The Maple Leaf Rag by Mapleleaf Man | English, baby! Blogs

English sucks...but don't give up.

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:23:27 GMT

English sucks...but don't give up.

If I say to you 'bit by bit', will you know what I mean? It's the same as 'step by step'. Want to learn English? Want to lose weight? Want to learn computer programming? Do it bit by bit, step by step. There is no other way.

I'm trying to lose weight. I exercise every day, eat a bit less every day (I hope) and try to keep active. It's frustrating sometimes because it doesn't look as if I'm losing anything at all. But I am...very slowly. I could spend all day exercising but that wouldn't last too long. I could eat a lot less but that wouldn't work either. As a matter of fact, that would be the worst thing I could do. (Don't ever diet to lose weight. It just makes it harder the next time you want to lose weight. Your body changes, it stores fat because it thinks you're starving. Don't diet....ever!)

Same thing with English. Don't get frustrated. If you learn a word a day, you'll have 365 new words at the end of a year. Ten words a week? That's 520 new words by the end of a year. Do the math. It's not impossible to fully understand 1,000 new words by the end of a year. Don't have time? Sure you do. Keep an English dictionary in the washroom and learn five new words every time you are sitting down...get my point?

The average educated English speaking person knows about 20,000 words. That person would use about 2,000 words in a week. (I probably know more and use more because I'm a writer. Don't use me as an example.) Knowing that, you would only have to learn 2,000 words to be able to carry on a conversation with an English speaking person. How long would that take to do? Maybe a year, maybe less, maybe more. But, above all, it is 'doable'. That's a new word. If you can do something, it is 'doable' or able to be done.

Lastly, I say this all the time but it bears repeating, if you can't think of how to say something, try to think of how to say it differently. When I am writing this log, I often start to say something backwards or in a way that only an English reader would understand. That isn't good for you guys so I try to say things another way. There are millions of English words. Anything that can be said can be said in many different ways. Don't get hung up over one or two words. Change the words around and use something else. Go ahead. Ask me anything and I will tell you another way to say it.

Thanks for reading!

Learning English is never easy, but it's worth the effort.

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:17:34 GMT

Learning English is never easy, but it's worth the effort.

If ever there was a universal language, it would be English. If you know eve a bit of English, you would probably be able to travel around the world quite easily.

People ask me about English every day. How to learn? How to speak? Increase my vocabulary? Read, read and read is always my answer. Whether you are reading a newspaper online or a book from a library, reading English is the BEST way to learn. Your vocabulary will increase and you will begin to understand how we arrange our words in English.

Not every language is the same in the way words are arranged. English has hundreds of thousands of words and we arrange them differently than, say, Chinese or Arabic. You don't have to know every English word, just around 3,000 to start. If you can read a news article online, you're well on your way to being proficient in English.

Don't give up. Do something every single day, even if you don't feel like it. Read something onine, pick up a newspaper or watch a DVD with English sub-titles. You can even practice with a friend.

My neighbour has been in Canada for 35 years. He owns a house and has worked here for decades. You know what? I honestly can't understand two words out of ten that he says. Trust me, you are better than you think you are. If he can survive in Canada, you can too.

Thanks for reading my blog. Comments are welcome.

Easy English Stories

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:50:36 GMT

Easy English Stories

(Yet another log entry that I wrote for renren, the Chinese site.)

In my last log, I suggested that you read a simple story, maybe a children's story, with a dictionary beside you so you could increase or add to your vocabulary. Here is another suggestion and a link to a website.

Here is a link to the stories: http://www.manythings.org/voa/stories/ They are on the Voice of America site which should be open to you. If it's not, please let me know right away.

The stories are simple but they aren't childish. The second group, those written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, are all about John Carter, the hero in the latest Disney film. Others are mysteries, some might be scary, but all of them are written in basic English.

We write and speak differently than you do in China. You are all saying, "Duh! Of course you do!" But what I mean is that we arrange our words differently. When I am translating in QQ from English to Chinese, I often hear that "You say things in a funny way". Well, that is our way. Something as simple a s 'I am old' becomes 'Old I am' or something like that. 'Old I am' sounds like Yoda talk to us! Hahahaha. When my daughter Kathleen is joking around she will say things like, 'Cold I am', instead of 'I am cold'. It's very different, and funny, to hear her.

Besides having easy to read stories, there are MP3s of each story that you can download. This means that you can listen to the story as you read it. Another way to learn, right? Listen to the words and how they are pronounced and listen to the punctuation and the speed of how each sentence is spoken.

I think this is a good resource for you. Let me know if it helps. Lastly, these stories are quite famous. If you can find a Chinse version of them, you might be able to compare the Chinese writing beside the English to get a better sense of how things are translated. See if this works for you.

Thanks for reading!

(Warning: This site is the Voice of America. When it talks about the United States it will tell you that everything is perfect there. It's not. Just the same as your government paints a rosy picture of life in China, this site will tell you that the U.S. is the perfect place to live and that their way is the perfect way. It's not, believe me.)

English vocabulary - another way to learn

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:47:41 GMT

English vocabulary - another way to learn

(Another log entry from renren, the Chinese site. I hope this helps you a bit.)

From what I hear, students who are learning English have a very tough time learning vocabulary. Vocabulary is simply the words we use and their meaning. I think most students use lists of words to do this, pages and pages of words with their meaning beside them. Is this working for you? Probably not, right?

Pick up an easy English book, maybe even a children's book. The reason that I suggest a children's book is because they are usually simple, they use easy words and you won't get frustrated. This is only for people who are having a tough time with English, not people who regularly communicate with me in good English. Many other people on renren tell me that they suck at English and some can't communicate at all. This is for them.

Start reading. See if you can figure out what the book is about, what the words mean and how they are used. As soon as you hit a word that doesn't make sense, that you don't know, or you don't know how it is being used, stop and look it up. Take some time for find out what 'unicorn' means, for instance.

Learning English words this way is sometimes frustrating but, believe me, you will know the words when you are done. As long as you are reading English EVERY DAY, even just a page or a paragraph, you will get better, bit by bit, word by word.

Once you get the children's books figured out, try a teen or adolescent book. I'm thinking of Twilight or The Hunger Games, something like that. I think it's better to read a book that was written in English first, not a book that was written in Chinese and translated into English. The English that is used will be better, I think.

OK. If you can read this, you already know a lot about English. Maybe you could do your friends a favour by sharing this or even translating it. You can help your friends this way, I think.

A Shit of Paper

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:44:21 GMT

A Shit of Paper

(This is from a log that I write on renren.com, a Chinese Facebook site.)

A very good friend of mine, a lovely Brazilian girl who I love dearly (she's married, don't worry), used to ask me how to say things properly in English. One of the funny ones I remember was when she asked me how to say 'a piece of paper'. She had been saying 'a shit of paper' because to her, sheet was pronounced shit. She couldn't hear the difference between sheet and shit. She knew it was funny and wrong and we both laughed about it. I helped her many times and we became good friends.

The point of my status updates this morning was to find out what you guys think about making fun of people from other places, other races, you know? Then I got to thinking about English and Engrish and Chinglish and so on. I want you to know my point of view on this.

Language is communication. I want to say something and I want you to understand what I mean. Does it matter how I say it? As long as I get my point across, that is communication. If all you want to do is meet and talk to foreigners, your English doesn't have to be perfect. As you know, I live in an area full of people from around the world. On my short street, we have Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Indian, Philippino, Caribbean, Polish, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and maybe some others that I don't know about. Somehow, we all communicate with each other quite well. Not everyone is like me, however. There are older people who are quite racist to newcomers. There are newcomers who don't quite fit into the neighbourhood. Basically, it's good but not perfect.

My point is that it doesn't matter if your English is perfect. You can communicate in whatever way you feel comfortable. If you use Chinglish to make a point, what difference does it make? Here in North America, no one, not even the big TV stations or newspapers use perfect English all the time. I wish I could show you the mistakes they make. If you want to be a scholar, learn perfect English. If you want to communicate, just do whatever you are doing when you communicate with me. It's all good!

Thanks for reading!

Break a leg - another English idiom.

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:54:09 GMT

Break a leg - another English idiom.

I was watching a Chinese movie this evening on Toronto television. It was Marriage to a Liar with Chrissie Chau and some other famous actors. Near the end there was a commercial that tried to explain 'break a leg', an English idiom. The explanation was totally wrong! I couldn't believe it. Here is the real explanation.

A long time ago, maybe 100 years or so, someone wished an actor or actress 'Good Luck!' before they went on stage to act in a play. In that play, the actor who had received the 'good luck' wish, broke her leg. Wow! What kind of luck is that?

Now, whenever someone is going to go onstage to act or sing, we say, "Break a leg!" to them. Instead of wishing them good luck, we say, "Break a leg" which is the opposite of what we really mean. Get it? You will hear 'break a leg' many times in your life. You will hear it in movies, on TV and in real life. Now you know what it means.

We don't use it all the time. I use it only when someone is going to act or sing or do something in front of a lot of people. It's not something you say to someone who is leaving on a trip, for instance. You would wish them good luck or bon voyage, not 'break a leg'. If someone is about to give a speech or a presentation in front of an audience, that is the time you would say, "Break a leg!"

Thanks for reading!

Repost: Are all Chinese girls lesbians?

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:51:53 GMT

Repost: Are all Chinese girls lesbians?

This is a log entry that I wrote for QQ and Renren, Chinese social networking sites that I have been on for a long time. Hopefully, it will make you think about differences between cultures. We are all the same but we're not all the same...you know?

The other day, I was listening to an American girl talking about the Chinese girls at her university. She went on and on about how the Chinese girls hold hands and are always together, finally saying that they are all lesbian. I was not able to tell her that she was full of shit but she was. She was just another white, stupid, American who didn't take the time to get to know the people she was talking about. Her world is very small, much like her mind.

I see it here in Toronto, too, but I know that the customs in China are very different from Canadian customs. Or are they? My daughter is very close to her friends too, specially her old roommate. Sarah and Kathleen used to take naps together. They'd start to talk then one would fall asleep and the other one would do the same. Are they gay? On the surface, someone who didn't know them and didn't know their relationship might think they are gay but, of course, they aren't.

Before we say something about someone else, I think we have to know where they are coming from. We have a saying here in Canada, 'walk a mile in my shoes'. Before you can comment on what I do or how I act, 'walk a mile in my shoes', get to know who I am before you criticize me. Don't paint me with your brush.

Americans are very short-sighted, just as anyone is who hates gays or lesbians or blacks or Chinese or anything that is different. Smarter people usually aren't as racist as stupid people. Racism is stupid just as being a homophobe is stupid. (A homophobe is a person who hates gay and lesbian people)

The title of this log is to make you think about things you say before you say them. I know that girls have a different sense of space than boys do. Some hold hands, some hug and put their arms around each other, maybe some boys do the same. We can't look at you with our eyes and say something like 'they are all lesbian', can we? We have to know you before we can assume anything. Saying something like that revealed the girl's stupidity, that's all it did. She is the smaller person here, not the girl's who hold hands and are comfortable with being very close to their friends.

You know what I love about QQ? I love seeing the graduation photos of the groups of people, boys and girls together, all having fun and doing crazy things. In the west, we sees boys or we see girls. We rarely see large groups of boys and girls doing things together. I think the Chinese way is refreshing and much nicer than our western coldness. Maybe sex is too important here, I'm don't know. Maybe guys should learn to be friends with a girl first and then move on to dating.

Thanks for reading!

How language affects your life.

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:11:07 GMT

How language affects your life.

One of my friends sent me an article on English and how native English speakers tend to blame people more than people who speak other langauges. If there is a bed broken, for instance, English speakers would say something like, "Bob broke the bed". People who speak some other languages would simply say, "The bed is broken".

This was the first time that I had heard about langauge affecting someone's point of view on life.

Another article had to do with numbers. Some languages simply don't have or use numbers. There are words such as many or some but nothing to do with five or ten or a thousand. The interesting part of this is that when confronted with four or seven apples, the speakers would say something like, "There are some apples". They had no concept of decimal systems, obviously.

We are all a product of the language we learn as children. While Chinese learn words from memory, Latin language speakers use an alphabet and phonetics. I'm speaking of writing here, of course. Spoken language is always phonetic, I think.

The point of all of this is that culturally we are all different. That's well known, right? What we might not think about is how our language affects the way we think and how we view the world. That might be something to keep in mind when you are dealing with people that you would call foreigners.

Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are welcome.

Chinese Writing

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:24:38 GMT

Chinese Writing

I've been doing some research on Chinese writing. To almost every Westerner, the Chinese written language is very difficult to learn. You guys had an advantage when you learned it. You were young! I guess if I had started when I was five or six, it would have been easier.

But, as it turns out, it's not just difficult for Westerners, it's difficult for Chinese people too. (I always add the word 'people' after Chinese but some people just say 'the Chinese'. I don't know which is correct.) It seems that with computers and keyboards and cell phones, many Chinese are forgetting how to write the characters. If you don't write on paper, only on a computer or cell phone, I think you would forget the characters over time and it seems that this is true. Remember that we only have 26 letters to learn. You have thousands!

Here are some questions that I have about your written language:

If you forget how to write a character, how do you look it up?

Do you have Chinese dictionaries? How are they ordered? I mean we have alphabetical. What do you have?

What about encyclopedias? How do you look things up in a book? In a library?

Does each character represent a sound? When you are learning the characters, are you learning sounds at the same time? Is it easy to learn which sound is which character? I mean you already know how to speak Chinese when you start to learn the written language, right?

Did you know that the early Chinese symbols actually looked more like what they mean? The later ones are 'stylized' but the early ones, from what I learned, were very basic, almost like heiroglyphs.

When you put characters together, do they make a new sound, a combination of other sounds?

Ignoring grammar, do you use more characters than letters to say the same thing from English in Chinese? I know that the word order is different and that I can't put my English words in the same order as a Chinese translation but do you use more characters to say more or less the same thing?

Those are my questions for now. I will think of more, I'm sure. Part of the reason that I love China is because it is so damn old! Your culture, your language, your buildings and villages, everything. Chinese is the oldest written language and the basis for Japanese and, perhaps, Korean. It's pretty cool, I think.

Thanks for reading!

Some times, sometime and sometimes...confusing!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:33:09 GMT

Some times, sometime and sometimes...confusing!

I was talking to a Chinese friend today. She told me that she had a problem with the words 'some time' 'sometime' and 'sometimes'. Here's how you would use them.

Some time means an amount of time. If you want to learn English, you have to devote some time to study it every day. Learning English can take some time but it's worth it. When you have some time, call me and we will talk about English.

Sometime means a point in the futre or in the past. Sometime in the future, there will be peace on earth. (Don't we all wish that?) Sometime back in the 15th century, castles were built. If you come over sometime, we can play that video game. (Sometime when you have some time...)

Sometimes means now and then. Sometimes I get sick of hearing Christmas music. Sometimes that teacher drives me up a wall. Sometimes my cat scratches the furniture. (Sometimes when I have some time I play the piano.)

I hope these few examples help you with thse confusing words. English is difficult to master but it's fun, too. Don't get discouraged. First comes communication and second comes mastering the language. Once you can communicate, even if it's badly, then you can relax.

Thanks for reading!

A Busy Week

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:05:25 GMT

A Busy Week

My wife was away this week, off on a vacation in the Dominican Republic with her Dad and her sister. I was home with the cat and two of our kids, Kathleen and James. Kathleen is 23, James is 22. They're the best kids in the world, right? Well, I think they are but sometimes I need some help to realize that.

We had planned a party for my wife when she comes home (tomorrow, Thursday Dec. 1st). She will get together with some of her friends on Saturday evening while the rest of us do something else. (Me? I'll go out for supper by myself and then do some photography or shopping at a Chinese supermarket. Want to join me? Just ask.)

