毎週、土曜日に英会話サークルを開いています。詳細は↓

【開催場所】アルバーニー通りにあるティムホートン（サーローとビュートの間）

【開催時間】15：00〜17：00（たまに時間変更有り。16:00〜18:00）

皆さんの参加お待ちしてます。


この英会話はメンバー皆で集まって英語でコミュニケーションをとるのが目的です。特に英会話のレベルなどは関係なく、英語を話す機会がもっと欲しいな〜とか、英語を話すのがすきという人はどんどん参加して下さい。

集合場所は基本的にコーヒーショップですので、学校の授業のように硬いものではなく、気軽に何でも話せるような雰囲気ですので、とにかく皆で楽しんでやっていきます。

流れとしては最初の45〜60分でお互い自己紹介をし、残りの60〜75分で用意されたトピックについて話し合う、といった感じです。

もし興味がある人は是非気軽に参加してください。ちなみに参加費などはなしで、コーヒーを飲みたい人は、コーヒーを自分で購入するのにお金がかかる程度です。

英会話の後にも、定期的に食事にいったり、ビリヤードしに行ったりと活動してます。皆で楽しみましょう！！

これは、MIXIのコミュニティで発足した英会話なので、”コミュニティを検索”→バンクーバーギリホリ集合！！
と、入力してもらって検索かければでてきます☆★
興味のある方はコミュニティの参加と毎週土曜日の英会話に参加してください＾＾

【連絡先】

僕にメール返信していただくか、直接電話してください＾＾
７７８−３１８−５３９７（KOSE）

この英会話は毎週定期的に開催してますので、興味のある方は、是非参加して下さいね。

今週のトピックです。今週も午後３時から英会話を行います。

How to Learn a Foreign Language

Note: These guidelines should be rigorously followed, even if you are taking a language course.

1) Spend the time!
By far the most important factor is how much time you are immersed in the language. The more time you spend with the language, the faster you will learn. This means listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases. This does not mean sitting in class looking out the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well, nor getting explanations in your own language about how the language works. This means spending time enjoyably connected to the language you are learning.

2) Listen and read every day!
Listen wherever you are on your MP3 player. Read what you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly understand, or even partly understand. If you keep listening and reading you will get used to the language. One hour of listening or reading is more effective than many hours of class time.

3) Focus on words and phrases!
Build up your vocabulary, you’ll need lots. Start to notice words and how they come together as phrases. Learn these words and phrases through your listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists for review. Soon you will run into your new words and phrases elsewhere. Gradually you will be able to use them. Do not worry about how accurately you speak until you have accumulated a plenty of words through listening and reading.

4) Take responsibility for your own learning!
If you do not want to learn the language, you won’t. If you do want to learn the language, take control. Choose content of interest, that you want to listen to and read. Seek out the words and phrases that you need to understand your listening and reading. Do not wait for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do. Discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. Write when you feel like it. A teacher cannot teach you to become fluent, but you can learn to become fluent if you want to.

5) Relax and enjoy yourself!
Do not worry about what you cannot remember, or cannot yet understand, or cannot yet say. It does not matter. You are learning and improving. The language will gradually become clearer in your brain, but this will happen on a schedule that you cannot control. So sit back and enjoy. Just make sure you spend enough time with the language. That is the greatest guarantee of success. 　

２００９年初めの英会話も１月１０日（土）の午後３時から行います。

Here is the topic for this week. Check it!

New Year’s Day

New Year’s Day is the first day of the new year. On the modern Gregorian calendar, it is celebrated on January 1, as it was also in ancient Rome (though other dates were also used in Rome). In all countries using the Gregorian calendar as their main calendar, except for Israel, it is a public holiday often celebrated with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts. January 1 on the Julian calendar corresponds to January 14 on the Gregorian calendar, and it is on that date that followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the New Year.
-The Japanese celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1 each year. Before 1873, the date of the Japanese New Year (正月 shōgatsu) was based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar and celebrated at the beginning of spring, just as the contemporary Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese New Years are celebrated to this day. However, in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar, so the first day of January is the official New Year’s Day in modern Japan. It is considered by most Japanese to be one of the most important annual festivals and has been celebrated for centuries with its own unique customs.
-Korean New Year commonly known as Seollal is the first day of the lunar Korean calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year’s Day. The Korean New Year holidays lasts three days, and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year’s Day.
-Tamil New Year is the celebration of the first day of the new Tamil year by people of Tamil origin in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in India, and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Earlier, the Tamil New Year was based on the classical Hindu solar calendar. But the Tamilnadu government has changed the Tamil New Year from the tamil month Chithirai to the first day of another tamil month Thai. People greet each other on this day by saying இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் (Iniya Tamizh Puthaandu Nalvazthukkal).
-Vietnamese New Year is based on the Lunar calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The name Tết Nguyên Đán is Sino-Vietnamese for Feast of the First Morning, derived from the Hán nôm characters 節元旦. Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Tết shares many of the same customs of its Chinese counterpart. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tết by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tết, like visiting a person’s house on the first day of the new year (xông nhà), ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year’s greetings, giving lucky money to children and old people and opening a shop.
-The Thai New Year (Thai: สงกรานต์ Songkran) is celebrated every year from April 13 to April 15. It coincides with the New Year of many Dai calendar in South and Southeast Asia. The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. People roam the streets with containers of water or water guns, or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby. This, however, was not always the main activity of this festival. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends and neighbors. 　

