Refine your communication skills and express yourself more clearly in an English-speaking environment.
(416) 535-VtoW (8869)Name Discrimination
Name discrimination, while theoretically illegal, is unfortunately common. Read and listen to what Jose says when he changed his name to Joe. If you have had a similar experience, please share it. Name Discrimination - Do Anglicized Names Receive More Responses...
How to Speak with Authority
How can we speak with authority? Well, first of all, stop using all those fillers, such as "you know" and "like." Next, stop making statements sound like questions. Slam poetry performer, Taylor Mali, is also an educator and teacher advocate. He gives some very...
Presentation Tips From The World Champion Of Public Speaking
I often recommend Toastmasters to my students as a means to regularly practice presentation skills and receive constructive feedback. And I have seen some excellent speakers come out of Toastmasters. The speaker who gives advice for the following article, has also...
The Power of Introverts
Introverts are rather undervalued these days. Yet they make up a third to a half of the society. It's interesting to look at how history and culture have influenced us to tend to give more prestige to extroverts than introverts. Listen to this inspiring talk about the...
Pronunciation Errors that Made the English Language What it is Today
What we may call pronunciation errors are not always wrong. Actually, language changes follow natural patterns. So while my grade three teachers insisted we pronounce the H is when, where and why, we never did and I don't now. But my parent's generation generally...
Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Canadian Singer-Songwriter Gordon Lightfoot
Canadian Railroad Trilogy is a wonderful old folk song by Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. Lightfoot, who lives in Toronto, has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound...
Prospects not entirely rosy for foreign-trained MDs, says fairness commissioner
Foreign-trained MDs (Medical Doctors) complain about this problem regularly. And I don't blame them. For some reason, managing to get your medical license to practice in Canada as an MD is next to impossible. On top of having to re-do medical exams, New Canadians also...
No one’s listening to you? Speak so that people want to listen
Have you ever felt like you're talking, but no one's listening? This can be caused by a variety of reasons. For non-native speakers, sometimes it is due to lack of clear speech, or culturally inappropriate communication, or simple difficulty in understanding the...
The Cultural Values of the Vietnamese
The article I am linking to discusses the cultural values of Vietnam. While I don't generally post articles about specific cultures, I found this one interesting since it explains a number of concepts and the historical influences that have participated in shaping the...
Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah sung by KD Lang
Hallelujah is one of my favourite songs. Here it is performed by one of my favourite singers, Canadian KD Lang, and composed and written by one of my favourite poets, Canadian Leonard Cohen. Too bad both have been living in the US for a while! Great Canadian music!...
