Friday, December 10, 2010
Toronto in December, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Pronunciation Pairs: /s/ and /z/
ESL learners who have trouble with the /s/ sound may speak Cambodian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese.
1. The teeth are lightly closed. The lips are in the smiling position.2. Start by making the 't' sound. Place the tip of your tongue on the skin above your front teeth. Say, "Two, two, two, two, two."3. Now move your tongue off the skin, but keep the tongue behind the top teeth. Say, "So, so, so, so, so." This is a lazy 't'.4. Your breath should flow over the tip of your tongue. The sides of your tongue should not touch the sides of your teeth because this will change the air flow.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Mayor Hazel and Rick Mercer
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Weird Nature:Drunk Monkeys
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Spring in Toronto: Pillow Fight 2010
The pillow fight is free for all ages. For more details, go to last year's pillow fight. Press here.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
30 Years Ago in History:Terry Fox
To mark the 30th anniversary of his run, the Fox family are meeting in St John's where his marathon began. Hopefully, the Terry Fox Marathon will continue until a cure for cancer is found. Here is a news report that tells Terry's story. Since 1980, Terry Fox has helped raise over 500 million dollars for cancer.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Happy Easter!
To learn more about the history of Easter and how Canadians celelbrate Good Friday and Easter, press here.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Music Monday: Irish Folk
Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer who is famous for her Celtic music. She is from Scottish and Irish roots. Here she sings, "She Moved Through The Fair". The words for this song follow the video.
Loreena McKennitt She Moved Through the fair by paradixman
My love said to me,
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kine"
And she stepped away from me
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
Till our wedding day"
She stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there
And she turned her way homeward
With one star awake
As the swans in the evening
Move over the lake
Why he dreamt it last night,
That my true love came in
So softly she entered
Her feet made no din
She came close beside me
And this she did say
It will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day
Monday, March 8, 2010
Culture Shock
In the following video, Derek Sivers points out some differences between countries. Watch and learn.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The Avatar Director at the Academy Awards
Okay. So the Academy Awards are for American movies, but a few Canadians make it to the red carpet. For example, James Cameron is the director of the great movie, Avatar.
Did you know Cameron's understanding of avatars come from his love of the underworld? After, Cameron completed the movie, Titanic, he became involved in researching the real Titanic ship. To see around the sunken ship, the Titanic, mechanical movie cameras or avatars were made and they moved around the ship. Cameron felt like he was there exploring the ship even though he was far away. In Avatar, the main character, Jake, has an avatar. His is a ten foot tall blue skinned man who is half human and half alien. This avatar helps Jake explore the planet, Pandora.
If you would like to see more about Avatar, check out an earlier blog called Wanna be Wednesday 1/13/2010
Another Academy Award movie, Star Trek, is part of a post from 2009. The original Captain Kirk was played by a Canadian actor, William Shatner. If you would like to see a short interview with William Shatner and see a preview of the Star Trek movie, take a look at Wanna be Wednesday 6/3.
......and just to end totally off topic. When is Meryl Streep going to win another Academy Award?
Friday, March 5, 2010
Pronunciation: /r/ Sound
nataliedee.com
Qwab? Do you mean crab? If you say "quab", you "pwabably" have "twouble" with the consonant sound, /r/.
What languages have trouble with the /r/ sound?
Arabic, Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Spanish and Vietnamese
How do you make this sound?
Roll the tip of your tongue back. Make sure your tongue doesn't touch the top or roof of your mouth. The sides of your tongue should touch the inside of your top molars or back teeth.
Try this exercise.
Put the tip of your tongue on the tooth ridge which is the skin behind your top front teeth and say, "light". Then roll back your tongue and say, "right". Now exercise your tongue.
Light, right, light, right, light, right, light, right .....
Need practise?
Here is a video with more tips and practise.
Need some more practise?
Here is some words and sentences to practice the sound /r/. The man in the video has a very clear voice. Read the words and listen to his pronunciation. Then you try. These kinds of exercises can be repeated. Try it again today or return to this video another day. Repetition is extremely important in learning new sounds.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Pronunciation: The Dark /r/
Monday, March 1, 2010
Canada Gets 14 Golds
The final gold metal was from the Canadian Hockey Team. Hockey is our national sport, so it was important to Canadians to win this final gold. The arena was one big mass of red as so many fans dressed in their Canadian colour or wore their favourite hockey players sweater to cheer on Team Canada..... a tie breaker that ended in overtime. What a storybook ending!
Then the closing ceremonies brought the Vancouver 2010 Olympics to an end. The ceremonies showcased some of our most popular celebrities. It was fun to see Canadians make fun of themselves. Yes, we have the beaver, moose, mounties, maple leaves and yes, we tend to be polite and say sorry a lot. Did you see how many Canadian Olympic participants apologized for not winning a medal? Yes we say ,"I'm sorry" a lot, but we also say, "Thank you". So, thanks for blessing Canada with so many healthy determined young athletes. May we all strive in our own ways to be the best at what we do.
