Tag Archives: Canadian culture

Help with Watching & Talking HOCKEY!

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As you watch the 2010 Winter Olympics, there is not a sport more exciting to Canadians than Hockey. Watch the games and learn more with this vocabulary. Ask a Canadian or American to explain the ones you do not know. Enjoy!

PEOPLE
The Referees or “Refs”
The Linesman/men
The Players
The Forwards
The Defense
The Goaltender
The Goalie
The Netminder
The Fans
The Coach
The G.M.
(General Manager)
The Announcer
The Enforcer
The Captain (C)
The Assistant (A)

KEY NOUNS
A Slap/Wrist shot
A Face-off
A Period
A Tie-game
Overtime/Sudden Death
Rebound
The Net
The Puck
The Stick
An Assist
The Boards/Glass
The Rink
A Scrap
Penalty
Power Play
A Shoot-out

KEY VERBS
Hits
Shoots (the puck)
Passes
Skates
Deflects/Redirects/Tips
Scores
Saves
Intercepts
Blocks(the shot)
Checks
Stickhandles/Dekes
Dives
Assists
Ices (the puck)
Elbows
Kill a Penalty

PENALTIES
Roughing
High-sticking
Cross-checking
Hooking
Holding
Tripping
Boarding
Slashing
Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Fighting
2-minute Minor
4-minute Major
(Double Minor)
5-minute Major
10-Minute Misconduct
Game Suspension

EXPRESSIONS YOU MAY HEAR
He/She leads in points/goals/assists/penalty minutes
He/She picks it up
It’s cleared down the ice
He/She plays the puck (around the net)
He/She ices the puck
He/She wins the draw
He’s/She’s knocked down/out
S/He shoots, S/he scores!
Oh what a save!
Glove-save!
S/He Flashes the leather!
What’s the score?
Just wide of the post
It hit the crossbar
Dropped the gloves
Fires a rocket
Ran (him/her) into the boards
It’s the go-ahead goal
They blew a 3-0 lead

History and Rituals of Halloween

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Halloween is almost upon us!

I would like to take this opportunity to remind all the readers of this blog that even though the category is called ‘Speak English Better’, the blogs’ focus is also on learning and understanding culture.  Why?  Because as I have said a hundred million ka-billion times – English language cannot be used solely as a tool of grammar and spelling.  To truly ‘speak English better’ you must understand the history and culture of English-speaking lands, especially if you are living in one now, permanently or temporarily.

I love Halloween.  As kids we got to make our own costumes (with the help of Mom and Dad of course) and go out ‘trick or treating’ to get a bag full of candy!  What more could a North American kid want?  (All that sugar is soooo bad for you though….but we didn’t care!)

Now as adults we might dress up in costume and go to bars or house-parties to drink instead, or we might stay at home and give out candy to little trick-or-treaters who visit our homes.  It’s still fun!  And we MUST watch scary horror movies as well!

In the olden days, the costumes were ‘evil’ creatures, like devils, goblins, vampires, ghosts, and any of the other Silver Screen Matinee classic monsters.  In the olden-olden days, when Halloween was first being ‘developed’ as a practice, the idea was to dress yourself up as an evil spirit in order to fool the real evil spirits around, so that they would leave you alone.  In fact, did you know that one of the reasons why we have the custom of covering our mouths while we yawn is not just out of politeness, but to avoid ‘spirits’ entering our bodies?  Yes, we humans were very superstitious many years ago!

Anyway, if you would like to learn more about the history of Halloween, including the name, the colours, the costumes, the religious influences and the jack-O-lantern (carved pumpkin) please do a little more reading at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween or start asking folks around you about their experience with Halloween.

Enjoy this rather odd but fun celebration, and do not get sick on too much candy! (or ‘sweets’ as my British friends would say!)

Happy Halloween!

Origins of Canadian Thanksgiving (this weekend!)

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Canadian Thanksgiving – How It Began

The origins of Canadian Thanksgiving are more closely connected to the traditions of Europe than of the United States. Long before Europeans settled in North America, festivals of thanks and celebrations of harvest took place in Europe in the month of October. The very first Thanksgiving celebration in North America took place in Canada when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1578. He wanted to give thanks for his safe arrival to the New World

. That means the first Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated 43 years before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts!