Before the party, we had to get the house in order. I did the floors and some other chores. We have two kinds of floors. hardwood and carpet. I sanded the hardwood and then put a shiny coating on them. Then I rented a carpet cleaner and did the carpets in three rooms. After that, I did some fixing up here and there. The house has never looked better!

Kathleen and I grew closer together this week. She was working but we got together and worked out the jobs that we had to do. She is very mature, has a long-time boyfriend and, while we don't get along ALL the time, we did well this week.

James and I? That's another story. We've been fighting for a few weeks. I wish I could figure out what's wrong but I can't. It will take time but I think we can work it out. We are a close family but we all have tempers. James and I are very much alike. That's not a good thing sometimes. I hope we can work out our differences before Christmas.

That's me week. I've chatted with some of you and written a bit here and there. When I have a week like this, I don't get into the writing spirit like I usually do. I do so many things, I can't seem to keep them all separate. I need to multi-task!

Thanks for reading!

Lang Lang - Why you shouldn't give up.

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:20:00 GMT

Lang Lang - Why you shouldn't give up.

I just heard Lang Lang on the radio. He was being interviewed on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). During the interview, he told a story that everyone should keep in mind.

When he was just 7, Lang's Lang's father took him to Beijing to study with a very famous teacher. Lang called her Mrs. Angry. Lang's father had quit his job so that he could guide Lang Lang on a path to become a famous pianist.

It seems the teacher, Mr's Angry, didn't think Lang Lang was good. She told him he would never be famous, that he couldn't play the piano well at all. Lang's father was very upset and it was an extremely difficult time for both of them.

As it turns out, Lang won an international competition three years later and has moved on to become one of the most famous and best pianists in the world. He has play the piano in front of billions of people. He is in Toronto for two weeks where he will play five concerts with the Toronto Symphony. Playing five nights gives him the chance to play every Beethoven concerto, something that he has never done before.

All of this is quite a different outcome than Mrs. Angry would have planned. Even though she was a famous piano teacher, she obviously wasn't perfect. She couldn't tell that Lang Lang was incredibly talented. Once he was 'fired' by this teacher, it must have taken incredible strength for him to continue on.

What can you learn from this? Basically, don't give up. Don't let an 'expert' tell you that you are wrong. Do the best you can, try as hard as possible and don't listen to negative people. If your parents tell you that you can't do something, prove to them that you can. Whatver you do, don't listen to people who pretend to know more than you. If you think you are talented, then you are. Keep on keeping on!

Thanks for reading.

What's so big about being white?

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:41:01 GMT

What's so big about being white?

My daughter once told me that she read about skin whitening products and how almost all skin creams sold in Asia contain some kind of whitening agent.

I did some investigation and found out that 4 out of 10 women in Hong Kong (and Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea) use some kind of whitener. This is completely new to me. I guess it isn't to you but I'm shocked.

What's the big deal about it? Personally, I love brown or tanned skin. At this point in my life, I don't even look at white girls. I know that this runs much deeper than what I like but I hate to think of what the skin creams are doing to women's bodies.

My neighbour is from the Philippines. She isn't that dark but her daughter is very dark. Somehow I think she looks incredible but my neighbour worries that she is just too dark. She tries to keep her out of the sun but I don't think the sun makes any difference. I worry that the girl will lose her confidence if her Mom keeps telling her that she is too dark.

I know that the sun can damage and age your skin, that's understandable. Is using a chemical to make your skin lighter any different? What damage will these things do to you later on? Just something to think about. We use lots of sunscreen here in Canada. Maybe protecting yourself from the sun is a better idea that using an unknown chemical on your skin.

Thanks for reading!

If you dream about someone, should you tell them?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:54:53 GMT

If you dream about someone, should you tell them?

If you've read my logs, then you'll know that I dream a lot (usually at night!). I'm not sure why but my dreams are packed with humour, action and intensity. Quite often I see people from my life, both real and virtual, in my dreams.

Last week, I dreamt about a renren 'friend'. I put friend in hyphens because many people don't consider online friends to be real friends. My jury is still out on that but, in many ways, I feel much closer to some online friends than I do with most of my real life friends. I guess I should use the word 'acquaintance' instead of friend, at least in this case.

The dream itself wasn't bad or wild, just a meeting while cooking with someone on my list. She wore a red dress, which seemed significant to me for some reason and there was something to do with football. I rememeber that I scored a touchdown, as a matter of fact. The next day I wrote a private message to my friend on renren and told her about the dream. No response came back. Then I started to wonder, as I always do, if I should have said anything. Maybe she thought it was weird that I messaged her. Hell, I would want to know if someone dreamt about me. Wouldn't you? It didn't mean anything, I mean I don't even know her at all, other than her pictures and a few messages.

The week before, I had dreamt about another friend, a co-worker that I hadn't seen in years. She was actually my boss at one time. After the dream, I wrote to her on Facebook and told her what I dreamt about. She laughed and we shot a few messages back and forth. It was nice, nothing significant at all.

So, the question of the day is: Would you tell someone that you dreamt about them? Is it important to know? You know where I stand on that. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I've crossed some cultural barrier here. Hahaha. I am always crossing some invisible barrier, right?

I should start writing down my dreams and tell you about them. It might be interesting and revealing. Maybe someone could pick out a pattern or meaning in them.

Thanks for reading? Do you dream? Some people don't. Let me know. I love your comments.

Flu Shots - Will you get one?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:53:26 GMT

Flu Shots - Will you get one?

I went up the old Scarborough City Hall today to get a flu shot. It seems that the City of Toronto has clinics set up at different places to give people free flu shots. Every year they send people over to check on the current strains of flu and create a vaccination that, hopefully, will prevent people from getting sick.

This is all free, we didn't even have to show any identification or cards or anything. There was a form to fill out but you could say anything on the form, no one checked. You didn't have to be a citizen, just show up and get a needle. It didn't even hurt! My right arm is a bit sore now, though, but that's normal. I think my body is fighting the flu virus which is what gives me the immunity. That's what a vaccination does, right?

Well, I hope I don't get the flu this year. Touch wood! I haven't had any flu for quite a few years. Sure, I've had colds but not a flu. The difference is fever. If you have a fever, you have the flu. I always get aches and pains and then a high fever but I haven't had that for years, thank goodness! I hope you guys don't get sick either.

Thanks for reading!

Changing time and Raccoons

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:11:03 GMT

Changing time and Raccoons

Here in Canada, we changed the time back this morning at 2 AM or so. In the spring we will change it forward again. Every year we change our time twice. This is the good one. We get an extra hour of sleep! Yay!

My old alarm clock changed time by itself. Since my daughter went off to university, she needed to get up for classes so she took my fancy alarm clock and left me with an old one that doesn't change the time automatically.

Last night, I woke up at 4:30 old time and heard a noise. It seems that a raccoon had gotten into our empty swimming pool. There was a ladder there but the raccon had knocked it down when it went in and was now trapped in the pool. The walls are about 1 1/2 meters high, too high for a raccoon to jump. I saw the ladder on its side and the raccoon trying to stand on it to jump out. I was afraid that it would tear out the sides so I had to rush to save it.

I woke up my wife for moral support and went to get a light. Once I had the light set up, I headed out with my wife cheering me on. Lo and behold the raccoon had somehow gotten out on its own. Relief!

I headed back to bed thinking that it was almost morning but then I looked at the clock. It said it was 5 AM, not a great time to get up but not too bad. Then I realized that it was REALLY 4 AM and I could still get some sleep...if I could settle down after the excitement of the raccoon. Thankfully, I slept until about 8:30 NEW TIME! hahahaha

Thanks for reading!

Twitter

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:02:21 GMT

Twitter

I've been on Twitter for a few months now. It's a great way to waste time! Hahaha. Not really. Twitter is fun for many reasons but one of the best ones is because it can help you with your English.

Depending on who you follow, you'll discover new words and phrases as well as being able to keep in touch with many famous people. Politics, education, entertainment as well as many word games can all be found on Twitter.

One of the fun things that I do sometimes is to join in on the # games that go around. One of the latest ones has to do with putting a rock star's name with a well known product. One of the ones I remember is 'Boy George Foreman Grill'. If you don't know who Boy George is then the joke isn't very funny at all.

Check out Twitter if it's available to you. I know it's blocked in China and maybe some other countries but if you're in Europe, it should be open.

Make sure you follow people who use proper English. If you follow Rihanna, for instance, you will see that she uses many short forms, swear words and slang. But she is a lot of fun, just don't repeat the things you hear from her! Hahaha.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have questions or comments.

Back at Ebaby - for now anyway

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:51:06 GMT

Back at Ebaby - for now anyway

Hey there! I have been spending a lot of time on renren, the Chinese version of Facebook, lately and I've been ignoring my friends here on Ebaby. Things have changed so much here that it's not the same as before. It's still a great spot to meet new people and to help out with English, don't worry about that.

What's new with you guys? There have been many changes in the world since I wrote my last blog. The Middle East is in turmoil, a notorious terrorist has been killed and the world continues to have financial problems.

Learning English is difficult, for sure, but it's also a ticket out of your world into another, and hopefully better, world. While English might not help you make a fortune, it will almost certainly help you get a good job. Learning a second or third language is important. The funny part of saying that is that I can only speak one language, English. Sure I can get by in French but not in a business situation. If I knew Chinese or Japanese or Arabic, I'd be much better off in terms of getting a better job. But I'm a writer. English is all I need to make money, for now anyway. This is a case of do what I say not what I do! Hahahaha.

Thanks for reading.

Mapleleafman needs some help!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:25:05 GMT

Mapleleafman needs some help!

Hi Crew! It's been a while since I've been around but that's because I've been busy with my new writing career. I'm lucky enough to be a professional writer now! Yay!

My latest assignment is about computing in different parts of the world. Since the magazine I write for is all about hardware, maybe some of you can give me some help.

What's popular where you are? Are there any gadgets or things that might be unusual? What is considered a fast computer where you live? Do many of your friends and neighbours have their own computers? How about your school? Are there still computer rooms or does everyone have their own?

If you can send me a message here, that would be great. If you don't know much about computers, maybe you could introduce me to someone who does. Thanks!

Idioms - confusing but fun

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:50:39 GMT

Idioms - confusing but fun

I'm sure that every language has idioms. English certainly has a lot. Over the next few blogs, I'll try to introduce some of them to you. Sometimes in English we don't use the full idiom. In the second one, for instance, we might just say 'Ah, you're trying 'the hair of the dog'. Everyone knows the rest of the idiom, we don't have to say it.

Here we go!

That's the tail wagging the dog - when something smaller than normal is controlling something much larger or more important. This could be students taking over a class from the teacher.

The hair of the dog that bit you - an old cure for a hangover is drinking some alcohol the first thing in the morning while you are still hurting from the night before. The hair is the drink of alcohol in the morning. The dog that bit you is the large amount that you drank the night before. Usually used with alcohol and hangovers but could be used for other things, too.

A snake in the grass - something bad that you can't see. A person who seems nice but is really an evil person underneath.

Sunny side up - fried eggs that haven't been flipped or keeping happy in spite of setbacks.

Over easy - fried eggs that have been flipped but are still soft and runny in the yolk. (not really an idiom but it fits with the one above. Over hard is flipped and cooked solid.)

Throwing the baby out with the bath water - getting rid of something that is bad and accidentally getting rid of something good with it. In a business situation, you wouldn't get rid of everyone in a company, you would keep the good employees and get rid of the bad.

Reinventing the wheel - when you are designing something, you should use parts of things that have already been developed somewhere else, instead of designing something from the ground up or 'reinventing the wheel'.

Keeping up with the Jones's - buying or wanting something just to be equal to someone else.

Jonesing - same thing as above but a newer and cooler version. Meng was jonesing for a new iPod because here friend had one.

Don't get your knickers in a knot - don't panic, keep cool. Knickers are underwear in Britain but the idiom is used almost everywhere.

It never rains but it pours - things seem to come in groups or in volume. You want something and then all of a sudden you get much more than you can use or need.

Good things come in small packages - you can say this about a person who is short or small or you can say it about something small that is very useful.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts - based on the Trojan horse story, this means that you should be careful about a gift from someone who wouldn't normally give you a gift. Sometimes that gift isn't what you think it is.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth - don't examine a gift that someone gives you, don't evaluate it, at least not in front of the person that gave it to you. It's based on the fact that a horse's age can be read from it's teeth so if someone gives you a horse, don't look in its mouth to see how old it is!

On the same page - making sure you and another person are talking about the same thing at the same time. In a business meeting you sort out everything and start 'on the same page' when you discuss something.

FIFO, LILO and FILO - not idioms really but economic or marketing terms. First in first out, last in first out and first in last out. These refer to warehousing or sales and have to do with product control. Milk and eggs, for instance, would be LILO, last in last out. There are probably other combinations.

Kitty bar the door - could be used in football but usually in Canadian hockey, it means to play defensively instead of offensively. Instead of trying to score, a team which has a lead simply tries to prevent the other team from scoring.

That's enough for now. Thanks for reading!

Is that right or write? Why English is a pain in the ass...but it's fun, too!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:41:05 GMT

Is that right or write? Why English is a pain in the ass...but it's fun, too!

English is full of words that sound the same and mean something different. It's also full of words that look EXACTLYthe same but mean different things, depending on how you say them. Here are a few of those words.

Rose - it can mean a flower or when someone gets up from sitting down, or when something goes up in the air. (The balloon rose up into the sky.)

*Polish - it can mean to shine your shoes or it can be someone from Poland. (He is Polish.)

*Sewer - A person who sews or a stinky pipe underground.

*Lead - a kind of metal or a chain for a dog or horse or what you do when you are out in front. (Let me lead the way.)

Bear - the animal or to support something. (I can't bear this pain anymore!)

*Sow - a female pig or planting seeds.

*Read - this is hard to explain. You can read something but once you read it, you have read it!

*Close - to shut something or to be right beside someone. (Close the door and come stand close to me.)

*Wind - the air blowing or to roll something up. (The wind blew the hose down. Now I have to wind it up again!)

Chinese also has these words. Can you think of some? Send me a message about them. In this case, Chinese and English are much the same. Difficult!!! Hahahaha

Thanks for reading.

*These words are pronounced differently, depending on their meaning.

University life - don't give up!

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 20:42:52 GMT

University life - don't give up!

A young man wrote to me recently, asking me for advice about his situation. He was a freshman at university and, after a good start, felt that he was getting discouraged with his life there. Here is what I told him :

University life is difficult, especially if you are far away from your home. I'm sure you miss your family and friends.

Two things might help you:

1. Make sure you get lots of exercise. Run, walk, get active. The more exercise you get, the better you will feel. You will have more energy for schoolwork and you will sleep better, too.

2. Set a goal for yourself. Although your major may not be your favourite, set a goal for yourself. something like "I will get a B in this course", or an A, depending on your abilities.

Some other ideas: Write a log in QQ or renren. Let everyone know how you feel. If you are sad, tell people that. Your friends will read that and try to cheer you up.

Join a club on campus. Clubs are great for meeting other people and having fun. Sure, you have to study but you can also take some time for yourself.

Volunteer to help out at a school or a senior's home. Maybe you can tutor younger people in your best subject. Remember this: When you are down and out, there is always someone worse off than you. Help them and you will help yourself. Every nice thing you do will come back to you. Life is like that. As we say in English, what goes around, comes around. This is the old 'yin yang' isn't it? When you help others, you are helping yourself.

I hope these ideas help. Don't lay around feeling sorry for yourself! Get up and enjoy life! This will all end soon and you'll be working. You have time now to do the things you want. Once you start working, it will be hard to have as much fun.

Thanks for reading. I'm not a psychologist but I have been around a long time. Let me know if you need some help.

Wish or Hope? Which one do I use?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:01:37 GMT

Wish or Hope? Which one do I use?

One of my friends on QQ asked me about the words 'hope' and 'wish'. At that time, I didn't have an answer for her. After some thought, I'll try to give you and idea about these two words and how and when to use them.

