Intercultural Studies

Today I'd like to talk a bit about our NorQuest Centre for Excellence in Intercultural Education and intercultural education in general.  The people in The Centre are well trained and many are ESL teachers.  They do workshops for ESL students and for people in the workforce. Some of their workshops introduce Canadian workers to a multicultural workforce so they can better understand each other.  One of my walking friends took such a workshop at her workplace because they have many foreign triained engineers.  She thought it was fascinating and is waiting for Part 2.
The workshop in class will not be delivered by the Centre but was developed there.  I know you will like it.  I enjoy going to workshopsand other training sessions related to intercultural education even though I have been in ESL for almost 3 decades.

HI Class


Edmonton River Valley July 29, 2012

 I am excited to share a beautiful pic of our beautiful city.  It was taken yesterday between 10:00 and 11:00 AM.  Why not use the picture as a desktop background.
Research shows that spending time in nature reduces stress but I think that even looking at nature can help too.
Edmonton has many trails and paths that you can very safely walk and during the summer they provide much needed shade.  I go out every Sunday with my group.  You can see many joggers, walkers, dog walkers and families out on a Sunday in Summer and Winter alike.

Places to shop in Edmonton

I thought some of you would like to know about good places to shop in Edmonton.  I like shopping so I'm quite knowledgeable about it.  Right now, the end of July is a really good time to buy summer clothes and other things.  Two places that keep marking things down are Dots and Winners, but every store in the city has sales because they need to make space for their winter stock.
The best places to shop in EdmontonI am going to share my favourite shopping places. Everybody likes to get a good deal and I do too.

 winners.ca

There are several Winners and Home Sense stores in Edmonton. Winners has clothing for the whole family and Home Sense has household items.
One thing I like about this store is that the prices get marked down and down and down. There is always a clearance section. There will be a big sale in January because the store wants to make room for Spring clothing. The clothing is of average quality and there are Petite sizes (for short women) and Plus sizes ( for women who take larger than size 14 or 44).
There is also clothing for men and children. You can often buy children’s toys and books for a very low price.
I regularly buy kids books, pants, tops and underwear at Winners. I have also bought purses, suitcases,shoes and boots. If you check carefully you can find very interesting socks and tights.

‍Dotsstores.ca

There are two Dots stores in Edmonton. 11825 - 105 Ave. and #300, 3414 Gateway Blvd. corner of 34th and Gateway Blvd. (Behind Second Cup)
Dots has mostly women’s clothing but also some men’s clothing and sometimes there is children’s clothing. Much of the clothing is of very good quality. Dots carries a lot of clothing from Europe and is probably from one year ago but still very nice. You have to be prepared to spend time looking through the racks which are very crowded. Their prices also go down and down. Every year I buy several tops and maybe some pants and skirts.

‍Value Village

Everybody knows that this is a second hand store where people donate their used clothing and other items. There are several Valu Village stores in Edmonton. I go about once a week to look for yarn and now for toys. Sometimes you find a lot and sometimes you don’t find anything.
There is yarn regularly because people often buy yarn and then never use it. I have bought good quality balls of yarn for about $1 each. One time I bought 2 large balls for $4 each, but they would cost about $35 in the shop.
I look for toys for my granddaughter especially plastic toys you can wash easily.
They also have a lot of small appliances such as coffee makers, hair dryers etc. You can buy them and clean them up at home.
There are several similar stores in Edmonton – Salvation Army and Goodwill are two of them.

‍Reitman's

I also shop at Reitman’s because they have an excellent Petite section for short women. Their clothing is good for women who have had children and aren’t very thin like the models in many stores. The prices are fairly cheap and the quality is average. There is also Plus clothing for women larger than size 14.

‍H&M

This store is quite new in Canada and there are stores all over the world. I think Madonna designs some of the clothes. There are clothes for women, men and babies and children. The children’s clothes are very very cute. You have to be careful about the women’s clothing. Some is only for very young women but some is for anyone. The quality is quite cheap but if you want something new and fashionable, this is a good place.

XS Cargo(pronounced Excess Cargo)‍

This store has many things for your home including a lot of electronics. Men love this store. I have bought a grill for meat, cordless phones, cell phone covers there. There are also some toys. The prices are very good because the electroncs are refurbished. This means that someone returned them to the store or factory to be repaired and they are perfect when you buy them.

‍Shoe Warehouse http://www.shoewarehouse.ca/promotions/default.cfm

This store is located in the basement of Kingsway Garden Mall. It is very big and has a wide variety of shoes and boots for the whole family. There is a clearance section and sometimes the shoes in this section are marked down 50% again. For example I bought a pair of black leather boots last year and they cost only $25!! Many of the shoes are leather and the original price is over $150.

A number of you expressed an interest in seeing some photos of the mountains.  It feels so peaceful and, as I mentioned earlier, there is no snow this summer.  I added a pic of the Calgary Zoo which is quite large and well worth visiting despite the $20 entry fee.