Canadian Thanksgiving – Official Holiday

For a few hundred years, Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November, before it was declared a national holiday in 1879. It was then, that November 6th was set aside as the official Thanksgiving holiday. But then on January 31, 1957, Canadian Parliament announced that on the second Monday in October, Thanksgiving would be “a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.” Thanksgiving was moved to the second Monday in October because after the World Wars, Remembrance Day (November 11th) and Thanksgiving kept falling in the same week.

Canadian Thanksgiving – The 49th Parallel

Another reason for Canadian Thanksgiving arriving earlier than its American counterpart is that Canada is geographically further north than the United States, causing the Canadian harvest season to arrive earlier than the American harvest season. And since Thanksgiving for Canadians is more about giving thanks for the harvest season than the arrival of pilgrims, it makes sense to celebrate the holiday in October. So what are the differences between Canadian and American Thanksgiving, other than the date? Not much! Both Canadians and Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with parades, family gatherings, pumpkin pie and a whole lot of turkey!

What will you be doing to celebrate Thanksgiving this year? Do you have any family traditions that you’re looking forward to? Let us know all about your Thanksgiving plans!
(This post is from KidzWorld – original post:  http://www.kidzworld.com/article/2614-canadian-thanksgiving )

For more information on Canadian Thanksgiving:
http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/thanksgiving/canada/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28Canada%29 

What am I doing?
I will eat Turkey with tons of side dishes, complete with lots of wine, with my close family tonight.
I am going to gain 5 pounds in 3 hours!

Clink, Then Drink! Do Not Put Down That Glass!

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Hello,

Here is a tradition that I have always known and obeyed, yet I cannot say for sure if it is a Canadian-only tradition. I suspect not.

When someone ‘toasts’ you (proposing a toast means to say something nice about you or your personal/business relationship before drinking) it is polite to listen attentively, make eye contact, smile of course, and then ‘clink’ or touch glasses (or bottles or cans) together once before drinking. You have probably seen this on countless movies and TV shows. However, the small point that is crucial to remember is this: do NOT clink then put your glass/bottle/can down! Ever! It is an insult. When you touch glasses it is important that you have at least a sip of your beverage before replacing your glass. This honours your friend/business partner/family member, and the words that were spoken, even if they were meant in jest (that means joking, having fun).

So the simple way to remember this rule, whether you or your partner have spoken the toast, is, as the title says, Clink, then Drink!

Here’s to you!
Here’s to us!
Here’s to long health and happiness!
Healthy, Wealthy and Wise!
Here Here!
Cheers!

Why are Mexican and Czech Visas Now Restricted?

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Canada now requires a visa for people coming from both Mexico and Czech Republic. Mexico is the biggest source of refugee claimants in Canada, with claims tripling since 2005 to 9,400 last year, or 25 percent of the total. Only 11 percent were accepted. There is a group of ‘Roma’ refugees from the Czech republic that have piled into Canada in that last year as well.
The recent flood of refugee claims, and the suspicions that most were not legitimate, caused the government to re-instate a visa requirement.

E.U. is angry. Tourism takes a big hit.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is defending the decision to impose visa requirements for Czech and Mexican nationals after Canadian businesses and foreign diplomats criticized the move. Click this for a short video explaining it:

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-ca&brand=sympatico&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:51e01113-0483-48f2-a324-97233cf0f64e&showPlaylist=true&from=inline&fg=gtlv2

For Yahoo! News article click here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090713/canada/canada_us_visas_1

The Worlds Best and Worst Travellers

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According to an article on Yahoo! News today, here are some best and worst traveller rankings:
French are the worst, Japanese are the best.
To learn more about this, plus Americans, Canadians, Spaniards and Greeks, please click the above title to this post or click here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090710/oddities/lifestyle_tourism_travel_france_offbeat

What do you think about these results?

For me, I am reminded that stereotypes are based in truth. Most of these make sense from my experience travelling and from teaching people from all over the world.

