You can download the inlingua Vancouver ESL Activities Calendar for January 2012. Every day is an opportunity to speak English!
inlingua Vancouver Blog
Your Success is our Goal!Sandra’s suggestions for keeping up your English fluency after you leave inlingua Vancouver.
So you’ve had a great time learning English at Inlingua in Vancouver. You have made good progress but you are worried that you will forget what you learned. You have wondered what will happen when you go back home: Will you lose your English because you don’t have anyone to speak to? What can you do to keep improving your English fluency?
Here’s a list of things you can do:
- Watch English movies with (or without ) English sub-titles; you can watch the same movie more than once so you can study the dialogue; choose a movie that’s fun, but also one that will teach you some English phrases that you want to be able to speak. Here are some sites that help you learn English using videos:
- English movie clips – http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/ (for ESL learners)
- Real English – http://www.real-english.com/reo/index.html (videos for learning English)
- Listen to English Audio books (read the text and listen at the same time and/or just listen). You can purchase audio books on-line, or check out these websites with free listening resources:
- ESL BITS – http://esl-bits.net/ (free audio books; also has songs, radio dramas & more)
- ELLO – http://www.elllo.org/ (listen to conversations with English speakers from around the world; click on highlighted words to hear an explanation of word’s meaning)
- 5 minute English – http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm (quick listening practice – dialogues, new vocabulary, a few questions – each exercise takes just 5 minutes!)
- Learn English through song lyrics. Some sites are especially for ESL learners, like these:
- My English Pages – http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/lyrics_and_songs.php
- Learn Songs (VOA) – http://www.manythings.org/songs/
- Lyrics Training – http://www.lyricstraining.com/ (select “beginner” and you can fill in the gaps while listening and watching popular music videos)
- Use an English learning websites that uses multi-media. You can check these out to start:
- Breaking News English – http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/ (British English)
- Voice of America (VOA) Special
English Study – http://www.manythings.org/e/voa.html (American English); check out tabs – “Listening & Speaking” and “Reading (with MP3)”; enhanced English on Youtube, too - TED talks – http://www.ted.com/talks (Very interesting topics for more advanced learners; even the teachers love to listen to TED talks!)
- Start an English conversation group: get together with a group of people who all want to practice their English; meet at a coffee shop, tea house or someone’s home; choose topics in advance so you can prepare vocabulary and phrases in advance.
- Stay in touch with friends you made at Inlingua using skype or other on-line resources, so that you can chat
in-person or on-line, and maybe even a video-chat!!
This year the Japanese Cultural Night will be in Gastown campus on February 3rd at 1:30 PM. The tickets are available ($5) from Serena or at the reception from Yoko and Linda. Experience Japanese Culture, food, and activities. Invite your friends, roommates, classmates too!
Why is the word “beef” used instead of “cow” to describe the food we eat?
After the Norman conquest in 1066, the French nobles were served by the Anglo Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons who raised the animals in the fields used the English names, but the people who cooked and served the meat used the Norman French names, since that was the language spoken by the nobles (who were eating the meat). So the animal called “cow” by the Anglo-Saxon commoners was called “boeuf” by the French nobles when it was brought to them cooked at dinner. This created the distinction between the words for animals and their meat.
Here are several examples where the English word comes from the French: mutton = mouton (sheep), veal = veau (calf) and pork = porc (pig).
Chinese New Year is among the many celebrations in Vancouver. You can experience this cultural event at the Chinese New Year Parade on Sunday (January 29th). There will be lion dances, cultural dance troupes, marching bands, martial arts performances and much more.
Use the power of the Dragon to Speak English Now!
Artist: 山东狂人
Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the ski trip to Cypress Mountain. There are rumors about this being the last ski trip of this season. How would you feel if you haven’t got a chance to experience skiing in BC mountains after going back home? Exactly… don’t miss the chance, so hurry and sign up with Serena. She is at Granville campus during the lunch break, and at Gastown campus at 2:30 PM.
You can download the inlingua Vancouver ESL Activities Calendar for January 2012. Every day is an opportunity to speak English!
We wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our English students and teachers. What are your new year’s resolutions for 2012? I have an idea for the top of the list: Speak English Now!
The skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing activity at Seymour Mountain was a lot of fun! Click on the images below to see more photos on Flickr.
Join us at the Taiwanese Cultural Night this Friday. The tickets are available at the reception. Click here to see this event on Facebook.