Park in Canmore
with mountains in background



 

rafting on the Bow River



a mountain stream near Banff
 with Kayla and Mia

Crowded Banff Avenue



Banff



Hippo at the Calgary Zoo

Hi from the mountains

Hi everybody Even though I grew up near the mountains, I sometimes forget just how beautiful they are and what a peaceful feeling you get when you see them. We are staying in Canmore which is just a 20 minute drive from Banff. Canmore is smaller and not as crowded. Both Canmore and Banff have a lot of small shops for tourists and both have lots of great coffee shops. People in Canmore are very relaxed and lots of people have dogs. They like stopping to let my 2 year old granddaughter pet their dogs. We're having a good time but it's very busy. There is very little snow on the mountain tops this summer. It's really beautiful when the mountain tops have a little snow. If I figure out how to post a pic from my iPad I will. Linda

Have a good week with Terese and Marilyn.  Check out the blog because I will be posting with pictures of Canmore and Banff in the mountains.  I love the Rocky Mountains and you can see them from many places in Calgary where I used to live.  When I first came to Edmonton in 1979 I missed the mountains for several years.  What place do you miss because of its beauty or because you have good memories?

We often talk about the weather in Alberta because it can change so much and its hot this week.  The humidity is also higher than usual which is not common. For many of you this weather is nothing special and you don't feel hot at all, but I sure do!!  Last night I didn't sleep in my bedroom upstairs, I slept on the main floor and my husband slept downstairs.  We didn't turn on many lights in the  evening because it makes the house so hot. 
BUT ITS A DRY HEAT  or BUT ITS A DRY COLD
We always say this in Alberta because our humidity is usually very low.  It doesn't feel as hot or cold with low humidity.
What's the weather like in your country? hot, cold, humid, dry?
I hope you enjoy this that I saw on Facebook.

July 8
I hope everybody is having a good weekend..In Alberta you have to get outside when the weather is good.  I walked about 6km with my girlfriends this morning, then we all went to Kathy's house for coffee and muffins.
I've been thinking about the survey we did the other day about learning a new language.  Just to remind you about some of the points we talked about.

• Most people feel shy when learning a new language but everybody feels they are getting smarter.  My comment: If you are shy by nature you have to make sure you speak whenever you can.  Some people feel that they learn a lot in their first 2 months of class and that they don't learn much after that.  The higher your benchmarks are, the longer it takes you to move to the next one, so you may not move up a Benchmark in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing in one 16 week term - in fact you probably won't, but just keep working.
• Most people felt that they were strong in reading and speaking in class but weak in learning vocabulary and pronunciation.  My comment: Reading and retention of vocabulary are very much related.  The more you read, the more vocabulary you will remember, so read, read, read. We will be spending time reviewing the vocabulary that comes up in class. As for pronunciation, we will explore both online material and materials in the language labs.  As well, I will continue to point out various aspects of pronunciation as they come up in class.
• Iqbal feels that learning a language is like or can be compared to  playing chess or solving a puzzle.   He learns parts of the language and then puts them together. I, on the other hand, feel it is more like learning a dance or learning to swim.  I can learn the steps or techniques and then I just swim or dance and my body learns how to do it.  So, we see learning a language differently, but we can try to learn in many ways. 

My advice to you is to follow your teachers' guidance and try different ways of learning and all activities even if they don't seem logical to you.  Many of us have many years experience teaching and have attended lots of classes on teaching English.  We have tried many different things in class and all of us have the same goal, and that is for you to learn as much English as possible during your time in LINC and after that.

I hope everybody enjoyed the independent study about blogs.  How did you find the exercises - easy, difficult, boring, thought provoking.  Comment here so I know.  Would you recommend that another LINC 5 teacher assign this work?  Would you recommend it to a friend trying to study English at home.

This morning I was looking at the weather and thinking about summer storms here.  Maybe they are different from storms in your home country.  If it's hot during the daytime, there might be a thunderstorm with lightening later on in the day.  If there's lightening, you should try to stay indoors but don't go under a tree or post to stay out of the rain.
We have had a couple of hurricanes in Alberta in the last 25 years and in both cases, people were killed.  Tornadoes can happen when it's hot during the day.  If you are worried about a storm, listen to your radio and there will be a warning if there's a chance of a tornado, but I only remember 2 of these storms in our province in the last 25 years.
Another thing that can happen is hail.  Hail is like giant frozen rain.  Usually its about the size of a pea, but it can be as big as a snowball.  It usually lasts for about 30 minutes and there can be a lot of damage to cars and crops. 
Of course the weather can change quickly in Alberta, so if its a very nice or OK day, you should go out because the next day might not be so nice. If you have any comments about the weather let me know.
Here is a pic of a tornado. 

Two old barns look on as a tornadic storm dissipates. Taken just off Highway 2, between Calgary and Alberta on July 30, 2010.

Canada Day
I hope you enjoyed your Canada Day Celebration.  I wasn't there but I googled 'NorQuest Canada Day' and saw a few articles and lots of pictures.  It was so nice to see everybody dressed in red and white.  I only heard a little of what Mayor Mandel said but I have heard him speak several times and I like listening to him.
At the end of our church service today they sang 'O Canada' which was surprising and nice.
I'm not doing anything special today but I think I'll see what's on the news about Canada Day tonight. 
When our sons were young we used to go see the fireworks downtown in the evening.  Our favorite place was at the back of the Shaw Conference Centre downtown.
Comment on one of my posts and let me know what you are doing, or did on July 1, 2012.