Note – this article does support my opinion that I made in a blog posting a couple entries ago, about Canadians being very adaptable. I was happy to see that.

Enjoy the short and interesting article.
Enjoy your weekend too!

Happy Canada Day – Tips About Us

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July 1st, 1867, Canada was officially born. At that time of what we called ‘Confederation’, only 4 provinces made up Canada! Now, we have 10 plus 3 territories.

Canadians are proud of their country and culture, and I thought it would be good to share with you a few points on dealing with Canadians (whether business or tourism) so that you can make a good first impression and avoid accidentally insulting someone.

1 – Canadians are not Americans. Just as we are not British or French citizens, we are not Americans. We may look and sound similar to our big brother at first glance, but as you get to know us and this country, you will understand there are lots of differences. Some similarities yes, but lots of differences.

2 – We are open-minded almost to the point of apathy. We believe so much in the ‘live and let live’ axiom, that sometimes we don’t bat an eye to new ideas, cultures and laws. Generally speaking we are happy if you are happy, and we want you to respect our ideas and decisions. We do not appreciate a bully or a preacher. Having said that, we are painfully polite and patient, so you could probably talk our ear off and we will just smile.

3 – We have history. Yes we are a young country, and we realize that Europe and Asia among other regions have a long documented history. However that does not mean that we were created yesterday either. We know our history and are proud of our contributions on the world stage.

4 – We have a military. Canada made significant and memorable impressions on our allies and enemies in WWI and WWII, even being the first soldiers to be called ‘Storm troopers’ in WWI, due to our grit. At the end of WWII we had the 3rd largest navy in the world. We did not focus on military expansion however, and moved into mostly peace-keeping roles which led us to our limited military today. We fought bravely in the Korean war, the Vietnam conflict (yes, some volunteers were there), the earlier Gulf war (to free Kuwait) but stayed out of the recent Iraqi war, because we knew there were no WMD! We are currently serving our NATO and UN partners in Afghanistan on the front lines.

5 – We are highly adaptable. We can tough out most situations and we can adapt to multiple cultures and languages. Because of this we are excellent travelers, hosts and business partners. We are curious to know more about other people and cultures.

These are just a few points, straight from my head, to give you a little clearer sense of who we are and how we view ourselves. Of course there is no blanket truth for any culture, and you will meet individuals who do not agree or who do not follow these points. Surprising even to me, I have met Canadians who do not drink, do not like maple syrup and/or who do not view hockey as the one and only true religion!

If you are curious about this bilingual land of vast nature, free health care, same-sex marriage and subtle patriotism, (with a little bit of smugness thrown in…) the best thing to do is simply ask a Canadian about their country and culture.

Happy Canada Day!

Coach Ric

Canadian English Pronunciation

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Today, July 1st, is Canada Day – our birthday. I thought this might be of interest to those who enjoy the sound and study of Canadian English.

Canadian English (CanE, en-CA) is the variety of English used in Canada. More than 26 million Canadians (85% of the population) have some knowledge of English (2006 census). Approximately 17 million speak English as their native language. Outside Quebec, 76% of Canadians speak English natively. Canadian English contains elements of British English in its vocabulary, as well as several distinctive “Canadianisms”. In many areas, speech is influenced by French, and there are notable local variations. However, Canada has very little dialect diversity compared to the United States. The phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon for most of Canada are similar to that of the Western and Midland regions of the United States, while the phonological system of western Canadian English is identical to that of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and the phonetics are similar. As such, Canadian English and American English are sometimes grouped together as North American English. Canadian English spelling is a blend of British and American conventions. (source: Wikipedia)

I would also like to add my two-cents to this. I was born in a small town and now live and work in Toronto. I personally hear different English dialects here in Canada. I hear the standard “mid-west” accent that Hollywood and the media love to use, although it is split up into 2 accents. One is the ‘professional’ accent which you will hear in the big cities and in professional circles. The vowels are tighter, proper grammar rules are adhered to and the vocabulary is richer.