If you wish for something, it's very indefinite. "I wish that I could be a movie star." Maybe someday this could happen but, for now anyway, it's a dream. You can wish upon a star or make a wish when you blow out a candle. These things aren't definite and usually they won't happen. Wishes and dreams are similar.

If you hope for something, then there is a definite possibility that it will happen. "I hope it rains tomorrow, the ground is really dry." "I hope that the dentist can fix this pain in my tooth." In both cases there is a chance that these things will happen.

Hope is also something that you have if there is a chance that something will happen. The miners in Chile were trapped very far underground but there was always hope that they would be saved. If there was no communication with them for weeks, then all hope would be lost.

Wish can also be a verb. "We wish you a Merry Christmas." Hope is a verb, too but, in this case, wish is a bit lighter. You wish a person a happy birthday. But you hope they had a great party. In these cases, you just have to have a bit of luck making the choice.

As with most things to do with English, it's sometimes easier to change the words around when you can't decide which word to use. "It would be nice if it rained tomorrow." That takes care of your problem. We have a million words in English. There is always another way to say the same thing. Don't worry!

Thanks for reading! If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Caramel Apples for Halloween

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:41:54 GMT

Caramel Apples for Halloween

Today, Sunday, was a rainy, dreary day here in Toronto. For some fun in the afternoon, we decided to make caramel apples. Since it's almost Halloween, and these apples are a delicious Halloween treat, we gathered up all of the things we needed and whipped them up in a very short time.

Depending on your tastes, you can add or subtract items from the list. We used:

Apples - uncut, with the skin

Wooden sticks - a chopstick works perfectly, we broke our chopsticks in half. You could use the flat Popsicle sticks too.

Caramel - the little cubes in wrappers that you buy, take the wrappers off

Mini M&Ms - the tiny, coloured pieces of chocolate

Coconut - sweet

Walnut bits - you can use peanuts or any kind of nut that you like

Brown sugar and cinammon

Score bits - little chunks of toffee

Reese's chocolate chips - mini

White chocolate shavings

Brown sugar

How we made them:

You need a double boiler for these or, I suppose, a rice maker. Unwrap the caramel chunks and put them in the top part of the double boiler. If you have a steel pan that fits in the top of your rice maker/steamer you could try that. I know many people who only have a rice maker and use it for just about everything. The steam from the double boiler or steamer will heat the caramel and melt it. Make sure that the caramel is totally melted and smooth.

Push the stick into the core of the apple and roll it around in the melted caramel. Use a spoon to cover the apple in caramel, making sure it has an even coat all over it.

Twist the stick to keep the caramel from dripping off and dip the apple into whatever extras that you want on it. You can dip one part in the M&Ms, another part into the walnuts and so on.

Put the finished apple on a tray covered with some wax paper into your refrigerator. The apple won't stick to the wax paper. Once it's set, enjoy a sweet, moderately healthy treat. Hey, at least the apple is healthy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and, as always, thanks for reading!

Marketing or International Trading

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:39:41 GMT

Marketing or International Trading

Many of my friends are involved in 'International Trading'. We call it marketing, here in Canada, plain old selling. While China has a huge population, the market for manufactured products is much larger outside of China.

China itself is a large market for certain products but one has to consider the differences between selling within China and selling outside of China. How do you market things outside of China? From what I see, not many companies know how this is done. Sure, you can try to sell things through a hotmail account or sign up for a website with Alibaba but I don't think you'll have much luck. Certainly not in a business to business situation, and probably not in a retail situation. Retail means selling to a person as opposed to a company.

Here are some steps that you or your company can use to market your products all over the world. Good luck! For more information, contact me personally. I'm a writer but I've been in sales for most of my adult life.

1. Get a website of your own. If I am looking for something, I sure don't go to Alibaba and look. I search on Google and go to a website that has information about the product that I'm looking for. Make sure it's a .com site. Make sure it's easy to remember. Make sure your English is perfect on the site and that everything to do with the site is professional, clean and polished.

2. Answer EVERY email in perfect English. Don't try to figure out what the person wants to know, ask a professional native English speaker. If you speak English with a bit of an accent, use the telephone. International rates are cheap and a personal call goes a long way to making the customer feel secure.

3. Get your product into the hands of the consumer. Spend some money and find a company that will market your products in the North American market or the European market. Look for reliable distributors. If you sell a certain product, make sure that the distributor is familiar with marketing that product. Look for professional reps, not discount reps.

4. Ensure that everyone that is involved with the customer is proficient in English. If the customer senses that they are dealing with a company that doesn't understand their needs, they will take their business elsewhere. Competition is fierce in China and all over the world. If you stand out, your customer will remember.

5. Explore the market. Get to know who is doing the same thing that you are doing. Find out how they market their products. Don't assume that you're the first company to do whatever it is that you are doing.

6. Have one of your trusted employees get a job with your competitor. Let your competitor teach your employee how the business is run. Then, take the employee back into your company as a trainer for your other workers.

7. There are trade fairs all over North America and Europe. Spend a bit of your advertising budget and get your products into the hands of the people who actually use them.

8. Investigate the give-away or promotion market. There are television sales networks in North America who are looking for products to offer to their customers. Knowing your market in North America will help you sell here.

Thanks for reading.

Baked White Kidney Beans - Crockpot Style

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 20:17:11 GMT

Baked White Kidney Beans - Crockpot Style

I had this package of white kidney beans. A year or so ago, I picked them up thinking that I'd make baked beans. Once I got home, my lovely wife informed me that I should have bought navy beans instead of white kidney beans. Chagrined, or at least a bit wistful, I stuffed them up in the macaroni cupboard and forgot about them. This weekend, when electricity is cheap, I decided to see what damage I could do with them. The result was probably the best baked beans that I've ever made. Here's what I did.

Friday night, I put the beans in a big bowl and covered them with water. They swelled quite a bit but still weren't soft so I drained them and put them in the crockpot with some new cold water. This was about five on Saturday afternoon. Cranking the crockpot up to high, they stewed unti around 9 Saturday night. They were still white but now they were soft.

I drained the beans, saving the hot water, and put in a can of diced tomatoes. Then I cut up a couple of onions, added the following to two cups of the hot water:

one cup of molasses

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 tsp salt

4 tsp of dry mustard

All of this was mixed up together and poured into the crockpot with the beans. I mixed it up a bit and headed to bed with the crockpot on medium or low. Mine only has two temps, high and low. The beans were still white.

By 9 Sunday morning, the beans were a nice medium dark brown and smelling really good. Around noon I turned them off, letting them cool a bit. By 2 pm they were ready to taste.

Sometimes the navy beans are still a bit hard, even after the soaking and cooking. These kidney beans are nice and soft. They are also very, very tasty. Try it! You'll like it!

Bored? Boring? Fun? Funny? Everything is answered here. Read on....

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:45:29 GMT

Bored? Boring? Fun? Funny? Everything is answered here. Read on....

Many of my friends use these four words incorrectly sometimes. Here's how to remember which is which.

1. Bored is what you are if you have nothing to do.

2. Boring is what you are if you make other people bored.

3. Fun is what you have when you do something that you enjoy. You can also be fun if you are nice, happy and easy to get along with. "I really like Tom because he is fun to be with." Fun is something you can have. "We had fun at the Expo in Shangahi."

4. Funny is anything that makes you laugh. Clowns sometimes are funny. TV shows are often funny. Jokes are funny. Sometimes, people are funny. Funny is hahaha, laughter, jokes and smiles.
However, funny can also mean weird. "I have a funny feeling about tonight. I think something bad is going to happen." "Isn't it kind of funny that you thought of that at the same time that I did?" (From a song) Isn't it funny how time slips away...

When we say something is funny, we often have to explain which one we mean. If I say something is funny, someone else will say, "Funny haha or funny weird?" Seriously, we say that more often than you think.

You can be any of these four words. You can be bored, boring, fun or funny. You don't want to be boring. You don't want to be bored. But you do want to be fun and/or funny.

A test. Fill in the blanks:

I'm _______________. There is no one online to chat with.

God, this class is so _____________! The teacher makes me so _________.

We had ______ with our friends at the KTV. Si Hui sang but she had a cold and sounded ____________.

You know, it's _________ that called just as I was about to call you.

I tell you, that last Cheng Long movie was a lot of _________ to watch. Him and Chris Tucker are pretty ___________ together. I wasn't _________ at all during the film even though I expected it to be ______________.

Two people told me today that they hate English. I think one actually hates me too but the other person was very nice and agreed with me that English is a ticket to the rest of the world. I hope I can help you learn a bit, here and there.

Thanks for reading.

Thanksgiving in Canada

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:03:17 GMT

Thanksgiving in Canada

Thanksgiving comes to Canada much earlier than it does in the United States. We have to get it over with before the huge snowfalls come and lock us in our igloos. By the time the United States gets around to having Thanksgiving, Canadians have started the yearly snowshoe trek from our summer homes in the plains to our winter homes in the forests, where the trees will protect us from the marauding polar bears and wolves.

Even though the border with the United States is less than 50 km away, the weather and the level of sophistication in Canada is much lower. We still eat seal meat and dress in skins of animals. hunting for seals through the thick ice is a national pastime. We have learned to love fish and blubber instead of steaks and vegetables.

My family is a bit better off. We live in a three story igloo but, as with all of my neighbours, we are forced to live in one room in order to share the warmth of the tiny whale oil lamp, the only source of heat in the long dark winter. We've only been attacked by a polar bear once. I was able to fend off the bear with a sharpened whale bone. Unfortunately the bear died but we were happy to share the meat with our neighbours on Thanksgiving. The Americans have turkey, we have polar bear meat, sometimes walrus meat, too.

Well, that's my blog for today. if you are thinking of coming to Canada, remember to bring your snowshoes and skis. Our one week of summer is very short, third week in July usually. For visits at any other time, remember to dress for warmth not for style.

Thanks for reading! Oh, and remember not to believe everything you read on the Internet. :)

A Chinese man wins the Nobel Peace Prize! But he's in prison...

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:25:14 GMT

A Chinese man wins the Nobel Peace Prize! But he's in prison...

The Nobel Prizes in case you didn't know, are a series of awards given each year in several key categories. These include Literature, Physics, Medicine and others, including the Peace Prize. Last year, Barrack Obama won the Peace Prize.

Canadians have won many Nobel Prizes. The United States and many European citizens have won many more. China has won two this year, one for Chemistry and, as mentioned, the Peace Prize. I'm sure you will hear about the man who won the award for chemistry but you probably won't hear about the man who won the Peace Prize. Why is that? Because he is in prison, considered an enemy of the state.

Liu Xiaobo, president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, was arrested in 2009 after being detained by the Chinese government for six months. He has been sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges that he was 'inciting subversion of state power'. Liu won the prize for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

Mr Liu simply wanted a multi-party government in China. His imprisonment has to do with the Charter 08 manifesto. Have you heard of this? Probably not, since it has been completely hidden by the Chinese government. This charter is described this way : The Charter calls for 19 changes to improve human rights in China, including an independent legal system, freedom of association and the elimination of one-party rule.

Seen as a threat to the Chinese government, Mr. Liu wastes his life away in prison, while the world wonders why China, “ the world’s second largest economy, the largest holder of foreign reserves and the world’s largest exporter...doesn’t currently have a single Nobel prize winner in its universities, its institutions or its government." (from the Toronto Star).

Thanks for reading.

Old messages and a mystery!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:56:40 GMT

Old messages and a mystery!

For some reason, I've got three new messages in my mailbox but I can't find them. Do you have this problem? I took the time to go through every one of my messages to see if I could find the new messages. I didn't have any luck, unfortunately, but I did find about four years of memories.

Since I joined Ebaby four years ago, I've met hundreds of people. Most of them have been very nice and polite and many are still my friends. These days I deal mostly with Chinese friends but that is just because there are quite a few more of them than there are people from other countries. Right now, I only know one person from Japan and no one from Russia, France, or just about anywhere in Europe.

What has Ebaby done for me? Besides all of the wonderful people I've met, Ebaby has made me appreciate languages more. English is difficult but I have a deeper realization of the problems that people encounter. Aside from that, Ebaby has taught me to be patient. I often hear people stumble and trip over words but now, I more fully appreciate the hard work that people face when learning English. It's really humbling for me to realize that there are many people all over the world whose dream is to speak English like a native speaker. I never realized how lucky I am to be able to be a native speaker. But I also never realized how good it feels to help others.

Thanks for reading my blog. If you have questions, don't be shy. Contact me and we can work things out together.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival...does that mean it's almost winter?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:04:48 GMT

After the Mid-Autumn Festival...does that mean it's almost winter?

Now it's rapidly moving towards October. The Mid-Autumn Festival in China is over. I've read that this festival dates back about 3,000 years. Didn't I write about another festival in China that was very old, too? Traditions change but it's really nice to see that these kinds of things don't change much at all.

The weather in Canada is getting cooler, almost day by day. My pool is way too cold to swim in and it's been that way since the first part of September. Soon, I will have to empty it and get it ready for our winter. That's never a happy day.

Good news! Mapleleafman is now writing for an American computer magazine's website. I've had one article published and I have two more in the system. It's nice to have my words out there for people to read. What's nicer is getting paid to write. I've been writing all my life but it seems that now I have actually succeeded in getting some money for it! Yay!

Let me know what's going on in your lives. Are most of you still finding English difficult? Let me know if you have specific problems. I can't help all of you individually but I can certainly answer short questions here on Ebaby.

Thanks for reading. If you want me to write about specific topics, let me know. Maybe some parts of English confuse you. I'll try to help you.

Long time. no see!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:39:49 GMT

Long time. no see!

Summer is over and it's time to get back to blogging and helping people with English again. July was the last time that I updated this blog. That's far too long to be away and I'm sorry about that. I think everyone has forgotten about me!

I'm in Canada, Toronto to be specific. If you are in China you can see my videos on youku.com. Search for mapleleafman or take the link from my profile page.

If you are anywhere else, check out my videos on youtube.com. If you are in Iran or Turkey and your government is being silly by blocking youtube, head over to youku.com and see me there. Sure, it's in Chinese but you can figure out how to search. The interface is the same as the one on youtube.

I use QQ to chat, as well as MSN and, very rarely, Yahoo. If you send me a private message I will give you my QQ number.

Right now, I am writing for an American computer magazine's website. While I don't have the same amount of time as I did before, I can still help you out if you are nice and polite. I don't edit work or essays but I can help you with specific problems.

English is difficult, for sure, but you can do it. There are many people who are making a living here in Canada who don't speak perfect English. I would bet that you speak English just as well as some of the people I deal with here in Toronto. You can do it! Just don't give up.

Thanks for reading!

It's hot!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:24:26 GMT

It's hot!

Summer time...and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high. Do you recognize the words? They are from an opera composed by George Gershwin, although you generally hear the song sung as a a jazz piece or in a blues style such as the one Janis Joplin did.

It's hot where I am, how about where you are? If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, it's summer but if you are in the Southern Hemisphere you are in the middle of winter. Right now, it's 32 degrees here in eastern Canada and much of the eastern United States is sweltering in a heat wave.

How do you say it's hot in English? Sweltering is a good word. Roasting is another. You will also hear this classic line, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." On the radio these days you will hear two temperatures, the first is the pure temperature and the second is 'with the Humidex'. The Humidex scale adds degrees to the pure temperature, depending on the humidity. When it is humid, as you may know, it feels much hotter than it really is.

The reason it feels hotter is because your skin can't get rid of the perspiration as quickly because the air is already full of moisture. When it is dryer, it feels much cooler because the skin can get rid of the moisture faster due to evaporation.

I hope you can stay cool if you are in a hot zone. We have a pool in the backyard which makes it really nice when the air is warm. I was out for a swim last night at midnight, it was wonderful!