....and celebrate those moments.
Street Party Photographs, February 28, 2010: (bottom)Downtown Toronto by Scorlirk and (top) Downtown Vancouver by Ecstaticist,Flickr
Related Posts:
Who lit the flame at the 2010 Olympics?
Wanna Be Wednesday 6/3
Juno Awards 2009
Tim Hortons
Monday, February 22, 2010
Music Monday: The Olympic Song
Who is the singer?
Nikki Yanofsky was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1894. She's a jazz-pop singer who has her first album coming out soon. She sang Oh, Canada, our national anthem, at the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics.
Whose in the video?
Past medal winners and this year's hopefuls.
Where did the song come from?
Steven Moccio is a Toronto composer and has written songs for Celine Dion and Josh Groban. According to the Globe and Mail, Maccio composed the song about four years ago after Vancouver won the Olympic Games. The lyrics were added by Allan Frew from the band, Glass Tigers. It's called I Believe or in French, J'Imagine.
What's it about?
The lyrics or words are at the bottom of this video. It's about believing in yourself and your abilities and I think a bit of team spirit is there too.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Who lit the flame at the 2010 Olympics?
Before the opening ceremonies of the 2010
Vancouver Olympics, Canadians were
wondering who would light the flame?
It had to be a great Canadian hero. But we
were all wrong. It was four of our
greatest athletes.
These are Canadians who lit the fire in the stadium:
1. Nancy Greene
2. Steve Nash
3. Catriona Le May Doan
4. Wayne Gretsky
These are their sports:
a) Basketball
b) Downhill skiing
c) Hockey
d) Speed skating
Now, can you match the sport and the superstar?
Look in "comments" below for the answer. Also, for some great photos of the opening ceremonies, press here.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Winter in Toronto: The Olympics
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
For Valentines Day: Free Hugs and Sick Puppies
As of today, almost 56 million have watched this video and at the time, it became video of the year. The Sydney rock band, Sick Puppies wrote a song for Juan Man to cheer him up. They made the video and put it on YouTube. The song is "All the Same"
Happy Valentine's Day
Here's the song, "All the Same".
Listen to the music and follow the words.
Other posts for Valentine's Day:
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Next Decade: Renault Twizy ZE
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wanna be Wednesday 1/13/2010
The natives of Pandora love their moon and respect all living things. They have no machines and use powerful creatures to transport themselves. The natives are able to move easily on land and in the air. They move up and down mountains and the tallest trees with ease. They live freely in a forest that they will never leave. They enjoy many stories about their ancestors and live peacefully. Their life has nothing to do with money, but their survival is dependant on understanding nature. They are not the highest creatures on the food chain. There are dangerous animals in the forest, and they must respect them to live safely. Could life really be this pure?
Here is an interview by the actress, Zoe Saldana, who plays the native, Neytiri. Her mother and father are the leaders of the natives called Navi. She describes Neytiri and the culture of the Navi in the movie, Avatar.
Other movie posts, 2009:
Wanna be Wednesday 6/3
Music Monday: Disney Nature "Earth"
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Ottawa: 50 People One Question
This short film is an example of a participating YouTube video. The original film was done on a hot day in New Orleans, United States. The producers came up with the idea to ask as many people as possible the same question. It was called 50 People One Question and was posted on YouTube September, 2008.
Then people in different states used the same idea and posted their films on YouTube. Also, it went global. For example, there were films made in Canada and Australia. Here is response video that was filmed in Ottawa, Canada a year later.
.***Cultural note: The word, Beaver Tail, is pastry. It's a kind of flat donut in the shape of a beaver's tail. To see the animal, a beaver, check out the Canadian 5 cent coin.
How would you answer this question?
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Winter in Toronto 6
By Grant MacDonald
A picture is worth a thousand words. Winter has hit in Toronto. It's one of those Sundays, it's best to cuddle up with a good book or a laptop and wrap yourself in a warm blanket. Just looking outside makes me feel cold. The newsman says the cold weather is going to be around for a few days.
However, there is no snow yet in Toronto. Further north like in Ottawa, it's very white and beautiful. Right now, it's too cold to snow, but the snow storms will come. Soon enough, the snow ploughs will be humming up and down the streets and the homeowners will be shovelling heavy snow. There is actually a law in Toronto that requires all sidewalks to be cleared after a snow fall. Luckily, senior citizens can have their sidewalks cleared by the city. So right now, is the calm before the storm. Lots of snow brings chaos to the city!
Feel like venturing out this winter, check out the winter activities organized by the city. Toronto's WinterCity Festival starts end of January. Press here.
Related Posts:
Winter in Toronto