The other accent is the ‘relaxed’ English, which you can hear in small towns and in manual labour or “blue collar” circles. In this dialect, the people do not mind purposefully breaking some grammar rules, have a variety of rich and colourful slang and favourite expressions used, and sound more “American” in their pronunciation of longer, stretched out vowels.

There is also the distinctive French-Canadian or “Quebecois” accent (Think Georges St.Pierre from the UFC) which is quite different from accents from other French speaking countries. There is the distinctive “East-Coaster” accent, due to the previous immigrants from Ireland and Scotland (hence Nova Scotia – New Scotland) and finally there is the native/Inuit/aboriginal accent.

A few resources to study Canadian English Pronunciation:

http://www.accentoncanadianenglish.com/
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/3vc-accent-reduction-program-description/7349543
http://voicetoword.ca/index.html
http://www.voiceandspeech.com/
http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/britishcanadianamericanvocabcanadianpron.html
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Canadian/canphon3.html
http://www.esl-guide.com/links/search.cgi?Country=Canada

I apologize that most of these resources are Ontario-based. Please do a local search to see what in-house or online resources are available to you. Find a good teacher, tutor, coach or trainer with experience and references, and for goodness sake – ask if he or she was born in Canada!

Happy Canada Day!

Hire an Immigrant

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Here is an excellent resource for immigrants who are job-hunting and also for companies, large or small, who want to take advantage of overseas training but are not quite familiar how to do it professionally. This website has excellent free training videos, with actors going over scenarios on the resume, interview and hiring process. The Canadian employees review and discuss the immigrant’s CV and communication skills. They show you two videos – the wrong way and the right way!

Anyway I thought that these videos were well done and the website has a lot more information on how human resources can successfully screen and hire immigrants. Enjoy!

http://www.hireimmigrants.ca/

Here is a ‘blurb’ from their own website that I have copied here, introducing their free online videos:

Cultural Competence Videos

These cultural competence videos are intended to increase your company’s capacity for recruiting, selecting and integrating skilled immigrants. There are currently videos on screening and interviewing, with more to come in the future. Each video contains several sub-topic chapters to highlight specific issues. The chapter shows a questionable episode, then preferred, followed by a few suggested discussion questions.

The videos have been posted online to support anyone with human resources responsibilities who would like to build on their own level of cultural competence and create an inclusive work environment. Organizations can also use the videos for internal training purposes.

For more go here: http://www.hireimmigrants.ca/tools/4

Coach Ric

Develop HR, Management and Entrepreneur Skills

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As a member of HRPA (Human Resources Professionals Association – http://www.hrpa.ca/hrpa )
I receive regular emails and mailings with information about new services, service providers and detailed Human Resource articles.

Here is something that looks interesting and apparently is free.

http://www.essentialskillsthatwork.com

I am not affiliated with them – I just thought I would pass on their website as it looks good.
Here is a little bit I have copied from their ‘About Us’ page:

The Essential Skills for the Changing Workplace Project

In January, 2008, the Centre for Education and Training received funding from HRSDC for a project called Essential Skills for the Changing Workplace. The project is designed to assist employers in small and mid-size organizations with the integration of Essential Skills into their workplace and human resources practices.

Free Seminars

To increase awareness and understanding of Essential Skills, the Centre is offering free 2-hour seminars for human resources managers, training managers, line managers, operations managers, supervisors, team leaders, coordinators with people management responsibilities and small business owners. During this interactive seminar, managers will gain a thorough understanding of the Essential Skills framework and a variety of Essential Skills tools to assist in:

conducting Essential Skills needs assessments
writing job descriptions that show how workers use Essential Skills on-the-job
integrating Essential Skills into hiring and selection processes
aligning performance goals with the employee’s use of Essential Skills
developing succession plans to ensure employees are ready for new roles as the need for new skills arises
promoting health and safety in the workplace
Free Consulting Services

Besides attending an informative seminar, participants will have access to an Essential Skills Workplace Consultant, free of charge, to guide them in determining their skill needs, identifying resources and local services that provide assessment and training and identifying Essential Skills tools to best suit their requirements.

If this looks interesting to you, please check them out, or pass it on to someone who might want to take advantage of free HR training. I might sign up for a free seminar myself!

Coach Ric