Thanks for reading. Keep cool if you can!

Beware of scams and scammers!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:21:07 GMT

Beware of scams and scammers!

A friend of mine contacted me on QQ, quite concerned about a friend she had met on Englishbaby. Her friend had contacted her and told her a story of being in a refugee camp. She was penniless, poor, hungry and desperate but she convinced my friend that she had access to $3.5 million dollars, which had been left to her by her father. Does this sound familiar? Do you know what this is all about? Have you been contacted by anyone who has told you a similar story?

First of all, if you get a message like this, report it to the owner of the website or simply ignore it. All of these messages are what we call scams in English. The people who do this are called scammers. This type of scam usually originates in Nigeria or Ghana, and sometimes other African countries. The messages are all basically the same. The person, who is always a man but pretends to be a woman, contacts you and says that they have something important to share with you or they will send you a picture of themselves after you email them at their personal email address which is almost always a Yahoo address and sometimes a gmail address. They will say something like: age and race don't matter. It will seem that they are very interested in you personally and you may feel comfortable with the person and the messages.

Please ignore these messages and report them as spam. I haven't received any messages like this on QQ but I get them on hotmail and yahoo all the time. The people who send these messages are criminals, thieves and fraud artists. They befriend you and gain your confidence, then try to steal your hard-earned money from you.

Basically, the scam plays upon your own greed for money. The thief tells you that they have access to a huge amount of money that has been left to them by a relative. Because of political situations in their country, they can't get to the money. With your help, and with your money, they can get to the funds and will share them with you. As you may have guessed, there is no money in the first place. Everything to do with this scam is a lie. People all over the world are tricked by this activity and China, because it is just opening up to the world, is ripe for criminal activities of this kind.

Sometimes the criminals are right there among you working on other scams. They might say that they have money to invest in your company or they might want to buy something that you are selling but they will have a very complicated shipping arrangements which will involve an exchange of funds with a bank in England. In the West, we are very familiar with these scams but, of course, some people still become victims of these criminals.

Here are some tips:

1. Don't discuss money with anyone you don't know.

2. Don't accept messages from strangers who tell you that they have seen your profile and are very interested in you.

3. Don't ship anything to anyone who insists on arranging complicated shipping arrangements that involve the transfer of funds from a bank in England.

4. Remember this: If something sounds too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.

If you have questions or comments, please send me a message. Thanks for reading!

Dragon Boat Festival!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:26:38 GMT

Dragon Boat Festival!

This week in China and other countries in Asia, Viet Nam and another one but I forget which, people will be celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival. I've been chatting with different friends on QQ and they've explained much of the history that is attached to this special day in Chinese history.

If you are a student of Chinese history, you will know all about Qu Yuan and his life and poetry and, ultimately, his death by his own hand. It seems he carried a heavy rock into a river and drowned. People raced out in boats to save him, dropping rice into the water to keep the fish way. Later on Qu Yuan came back in a dream, asking his friends to wrap rice in three cornered silk packages to keep away the dragon. These days the rice is wrapped in leaves and the dragon boat races are held in many cities. Toronto has a Dragon Boat Festival too. Canada has over 3 million Chinese as part of our population.

I'm not sure but it seems to me that this festival is about the oldest annual festival there is in the world. It dates back to about 400 years BCE and, strangely enough, is not related to religion. Most of our festivals relate to something about god or Christ but this Chinese one is nicely different.

What about the festivals where you live? Are there any that aren't related to religion? Are there any that are as old as this Chinese festival? The Dragon Boat Festival is about 2300 years old, can you beat that? Chinese culture was very advanced, even at that early date. Most of the world was living in mud huts back then and I would find it unusual if there is an older festival in the world. Let me know, OK?

Thanks for reading.

Negative questions, negative answers

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 20 May 2010 11:17:27 GMT

Negative questions, negative answers

Twice this week I've run into the same problem while chatting with people. As you know, most questions have a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer. Example: Have you had your breakfast yet? You could answer that question with a simple yes or no. Right? That's easy and it's pretty basic English.

There is another example that isn't quite as easy to answer. If someone says, "Wow. I'm really hungry!", Then I might ask, "Haven't you had your breakfast yet?" How do you think you would answer that? Would you agree with the question and say, "Yes" or would you answer the actual question and say "No."

The answer in the second example should tell the person whether you had breakfast or not. Think of it as the opposite of the first question.

Here are the right answers to each example. The person answering the question has NOT had breakfast.

Example 1: Q. Have you had your breakfast yet? A. No. (No, I haven't had my breakfast yet.)

Example 2. Q. Haven 't you had your breakfast yet? A. No. (No, I haven't had my breakfast yet.)

In the second example it might seem proper to say, "Yes. I haven't had my breakfast yet" but that would be wrong. In a chat situation, people tend to type as few words as possible. A simple no or yes usually does the trick. Sometimes, however, you will have these kinds of negative questions that could be answered by one word, yes or no, if you use the right word. If you don't, it means that there will still be a question even after you answer it!

Example 3. (The wrong way to answer) Q. Haven 't you had your breakfast yet? A. Yes. (You are saying that you haven't had your breakfast yet but the person thinks that by saying yes, then you have had it. Get it?)

The answer to this is easy if you are me. Don't ask negative questions! But you won't always be chatting or talking to me, right? Negative questions, when used with the right tone of voice, can show disbelief. " you have not had your Breakfast yet? " This implies that the person is astonished that you have not eaten. Maybe it's NOON and you slept late.

I hope this helps you a bit and that it doesn't confuse you! Thanks for reading.

Pussy whipped - the full explanation

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:08:52 GMT

Pussy whipped - the full explanation

Ebaby has a lesson this week about the term 'whipped'. I don't really follow the lessons much but I wanted to see how they described this term and how they told you why it was used. These days, you will hear that term on some TV shows. American TV shows can't use the full term so they try to be cool and daring by using the word 'whipped' in the way that Ebaby describes it. But neither Ebaby or American TV can really use the full term, simply because it is a bit rude.

Whipped, at least the way that Ebaby explained it, comes from the term 'pussy whipped'. The term is a thing that guys say to each other when one of them seems to be emasculated by a woman. The woman could be a wife or a girlfriend, someone who the guy is in love with or is having a physical relationship with. If you don't know what the word 'pussy' means in this context, it is the slang word for a woman's vagina.

If you are going to use the term 'whipped' in the context that Ebaby suggests using it, you have to realize that a Western person will assume that you are really saying 'pussy whipped'. Just so you know, pussy whipped isn't something that you say in normal or even casual conversation. It is only used when you are talking to a close friend, a man, someone who you know really well. You would never use this term with your parents or a boss or with someone you don't know really well. My suggestion would be to not use it at all.

Slang has its place but when you are learning English you have to understand what you are saying before you use any slang at all. Pussy whipped or whipped isn't a term that you would want to get to know, trust me. If you are a guy, sure, give it a shot. If you're a girl, I would suggest just forgetting it completely.

Thanks for reading!

Listening and reading at the same time

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:52:52 GMT

Listening and reading at the same time

Many people ask me how to learn to listen to English. They say, "I can read English but I can't understand it when a native English person speaks to me." Here is a suggestion, give it a try to see if it works for you. Your browser must have two windows open at the same time.

Step 1: Go here: http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/audiobooks/Sawyer/mp3/

Step 2. Choose Chapter 1. Press pause to stop the player.

Step 3. In a new window go here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74-h/74-h.htm

Step 4. Choose Chapter 1.

Step 5. Open the first window and press the arrow to play the sound.

Step 6. Go back to the other window to read along with the narrator.

Now, at your own speed, you can listen to a man read Tom Sawyer while you read along in the online book. As you listen you can check the meaning of the words, see how they are pronounced and even learn how to change your voice when you see the punctuation marks. Listen to the man's voice as it changes, depending on the kind of sentence he is reading.

I think this will help you learn English a bit more easily than before. Once you get used to hearing English, you'll be able to understand it better. Once you have read one chapter, why not just listen and see if you can understand what he is saying. If you don't understand something, you can refer back to the online book and see what it is that he said.

A word of warning about the book. Tom Sawyer is an old book, more than 100 years old. Back then, people used different words sometimes than they do now. People spoke differently than they do now. Don't get discouraged if you don't understand something. Remember, you can always ask me what something means. The point of this is to learn to 'listen' to English. If you practice this way, pretty soon the words will make sense and you will be well on your way to being able to understand what someone is saying to you.

Lastly, the two websites are totally free. You can look for other books on each site, but try to match them up side by side, like I did with Tom Sawyer. I chose that book because I know that you might have taken it in school. If you can think of other books, share them with me so I can tell other people about them.

Good luck and thanks for reading!

Get off! I hope you understand 'off' after reading this blog

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:03:28 GMT

Get off! I hope you understand 'off' after reading this blog

We use the word off in many different ways. Lately when I talk to people about their work, I will say 'what time do you get off' and they won't know what I mean. Here are some explanations about how to use 'off'.

If you aren't working one day, we would say that it's your day off.

When you stop working, then that is the time that you are 'off'. I might say, "What time do you get off?" or, "What time do you get off work?" You would say, "I get off at 4." or, "I get off work at four" No need to use 'the' or 'my'. Just say, "I get off at four" or whenever you are finished work.

If you take a holiday you could say, "I'm taking some time off." If you are stressed, your boss might say, "Why don't you take some time off?"

Those are the ways you can use 'off' for work. For fun, you could say, "Hey, do you like karaoke? I really get off on it." This is slang, of course. Getting 'off' on something means having fun with it. It seems strange to use the word 'off' just before the word 'on' but in this case that's what you have to do. "I help people with English because I get off on helping people."

Off can also mean that you don't like something. "The smell of her perfume really put me off." That means that you didn't like her because of her perfume. "He is a nice looking guy but his attitude puts me off." When off is used in that way with the words 'put me' or 'puts me', it's a negative thing. Rap music puts me off! Not really true, it's an example.

Off can also mean spoiled. 'The cream is off.' This means that the cream is sour or almost sour. I think you would find this used in Britain more than in North America but you will hear it sometime, I'm sure.

Finally, 'got off' or 'get off' can mean something sexual too so you might hear that or read it in a book. It's another phrase for an orgasm. If you remember the Eagles' song, Life in the Fast Lane, that phrase is used as a double entendre in one verse. Hey, I want you guys to know all about English so don't yell at me for explaining this to you. Western movies are full of phrases that aren't really polite but they are all part of the English language and all part of words you hear every day. Song lyrics can be beautiful, intense or raw, as you know. Ask me about anything you can't understand. OK?

Maybe this will help end the confusion you feel when you talk to me and I say, "Is it your day off today?" I hope so!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I had the title of the blog as "I hope do get 'off' after reading this blog" but I changed it. First, I saw I had left out the 'you' before do, then I realized that it probably sounded bad after I changed it to "I hope you do get off after reading this blog." The word 'get' means understand. If you get something, it can mean understand or pick up and bring. In this case I meant 'to understand'. Now you know, right? Do you get it? Got it? Good! :)

Friend requests - send me a message!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:39:51 GMT

Friend requests - send me a message!

Right now, I have ten friend requests that are just sitting there. I don't want to refuse anyone but I insist that people send me a message or make a comment on my profile page before I accept them. I don't think that this is too much to ask, do you?

I used to have more than 600 friends on Englishbaby. People would ask to be my friend and I would blindly say yes. Then it got to be too much, there were just too many people to keep track of. Some members left, some just disappeared and many of those 'friends' knew nothing about me and I knew nothing about them. At that point, I deleted hundreds of people that I didn't know.

Now, I only accept people who send me a message or make a NICE comment on my profile page. I may have accepted you without either of those things but there may be special circumstances that I can't get into here. Suffice it to say that if you want to be friends with me all you have to do is send a message or make a comment and ask to be friends on my profile page.

I'm going to write some blogs on oral English and how you can get better at it. It's tough for many of you who have no one to speak to in English. I'll try to help you out in that area. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.

Do Canadians eat seal meat?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:01:01 GMT

Do Canadians eat seal meat?

One of my friends saw a documentary on Canada and thought that we eat seal meat here. I had to gently tell her that very few of us actually eat it but some Canadians actually do eat seal meat. I don't, and no one in the southern part of Canada does but in the far north, the Inuit probably eat it.

Canada is a huge country and has many different groups of native Canadians in it. Some of the natives live just like I do while others live 'off the land'. They hunt and trap and eat food that comes from Nature, not from a grocery store. They are healthy and happy, for the most part, just as native people are all over the world. My group of people are the newcomers. We've only been here for a few hundred years. The native peoples have been here for centuries and actually own this country, in reality. We have taken it over but the land is rightfully theirs, not ours.

In case you didn't know, Canada is the second largest country in the world. Only Russia is larger. China and the United States seem like large countries but Canada is larger. You have to realize that, although we are a large country, we have a very small population, only about 33 million.

Although we speak English here, just like the United States, we speak 'Canadian' English and in some parts of Canada we speak Canadian French. Canadian English means that we pronounce the letter Z as 'zed' not 'zee'. Sometimes we end a sentence with something that sounds like a long 'A'. It's written as 'eh' but in reality it's pronounced like 'Aigh' or 'Ayy', just like a long A. When we spell neighbour, we use the u. In many other words we don't take the shortcut that the Americans do, flavour, harbour, etc.

As fas as accents go, most of us speak the same way as the American announcers on the news shows speak. Three or four of the best American announcers are actually Canadian. There are some regional accents, most notably the Newfoundland accent, but certainly not as many as you would find in the United States.

There you go! Some information on the giant land of Canada. If you have questions, post a comment or send me a message. Thanks for reading.

What's in a name?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:46:54 GMT

What's in a name?

The title of this blog is from Shakespeare. Do you know what play it's from? Does anyone know the rest of the dialog that usually goes with this line?

Many of my friends in China want me to give them English names. Some already have some kind of name that is English based but isn't really a name. One of my friends has chosen 'onion' as her name. She told me that her foreign teacher asked her to pick anything to use as a name and that this would be fine. In truth, I think the English teacher was laughing at his students and didn't really care what word they chose as a name, as long as it was easy for him to remember.

Although most of my friends are Chinese, I mean the friends that I help with English, it's only in China that I find this curious phenomenon. Everyone else I speak to never even considers an 'English' name. I've begun to wonder if this name thing is based in a teacher's ignorance and disrespect more than in the student's desire for a new name.

Although I don't know all of my friend's real names, the ones that I do know sound wonderful and are quite easy to pronounce. For this reason I am mystified as to why someone would want an English name that makes them sound like a vegetable over their Chinese name which makes them sound interesting and wonderfully mysterious!

You know, some foreign teachers are both ignorant and lazy. They don't want to take the time to get to know your real name and feel that by giving you an English name, it will make it easy for them to remember you. Alternatively, they may give you a silly English name for their own amusement. Perhaps they really don't want to be where they are so they play a little game with their students by giving them ridiculous names.

What do you think? If I ever get the chance to teach in another country, it would be my honour to get to know everyone's real names.

Thanks for reading!

A new source for my videos.

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:37:03 GMT

A new source for my videos.

I think most people here know that I do English videos for Youtube.com. Recently, because China has blocked Youtube, I have uploaded most of my videos to youku.com. Youku.com is a Chinese language video website that is available in China.

It never occurred to me that people from other countries whose governments have blocked Youtube might be able to have access to youku. Countries such as Iran and Turkey sometimes block Youtube. If you can't access my videos on youtube.com, try to see them on youku.com. My name there is mapleleafman so search for that and you will find most of my videos.

The site is completely Chinese but I am able to find my way around it and I'm sure that you will find it easy to use. If you use Google Chrome as a browser, it will translate the pages for you.

Let me know if this works or if you have problems accessing the site or my videos. Thanks for reading!

