Culips news
Check out my cheques!
Feb 10th
Hi everyone,
One of the things I love about being a part of this podcast is seeing the English that we share here at Culips being used in real situation that I encounter in my life! The other day I was waiting at a cash register to pay for some photocopies and I noticed a box that said “Rain Checks.” Do you know what this means? When I saw this it made me think of the episode that we did talking about that exact expression. You can find it here. Luckily, I didn’t need a rain check that time.
Then it also got me thinking about the word check and how normally in Canada we should spell the word cheque. Many Canadians do not know the spelling differences between what we use here and other countries. This means that even business documents or advertising may contain words spelled incorrectly by Canadian standards. Depending what kind of English you are studying you might see words spelled differently. This is another good reason to check out our section on these spelling differences here. Culips is based in Canada, so we decided to use Canadian spelling, of course.
I wonder if you have ever noticed spelling differences or been confused by them. Or do you think that it is easy to understand spelling differences between Canada, the U.S. and Britain?
Culips declared ESL Site of the Year 2009 by EnglishClub!!!
Jan 8th
ESL Site of the Year 2009
Culips declared ESL Site of the Year 2009 by EnglishClub!!!
This week the Culips team learned that we are being honoured by EnglishClub as ESL Site of the Year for 2009!!!. We are very excited by this news as EnglishClub is a leader in the ESL world. The EnglishClub website is wonderful for both teachers and students of English. If you have never been to the EnglishClub website, go check it out! It’s a great site. If you are visiting us here from EnglishClub, thanks for checking out our site, we hope you like what you see and hear!
Culips was also the ESL Site of the Month in June 2009 – check out what Jessie said about the award here.
Harp
Happy New Year
Dec 31st
Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!
In some places midnight has already passed…Happy New Year too you! As I write this, in Montreal the party has yet to begin. The weather was super cold a couple days ago, but luckily it has warmed up and is currently only -5! People are ready to get bundled up (dressed in warm clothes) to go out and celebrate New Year’s.
All of us at Culips are looking forward to bringing you even more, funky new episodes and other fun functions on our site in the new year! Robin, Jessie, Harp and I hope to be in more contact with you!
Thanks for listening! We truly appreciate it! And….HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR!
No Matter What
Sep 25th
Hello everyone!
We are experiencing some delays uploading our next episode. We have some interesting ones coming up…including the expressions to be handy and to bite off more than you can chew. For those of you who wrote to us asking to know more about Canada, we also have an upcoming episode about Vancouver.
Here is a video that I wanted to post using the expression from the latest episode No Matter What. It a song called No matter what and the use the expression over and over again. The group is called Boy Zone and they are from the United Kingdom. I hope you enjoy it.
Culips Announcement and CONTEST!
Aug 11th
We have some exciting Culips news to tell all of you about!
Contest
- Why do you want to study English?
- How do you think Culips could be improved?
- What three topics would you most like us to discuss in future podcast episodes?
Just answer one of these questions and your name will automatically be entered into the contest. We’ll announce the winner at the beginning of September and contact you by email to get your mailing address. So get posting!
Culips is EnglishClub.com's Site of the Month!
Jun 5th
I just learned some exciting news about Culips! We’ve been chosen as the “Site of the Month” for June 2009 over at EnglishClub.com!
Here’s what EnglishClub.com has to say about us on their awards page:
Culips is a Canadian based website with playful podcasts to help you learn English. The focus of these podcasts is on real language and its everyday use. Episodes are divided into fun categories including “Close Up”, “Catch Word” , “Chatterbox” and “Curious Questions”. Podcasts can be downloaded or played in a popup window. Extra materials including transcripts and comprehension quizzes are filed under “Lipservice” and are available with each podcast. You can get involved by sending your questions to the podcast group. Your “curious question” might get answered in a future podcast.
Sounds like a pretty good description to me! One great thing about Culips winning this award is that it’s provided us with a fantastic introduction to English Club. English Club has a really interesting website with lots of information for both English learners and English teachers, and each month they announce a new ESL Site of the Month that they think is valuable for learners.
One of the things I found most interesting at the English Club website was the Learning English Video project, which is a 7-part series of documentary films about learning English around the world. So far there’s a film made in Romania, and one in Morocco. The website says that films about learning English in America, Spain, China, Brazil, and the UK are coming soon.
So if you’ve never been to EnglishClub.com, why not check it out? If you’re visiting Culips.com because you heard about us from English Club, welcome! Let us know what you think about the site, and as always, keep those curious questions coming!
Culips Christmas Party
Dec 28th
Thanks for turning up for the Christmas party everybody. For those who missed out, there is always next time! We had a blast. In fact, I think we had over 90 people hanging out, singing and partying all together in my apartment. It is always nice to see that sort of fun, pleasant vibe. I made a couple of new friends that night, which is always a nice thing about these social events. How about you (if you showed up, that is)?
Well, if you weren’t able to check out our Halloween party or our Christmas party, don’t worry because we’ll be having another social event in the upcoming months.
Happy holidays everyone from the Culips gang!
To turn up = To finally show up to an event.
To miss out = When you are unable to witness, attend or participate in an activity that you would have liked
To have a blast = to have fun
To show up = to turn up, to arrive
The Culips Christmas Party
Dec 2nd
We are having a Christmas Party! Our Halloween party was such a success, we hope this party will be just as good!
This time the theme of our party is Christmas, of course, as we move more into the holiday season. We are going to have tons of Christmas decorations, some Christmas music and even some Christmas Carols (special Christmas songs). Santa may even be there!
It should be a super fun time. So, if you are in Montreal come and party with us, and bring your friends too or come alone. We promise we are friendly to everyone!
The aftermath
Nov 7th
The Halloween party was a hit! We had tons of international students come out and celebrate Halloween in costume. Thanks for coming and we all hope you had a great time. Check out the pictures on our homepage!
This week’s episode is the Catchword “Wasted”. This is especially appropriate because we just had our party and there were lots of wasted people there (but not too many!). If you don’t know what “wasted” means, you will have to listen to our episode.
The next day, we were not too hungover (this word is also explained in “Wasted”). We met at 1 pm for brunch (combination of breakfast and lunch or a late breakfast), chatted about the past night and then cleaned up the party place. It was super!
Thanks again to everyone who helped us out, especially DJ Greg, Rita and Marcus (who will be chatting with us in an upcoming episode)!
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!
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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