English
PostSecret
Jun 2nd
Hello everyone,
If you ever read this blog you may have noticed that one of my favourite things to do in my spare time is listen and watch for expressions we’ve looked at in Culips’ episodes! But seriously — I was surfing the net, looking at a site I like to check out from time to time called PostSecret. It is an ongoing art project where people mail in their secrets on postcards anonymously. It started in 2005 and was created by American Frank Warren. At his website www.postsecret.com new postcards are updated every Sunday. Sometimes the secrets are very specific and sometimes the secrets are very general. The cards are always beautiful and interesting.
If you like art and you are learning English this could be a fun site to check out. The English is always simple and there is an image that helps or adds to the written part. This week there is a card that reads “it makes me happy that none of us get a how-to guide/we’re all just kind of winging it.” We looked at this expression on Culips at the end of 2009. Here is a link to this episode if you are curious.
And are you wondering what that postsecret means? The person writing seems to be talking about life and that no one knows exactly what we are supposed to do with our lives, in other words, “none of us get a how-to guide.” We don’t have any big long term plans we are just acting in the moment of life or “winging it.” Here is a direct link to this postcard.
If you check out PostSecret let me know what you think! Does a similar project exist in any other languages?
Where did we go?
May 7th
Hey everyone!
I have recently had a bit more time on my hands and so have been able to do a bit more web surfing. There are so many resources available online for learning (and teaching) English – it’s incredible! We’re always curious about how our listeners find us too.
We won ESL Site of the Year from EnglishClub.com for 2009! We were so honoured to receive that award. I just recently became a member on their site. Are any of you members? If so, feel free to add me and suggest things for me to do on their site.
One thing I found that was very interesting was their video project – The Learning English Video Project. There are a variety of videos where people of different backgrounds are interviewed about their experiences learning English. A great feature is that there are subtitles to help you follow along if you like.
I haven’t watched them all yet, but they all look interesting!
My favourite one is called Insights from China. I found this one interesting because China is growing and changing at such an impressive rate! Go to the EnglishClub to check out all their videos!
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?
Hat Head!
Jan 13th
Hey everyone!
Today (like most days in winter) I was thinking about hat head. I have hat head pretty much every day in winter…and I don’t like it!
Hat head is an expression we use in Canada (and the U.S.) to describe what hair looks like after someone has worn a hat for some time. After wearing a hat for a few hours, the hair is often flat underneath. If you have straight hair normally, the hair underneath may have a line in it. If you have curly hair (like me) when you take off a hat, some of your hair is flat and some is curly.
It is not usually a problem for me in the summer because I don’t wear hats but in the winter most people wear hats because it is so cold. At least others have hat head too and it’s not just me! Lots of Canadians have hat head.
Do you get hat head often?
Do you want to see my hat head? 
And do you know the Canadian word for winter hat? It’s toque (sometimes spelled tuque or touque)!
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
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.
Exclamation Marks!!!!
Aug 31st
Hello!!
Today is the last day of our Book Giveaway contest. If you still want to enter the chance to win a free copy of Culips’ new book, English Q & A (in English and Japanese), look at the blog post below and make a comment.
As I was looking back at the previous post and others I noticed that I almost always use the exclamation mark (or exclamation point) in the title of my blog post. The reason I always do this is because I want to express my excitement and interest in what I am posting.
It also made me think about this interesting article I recently read. This article was all about the exclamation mark and how it had become popular again. In the very recent past, it was not common at all to use this punctuation. It was used only in novels and stories or by over-excited teenagers in notes to friends. But as email became more and more popular so did using exclamation marks.
(Here is where I found the article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/29/exclamation-mark-punctuation)
The article is not an easy read for those of you who are just learning English. Here is a short list of some of the more interesting points I found.
- In the past many famous writers spoke against the use of exclamation marks. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.”
- The book Send: The Essential guide to Email for Office and Home states that “Thanks!!” is much friendlier than “Thanks” and using an exclamation mark for “I’ll see you at the conference!” shows that you are excited, but without an exclamation mark it is just stating a fact.
- Emails can be boring so using exclamation marks can help make the email more exciting.
- In the past, many typewriters did not have a key for the exclamation mark.
- Females use exclamation marks more often than men.
- Exclamation marks were first seen in 1400 and possibly come from the Latin lo, which means joy.
- Some people like the increase in the use of exclamation marks (like me) and other people do not!
One more point of advice is that if you decide to use exclamation marks, don’t use too many in one email. It is unnecessary and may be mistaken for sarcasm or insincerity.
Useful Tool for you!
Jul 15th
Hey everyone!
Recently I was working on the Detailed Explanation for Lipservice and I found a really useful language tool. It allows you to search for words, but it is not a dictionary!
The website is www.morewords.com. What it allows you to do is search for words that you are not sure how to spell. If you don’t know some of the letters in the word, you simply replace the space with a hyphen (dash) - . For example, you want to find the word bear, but you can’t remember how to spell it. So you can search b–r. And then the results will give you every word that starts with a b and ends with an r and has two letters in the middle. Or if you just want to know every three-letter word that stars with a d and ends with a t, search d-t.
Let me know what you think and if you find this site useful!
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!
April showers bring May flowers
May 13th
Happy Spring everyone!
As I walk around Montreal and enjoy the city in bloom (when flowers open), I often think of an expression we have. This expression is “April showers bring May flowers“.
In this case “showers” means rain. When it rains too much, we are not happy. So, this expression reminds us to accept the rain, because we need the rain in order for the flowers to bloom. And everyone loves flowers!
The grass is green and the trees have leaves again in Montreal. There are also tons of flowers blooming now!
Has spring arrived where you are? Is it spring there?
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. 
Recent Comments