The ugly side of Skype and MSN

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:57:59 GMT

The ugly side of Skype and MSN

Two of my friends recently got into trouble on Skype and MSN. They were send a message by a stranger, a girl, who chatted with them and wanted to see them on their webcams. No problem, it seemed, since this was a girl and she was on her webcam too.

The girl chats for a while and then asked my friends to show their body. The stranger shows her body so my friends thought it was ok to show theirs on their webcam.

My friends did not know that this girl was recording the webcam video and would later sell the video to a website.

One of my friends thought this was funny since she isn't too shy at all but the other girl was very shocked and upset. She felt scared and was terribly afraid that her family would find out about what happened.

The reason for this blog is to warn any girls out there who think they can trust another girl on the Internet. Well, they can't. Women are just as bad as men sometimes.

If you are going to do anything on your webcam that involves showing your body, make sure you know who is watching and make sure you are comfortable with it. And if a girl asks you to show your body just because she is showing hers, then DON'T! The girl will be recording it for sure.

Spanish is now more important than English.

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:31:11 GMT

Spanish is now more important than English.

The United Nations announced today that Spanish has been declared the most important language to learn in today's world. The astonishing announcement came just as the world was settling in to learn English. Spokesman Juan Meedball said in a press release that Spanish will become the language of universal trade and commerce and that the world had better get in step with this before countries like Spain and Mexico ruled the world.

The ruling by the United Nations came as a shock to the United States. President Obama was speechless while many new Americans cheered the proclamation. Beniquez Mendosa Miguel Candida, a Mexican gardener for ex-President George Bush, was quoted as saying, "This is a big thing, no?"

Canada has already added Spanish to its list of national languages, right up beside French and the old universal language of English.

I'm afraid that sites such a Englishbaby will become useless unless they change their name to Spanishbaby or espanolbebe, which is my rough translation.

Oh, in case I forgot to mention it, April Fools! It's April 1st people so maybe I had you tricked for a little while anyway. Thanks for reading.

Some idioms, just for fun

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:16:07 GMT

Some idioms, just for fun

Every dog has its day. Huh? What the heck does that mean? In English, as with every other language I suppose, we use idioms to make a point. Idioms are usually quite old for some reason. There are probably some idioms being created right now but I'm not sure we know what they are yet because they aren't in general usage.

Lately, I think because the seasons are changing, there seem to be more idioms being used. Maybe it's because it's spring and I'm more sensitive to things like this, who knows?

Anyway, every dog has its day means that there will be something good or bad for everyone. If you finish last in a contest then someone might say, every dog has its day which would mean that you would win the contest someday or, you'll get your chance someday.

There are many lists of idioms on the Internet but there always seem to be some that pop up and are difficult to understand. Yesterday I heard 'you can't have your cake and eat it too'. Another funny one, right? This means that you can't have everything.

Do you need idioms to communicate in English? Certainly not. But, depending on what you read or where you travel, idioms make English more fun to learn. They are like a challenge for you. See if you can figure out what the idioms mean and try to remember them. Good luck!

If you have heard an idiom and need me to translate it, send me a message or make a comment on this blog. Let's have some fun with it.

Thanks for reading!

Would or will? Which is it?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:44:14 GMT

Would or will? Which is it?

Someone asked me this morning about 'would' and 'will', about when to use one or the other. Here's my explanation:
Would isn't as definite as will. If you think about a man asking a woman to marry him. Let's say he is thinking about asking her and they are discussing it. He says, "If I get a good job and finish my education, would you marry me?" This means in a general sense. He isn't asking her to marry him yet, he's just clearing the air about it.

In the next example, the man is down on his knee in front of the girl with a ring in his hand, saying, "Will you marry me?" He's asking her directly.

I will go to the party. That's definite.

I would go to the party...but I have to study for my exams. That is indefinite. If I didn't have to study I would for sure go to the party.

Will you help me? This means right now, immediately.

Would you help me? That is indefinite and needs more explanation. If I buy the dresser would you help me assemble it?
Would seems to be some kind of future indefinite phrase. Will is immediate, right now at this moment.

I don't know if this helps you but it will get you thinking about it anyway. If you have any questions, send me a message and I'll try to help.

Thanks for reading!

A new video on youtube

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:27:25 GMT

A new video on youtube

Greetings everyone! I made a new video today and put it up on youtube. After I write this, I'm going to try to put it up on youku but, since I can't read Chinese, I'll have to remember or guess how to do it.

Spring is here in Ontario. It's not really warm yet, it's about 0 or just above, but the snow is melting and the sun is shining so it's almost like spring.

I hope all of my friends in China and the other countries around it had a good time during the Spring Festival and the Lunar New Year. It's a big deal, I know. Everyone is sad now to be back at work or back to school but that's like, isn't it?

As always, let me know if you have questions about English or if you need some information about Canada. I know that a lot of students want to come to Canada to study and if I can be of any help with that, let me know. I don't mean the actual details, only facts or information about Canada. I'm not an expert but I can find things out very quickly.

Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to comment on it or send me a message if you have questions or want to make a point.

Learning to listen

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:24:16 GMT

Learning to listen

Many of my friends here say that they have a problem learning English. Since they live in non-English countries, they don't have access to native English speakers. What can they do about this? Well, the answer is as close as your computer or DVD player.

For beginners, I would suggest choosing an animated movie on DVD, a cartoon if you will. There are two reasons for this. First, the words are probably very simple English words. Second, because the spoken English is recorded in a studio, it will be much easier to hear what is being said. It should be almost perfect, instead of what you might hear in a live action film where noise and the weather interfere with the sounds.

Once you have the DVD, play the first scene WITHOUT the subtitles. Remember, you aren't watching the DVD to know the story, you are watching it to learn English. Turn the sub-titles off and listen to ONLY the English. If you don't get much of the dialog, listen again. Play it over and over until you know exactly what the characters are saying. Then move on to the next chapter and do the same thing.

Try speaking the words yourself. Play the DVD and speak along with the characters. It may be boring, but if you live in an area with no native English speakers, this is the best alternative.

Another way to do this is to get a DVD movie of a play, or of something where you have the English script. The script is the words to the movie in book form. Look for the scripts online or in your library. Find script first, then look for the movie. This way, you can read along with the movie as it plays. You will be reading the words in English and hearing the words in English. It's a total English experience.

Whatever you do, don't use the sub-titles when you watch a DVD. First, the translation may be completely wrong. The translator may be no better in English than you are and the words and grammar they use may be incorrect. I know this because I watch Chinese movies with sub-titles and very often the English is terrible. I would assume the same would go for English movies translated into other languages.

This is an easy and cheap way to learn to listen to English, to actually hear and understand it as it is spoken. Sure, you can spend big money on a language 'course' but that isn't the way you will hear the language on the street or when you meet someone who is a native speaker. What you hear on a language DVD isn't what you hear in movies or in normal conversation. You're better off listening to an animated movie first and then a regular movie or TV show.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

P.S. If you have made a comment on my blog and I haven't answered you, I'm sorry. I don't get notifications of your comments. I'll go back through and answer some of them but if it's important, send me a message. That way I'm sure to get it.

Years and year - huh?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:24:54 GMT

Years and year - huh?

A friend sent me a power point presentation about a '700 years old village' in Iran. I looked at the description and tried to figure out why it sounded wrong. It should have read: a 700 year old village (year not years). Why?

Well the why is hard to figure out so I don't know how to explain it but I'll give you some examples so you can learn how to use 'year' or 'years'.

She is a ten year old girl. She has been with us for ten years. When she is twenty years old we will send her to a three hundred year old university in England.

It seems that when you are describing something, using the age as an adjective, it's singular. I'll do some investigating on this but I wanted to make you aware of this odd situation regarding 'year' and 'years'.

This is an odd blog entry but thanks for reading it!

Goodbye China!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:51:27 GMT

Goodbye China!

When I first started here at Englishbaby, I was helping some people in the Middle East. They needed assistance with their English while they studied at a university in Abu Dhabi. As time went by, I met more and more people from China. This is natural, of course, since China has the largest population plus it's in the middle of rapid expansion in terms of economics.

A couple of years ago I downloaded QQ, the Chinese chat application, and fell in love with it! There are so many things you can do with it that are different from MSN and Yahoo. I filled my friend's list with people from Ebaby and had many conversations over the years.

Lately, QQ has been quite quiet for me. I had over a hundred contacts at one point and my blogs and Qzone photos were quite popular among my friends but that died off. I'm not sure why that happened but I have an idea.

Initially, I thought that chatting would help my friends learn English but I think that it became a burden for them. Most of the people I knew on QQ were students or were in university and worked very hard during their day, some worked six days a week for long hours. I think that when they finally got home, they wanted to relax and not think too hard about anything. Chatting with me on QQ probably seemed like too much work!

What is the answer? Well, I still have QQ but I've turned it off. I'm invisible on it now and I'll stay that way for a while. I'm not sure how long this will be but it's that way now. I wrote about this in my blog in my Qzone and got some very nice responses from some friends. Some of those friends were not even regular chat partners and I was surprised at their concern.

I'm always willing to help people here on Englishbaby. To be honest, I would rather help females, but that's because I relate to females better than I relate to males. I'm married with three children so I'm not looking for dates or anything but I just seem to be able to chat with girls much better than I chat with boys.

If you have QQ and you think you want to chat sometime, add me. Send me a message on QQ and I might be able to assist you. My number there is

940444293

Thanks for reading! Comments are welcome.

Fun and funny - revisited

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:09:24 GMT

Fun and funny - revisited

I'm not sure if people read my old blogs or if they just read the new ones that you see on my profile page. Quite a while ago, I wrote about the words 'fun' and 'funny', explaining how and when to use them. This week, in different chats with different people, I saw them being used in the wrong way. Here's how you use them.

1. Fun is a noun, I guess. It's something so it's a noun. You can have it, you can make it and you can enjoy it but you can't see it. If something is fun, it's enjoyable. Different things are fun for different people. Some people can have fun doing the same thing but for different reasons. Is learning English fun? Most people might say no but others would say yes. Here are some fun things for me: games, computers, videos, movies, girls, books, cameras, collecting antiques and so on. What is fun for you? Missing school? A new friend? Going home for Spring Festival? Let me know.

2. Funny is usually an adjective. In order for something to be funny, it has to make you laugh. Some things are both fun and funny. Watching a clown is fun because they make you laugh, they are funny. Therefore a clown might be both fun (enjoyable) and funny (he makes you laugh). Funny can also mean 'different'. He's kind of a funny guy, he is quite different. Until you know what the speaker means, you could imagine that the person he is describing makes people laugh. Maybe the speaker means that the person is unusual. You'd have to ask him, funny haha or funny weird? That sounds like a silly thing to say be, believe me, we say it quite often.

Funny can also be strange as in, I heard a funny noise coming from downstairs. That could mean scary or unusual but overall it means the noise is a strange noise.

So fun is a thing that you can have while funny describes something that makes you laugh, or is strange or unusual.

I hope this helps you a bit. Let me know what is fun for you and what kind of things you find funny. Practice it with your fellow students or colleagues.

Thanks for reading!

Idioms revisited

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:37:12 GMT

Idioms revisited

My friend Joni made a comment about idioms a while ago. Every language has idioms, things that mean something more than the words that are used in them. English has hundreds of idioms and some are very localized. We have idioms here in Canada that aren't used in the United States. Britain has idioms that are only used there.

Do you have to learn them? Not really, certainly not to communicate. If you move to an English speaking country, you would learn the idioms as you learn the local geography or customs. They make your conversations more interesting and, because many are humorous, they make you seem to be fun and more like the local people.

If you watch the television show NCIS, you will hear Zeeva make mistakes with the idioms that she tries to use. This is part of the humour of the show and she tries hard to fit in but doesn't always get the words quite right. The important thing is that she tries, and that's the lesson here. Don't be afraid of speaking English. Use it as often as you can. Even when you are in your dorm room with your roommates, use English with each other. Correct each other and see who can use it the best. If you only use English in your English class, you are missing out on a lot of practice.

Why not have an English day at your university? Have all of the signs for it in English, make sure that everyone uses English on that day and have English movies, games and activities. Have an idiom contest where students guess what the idiom means.

Learning English doesn't have to be boring. Make a game of it, challenge each other and have some fun!

Thanks for reading. See you next time!

What's new with everyone?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:19:06 GMT

What's new with everyone?

It's been a long time, almost a month, since I've written here on Ebaby. I've been busy on Facebook and Tagged plus keeping up with my websites, including http://lovingenglish.com/, which is one of them. Check it out if you want. It's not very big yet but I'm working on it.

I don't get much mail from Ebaby anymore so I'm sure you think I have forgotten about you all but I haven't. I've been here for a long time now, almost three years, and much of what I do is done with friends I have met on Ebaby. Almost every day I chat with someone from here or see them on their webcam or answer a question about English from them.

One of my long-term friends, a lovely girl from China, asked me a quick question on QQ yesterday. Someone had used the term 'def' in an email. They meant 'definitely', of course, but my friend didn't know that so I told her. It's little things like that which keep a line of communication open between people. Since I work online, I have my chat applications open almost 24/7 so I'm always at the end of msn or Yahoo or QQ.

Lately, I've been meeting more filipinas on Tagged and I've found that they are very nice, gentle and caring people. I haven't met anyone from the Philippines here on Ebaby but maybe I will in the future.

If you have questions about English, make a comment on my profile or send me a message. I hope everyone has a great New Year and a successful 2010!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:06:03 GMT

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's Christmas Eve when I'm writing this, the day before Christmas. For many of you, Christmas is just another day. For others it's the biggest day of the year. I wish you good days, whichever is it.

For me, imagining a year without Christmas is impossible. For you, it would be like imagining a year without the Spring Festival or a year without Eid. Festivals are a big part of many of your lives, whether they are religious or just fun. Christmas is just fun for me, not religious at all but I understand the sentiments that many Christians feel.

How do you wish someone a Merry Christmas? You could say that or you could say Happy Holidays, if you don't know for sure that they are Christian. Best wishes of the season is another way. All the best to you and yours is yet another way. You and yours means the person you are talking to and their family or relatives.

However you say it, it's nice to wish everyone 'all the best' at this time of year. That's what I wish for everyone here on Englishbaby. I've been around this site for three years and I've met many wonderful people. I hope to meet many more as time goes by. Take care! Have a great season.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:23:32 GMT

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

please put a penny in the old man's hat! The title of this entry and the first line is an old English saying that you might hear around Christmas time. There are many words and sayings that come out at this time of year. In this blog, I'll try and help you learn some of them.

At Christmas time we often sing Christmas carols which are songs. Usually they are religious but sometimes they are just fun songs about Santa Claus and snowmen. In some neighbourhoods, people go around and sing the songs from door to door which is called 'caroling'.

Shopping is an important part of Christmas and the day after Christmas, called Boxing Day, is the biggest day of the year for after-Christmas sales. Boxing Day sales are busy and full of great deals.

Santa Claus is the imaginary person who rides in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer on Christmas Eve. Santa goes around the world and delivers gifts to children all over the world. He is supposed to come down the chimney of every home, spread out the gifts and zip back up the chimney in the blink of an eye. It's magic, right? Most families leave some cookies and milk by the fireplace, if they have one, and also some carrots for the reindeer. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is from a song. Rudolph has a shiny nose and leads the other reindeer and Santa on a very foggy Christmas Eve. It's all fun and the kids love it.

There are other Christmas words and phrases which I will tell you about next time. I don't want to make this too long or no one will read it!

Life is strange, isn't it?

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:03:48 GMT

Life is strange, isn't it?

I guess we all go through these times, times when nothing seems exciting and your daily life is boring. Right now, I'm in one of those times. It started last week when I realized that people who I think might be friends, probably aren't friends at all. Right now, I'm deleting all of the names on my friend list on QQ. China is in a huge boom now and I'm finding that the people who wanted help with English now want help with their businesses. I constantly get, "How do I do this? How do I do that?" questions which aren't about personal problems or school/university problems but about their businesses. Why would I help someone with their business? They will make money from my help, but I won't. Would you?

