | So more and more it’s become normal for people to use dating websites to find someone to go on a date with. |
Expression included from this episode in Lipservice:
| The Dating World | Set rules | To decide on |
| To come out | Out there | Speed dating |
| To set up/To be set up | To keep an eye out | To break up |
| To date someone | To see someone | To go out with someone |
| Partner | To make up | To get back together |
| The bill | split it 50/50 | every single one |
| The 3-day rule |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Rachel Davies
Talking about the weather with Harp and Maura
Jul 12th
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Harp and Maura love talking about the weather and so they devoted a whole Culips episode to it! They talk about weather-related terms and share memories they have connected to the weather. If you want to make small talk about weather, listen to this episode for some tips!
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| Harp: | I think people like to talk about the weather because it’s an easy, simple topic. So it’s easy to make small talk about it. |
| Maura: | You’re right. So when people are making small talk, when they are talking with someone they don’t know very well or even a complete stranger, they know that they can talk about the weather and that people will have something to say about it. |
| Harp: | Exactly. When I’m in the elevator sometimes and someone gets on, and I don’t know them, but I feel awkward if we’re just in silence, I’ll bring up the weather. I’ll say something like, “Oh, it’s a beautiful day out there,” or “When is the rain going to stop?” or “Oh, it’s so cold.” |
| Maura: | Yeah, yeah. That’s funny ‘cause I thought of an elevator as well. I think the other day someone said something to me about the weather. |
Expression included from this episode in Lipservice:
| Small talk | Apps | you and I v.s. you and me |
| Winter sports | To be bundled up | To make the best of it |
| To cross your fingers | Weather-related expressions | Least favourite |
| To get it out of the way | To dress up | To come to mind |
| The power goes out | Snow day | Canada’s winter |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Culips ESL Podcast
Cross-Cultural Relationships: An interview with Melanie
Jun 5th
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Please meet our friend Melanie! She is a native English speaker who learned French from a very young age. She traveled to Lyon, France where she met her partner Christophe, who is a native French speaker. In this episode, Maura and Melanie discuss the fun and the challenges of being in a relationship where the two people don’t speak the same language or come from the same culture!
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| Maura: | So, what do you think are some possible advantages or disadvantages to being in a relationship with someone who’s from a different culture or who speaks a different language from your native language? |
| Melanie: | Well, at the beginning it was hard to express myself in a second language the way you want to express yourself to somebody that close to you. But then over time, as I got more comfortable with the language and more comfortable with Christophe, I found that expressing myself wasn’t as difficult and my French probably improved. Now actually I tend to speak to him only in English, which helps him improve his English, while at the same time allowing me to express myself as I would normally. |
| Maura: | Yeah, so sometimes, and I know from my experience, when you’re dating someone who speaks another language you have a problem being clear sometimes. Like, you have to use really simple words to express yourself or you have to repeat the same thing more than once. |
| Melanie: | Definitely there’s a lot of repetition. |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Culips ESL Podcast
The early bird special!
May 24th
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In this episode Maura is again joined by our friend Rita. (If you don’t know who Rita is you can check out her previous episodes with us by clicking here or here.) Maura and Rita discuss a couple expressions to do with time: The early bird catches the worm and Carpe Diem. They also talk about how important being on time is in Canadian culture and what happened to them when they were too late for something!
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| Maura: | So if you’re throwing a party in Canada and you want it to start at 9 o’clock, don’t expect any guests to show up at that time. They’ll probably start showing up closer to 10 o’clock. |
| Rita: | I agree, if you want them there for 9:00, you better say the party starts at 8:00. |
| Maura: | Yup, that’s true. But you made a good distinction Rita, and that was about the dinner party. |
| Rita: | Ah, yes, the dinner party. |
| Maura: | That’s different than just a regular old bash. |
| Rita: | Absolutely, somebody is in the kitchen preparing a meal. They’ve purchased food and they’re making it and timing it, you definitely want to be there on time for dinner. |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Eric Kilby
Interviewing Adam Hoyt
Apr 25th
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Harp recently had a chat with Adam, a friend of Culips, when he was staying in Montreal. Adam currently lives in Japan and was back in Canada for a short time visiting before returning to Japan. While he was here we talked to him about his experience overseas and what he misses about Canada when he is away. His answer might surprise you! It surprised us!
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| Harp: | I heard that you’re allergic to fish. |
| Adam: | Yes, I’m allergic to fish. |
| Harp: | So you can’t eat sushi. |
| Adam: | Unfortunately, no. |
| Harp: | That’s too bad, you can’t eat sushi there. |
| Adam: | No. |
| Harp: | What kind of food do you like? What do you eat there? |
| Adam: | I like soba and I like teriyaki, yakitori. Yakitori is like barbequed chicken on sticks. So even though I can’t eat fish, there are a lot of options. It’s not a big problem. |
| Harp: | OK, that’s good. There’s lots of other good food you can eat. OK, now Adam, when you’re in Japan, what do you miss about Canada? |
| Adam: | I definitely miss my family and friends but I also miss my favourite restaurant. |
| Harp: | What is your favourite restaurant? |
| Adam: | It’s actually Shish taouk. |
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Adam Hoyt
Tips on studying abroad by Rita D’Amico
Feb 28th
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Rita is back! We previously interviewed Rita at Culips but decided to do it again because it was a popular episode, and because Rita has started her own business helping out international students who are interested in coming to Montreal. In this episode Rita gives lots of advice for people moving to another country to study a language. You can find out more at www.onyourmarkmontreal.com.
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Rita: Sure, I’d be happy to do that. First thing is to find the city that you want to live in. In order to do that, well, you need to do some research. There are three major cities in Canada. We have Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. And each of them has their unique personality…
Harp: OK, so it’s important for students to kind of decide their priorities when choosing the city.
Rita: Absolutely, you should definitely do some research about cost of living in each of the cities. You can find all of this information online as well. So look at things like taxes and accommodation, rent, you know how much does the average rent cost, as well. And of course you should always check out safety. How safe is the city you want to live in? And check out the different neighbourhoods as well.
Harp: So Rita, can you give us some advice on choosing a language school?
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Rita D’Amico
Alethe, the Aussie!
Feb 21st
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Have you ever wanted to travel around the world? Well, that is just what Alethe is doing! We met with Alethe while she was in Canada on her trip around the world.
Originally from Australia, Alethe tells us about the places she has visited, her impressions of Canada and where she is headed next. If you are thinking about travelling or just dream of doing it, listen to Alethe’s stories.
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Alethe: Yes, I am Australian however my name is French. My mum’s sister was living in Switzerland when I was born so my name is Swiss French.
Maura: Oh, OK. Yeah, that’s an interesting point because our accents are a little bit different. If you listen to this podcast regularly you usually hear Canadian, North American accents but you do not have a Canadian accent.
Alethe: No, I have no Canadian in me. I was born in Australia, and have always lived in Australia. However I like to take little side kicks everywhere I go.
Maura: So you’re from Australia but you are in Canada. So, how did you end up here?
Alethe: Well, I had a mid-life crisis at 25 and decided I wanted to go and travel the world.
Podcast/ Lipservice: Culips ESL Podcast, Photo: Alethe West
Hi my name is Eliane and I am very interested in learning to speak, read and write the English of everyday . I already tried twice to do a course in English, unfortunately did not give more money to pay for the course. So I'm putting on the internet site, several audios and hear every day. You guys know I'm slowly understanding everything that is said. The text will become more clear. By the way the Culips is excellent.
Congratulations.
Cheers/ Kisses
Eliane
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