December is a very festive month in Canada. You can see, hear, and feel the Christmas spirit everywhere. Many students asked, “We don’t have families here to celebrate Christmas with, and stores are closed early. What can we do for fun during Christmas?” Here’s a little guide to help you (based on your budget) spend a lovely time during “the most wonderful time of the year”!
Free or by donation:
Cookies and cocoa, Picture with Santa
Cookie Decorating at the Victoria Public Market
Government House Holiday Open House and Carol
Times Colonist 2018 Christmas Lights Map (Drive around the city to see some of the most amazing Christmas light displays!)
Note: Many of these free events are actually for good causes. The donated money all go to charities which then go to those in need. If you can, help support these events with whatever much you can. Sharing makes us all richer!
With a small budget:
Skate with Santa ($2.00 when you bring a non-perishable food item!)
With a bigger budget:
Ballet Victoria – The Gift (featuring one of our many talented students, Davide!)
The Magic of Christmas at The Butchart Gardens
Christmas at the Royal BC Museum
Christmas Workshop Series at the Victoria Public Market
Victoria has so much more to offer for Christmas! If you’re the artistic kind, try out some of the Christmas-themed workshops around the town to make wreaths and seasonal decorations. If you are into music, there are caroling performances here and there in town. Best of all, organize your own caroling group!
If you feel like getting out of town a bit, you can also head to Ladysmith for Festival of Lights, or to Sidney for Winspear Festival of Trees and Gingerbread Scavenger Hunt.
A reminder: If you’re taking the public transportation to get around, it will be operating on a reduced schedule on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. And always remember to bundle up!
Brrrr…. Do you feel cold? I do! Victoria is currently having a cold snap. This means a sudden drop in temperature. The weather forecast says that it is going to be clear and cold until Friday. After that, we will return to our usual cloudy and rainy winter weather. https://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/bc-85_metric_e.html
Have you noticed that the school is a little chilly? How about other public buildings? There is a reason for that. Many buildings in Victoria are heated using natural gas. In October, there was an explosion in a natural gas pipeline in BC. The pipeline is fixed now, but the company can’t provide as much gas as usual. As a result, they have asked businesses and homes in BC to turn down their thermostats (reduce the temperature inside) to save gas. You can read more about this story here: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/natural-gas-shortage-could-last-all-winter-households-urged-to-conserve-1.23497101
When I was in university, I took some Chinese classes. One of the biggest challenges I had was learning how to pronounce the sounds correctly.
As a native English speaker, I struggled to reproduce a lot of Chinese sounds. Not only were the sounds difficult for me to make, but Chinese is also a tonal language. Chinese has four tones: high, rising, dipping, and falling. It also has a neutral tone. The sounds and tones were hard enough on their own. Together? HAH! Even now, I sometimes still have difficulty having correct pronunciation for both sounds and tones.
What really helped me improve my pronunciation was music. Once a week, at my university, there was a Chinese singing class. Each class we would learn and practice one or two songs. It was always fun, and I have many fond memories of laughing with my classmates at our pronunciation. However, as time went on, we found that the songs we learned were actually helping a lot with our pronunciation. To this day, I still remember many of the songs we learned. I also like to practice new songs!
Using singing and music is a wonderful way to learn a language. Here are some of the songs I’ve used before in my classes.
CELPIP Speaking Task 5
*UPDATE: Written on the whiteboard is “Although (your choice) is a good choice, I think that (my choice) may be better.”
What is not clear is that “(your choice)” refers to the choice that the other person has made. My apologies if the video is not clear on that point!
