Buy a Poppy, Wear a Poppy – Remember

wear a poppy over your heart! You will see many people wearing a plastic Poppy (red flower) on their lapel (collar) these days (Nov 1st – 11th), in Canada, the UK and maybe some parts of the U.S.A. November 11th is Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the US) and it is time to remember the […]

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Jack-O-Lantern Halloween is almost upon us! I would like to take this opportunity to remind all the ESL readers of this blog that even though we focus on speaking English better the blogs’ focus is also on learning and understanding culture.  Why?  Because as I have said many times as an ESL teacher, business […]

Canadian employers want ‘ethnic’ applicants to do more than study

Hello Readers, I’ve been preaching for years the value of interpersonal skills and understanding cultural expectations when immigrants and foreign workers are looking for a job in Canada.  I’ve met people who think that they will get a job solely based on their impressive education and overseas work experience, as it would be in their […]

Body Language: What The Leaders Are Really Saying

This is a brief article and some audio from an interview I recently did with Katie at NewsTalk 1010 in Toronto, regarding the body language and public speaking skill of Dalton McGuinty, Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath. Enjoy the debate tonight! Click on either of the links below: http://www.newstalk1010.com/News/localnews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10293325 

Jack Layton – A Confident Communicator Gone Too Soon

As we all know by now in Canada and many parts of the world, our fearless leader of the Opposition, Jack Layton, has succumbed to a second battle with cancer. He was only 61. Jack was a great communicator because he was able to handle himself in difficult discussions (as the 2011 Leadership Debate certainly […]

Demographics of Toronto (Wikipedia)

This is some interesting info on the demographics of Toronto.  Not sure if it’s been updated since 2006, but nevertheless – interesting. The demographics of Toronto make Toronto one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Data released by Statistics Canada as part of the 2006 census indicates that Toronto is more ethnically diverse […]

Immigrants’ health declines the longer in Canada, especially Chinese: study

TORONTO – The longer immigrants reside in Canada, the greater their risk of developing cardiovascular disease — and that effect is most pronounced among people of Chinese origin, a study suggests. Doctors have long known that the longer people stay after immigrating to western countries like Canada, the less healthy they become, said principal investigator […]

What’s a Canuck and What’s a Bruin?

Hi folks. This blog post is a little late – I should have written it a while ago, but I was busy watching the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Yes I’m referring to our love of hockey, and right now in the NHL there are only 2 teams left – one Canadian and one American. So if […]