inlingua Vancouver Blog

Career Development Program Testimonial from our ESL Student Vivian

Jane — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:56:42 +0000

The Career Development Program (CDP) is targeted at young workers in the first few years of employment. They’re university grads, mostly in marketing, IT, engineering, hospitality management, who have come to Canada for a 1 year intensive language immersion program.

Vivian, one of our ESL students who was in CDP is talking about her work experience in Vancouver on the video below.

English is a crazy language

Jane — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:28:46 +0000

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in
pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Share your love in English!

Jane — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

How well can you describe your feelings in English? Give it a shot this Valentine’s Day and tell your sweetheart all the wonderful things in English!

Diet Suggestions for ESL Students

Jane — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:40:07 +0000

It’s important to attend School Activities or take General English and Elective Lessons to learn English. There are also other elements that effects how well you will learn once you are in your classroom, or speaking with your friends. Your diet.

Good food can give you more energy, boost your mood, protect and improve your physical and mental health. All of these are important factors that influence your learning abilities. What are you doing to reach your peak performance to learn English?

Health Canada has some tools that can help you find out how much of what you need to eat.

Basic information about Food Guide:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/basics-base/index-eng.php
Create your Food Guide here:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/myguide-monguide/index-eng.php
Recommended food groups and amounts:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/alt_formats/hpfb-dgpsa/pdf/food-guide-aliment/view_eatwell_vue_bienmang-eng.pdf
Fast and Easy Meal ideas:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/using-utiliser/suggestions-eng.php

Take a good care of yourself while learning English and having fun in Vancouver to get the full benefits of your stay!

Student Activities. February 2012

Jane — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:53:20 +0000

You can download the inlingua Vancouver ESL Activities Calendar for January 2012. Every day is an opportunity to speak English!

English after inlingua – suggestions from an ESL teacher

Jane — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:48:18 +0000

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!!

Student Activity. Japanese Cultural Night

Jane — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:40:06 +0000

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!

English Trivia – “Beef”

Jane — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:14:23 +0000

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).

Speak English during the Year of the Dragon – 新年快樂

Jane — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:28:45 +0000

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

Student Activity. Cypress Mountain Skiing (Jan 20th)

Jane — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:42:52 +0000

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.