TO ALL MY ESL STUDENTS and TODAY, to YOU, someone NEW! !

You are all invited to join in and be pro-active! This blog also belongs to you.

Here are some of the ways you can participate:

* COMMENT (even if you make mistakes) C'est pas grave!
You will get better and better! You cannot GO BACK!
PLEASE leave a COMMENT (click on comment at the bottom of post and follow instructions)

* SHARE INFORMATION with your classmates, they will surely appreciate your findings:
New ESL sites, stories, anecdotes, jokes, games ...
* WRITE what's on your mind! How you feel about your learning process.
You are not alone! Group 'therapy'!!!

HAVE a dose of FUN!!!
* LET me KNOW that you are there to encourage... ME TOO (inside joke)!

LISTEN to this INTRODUCTION VIDEO:

NOTE TO THE READER:
- CLICK on Ctrl and +++ to enlarge TEXT
- anything UNDERLINED ia a link to click on



Thursday, March 20, 2014

ANOTHER AWESOME STORY from an awesome student!

AN AWESOME MOMENT
By Céline Quintal

My story goes as such… Ten years ago, all our family was in New-Brunswick on a camping trip. On one of those ordinary camping days, my son and I needed to go to the restroom.  So we left together to get our ‘job’ done.
On this camping site, the men and women’s rooms  were separated by a wooden footpath which was bordered by a hedge of pretty red flowers.
After finishing our task, we were to meet halfway on the footpath.
I was the first one there, so I could see him running towards me and asking me if we could go swimming when all of a sudden, right in the middle of his sentence, we heard a small roar, like that of a light engine noise… We both stopped moving and talking, and looked at the noisy thing and we also stopped breathing ….

Between us there was a pretty hummingbird foraging in the small red flowers of the hedge. We could see it very well, it stayed around for one or two minutes.


It was such a privileged moment; it was the first time we saw from so close that kind of bird. We came back to our camp site with a great story and that … only from going to the bathroom!!! 

THANKS Céline for a very special moment doing
 as you mentioned an ordinary everyday 'thing'!!
If you would like to read more about hummingbirds and
 attracting them to your gardens and backyards ... 


                                  SUZANNE                                                 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

OUR OWN LITTLE BOOK OF AWESOME

OUR OWN LITTLE BOOK OF “AWESOME”
.
There are Aha! Moments and then there are AWE-ha! moments.
Here are a few awesome (amazing, remarkable, breathtaking) ones
from two of my students in the conversation group.
They have also contributed in the past so once more,
here is what they would like to share.
It’s like our own little book of AWESOME!
∎ A little note before you start reading, remember that we are in Québec and very often some of the most astonishing moments are the ones when we encounter wild life!


A GAME OF HIDE-AND-SEEK
By Marielle Jobin
Last September, my friend and I decided to go hiking in the Gaspé region’s provincial park. At the information center, I told the guide that I wanted to see some moose. He suggested that we go on the Ernest Laporte mountain trail where hikers had recently seen a few.
We had been walking for two hours when we reached the shelter at the top of the mountain. There, we delighted in the beauty of the landscape, and using ours binoculars we were expecting to see the beast, the king of the forest. But after one hour of observation, nothing! No moose! The weather started to get cold and windy. ¨Let’s go back down”, said my friend.
As we were making our way back down the mountain, of course, the wind died down and the sun appeared. Despairing, I was sure I had missed something. But, when we arrived in the parking lot… SURPRISE! A lady moose was there: huge, proud and calm.
After this game of hide-and seek, did I see a smile on her face? My friend whispered ¸¨Take a picture, take a picture¨. Too excited, by the time I had prepared my camera, the moose was making its way back to the forest.
What an encounter! But although so much was happening at the same time, I still managed to get a picture of… a big brown pair of buttocks!

                                                                        

A GREAT MOMENT AND THE BEGINNING 
OF A WONDERFUL TIME  --- by Carole Lemonde
It was in 1999 and it was the end of summer.  My husband and I were looking for a cottage up North. We looked around by ourselves for a few months but we didn’t find what suited our needs.  So we decided to call up a real-estate agent working for an agency in the Laurentians. 
We gave him an overview of our needs and he scheduled four visits for us on the following week end. After we had visited three cottages, we were a little bit discouraged about what we could expect to get for the money we were willing to spend.
Finally we headed towards the last cottage on the list.  We fell in love with the house as soon as we saw it.  It was cosy but not luxurious, by a small lake and it had a lot of land.  The price was too high but we saw that the owners really expected to sell before the winter season.
On our way back, near the cottage, we met two deer crossing the road, a couple of partridge on the side and a family of fox on a big rock.  All that… within five minutes.  We were really flabbergasted!!!!!! 
We looked at the agent and laughed, telling him that it so looked like a staging developed by him to influence our decision into buying that cottage.
Finally, we negotiated a good price and bought that cottage.  The following years spent there were unforgettable moments until we divorced in 2004. 
 I could almost say they were the five of the best years of my life, sharing family pleasure with nature…

Thanks to both of you for first writing about
this memorable time in your lives and
letting me post them here for all to read!
Keep on writing, it comes naturally from you. GREAT JOB!
Your very PROUD teacher,
SUZANNE
??? WHY am I a proud teacher, you ask?
Because both Marielle and Carole have mastered
VERB FLOW in their anecdotes. BRAVO!
Not an easy accomplishment.




Saturday, March 8, 2014

A NEW TV PROGRAM

For Your Information (FYI)
 
There is a new television program starting
 this SUNDAY evening at 9:00
on Channel 22 (Videotron) or
ABC for cable users.
It's called RESURRECTION.
 
You know what's trendy these days? Trends!
And one of the trends that's white-hot right now
 is dead people who aren't dead anymore.
Doesn't matter how they died,
 as long as they're only dead for a while.
It is the new trend of shows that deal with
the supernatural or the un-explained.
TV is changing and so are our viewing choices!
Toss in a few scary (eerie) music and scenes
and you've got a new TV show!

This one, I think, may touch the religiously influenced  belief systems such as: eincarnation, vampires, miracles, zombies,...etc JUST in time for EASTER too and christian beliefs. It deals with the dead coming back to life!! such as Jesus... YESSS!
 
This is the lead-in sentence for the show: RESURRECTION 
"The lives of the people of Aurora are forever changed 
when their deceased loved ones return."
 
Here is a review if you have the time to read.
 
I'll be taping it on VHS ...
Yes! I'm electronically challenged
except for using my PC, as you very well know!
I'm curious but don't think I'll get hooked!
Much prefer Scandal, Revenge and Parenthood.
 
So that's it for today!
I've been sitting here in front of my computor
 writing emails, composing some new documents, 
reading and blogging since early on this morning!!
 
I have to GET UP and WALK! ;)
See you next week!

SUZANNE