今週のトピックです。今週の英会話も午後３時から開始です★

To the casual observer, she’s the very embodiment of a lady. Dressed demurely in a blushing pink blouse, hands sheathed in dainty white gloves, Aiko - quite possibly Canada’s first android - sits patiently, ready to engage in polite conversation using her 13,000-word vocabulary. She’ll recognize your face, shake how-do-you-do, read you a story, add sums and deliver the current weather.

But underneath her wispy auburn hair and peaches and cream complexion is an anatomically correct silicone feminine robot, easily modified for any number of uses. Of course peddling her to the sex industry would be lucrative, her creator agrees, but he insists he has far more noble aspirations for Aiko - which means "love child" in Japanese.

"To be honest with you, sex sells," said Trung Le, 33, after cradling the five-foot tall, 27-kilogram life-like doll on his lap for photographs in his parents’ Brampton, Ont., home where he lives. "It sells, but it’s not like (she’s) one of those $99 (dolls), right? It would be very expensive (to use that way). It would be cheaper just to spend money on my own, real girlfriend."

Le doesn’t have a girlfriend right now, though, because he’s been much too busy over the past year and a half developing the umber feminine robot. (To those who contend Aiko is his girlfriend, he has these words: "I don’t care what they say.")

Costing him $25,000 so far in parts - including a sex doll from Japan for a body, sensors on her head, arms, face and breasts, oodles of bone-structure mechanics, a camera in her neck and computer processors - the project has moved from hobby to full-fledged passion. His hopes for the humanoid’s use are wide, varied and all in the name of helping humanity. Le sees possible applications within homes for the elderly, inside hospitals or the military, working reception or providing airport security.

He also sees her as a research tool for developing fully-sensing limb replacements for people who’ve had an amputation. In fact, she’s so sensitive to touch if someone gets a little too rough, she cries out indignantly. If they’re really pushing the boundaries, she moves in for a slap.

Le’s older brother Quang, 35, doesn’t entirely share his brother’s modest views. Having been financially supporting his brother since Trung Le left his job about three months ago, he’s trying to convince him to think big. And if that means moving towards the erotic, so be it.

"I don’t see why not," Quang Le said. "I see a big application for this in any industry, you just have to tailor her to that industry." With Trung Le’s skills, it wouldn’t even be that hard to do, the trouble is finding the financial backing.

So far, though, no one has been willing to pony up the estimated $12,000 in parts for his next goal: to give Aiko the ability to walk. "Most people ... say it’s fake," he said, explaining that when people watch his You Tube demonstrations, they think it’s CGI or that she’s pre-programmed.

Le, a former software engineer, graduated with a chemistry degree from York University. He built his first robot for a school science fair around the age of 8, shortly after his family moved to Canada from Japan, where they were living after leaving his birth country of Vietnam.

Every time he submitted an entry to the fair, however, he was somehow disqualified. So he backed away from his hi-tech dreams. Then more recently, he found the desire to create stirring within him again. "I just want to see how far I can go, basically," he said. "It’s one guy versus the corporation. (It’s) like 50 engineers and million-dollar budgets against one guy, from his home, with his credit cards." 　