Then, again last week, someone said hi to me after about seven months of silence. She didn't give her name, and her QQ display name was in Chinese, so I didn't know who it was. "Remember me?" she said. When I said no, I didn't remember her, she got very upset and disappeared. After seven months of no contact she expects me to remember her? At least she could have said, "Hi. It's Joyce (or whatever). I've been busy for a while. How are you?" But she didn't. I was expected to be a genius or an elephant with an incredible memory?

This is my rant for today. A rant is where you blow off steam and tell everyone why you are upset or angry. Grrrrrr! I'll be better soon.

P.S. if you were on my QQ list and want to say hi, you still can. If I delete you you can still chat. Maybe I will add you back!

Latest update - on being used

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:37:33 GMT

Latest update - on being used

I wrote last time about the friend who had gotten back in touch with me after months of silence. Here's an update on the situation.

In her first email after the break, she mentioned a story that she had finally finished. Back when we were still friends, I had read the first few pages of the story but she hadn't finished it at that time. When she mentioned the story in the recent email, I had a little niggling feeling that it was odd. Today, that niggling feeling was confirmed.

In my first email back to her, I said, "Send the story along. I'd like to read it." And she did send it as an attachment to her next email. Believe it or not, the 'story' was 93 pages long. Basically a novelette!

I started to read it again, sort of skimming through the part I had read before. It was a science fiction/romance thing, not unlike twilight but with a completely different story. After reading about 20 pages, I sent her a message back saying that is was good but there were some small errors in tense and wording, etc.

Guess what? Her next message was incredibly short, saying simply, "What are the errors?" At that point, my niggling feeling bloomed into wholesale mistrust when I realized that I was being used. The whole point of getting back to me after so many months was not as a friend, not because she felt a need to talk to me, nothing like that at all. She simply needed someone to edit her story.

I've been used before, as I have mentioned here, but nothing quite like this. In some ways it's a compliment but in others, it's an insult. It's depressing when someone uses friendship to get something from someone else. I guess we are all different but I do admire honesty in a person, more than anything. My advice? Be honest above all with everyone, especially your friends and yourself.

People come and go in my life

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:54:52 GMT

People come and go in my life

I got an interesting email from someone, earlier in the week. Back several months, I guess it would be maybe five or six or more, I'd been writing back and forth with a member of Ebaby. She'd asked for help and, over time, we had been getting to know each other a bit better.

As time went by, the messages became longer and more interesting and, I thought, we were becoming better friends. With friends that you've known for a long time and shared thoughts with, a person becomes more open and trusting. Maybe we say things in a different way or discuss topics that might only be discussed between good friends.

Well, my lesson learned is that you can't just open yourself up to people sometimes. In my last message, I said something that upset this friend. To me, it was an innocent statement but to her, I assume because of cultural or age differences, it was far from innocent. Instead of telling me what upset her, she just disappeared. No email, no contact at all.

Because we had been good friends and because she dropped out of sight completely, I became very worried that this person had been injured in an accident and was hospitalized. A couple of times I actually had a friend in the country in question search for details of an accident.

Then, out of the blue, I get an email that described the incident and the person's feeling about it. The situation isn't resolved but at least now I know what happened. Maybe we will continue to be in contact or maybe this will be the final messages between us. I hope we can continue to be friends but if not, well, c'est la vie!

The lesson here is mind what you say and take into account another person's cultural differences when you say something. I am darn sure that I will from now on!

What's new with you?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:14:19 GMT

What's new with you?

The weather is warm here in Toronto, quite a change from last year when we had early snow and cold. It's like summer outside, with lots of sun and no rain. Since we have already had a frost, we call this weather 'Indian Summer'. It's like summer but it's not, it's now in the middle of autumn.

What's it like where you are? Our days are still getting shorter and the sun is lower on the horizon, but it's really like summer outside. Christmas is coming, only about five or six weeks away so it's hard to get into the mood right now. I hope this weather lasts for a long time.

I know that most people are back in school and that they have lots of work to do so it's a bit slow for me. If anyone needs some help, I hope they will ask me questions or send me messages. Have a good week! See you soon.

Death and dying and dead - which is which?

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:18:14 GMT

Death and dying and dead - which is which?

I think some people are confused about the English words that have to do with death. lately I've seen many mistakes in different places around the Internet, so I'm here to help you work it out. The thing about death and dying is that it's a serious topic. You don't want to make a mistake or make it sound funny if you are talking about it. Read on and learn some terms, ok?

Here are some correct sentences about death:

My grandmother died yesterday.

My uncle is in the hospital. He is very sick and near death.

I had the flu once and nearly died.

Many people in the United States die from heart attacks each year.

The man choking in the restaurant was close to death before the medics came to rescue him. He was turning blue and about to die but he survived.

Many people believe that when you die, you go to heaven.

It was so hot that day, I was dying of thirst.

I am afraid to die. Aren't we all?

I am afraid of death. I think about it a lot.

When we got to the driver, he was already dead. He had died instantly in the crash.

If you have questions about these words, leave a comment here and I will answer it. If I think of any more sentences that would help, I'll add them from time to time.

Adding me as a friend on Ebaby

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:10:16 GMT

Adding me as a friend on Ebaby

This week I had to turn down two invitations to be friends, here on Englishbaby. For some reason, people feel that it's ok to add me as a friend but it's not ok to write me a message to ask me personally.

What's the sense in being friends if we aren't going to write messages to each other? Just having someone on a list is meaningless, right?

I don't mean that you have to write me a long, complicated message. I just want to hear from you, just a short note explaining who you are and why we should be friends.

Don't be shy! You can see my videos, you can read my blogs and I'm always around to help people so write me a message and say hi. Then we can be friends.

It's easy to find out my QQ number and my MSN address and I accept everyone on those accounts. Then we can chat and get to know each other. I hope to hear from you soon. Remember: Send me a message first, then add me as a friend.

QQ and new friends

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:32:53 GMT

QQ and new friends

Mapleleaf man has been busy for a long time but now it seems he has more time for helping people. A lot of my friends have graduated, others have been married while others are working and don`t need my help anymore.

If you are interested in getting some help with English, send me a message or simply add me to your QQ or your MSN. Send me a message first, ok? Then I can send you my msn address. My QQ number is :

940444293 so you can add me. I have QQ running all the time that I am at the computer so you can add me and chat or say hi or we might do the microphone thing if you want. OK? Keep in touch! Let me know what you need. Thanks for reading this.

Mapleleaf Man is now on Youku.com

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:32:41 GMT

Mapleleaf Man is now on Youku.com

For many months now,Youtube has been blocked by the Chinese government. It doesn't really matter why but that's the way it is. In order for my friends and students in China to access my videos, I have opened an account on youku.com.

Even though I don't know any Chinese, I was able to open an account and upload my videos to it. It will take a while until they are all up there but you can see the ones that I've done so far. Here is the link:

http://u.youku.com/toronto2001

On youku my profile is under toronto2001 but I'm the same Mapleleaf Man that I always was. If I can figure out how to change my name there to Mapleleafman, I will. Can anyone help me do that?

China blocks youtube and other sites

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:27:29 GMT

China blocks youtube and other sites

A friend of mine wanted to see my videos on youtube. Easy enough for the rest of the world but if you live in China it's impossible.

China has blocked access to youtube as well as other social networking sites, Facebook for example. I'm not really sure why the oldest culture in the world would do something like this. Are the Chinese people not able to deal with other people's opinions? Is the government afraid that its citizens are not intelligent and will believe everything they see or hear on youtube? What do you think? Do you know why China would block certain sites that the rest of the world can access? Let me know.

This week on QQ, I was talking with a girl who said that she "loved the President of China and the government, too." I'm not sure that I've ever talked to anyone else who has said that they 'love' the head of their country. Is this part of being Chinese? Does everyone 'love' the President of China? Is that part of living in China?

I shouldn't blame China for blocking Facebook and Youtube because Iran also blocks these sites. It seems to me that you could draw a parallel between the two countries but I will leave that up to you. Is China the same as Iran? I don't know anyone in North Korea but I can only assume that it is the same there.

What do you think of all of this? Are the Chinese people smart enough to see the truth or should Youtube and other sites be blocked there?

For thousands of years, China led the world in culture, inventions and a structured society. China had modern culture before the rest of the world, England and Europe included. North America has only had modern culture for maybe 200 years but China has had it for thousands of years. What happened? Why is China content with copying technology instead of inventing it? Why are Japan and Europe so far ahead with their technology while China is happy to copy technology and call it their own? To me, it doesn't make sense. China should be number one in the world. To me, blocking youtube and Facebook is an example of how much China has lost and how far they have to go to get back into the world.

By the way, I love the Chinese people and I love the country. Whatever I say has nothing to do with the people, just with the government. Let's hear what you have to say about it.

Fall or autumn or just cold weather?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:23:11 GMT

Fall or autumn or just cold weather?

It's getting close to fall now, actually I think this might be the first actual day of fall. September 21st is usually when it happens and that's today.

What's it like where you are? Here in Canada the days are getting shorter, but I notice it in the morning more than the afternoon. I was outside until about 8 last night and it was getting quite dark but I was still able to walk across the field to see the International Space Station fly across the sky. In the morning it gets light much later than it did in the summer so that is when I notice it more.

The weather is colder too, the nights are getting down to about 9 or less and the days are always around 20, sometimes only up to 18.

Yesterday was sunny and warm so I took one final 'dip' in the swimming pool. Oh my, it was so cold! The water was about 18 C and that's too cold to be swimming but I was worried that this would be the last time I could swim so I braved the cold water and went it. I went under twice, to make it official, and then stood in the sun to warm up a bit. I will mark that on the calendar. "Last swim of the summer of 2009".

If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, maybe your seasons are changing to autumn also. Of course, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, this is spring for you. Summer will soon arrive for those people south of the equator and winter will soon be here for the rest of us.

Let me know how your weather is. Does it change? Is it the same all the time? Is it hotter now or is it cooler? Are typhoons a problem? Is it moving into the rainy season now? Let us know what it's like where you are. OK?

What do you eat for breakfast?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:16:50 GMT

What do you eat for breakfast?

Ususally when I am on Ebaby, it's early in the morning here in Toronto. That means that I have just eaten my breakfast or I am eating my breakfast while I am on Ebaby. Either way, I started to wonder what everyone else eats.

For years now, basically because I am a very boring man, I eat the same thing every morning. My breakfast consists of green tea, with a little milk in it, a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter on it and a cup or glass of apple juice. The tea is hot and warms me up. The toast is crispy and the peanut butter has protein in it that I need to continue my work and the apple juice has vitamin C in it, plus it's refreshing. The peanut butter I use is just that, peanut butter. There is nothing else in it at all, no sugar, no extra flavour, nothing but peanuts.

What do you eat for breakfast? I know that it is different in every country so tell me what is normal for you. Do you even eat breakfast? I hope you do because it is the most important meal of the day. A good breakfast starts your day off right. RIGHT?

What's all wrong about Ebaby?

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:48:28 GMT

What's all wrong about Ebaby?

Lately, the only messages I get are spam. Girls promising this, guys promising that, always with a Yahoo email account. Do you get these messages? I'm sure you do.

Of course everyone reports them as spam, I hope. But what is the real problem here? The problem is the way that Ebaby handles the spam.

Have you noticed that annoying thing you have to do when you send a message to a person who isn't one of your friends on Ebaby? It's the series of letters called a 'captcha'. Besides being very annoying, it hasn't helped the spam one bit. I get just as much spam now as I did before Ebaby started the new system.

The only thing that this captcha system does is inhibit or interfere with communication between Ebaby members. Let's say that you want to know if I can help you with English. Maybe you don't want to add me as a friend right away, you just want to see if I can help you or not. Well, as soon as you send me a message, bang! The captcha window comes up. You have to type in several letters before you can send the message. Arrrrrgggghhhh!

If you are just learning English, and you write and speak a language such as Chinese or Arabic. Are those English letters easy for you to find on your keyboard? Probably not. What Ebaby has done with all of this is to place yet another problem in your path to learning English.

I have already written twice to the people who own Ebaby. If the captcha system bothers you, please write to Ebaby and let them know that it isn't working. The more people they hear from about this, the better our chances of changing the system.

Click here

to send a message to Ebaby and tell them that the captcha system does not work!

Summertime and the livin' is easy

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:17:07 GMT

Summertime and the livin' is easy

It's August now. The pool is warm, the deck is finished and I'm relaxing in the breezes now. Ebaby seems quiet, I guess everyone is on holiday. Soon September will come and maybe things will get busy again.

Outside I hear the cicadas buzzing. It's a sunny, hot August day. Actually it's the first day of the CNE here in Toronto. That usually, unfortunately, marks the end of summer here. It took a long time for the weather to get nice but , now that it has, I'm happy to say that we had a fun summer after all.

If you need some help with English, let me know. Say hi and, if I have enough time, I will give you a hand. I can't help everyone but say hi anyway.

I hope everyone in the Northern Hemisphere has had a good summer!

If you make a move, don't complain!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:17:17 GMT

If you make a move, don't complain!

A friend of mine from Ebaby is thinking of coming to Canada. She's already made one move out of her own country and it thinking of making another move to Canada. Lately, besides helping her with English, I have been answering questions about Canada. She wants to know where to live, what job to do and other things like that.

Our conversation in messages made me think of another situation from several years ago. I met a Romanian woman and her daughter who had already moved from Germany to Canada. Again, two moves to get to Canada.

In the park one day, the two women started a conversation about how bad Canada was. Being polite, as most Canadians are, I simply listened in awe as they described how great Germany was and how terrible Canada is. For an hour they droned on and on about this and that. Finally, I made my escape and never spoke to them again.

The question I ask myself is : If things were so good in Germany, why did they ever move to Canada? It just made no sense to me. Canada is a fine place to live, one of the best and truly freest countries in the world. It's not perfect, but many people from all over the world want to live here. There's a problem, however.

Time and time again I hear complaints about Canada. The complaints aren't from second or third generation Canadians, but generally from brand new Canadians. I guess it's a way of getting their frustrations out or trying to cope somehow.

The man at the gas station where I get my propane tank filled, insists that things are better in the United States. Things are cheaper, he says, life is happier. I guess he can't get into the States and feels that he is stuck in Canada. He's a great guy, don't get me wrong, but it's a bit depressing for me to talk with him for long.

I guess the point of all of this is that Canada is different from where you live. Sure, I was born here and it's fine for me but maybe for you it would be a simple case of 'culture shock'. If you come here, be prepared for endless possibilities and endless frustration, if you look for it.

If I took you on a tour of my neighbourhood, you would soon realize that I am a minority. As far as I know, every person on my side of the street, except my family, wasn't born in Canada. Of course the children were but the parents were not born here. What does that say? It says that they found Canada a pretty good place to live and to raise their kids. Maybe you can, too but be prepared for some problems and, above all, don't tell me about them! Just kidding. I will listen for a few minutes.

Take care. Tell me what you think.

A silly idiom - cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:26:56 GMT

A silly idiom - cutting off your nose to spite your face.

English has lots of idioms, as do many languages. One of the strangest ones is, 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'. What does it mean?

Well, if you get angry and do something crazy that will get you in trouble or cause more harm than good, you are 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'. Many men do things like this. They get mad and say or do something that ruins something for them. They lose their wife or their business, or they alientate someone because of their anger.

It's simple but effective. Try to use it in a conversation. If you have questions, just ask or leave a comment.

Fun or funny? Which is which?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:39:11 GMT

Fun or funny? Which is which?

Many of my friends seem to have trouble with the words 'fun' and 'funny'. Today, I will try to explain the difference between these two words.

Fun describes something that you enjoy. Going to a party is fun. Dancing is fun. Staying up late doing homework is NOT fun. For most people, going to the dentist is NOT fun. Going on vacation is fun, however. If you enjoy it, it's fun.

