YOGA and VERBS, the similarities

HI! there!   How are you doing?

 

Here is a post from last year.

I have decided to bring it back!!

Especially for Dominique L.

she started Yoga and English classes

at the same time this fall! BRAVE PERSON!!

 

A little LEARNING today using 

HUMOUR and COMEDY.

Learn English with Yoga !!!

and RELAX ???

 HAVE A GOOD LAUGH!!

And don't forget to BREATHE ...
And please remember:
just like Yoga you cannot do too much too soon!!

 

Here are two YouTube videos for today!

A little listening instead of reading and

surely a great deserved break from studying 

those DARN * verb tenses.

Both videos are about YOGA. Yes! Yoga ...

The first is a lesson in CAN and COULD

It is below.

AND 

The second video goes withhout  saying.

Just click on the following LINK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxPuyrfHA3o

 

See you again soon! 

OUCH! OUCH! ... Suzanne

THESE are the REAL monsters in class!!!

and they are very FUN and funny monsters!!!

 

 

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

LONG LIVE the English classes!!!

Long live the ESL RAPPERS!!!

 

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

 

And more of you talented persons!

ESL Rocky Horror Show!!!

WOW! LADIES... I didn't know you had it in you!!

 

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

A great group of people and SUPER DANCERS to BOOT!!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

LAUGHING & LEARNING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Here's a look at a different way

 of pronouncing the 'TH' sound.

THANKS Natalie B.

 for sharing a humouous look at

a most difficult task!!

 

PRACTICE... my friends!

 

Note: click on image to  make it bigger.




 

 

Here are two that you find right here!

Click on the image on your right

and there's a link to the BBC pronunciation site.

 

 

 

 

And another:

 

And a classic from years passed.

INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU

 Learning American English

 

 

 

HAVE A FUN WEEKEND!!!

SUZANNE 

 

LET'S TALK ABOUT .... AUTUMN!!!

 When I say the word AUTUMN  ...

what is the first word that comes to mind ?

 

season, fall

trees, leaves, colours

afternoon, Indian Summer

festivals, harvest

outdoor markets

apples and apple pie

pumpkins and Hallow’een

change, weather, cool, rain

TEMPO’s (just kidding!)

Many words come to mind and many images do also. 

This is what is called ASSOCIATION!

Put all these words together and you get 

A STORY ABOUT AUTUMN.

Sounds like the title of a movie, doesn’t it? Actually it is in fact the reminder that in English, Autumn is a girl’s name, just like Winter is, and Summer and Spring as well. There are  April’s, May’s and June’s too.

 

But let’s concentrate on the word AUTUMN which is the name of a season, one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, from hot to cold, weather that is! The synonym being FALL. Which of course comes from LA CHUTE DES FEUILLES: falling autumn leaves and we get, fall foliage and fall colours. These are all expressions used while talking about autumn.

 

You have song lyrics and poems that celebrate this colourful season. There are novels and short stories too. You also have visual art forms, paintings and photographs and videos that show many of our fall colours. These are the ones used to best describe them: red, yellow, orange, gold and crimson, rusts and browns, and all the different hues of each. The most spectacular presented by the sugar maple tree!

You also have the sounds of fall: the Canada geese flying over, the rustling of leaves on the ground, the sound of the cool wind in the trees, the little squirrels running around gathering their nuts for the winter. And what about the smell of woodsy dying leavesand the cool fresh air hitting your nostrils. All your senses are sollicited!!!

 So, no wonder that autumn is so much a part

     of our lives here in Québec …

YOU CANNOT MISS IT!!!!

You can SEE it, SMELL it and HEAR it!

You can also EAT some of it

But mostly be ... TOUCHED by all of it!

I WISH YOU ALL A GREAT FALL

and A HAPPY AUTUMN!

 

SUZANNE

LEARNING ENGLISH

 

A COMPARISON THAT MAKES A POINT!

I found this very interesting post on a blog.

I thought it was a great comparison between

learning Yoga and a second language!

So here it is in it’s entirety from Jane

(I ignore her last name).

 YOGA and LEARNING ENGLISH

Has it ever occurred to you that there is a relationship

 between yoga and learning English? Most people are very self-conscious when they learn a new language. When they are speaking, they are self-conscious about how they sound, about whether they are making grammatical mistakes, and whether the other(s) can understand them, and more.

Some also worry about sounding stupid. Mispronouncing or having a strong accent. Worrying about how you sound almost seems to be an intrinsinc part of learning another language - because you want the other person to understand you. 

In a yoga class, the teacher says, "Don't look at the person next to you."  In a yoga class, the teacher tells the class to "have your own practice".  The teacher says to her students, "Don't think about how you look, or whether you look beautiful or as good as the person that you've seen in the yoga magazines."

I think there is something here for anybody learning English, or learning any other language. When you are trying to speak, do you focus on the negative and worry so much about how you sound, or whether you are making mistakes, that you can't get the words out? Learning a language and making grammatical mistakes go hand in hand.  It takes a while to learn the new system, and the old (your native language) wants to impose itself on the new. 

It takes a long time to learn the new system, and to develop a separation between your first language and your next language. And if you are learning English (or any other new language), feel good about your undertaking this very worthwhile and rewarding experience.

 

And I might add as your ESL teacher:

“Be proud that you have decided to learn … PERIOD!!”

Don’t forget next time you are in class…

SUZANNE

 

 

 

ENJOYING THIS WONDERFUL DAY…

 

 

Greetings to you all!

 It's Saturday morning and it's going to be

such another gorgeous sunny fall day! 

 

 

I'm writing this with mixed emotions:

So so sorry and so so sad to be leaving

this amazing northern wonderland...