今週のトピックです。今回も午後３時から英会話します。

Apple is an American company that makes computer hardware, computer software, and portable devices like mobile telephones and music players. Apple call their computers Macintoshes Their popular line of mobile music players are called iPods and a mobile phone they have released is called the iPhone. Apple sells their products all around the world.
Unlike most personal computer companies, which sell products made to run Microsoft Windows or Linux, Apple’s computer hardware runs software designed to only run on their products, usually with an operating system they have written for their products called Mac OS X. Some people think this way of making software and hardware together make Apple products easier to use and more reliable.
The iPod is a range of portable music players made by the company Apple Inc. The iPod comes with computer cables so that the user can put music from their computer onto the iPod, and play music from it using headphones. Newer iPods allow a user to view pictures and videos, too.
The first iPod was simply named the iPod. This was released in 2001. Apple still makes iPods like this today, but they are now called "iPod classic".
Apple makes a smaller iPod called the iPod nano. It is much smaller than the iPod, but does not hold as many songs. It uses flash memory, a special kind of memory for very small electronics, instead of a hard drive. It replaced a version of the iPod called the iPod Mini.
Another type of iPod, called the iPod shuffle, is very small, and it uses flash memory, like the iPod nano but it has no screen. It is the least expensive iPod.
The most expensive iPod is called the iPod touch. It has a touch screen, like the iPhone. The first iPod Touch was released in 2007.
iPods often contain songs downloaded from an online music store, using a program called iTunes. (The name of Apple’s music and video store is the iTunes store.) Songs are sold in AAC file format, not MP3 or WMA. These are popular formats for compressing (making smaller) music until it does not take up much space and can easily be put on a media player such as the iPod.
Apple’s newest product that is a Phone, iPod, and more with a touch screen. The newest iPhone released uses 3G (which is quicker than normal mobile phone connections) to surf the web. The iPhones come in 8GB and 16GB types. The iPhone 3G comes in black and white (16GB version only.) The new price for the iPhone 3G 8GB is $199 and 16GB is $299. This new version was released on July 11, 2008. The price in the UK where released for O2 Pay and Go on 2nd September 2008. The price of the 8GB version is £350 and the 16GB is £399 - nearly twice as much as the US version. The UK version was released on the 16th September 2008. 　

今週のトピックです。今週も３時から英会話です。はりきっていこ〜

Canadian Food – Is There Such a Thing?
Food is an important part of any culture. You’ve probably had Chinese food and Indian curry. In the U.S., they pride themselves on their fried chicken and mom’s apple pie. It is easy to name foods from Thailand, Italy, and France. But is there such a thing as Canadian food?
Historically, food availability was severely limited by Canada’s short summers and cold winters. Since then, our food has been heavily influenced by the myriad cultures that have immigrated to Canada. Canada shows this multicultural background in the wide variety of foods available in restaurants and grocery stores.
But this doesn’t tell us if there are any foods that are specifically Canadian. Canada can boast many unique dishes and different regions of the country all have originated their own. Some examples include: Fiddleheads in New Brunswick, tourtière and poutine in Quebec, perogies in the Prairies, ice wine in Ontario, and caribou in the Northwest Territories.
Canadians are known primarily for their sweet tooth. An example of a treat from the great white north is the Beaver Tail, a sweet pastry in the shape of the tail of beaver. It doesn’t get anymore Canadian than that. Butter tarts and Nanaimo bars, which originated in Ontario and British Columbia respectively, are also uniquely Canadian treats. And no column about Canadian food would be complete without mentioning the doughnut. Doughnuts are not uniquely Canadian, but they are central to our culinary culture. According to The Unofficial National Sugary Snack, a television clip in the Canadian Food section at the CBC archives, “There are more doughnut shops per capita in Canada than anywhere else on the planet. Canadians eat more doughnut than any other country’s citizens.” The doughnut is to Canada cuisine what Hockey is to Canadian sports – our unofficial national obsession.
Canada does have its own culinary traditions and favourite foods. The difference between countries with internationally recognizable culinary traditions and Canada, is that we are very Canadian about promoting our cuisine. We need to get over our reluctance to self-promote and be proud of what Canada has to offer. Not only do we have our own unique dishes, but we also boast an exciting international influence and an abundance of fresh local ingredients. Michael Smith (from Canada’s Food Network) argues, in Canada’s Cuisine Comes of Age, by Jessica Wong and Tara Kimura (CBC News In Depth, June 26, 2007), that Canadian cuisine should simply mean cooking with fresh, local ingredients. He says, “To me, that’s Canadian cuisine at its best.” 　