Funny describes something that makes you laugh out loud. Clowns can be funny. A joke can be funny. A person who makes you laugh is funny. A comedy is funny, something that makes you laugh.

Fun and funny are simple words but it can be difficult to know when to use them. This is a short blog entry and I hope it helps you.

As always, if you need help, just ask. I'm here for you!

Perturbed

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:58:05 GMT

Perturbed

Mapleleaf Man is perturbed. A while ago, I met a nice young woman from the Middle East. We chatted a few times but because of time problems we continued to correspond using email. Over a few weeks of emails and Hi5 messages we got to know each other quite well.

For some reason, and I can't remember why, we started to discuss swearing in English, using bad words in our messages and discussing their uses. I think by then we knew each other quite well and the discussion was quite interesting.

Well, something happened. Mapleleaf Man doesn't know what happened at all but suddenly all messages stopped. It's been about a week now and I haven't heard from this person at all. When this happens, one has to wonder about friendship and openness and cultural differences. Perhaps Mapleleaf Man said something that disturbed this girl. Our disccussions had been about everything under the sun and this person had been very open and straightforward with me so I don't see what the final problem was. I've checked my messages and don't see anything unusual in them.

Over time, I will forget this person but, right now, it's a bit hard to understand what happened. Mapleleaf Man has had other misunderstandings with his friends but they have always worked out in the end. My problem with this particular friend is that I spent a lot of time getting to know her and a lot of effort to answer her questions about English. This kind of ruins it for other, honest people who need help. I'm not sure that I will be so willing to spend time in the future when people ask. Some of my friends find it amusing that I help so many people for free with no obligations at all but I've always said that helping people gives me a good feeling inside. Right now the feeling isn't there anymore. I hope someone cheers me up soon!

Canada Day is almost here

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:16:20 GMT

Canada Day is almost here

July 1st is Canada's 142nd birthday. Our country began in 1867, and 142 years later, it's a pretty nice place to live.

I just read a report in Maclean's, which is like Canada's Time magazine, that Canadadians are richer than their US counterparts, live longer than just about anyone and are better lovers! I'm not sure where I stand in that last category but I do know that our country is one of the best places to live in the world.

What makes it so good? Well, we don't beat our chests and shout, "We are the best!" We just go about our lives, living quietly and doing the right thing. If someone needs help in the world, Canada is there. Canada can always be counted on to do the right thing in every situation.

Did you know that Canada was one of the main nations who fought in the Second World War? We stormed the beaches on D-Day and actually made our objectives, something that the US and the British didn't. Did we brag about it? It was our duty. It was what we said we would do. There was no reason to brag.

Did you know that Canada is helping Afghanistan fight the Taliban? Did you know that Canada refused to join the US in the war in Iraq? We did the right thing then, too. We knew that the US had no business going into Iraq, so we stayed out of it. We knew that Afghanistan needed help, so we helped them. Over 100 of our young soldiers, both men and women, have given the ultimate sacrifice for the 'right' fight there.

I receive many questions and messages about Canada and I'm glad to offer any help that I can. My family were immigrants way back at the turn of the last century, around 1900-1910. We are a strong nation that is made up of strong people from other nations. Why they chose Canada is their own business but Canada still welcomes thousands and thousands of immigrants every year.

If you are interested in making the jump to come here, start now. It takes a long time to get all of the paperwork completed so get an early start. If you come to Toronto, send me a message and we can meet for a coffee and I will welcome you to Canada.

Tiananmen Square - what really happened?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:42:22 GMT

Tiananmen Square - what really happened?

The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre is coming up. If you don't live in China, you probably have heard of this tragic event. If you live in China, then your government is doing everything it can to prevent you from knowing the truth. Here is a link to some information that might still be available to you:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/02/china-blocks-links.html

In the 20 years since the massacre of peaceful Chinese university students, the Chinese government has rewritten history. Students who are in university now know nothing about what really happened. Hopefully, this situation will change. Hopefully if enough people in modern China do some investigation then the truth will make its way across this troubled country, in spite of the Chinese government's efforts to lie to the people.

Here is the story of a Chinese soldier who tried to tell the truth:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/03/20/soldier-china-tiananmen.htm l

Here are some photos of the demonstration in 1989:

http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/world/2292/

If you are in China and can't access these links, then you will know that your government is trying to hide the truth. Why? If things happened the way they say they did, then what is there to hide?

The hero, Tank Man. He was braver than any soldier or any politician.

House, home and apartment.

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:44:40 GMT

House, home and apartment.

I was chatting with a friend this morning and I mentioned it was raining here in Canada. She said she liked the sound of rain on the roof. Naturally, I thought she meant the roof of her 'house'. I asked her if she lived in a house or an apartment. "What's the difference?" she asked me.

My friend isn't the first person who has confused the term 'house' with me. I think I should explain these words, at least as far as the word is used here in Canada.

A house is a single family dwelling. One family per building. That's what I live in and that's what most of my friends here in Canada live in.

Canada, as you may know, has lots of land but not very many people. China and India and many other countries have a lot of people. Because of that, most people in these countries live in apartments. An apartment building is a large building with many separate sets of rooms in it. Each set of rooms is called an apartment. Usually one family lives in each apartment. The apartments can be large and luxurious or they may be small and inexpensive. In any case,an apartment building can hold many more people on the same amount of land as a house occupies. Of course, that is because there are several levels in the apartment building, very often 20 or 30 stories.

That's an explanation of the word house and the word apartment. It doesn't matter which one you live in because no matter where you live, you are lucky enough to have a home. A home is anywhere you feel safe, comfortable and happy.

If you have questions on this blog, please send me a message or comment below.

A Magic Pill

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:06:02 GMT

A Magic Pill

Mapleleaf Man keeps getting requests about the easiest way to learn English. Many people are discouraged about the thousands of words in English, the grammar, the crazy way we use one sound to mean several different things (to, two or too) and the different accents that they hear, Australian, North American, British, etc.

I'm here to say that there is no magic pill you can take to learn English. There is no easy way, no matter what people on TV say when they are selling you dvds or computer programs to help you learn English.

In Canada, we have many people who need to speak French in order to get better jobs. Canada is a bilingual country and our government uses both French and English in it's daily business. The best way to learn French, and I think the best way to learn English, is by 'immersion'. Immersion means that you go to a place, let's say a hotel or someone's house, and you hear nothing but French and speak nothing but French. You are 'immersed' in the language. You have to sink or swim, more or less. It's frightening, probably, but you do have to learn to survive.

If you can't immerse yourself by moving to another place in the world, then immerse yourself when you are at home. Speak English with your family. Watch English movies. Listen to English radio, but watch out for the Voice of America propaganda. Try to listen to cbc.ca online. You will get the news and information but without the American propaganda.

Read English books. Start with books for children, move up to books for teens and then grab an adult book and see how you get on with it. Study the Internet in English. When you think about it, you already speak your original language. You don't have to practice it any more! You're good at it. Move on to English and learn it more quickly by immersing yourself in it! Good luck!

How to spice up your profile and make nice comments

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:01:57 GMT

How to spice up your profile and make nice comments

There are a lot of nice profile pages here on Ebaby. If you don't know how to make yours nicer, go to Edit Profile then paste or write some stuff in your 'shoutbox', that white box where you write your 'Hi, I'm Sasha from Urpsverbia!'. You can paste your Myspace backgrounds there and spice up your 'digs'. Kind of a 'pimp my ride' thing, right?

A lot of people are pasting nice comments on other people's profiles. How do you do that? Well, in the comment box there is a little pic of a green tree in the top menu. Click on that and paste the url or link to the picture you want to insert into the top line of the menu box that opens up. Click ok and the image should show up in the comment box. Click ok again and there you are!

I've put an example of a URL below:

http://images.jellymuffin.com/images/nicknames/images/fire15.gif"

This is a link to a picture at the jellymuffin site. There are many different pictures and graphics that you can put into your own profile or paste into other peoples comment boxes. Have fun with this! If you have questions, please send me a message or comment here. See ya!

Must or have to - an explanation

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:26:17 GMT

Must or have to - an explanation

I had a question about 'must' and 'have to'. If you think of the uses of each, you will find they are the almost the same, if not exactly the same.

I must got to the store for some milk.
I have to go to the store for some milk.

Both sentences could mean two different things. First, they could mean that I have no milk so, in order to get some, I have to go to the store. Secondly, they could mean that someone has asked me to go to the store to get milk, whether I want to or not. The real meaning doesn't really matter as to which one you use, but it's good to see that there are two meanings to the sentence.

In every case that I can think of, 'must' and 'have to' are the same. 'Must', however, sounds very British to me. It sounds old-fashioned and strained. I must do this, I must do that. I would prefer to use 'have to' in every situation.

Must can also be used to give a sense of 'has to' in another form. An example:
What was that noise? It must be the rain.
What was that noise? It had to have been the rain, or, It had to be the rain.

Must, in this case, means 'had to', in the past tense. 'Who did that? It must have been the janitor.' In this case, must is a normal, modern term. It isn't particularly British.

I hope this helps everyone who has had a problem with these words.

Three hard words - since, for and ago.

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:40:02 GMT

Three hard words - since, for and ago.

For and since are prepostions. They join two parts of a sentence. You could say, I went to the store. That doesn't say a whole lot. If you say, I went to the store for bread, then the sentence explains more about what you did. It also shortens things up a bit. I went to the store. While I was at the store I bought bread. I went to the store for bread is much shorter and more to the point.

Since is a bit harder. It has two meanings that I can think of now. The first implies a sense of time. I've been in love with chocolate since I was a child. You could say, again, a shorter sentence. I'm in love with chocolate. But how long have you been in love with chocolate? When did it start? Since I was a child. In this case it gives a sense of time.

The other meaning has to do with reasoning, much like the word 'because'. Since you are going to the store, would you mind buying some milk for me? It has to do with linking the fact that you are going to or doing something and brings in another idea. Since you are doing the laundry, can I wash my socks too? One thing leads to another, that is a preposition.

Ago is a post-position. 'A long time ago' starts many stories. Ago is used at the end of that part of the sentence. 'Ago a long time' just isn't right. You have to put it after the phrase. Some examples: Many years ago, a few days ago, a couple of nights ago.

You can use ago phrases at the start of a sentence or at the end. There is no difference. 'There used to be a building there, a long time ago.' 'A long time ago, there used to be a building there.' Same idea, same meaning but different placement of the 'ago' phrase.

I hope this helps. As always, please email me if you have any questions. Don't be shy! Contact me. I am not that busy right now. OK? Don't think that I don't have time for you. I'll tell you if I can't do what you want, but I will certainly try to help you somehow. OK? Peace out!

Do or Make? An Explanation

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:49:19 GMT

Do or Make? An Explanation

Someone asked me about the words 'do' and 'make' recently. I often hear these words mixed up with each other but I've never really thought about how to explain it, until now.

When you do something, you are not creating something. You're just doing some activity. We do our shopping, we do the windows (which means clean the windows), we do the floors, we do this or we do that. But there isn't anything that you can see when we're finished. We didn't 'make' anything. That's an easy way to remember the difference.

We make a mess. We make supper. We make a big deal out of nothing sometimes. Alright, you can't see a big deal but you get the idea.

The two words are explained here:

http://esl.about.com/cs/beginner/a/a_makedo.htm

but be aware that this writer uses a wrong word on this page. In the section under 'make', the writer lists some 'collocations', in other words English norms, which seem to call for 'do' but we use 'make'. He says that 'do' seems more appropriate which, to me, mixes up the issue. What he is saying is that these collocations normally would call for 'do' but instead we say 'make'. It's like the spelling rule, i before e except after c, right? There are exceptions to every rule.

Let me know if you have questions. Thanks Gaby for the last few topics for my blog.

Good and Well

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:42:33 GMT

Good and Well

More confusion about English! What is the difference between good and well?

I've read up on this recently so I'll try to explain it as best I can. In general, you use well after an action verb. An action verb is, as it sounds, a verb that describes something you can actually do. These would include run, swim, fly, dive and so on. I ran well today is right. I ran good today is very wrong! Get it?

Good is use after linking verbs. 'To be' is a linking verb. All of its forms can be used with good. He is good. I am good. They are good, are examples. Any of the sense verbs are linking verbs too. You smell good. The food tastes good.

There are complications, of course. A sense verb can be either a linking verb or an active verb. If you can replace the verb with is, then it's a linking verb. If you can't then it's an action verb. The example could be, 'he feels bad' or 'he feels badly'. If you change feels to is, as in he is bad, then the sentence makes sense. If you do the same to 'he is badly' then it doesn't make sense, right?

Here are a couple of links for you which explain this in greater detail :

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/good-versus-well.aspx

http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/gd-wll1.html

Good luck with this. As always, if you have a question, feel free to ask me.

If and when, fun and funny

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 03 May 2009 11:42:37 GMT

If and when, fun and funny

I had a question this week about 'if' and 'when'. One of my friends didn't know the difference between the two words.

If means maybe, it's not for sure. "If I go to the beach, I hope the weather is nice." "If you go to the store, could you pick up some milk for us?" The first one means you might go to the beach, but it's not for sure. You probably will but you don't know when exactly, or you might not go at all. The second one means, maybe you are going to the store. Perhaps you mentioned that you were thinking about it. If you do go, pick up some milk.

When is for sure, it's not maybe. "When I go to the beach, will you come with me?" or "When I go to the beach, I always take a beach blanket with me." The first sentence means that you are going to the beach at some point in time, the second one describes what you do when you go to the beach. You're not going at a specific time, but every time you go you take a beach blanket.

Many of my friends have a problem with fun and funny. Games are fun, parties are fun, even people can be fun if they do the same things you do and you have a good time with them.

But people can be funny, too. If they make you laugh, if they tell jokes all the time, then they are funny. A movie can be funny, anything that makes you laugh is funny. They are fun too, since laughing is fun, but fun is when you have a good time, when you enjoy something. If something is funny, it makes you laugh.

The other way of using funny is when it means odd or strange. You could say, "Is Brian ok? He's been acting funny (or odd or strange) lately." Or, "It's funny that we haven't seen a robin yet. It's almost summer."

Yet another English word with more than one meaning. We don't do it to confuse people, it's just the way it happened!

If you have questions, please send me a message. I hope this helps some people here on Ebaby.

Somehow people find me!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:13:42 GMT

Somehow people find me!

I'm not sure how but almost every time I log into Ebaby, someone has added me as a friend. What a compliment! I always accept, of course, and then I wait to see what happens next. Some people write to me right away, while others never say anything even if I comment on their profiles or send them a message.

Is that unusual? Do you add people to your list just to have their name there or do you actually talk, send messages or chat with your friends? I know my friend Ricky has a huge number of friends that he talks to and, I guess, so do I but I find it interesting that people just add others and then stay silent.

The second part of this entry has to do with how people find me to add me to their lists. I don't comment in the forums too much anymore. I found the forums full of arguments and anger. People were constantly shouting about religion and fighting with each other, just like in the real world. I prefer my quiet virtual world where people are nice and help each other. Sometimes I will stop by the forums and help someone with English but the questions that pertain to grammar and punctuation, etc. are rare indeed.

Well, however you find me, that's just fine with me. Add me if you think you want to know me. Say hi if you feel like it. As always, if you need help, ask! If you seem cool and polite, I will offer my assistance. If you pester me, I won't. I had one young person recently who wrote me at least 20 messages screaming for help in a incredibly annoying way. I've never experienced that before on Ebaby and I know most of my friends would never do anything like that. Be nice and I will be nice too!

Peace out!

Did I Delete You?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:31:32 GMT

Did I Delete You?

I had 509 friends this morning. Now I have 64. Why is that? Because I had so many people who added me that I was losing new friends. People would see my list of friends and say, "Hey! He doesn't need any more!"