It's my last day 'in the woods'

which means the end of my summer holidays.

It always surprises me as TIME FLIES.

One morning you wake up and it’s the first of May,

then you turn around… it's the end of September!

Today (and right now) is also my last day volunteering

at the town hall where I have had access to WiFi and

where I spent every Saturday morning volunteering,

opening the door to the residents at their Internet Café. 

But I digress… back to the moment… with the sorrow

also comes the excitement of a new journey!

I am looking forward to seeing your familiar faces again

and also super excited to getting to know

and meet all you new English students!!!

I am eager to start and offer you

all my new beginner’s content. I have the feeling

you are all going to enjoy learning English!! 

Finally I am really thrilled to be able to say

for once in my life: I’m the boss!

It’s a great feeling to be able to choose

 to be independent and to be able

 to craft and create a brand new product!

So I am really looking forward, as we say in English,

LOOKING FORWARD to a great session and

towards what I wish to be a pleasurable experience!!

 

Thanks for coming back and

Thanks for your confidence and support! 

SUZANNE

 

 

 

Up the stairs for the last time this year...

 

 

Today... a FEW QUOTES

Hi! there

Today a few quotes from Eleanar Roosevelt.

I thought they were significant!

Today I feel really HAPPY because my friend,

 Sylvie has come to visit me at the lake.

Beautiful weather and beautiful friends!!

 

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,

but beautiful old people are works of art. ”

"Friendship with oneself is all-important,

because without it one cannot be friends

 with anyone else in the world."

― Eleanor Roosevelt

RAIN, its VOCABULARY and the SOUNDS it makes.

RAIN RELATED VOCABULARY

and a very very creative video to watch

but especially to listen to.

For the full effect, CLOSE YOUR EYES!!

There are tons of ways to express the fact that there is moisture in the air in English, whether it be rain, snow, sleet, hail, humidity, etc. It seems there are even more ways to describe the types of rain alone that we experience. Is it showery, rainy, drizzling, or what out there? If one doesn't speak English as a first language, differentiating between the various types of rain can be a bit daunting.

Rain vocabulary seems to revolve around whether the rain is coming down a lot, a little, or somewhere in between the two.

Some rain-related phrases and words

 that are helpful for English language learners

 to know are:

 

drizzle/drizzling   thunderstorm   flood out   flood   showery/shower

raining cats and dogs   downpour   heavens opening   heavy/light rain

soft/hard rain

An activity to help explain the different types of rain one might experience is to watch this video where people make the sounds of rain with their bodies. They proceed through the various stages of a rainstorm from beginning to end. You can identify what type of rain you think each section of the presentation is representing. Can you imitate the sounds to represent the words that recreate the "drizzle, "showery," "downpour," and "heavy/light" rain.

If you feel like it you can write a short text, a writing activity where you can re-use the vocabulary to describe your favorite type of rain, or perhaps to tell a personal narrative (anecdote) about a time you were caught in the rain. Then you can send it to me and I will correct it.

 

Ironically I have the time…

Because it is raining all the time

and there is nowhere to go!!!’

 

Have a great day… malgré tout!

SUZANNE

 

 

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain rain go away,

Please go far far away

Please come back another day

and come back in November as this way

I can play with my friends these summer days

When they come to see me for a few days.

 

Here's hoping that your immersion stay

will not be 'rained out'

 

Suzanne 

When life gives you LEMONS make LEMONADE

Hi! there...it's been a while! 

When life serves you LEMONS you can always make LEMONADE!

This is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism

and a can-do attitude  in the face of adversity or misfortune.  

The 'acidity' of lemons versus the 'sweetness' of lemonade.

 

No... I'm not going to elaborate on this phrase

nor give you a recipe...

although today is the first day of summer

 and who doesn't like to have a fresh glass

of homemade lemonade  in the summertime!!  Right!

 This phrase came to mind as I was translating a text

from Danie Beaulieu's book I'm working on.

It surely 'rang a bell' with me and had an impact also,

especially thinking back to the unfortunate circumstances

in which we all went through in April

 concerning the ESL classes.

I thought I would share it with you today!

So here a great little story which ends

in a very positive note and has a great outcome!

ENJOY! and have a great weekend.

Don't fret, summer is really on ts way :)

Suzanne
 

THE OLD MULE WHICH WAS DOOMED TO DIE.

There once was a farmer who owned an old mule. One day the mule fell to the bottom of the well and the farmer heard the mule begging him to come rescue him. After carefully studying the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule for a moment and decided that neither the mule nor the well were worth the trouble of keeping so he wasn’t going to make an effort to save them. At that point he called all his neighbors, told them what had happened and enlisted their help to transport and dump enough soil filling the well and burying the old mule, thus resolving the problem.
At the beginning of the operation, the mule was downright hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors shoveled the earth into the well and onto its back, the mule was suddenly struck by an idea. He decided that whenever a shovel-load of earth landed on his back, he could shake it off and get up on it! So this is what he did, repeating to himself with courage shovelful after shovelful:  «Shake it off and shake it off ... and get back on top of it! » Without worrying about the pain of the blows on his back and as distressing as it may have seemed, the old mule fought his panic and continued shaking off the earth and getting up on top of it.  It was not long before the old mule, crippled and exhausted, reached the top and finally stood triumphantly on the edge of the well! What could have buried him alive proved to be precisely what saved him, using his misfortune to his advantage.
Such is life! If we face our problems and we decide to solve them constructively, refusing to panic, being bitter nor dwelling in self-pity, we will then see how adversities that "should" overwhelm us have within them the potential and the opportunity to be used to our advantage. Never fear trying something new!