今週のトピックです。午後３時からのスタートになります。

You’re trying to get pregnant and you’re wondering if there’s any way you can get that little girl or boy that you so desire. Admit it, someone told you if you eat a certain food or have sex in a certain position, you can control the sex of your baby and part of you thought, "why not?" In the case of most of these old wives tales, it can’t hurt to try, but are some of them dangerous? And remember, for all of the women who claim that one or more of these tricks worked for them, there are just as many who will tell you that they didn’t work at all!
Cultural Beliefs
The ancient Mayans believed that you could determine the sex of a baby by looking at the mother’s age at conception and the year of conception. If both numbers are even or both are odd, then the baby will be a girl. If one number is even and the other is odd, the baby is a boy. Some people will tell you that this absolutely works, but we figure the odds are about 50/50.
The Chinese also have a method for predicting the sex of a baby. The belief is that if you compare the mother’s age at conception and the month of conception you can accuratly predict the sex of the baby using a chart. A quick office poll reveals that the Chinese method has about the same rate of success as the Mayans – 50%.
Don’t feel like putting all of your faith in the Chinese or Mayan methods? Here are a few other methods that some people claim will work:
If You Want a Girl:
• Eat lots of chocolate and other sweets
If you’re not diabetic or pre-diabetic, go for it – but in moderation! We all know that too many sweets are bad for blood sugar, waist-lines and teeth.
• Both of you should eat lots of fish and veggies
It may not get you a girl, but eating healthy is never a bad idea.
• If the woman orgasms first, you’ll have a girl/
• The missionary position will produce girls
• If the woman is on top you’ll have a girl
If you Want a Boy:
• Eat lots of salty foods
We’re not so sure that this is a good idea. Too much salt can cause hypertension and in some cases, stomach cancer. If you already have high-blood pressure, definitely don’t try this.
• Eat lots of red meat
There are a lot of vegetarians who will tell you that you can have a boy without eating any meat. While moderate intake of red meat is fine, too much does carry some health risks; consumption of too much red meat has been linked to colon cancer and heart disease. If you want to try this, consider choosing organic meat. Meat from cattle that have been fed grass contains more omega three and six fatty acids (the good fats), and less saturated fat.
• Let the man initiate love making
• Make love standing up
• Lie down for a while after sex
• Have sex while on all-fours
Other Pearls of Wisdom
A common claim is that more boys are conceived on odd numbered days and more girls on even numbered days. If you want a girl, try to conceive when the moon is a quarter full and for a boy try when the moon is full. Some people claim that the time of day can affect the baby’s gender too – girls are conceived in the afternoon and boys at night. 　

今週のトピックです。今週も午後３時から開始します。

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.
The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.[1] The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.[2]
The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend in average twice as much money as women.[3]
Asia
Thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in some Asian countries with Singaporeans, Chinese and South Koreans spending the most money on Valentine’s gifts.[34]
In Japan, it has become an obligation for many women to give chocolates to all male co-workers. This is known as giri-choko (義理チョコ), from the words giri ("obligation") and choko, ("chocolate"). This contrasts with honmei-choko (本命チョコ); chocolate given to a loved one. Friends, especially girls, may exchange chocolate referred to as tomo-choko (友チョコ); from tomo meaning "friend". By a further marketing effort, a reciprocal day called White Day has emerged. On March 14, men are expected to return the favour to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine’s Day.
In South Korea, women give chocolate to men on February 14, and men give non-chocolate candy to women on March 14. On April 14 (Black Day), those who did not receive anything on the 14th of Feb or March go to a Chinese restaurant to eat black noodles and "mourn" their single life. Koreans also celebrate Pepero Day on November 11, when young couples give each other Pepero (pocky) cookies. The date ’11/11’ is intended to resemble the long shape of the cookie. The 14th of every month marks a love-related day in Korea, although most of them are obscure. From January to December: Candle Day, Valentine’s Day, White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day.
In China, the common situation is the man gives chocolate, flowers or both to the woman that he loves. In Chinese, Valentine’s Day is called (simplified Chinese: 情人节; traditional Chinese: 情人節; pinyin: qīng rén jié). 　

いつも行きたいなと思いつつしり込みしてしまうのですが
トピック並みの会話量とレベルが続くならかなりハイレベルで
私は付いていけなさそうで…。
　

大丈夫ですよ〜みなさん、こちらに来たばかりの留学生やワーホリばかりなので、初心者さんの方が多い感じです。いつも、１３〜１５人ほどでカナディアンの友達を交えつつ、英会話してます☆

このトピックは、ただのトピックで、１番重要なものは、最後に５問ほど出される簡単な質問なんです。これをグループのみんなで話していきます。わからなければ、上級者の方が助けてくれるのでお気軽に参加してくださいね！ 　

初めまして。

私も英語をもっと話したいと思っていて、ぜひ参加したいです。
そんなに英語が話せるわけではありませんが、大丈夫ですか？ 　

＞KIYOMI
明日の英会話は、管理人の方が用事があるために、お休みですので、また来週の土曜日３時からご参加ください。

ワーホリ来たばかり初心者の子も多いので、お友達も作れるよ！ 　

来週から参加させていただきますね★
ありがとうございます♪゛ 　

＞みなさまへ
MIXIでも大きなコミュニティを管理しております。その名も、”カナダ☆バンクーバーの達人さん”といいます！お気軽に”バン達さん”とでも呼んでください（＾−＾）

こちらから、入れますのでお気軽にご参加くださいっ↓

カナダ☆バンクーバーの達人さん
http://mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=3660471 　

一度、参加してみたいんですが、若い方だけの集まりみたいで、ちょっと顔出しにくいですが、どうなんでしょう？？？

　

いえ、私はギリホリでも管理人でもないのですが基本はMIXIにあるコミュニティ”バンクーバーギリホリ集合！”の宣伝をしているので、みなさんギリギリでワーホリもしくわ留学している方がメインとなります。

ですので、是非ご参加ください〜