Merry Christmas, Happy Boxing Day, and It's Intonation Time!

Now that the stores have been raided, the turkey dinners digested, and the presents unwrapped, how about a bit of English-speaking exercise before the New Year?

Speaking English involves not just mouthing the right consonants and vowels in succession, which is hard enough, but also singing it right, making the sounds go up and down, fast or slow, and pausing at the right time.



Listen to this video, read this article, and then do the following:

1. Play the video, but instead of trying to follow her words, aim to follow the pitch of each syllable by saying "chee chee, chee Chee chee chee ...." Do it twice.
2. Type out the transcript of what she is saying (checking the article could help), underlining where the pitch goes up, and putting in a slash mark (/) where there is a pause. Check the transcript against the video to make sure the it's correct. E.g. “It wouldn’t be fair / for all the girls to buy princesses / and all the boys (price) / to buy superheroes!”
3. Read the transcript silently, then aloud, with the video. Then read it without the video, slowly at first, and more quickly the next few times.

Feel free to videotape your reading and post it to Youtube! Have fun! Don't forget to post your results!

They'll Be Home for Christmas ... Awwww.

Christmas time (Yuletide) is a time for much nostalgia, warm-and-fuzzy feelings, and happy memories, and this Toronto Star series captures some of the mood of the season.

Sure, go ahead and cry a little.

You may miss your classmates over the next two weeks, but we'll see you back on Tuesday, January 10, in the new year.

Whither Housing Prices?

With real estate prices on the climb over the last decade, what do you think about the latest announcement about mortgage rates rising?

Will house prices go up or down with the change?

Comment on it on your blog and let's talk about it!