That is far from the truth. I love to meet people and I love to help people. Most of the people on my list weren't my friends, most had never even contacted me. So, I deleted people I didn't know or remember.

IF I DELETED YOU AND YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME, PLEASE CONTACT ME. THIS WASN'T DONE OUT OF ANGER OR SPITE, IT WAS DONE TO HELP MORE PEOPLE!

If you need help, please contact me. I don't have a lot of time to use my mic but sometimes I can. Honestly, I prefer helping women only because most of my friends on Ebaby are women and most of my friends in life are women. Don't be discouraged if you are a guy. There are lots of English speaking women on Ebaby who can help you. For my male friends who are still on my list, don't worry. I will still help you as always.

For two years I have been helping people on Ebaby. I am still here and I hope to help many more! Say hi, chat, add me, don't be shy. But if you add me, contact me. OK?

Visitors

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:01:24 GMT

Visitors

This weekend is a busy weekend for Mapleleaf Man. We're being invaded!

My niece and her boyfriend have come in from Western Canada to go to a wedding. Because she's been away from home for a few months, her family from Ottawa is coming into Toronto to see her. Today, the Ottawa crew arrive to join the two guests that are already here. Tonight at dinner we will have our five plus their five plus two boyfriends. Do the math. That's twelve people!

Our house is pretty small by Canadian standards. We have four bedrooms on two levels but it's not that big when you measure the square meters. We have two washrooms, thank goodness but I do think we need three because of the regular flow of people who come through the house.

On Sunday for lunch we will add my father-in-law to the group. That will make an even thirteen people trying to find a place to sit with a plate of Chinese food balanced on their knees. Wish me luck!

Taking out the garbage

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:46:29 GMT

Taking out the garbage

This morning was garbage/recycling day. Every Thursday we get either our garbage or our recycling picked up by the city. We alternate each week.

Our recycling bin is huge and on wheels. Everything that can be recycled goes in this bin except the vegetable waste which goes in another bin, our green bin. This week the green bin was full and weighed about 20 kg by my estimate.

I was out early, before 8 AM and was towing the large bin with one hand while lifting the heavy green bin with my other hand. Halfway across the lawn, I felt a sudden strong pain on my right side, right where my ribs were. Ahhhhh! I couldn't move! It hurt so much I could hardly breathe, too.

After a moment, as my neighbour walked by with his two dogs, I was forced to say hi to him but that hurt too! As I stood there the pain gradually eased a bit so I walked slowly to my car, hoping I could lean up against it. After a while I thought it would ease the pain if I leaned over. Yay! The pain subsided and I felt great. However, when I tried to straighten up, the pain came back even worse!

I was 'in a pickle' as we say in English. There I was, bent over in my driveway, totally unable to straighten up. It's funny now and I laugh at myself but at that point I was feeling quite bad.

Slowly, as time went by the pain went away and I was able to drag both bins to the sidewalk. As the day went by the pain became less and now, as I write this, it's just a bit sore. I guess I'm getting old!

A Visit to the Plastic Surgeon

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:17:17 GMT

A Visit to the Plastic Surgeon

Last week I went to my family doctor to have her look at a growth on my cheek, just below my left eye. This week, today, I'm going to a plastic surgeon at the local hospital where, I think, he will take the growth off.

As I understand it, there will be stitches. Right now, about fifteen minutes before I have to leave, I'm a bit nervous. There will be a local anesthetic, just a needle under my skin around the growth, and then some waiting until it takes effect. It's interesting how your mind takes over when you know it will be a simple procedure! I can imagine all kinds of things.

Such is the unknown I guess. I had some time to fill before I leave so what better way to do it than to write a blog entry. Wish me luck!

What's with this SPAM PREVENTION thing?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:26:51 GMT

What's with this SPAM PREVENTION thing?

Mapleleaf Man is confused! I've been on this site for two years now, trying to help other people learn English. I've posted many blog entries, it seems the blogs are very popular, and I've posted numerous things in the forums PLUS I have helped hundreds of people personally! So what's with the SPAM PREVENTION box that comes up when I go to send a message to someone? Virtually every message I send has a box that tells me to type in some letters 'to prevent spam'! That is so damn frustrating!

I've written to Ebaby to see what they can do. Right now I feel like a second class citizen here. It's as if I had just joined. Are you getting these things when you go to send a message here on Ebaby? Is it just me? Thanks. I'd like to hear from you.

Update:

According to the Ebaby people, you get the spam thing whenever you write to someone who isn't on your friend's list. To me, this makes no sense at all. Are there actually 'bots' out there who click on someone's name and send them a message? I don't think so. Why then do you need a spam prevention box when sending a message? It makes no sense at all. It is just something that prevents communication between people.

There is no magic way to learn English

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:25:48 GMT

There is no magic way to learn English

Everyone here is looking for an easy, quick way to learn English. the forums are full of pleas such as, "Help me find a way to learn English quickly!"

Learning English takes work, hard work. Learning English takes patience, practice and perseverence. The three P's!

First, you should learn how to communicate on a basic level. Sort out the 'hi, how are you?' and the 'My name is John' first. Then move towards reading books and watching DVDs and listening to news reports from Canada and the US. Learn five words a day and use them in sentences. At the end of the year you will know 1500 words or more.

For people who are just beginning, get some children's books out of the library and learn how to read them. The words will be simple, there will be pictures to help you and soon you will be able to read the whole book on your own. I know, you are older than that and kid's books are silly but they are a great way to learn to read English.

Many countries have shows for children that are in English. Watch these shows and learn the basics of the English language. Shows such as Sesame Street are wonderful for learning English.

Remember, above all, that English is a language for communication. You may never be able to speak like a native, you will probably always have an accent but that doesn't matter. Keep practicing and keep learning. Communication comes first, perfection comes later.

Patience, Practice and Perseverence!

All about names

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:24:20 GMT

All about names

When someone asks you your name, what do you say? I think it depends on where you are from. If you are trying to learn English, maybe you should learn about the format for names here in North America and in Britain.

My name is Brian. That's my first name, my Christian name or my given name. All three words describe my name, Brian.

My last name is Mahoney. That is my surname or my family name. Everyone in my family has the name Mahoney. But they all have other first names.

If I ask you, "What is your name?", I'm being polite and I'm asking you for your first name. John, Jane, Nancy or whatever. At this point, I don't really have to know your last name. I want to be able to call you by your name, as opposed to calling you, "Hey you!"

In China and other Asian countries people tend to use their last name first. Yee Wenyi, for instance. Wenyi is actually the person's first name. In Canada we would call her Wenyi Yee but usually just Wenyi. Lo Si Hui, would be Si Hui Lo in North America. You don't have to tell everyone your last name, just your first. So, "What's your name? Mine is Brian," would be asking you to say, "Si Hui," if that is your name.

I hope this helps you a bit. If you have questions or comments, feel free to send me a message or comment here.

Accents - Can you change yours?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:42:48 GMT

Accents - Can you change yours?

I was talking to one of my new friends who wanted to learn a bit of English from me. She is Persian, originally from Iran, and now lives in Malaysia. She was quite concerned about her son, who is 10. It seems he is developing a Malaysian accent. Wonder of wonders!

Much of what I do with people when I help them with English is to help them understand the language and how it is used. Almost all of my students want to speak English like a native. I assume that means that they want to sound like a Canadian, an American or a Brit. They don't seem to grasp that your accent is part of your background. Once a person is around 10 or 12, their accent is fixed for life. Sure, there are some people who will train you to lose your accent but usually this is for a particular movie or play an actor is hoping to be selected for. At $100.00 US per hour, there aren't many people who can afford this anyway.

If you are really concerned about your accent, there isn't much you can do for yourself, if you are in your late teens or beyond. If you are worried about your children, move to your target country, the country whose resident accent is the one that sounds good to you. If your children are young enough, and if they start school there in a regular public school where they will be surrounded by native speakers, then your dream will come true.

Back to my friend in Malaysia. I was concerned that her concerns about her son's accent have more to do with some sort of discrimination or concept of class rather than any true worries about proper English. What is proper English anyway? If I live in Malaysia, wouldn't I want to speak like the rest of the people there? Language is for communication, speaking to people on a day to day basis. Sure, there are levels of English but I'm sure a bank manager or a lawyer in Malaysia is able to communicate on a superior level, while the average Malay person may speak on a more normal level. Surely they can communicate with each other!

The problem, as I see it is when English is used as something other than a tool. Instead of trying to speak like a native, people should try to just communicate. If you can get your point across, if people can understand you, then you're doing fine. Once you get the basics of communication set up, then move towards increasing your vocabulary through the use of DVDs and online news and entertainment sites.

As soon as your vocabulary is above average and you can watch a complete dvd or read a modern novel, then work on your accent. Record your voice while reading the script of a movie. Then, listen to the same part of the movie as you have just read and compare your voice with the original actor's voice. Mimic their voice if you have to as you record. Get used to changing your vowel sounds or your intonation. With practice, I'm sure you will begin to sound less like yourself and more like your dream voice.

Living or spending time?

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:12:48 GMT

Living or spending time?

I've been questioning lately, questions about life and success and happiness. All it took to start me on this path was a friend's status message on Facebook. When I started asking around, I discovered that everyone's measure of success or 'living' is different. I guess I should have realized that at the start, since I didn't really have a measure of my own. Many times when I look at life I don't really see it through my eyes, tending to wonder how others see it and how others see me. What is life? That's the big question. Life is waiting for the right time it's not having time it's time spent doing things you want to do and time spent doing things you hate It's a package, life is. It ebbs and flows and flows and goes too soon for some not quickly enough for others It's kids and laughter and smiling faces it's memories treasured and memories that you try to forget but can't It's time that flies and time that dribbles away drop by drop until there are no drops left So what is a successful life? Is it money? Power? Travel? Is it loving and losing or loving and staying in love? When you try to fill every moment with something there are moments of nothing too. Is the time spent sitting on the deck watching a cardinal sing wasted? Is being too lazy to get my camera a fault? Maybe I prefer to live the moment instead of trying to capture it forever. I look at the mourning doves on the wire in pairs or singly The doves mate for life, did you know? A single one brings to mind sadness not only from their song A pair is life and time spent with each other and success and, for them, living. I'm still questioning. There are no answers that I know of. My dad died in December and I often wondered what yardstick he measured success with. Sure, he'd been to North Africa, Sicily, Italy and England but he'd had a rifle with him then, or a 25mm howitzer since he was in the artillery. Shell shocked and pretty much deaf in later life from the thousands of blasts of the cannon, I wonder how he felt near the end. I remember him whispering that he wished he had more time, just a little. He did get more, just a little and a beer in his hospital bed and some visits from a loving family. There was a time when I was 15 and had just gotten a cheque for my first and only story that a magazine bought. He said then that he had always wanted to do that, to write a story. He'd dragged a thesaurus around the war with him to help him do just that. Besides writing a story, he'd wanted to paint a picture, which he did many times later in his life. Was that his success? Was that his dream of living? I often think that I am living his dream for him and maybe that is what it's all about. Each generation hopes to do better than the last. Well, I'm still questioning. I don't think I've ever said that I haven't lived. I've done a lot in my 56 years and there is still more to do. The three wonderful, warm and funny fun children that I helped create are part of my success and part of my proof that I have lived well. Funny fun? A new combination for me!

Mapleleaf Man is a bit upset

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:32:16 GMT

Mapleleaf Man is a bit upset

Recently I added someone who invited me to be their friend, and helped this person by answering a long message about the use of 'he or her' in sentences. I could understand the person's confusion about whether to use both of the sexes in a sentence or just one. I spent a fair bit of time answering the person's question. The next message I got from the same person, after a very short thank you message, had 7 questions in it, asking me what some Coldplay lyrics meant. Coldplay? I don't listen to them and for me to sit and try to figure out what someone's lyrics meant was asking too much! I wrote back and said it was just too much to ask.

Next, I added someone else who sent me some messages which I edited and sent back. A bit later this person asked me to join this website, which I did, only because it was a photography website. For my profile picture, I chose a cool shot of Mapleleaf Man's head and shoulders in front of a mirror after I cut my hair and took a shower. I didn't have a shirt on but you could only see my shoulders and head anyway, so it didn't matter. The next thing I know I get a message from this person saying that they thought I was a 'playboy man' because of my profile picture! I was astounded! Here I am being nice to a complete stranger, answering her questions and helping her out and she has the nerve to suggest that I am a playboy man, whatever the hell that is! All of this from a person who hides behind someone else's picture instead of posting her own picture here on Ebaby or on the photography site. Playboy man? What the hell? I am 56 years old for god's sake.

A year or so ago I used to get messages from a woman in China. Each message included a diary entry that she asked me to edit. I did this for a while, out of kindness, but each message got longer and longer. Finally, I wrote back and said that was it, I could not edit any more of her diaries because they are just too long and far too frequent. Do you think I ever got another message from her? Do you think she ever thanked me for editing her diaries? Nope. Never heard from her again.

Mapleleaf Man is here to help people. He isn't here to be used like a tool. If you have a question, ask me. If you have a short piece of work that you want edited, ask me. If you want to send messages back and forth, telling me about yourself and asking proper questions about me, go ahead. But don't kick me in the face with assumptions based on a picture. Don't assault me with 7 questions in a single message. Don't ask me to edit long diary entries and then get angry when I say I don't have time for it! At least be thankful that I edited some for you. Send me a thank you note for the ones that I did edit.

Is that asking too much? Let me know. I enjoy your responses.

Time Well Spent

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:12:04 GMT

Time Well Spent

Someone asked me the other day why I spend so much time online. At first, because of the type of question it was, I felt a bit offended. Up to that point I had been helping this person with English. She was in Sydney, Australia and it was her afternoon and my evening. She was tomorrow, I was today, you know how it goes. If you don't, then that's how it goes for me anyway. Instead of ignoring the question or answering it in glib way, I told her that I was often one of my computers and that I frequently left my laptop on overnight beside my bed with various chat apps open so that people in other parts of the world might ask me questions while I was sleeping. When I had time the next day, I would answer their questions about English and life while they were asleep, by email or through msn or qq.

Later on, I reconsidered my life a bit and felt the need to explain parts of it to anyone who gives a damn. It won't take too long, it's only 56 years, right?

While I didn't have a totally deprived childhood, I was isolated. The parts of my early years that I can remember were spent off in the woods around my home or riding my bike into the closest village or skating in the back fields. I really didn't spend a lot of time in the house except for a six week span when I broke my leg in Grade One. Most of those six weeks were spent yearning for someting to do outside. I guess walking casts were not popular then or something.

Later on in my life, I always seemed to be somewhere else other than home. My longest career, 11 years of car sales, involved at least 60 hours a week of work, lots of money and lots of entertaining. In the years between marriages, I was only home to sleep and entertain. Vacations were spent on some tropical island or in some mainland resort. Instead of spending time in front of the TV, this was before computers and the Internet, I'd be out wandering around downtown Toronto, checking out the local hotspots until closing. Home wasn't an alternative as there wasn't much there to occupy my time. My bachelor pad was luxurious, for sure, but not where I wanted to be unless I had company.

The next few 'careers' I had, involved spending long hours away from home. With one then two and finally three kids, I had this yearning to be home with them. I don't know where that urge came from, certainly it wasn't because I'd had a warm loving childhood myself. Most of my friends would rather have pawned their kids off on daycare or grandmas while they led an essentially single life parallel to their children. Hell, I wanted to be with my kids all the time! Is that a weakness? Did it harm me or the kids somehow? At this point, I don't think it did. I can't think of a time that they've had even a babysitter, except when I was at the hospital on two occasions to help my wife bring another child into the world. No daycare, no summer camp, no summer school or vacations for mom and dad while they stayed home. It just wasn't like that for us. Summer vacations were family affairs.

In the meantime, I've managed to carve out a pretty nice home here for the five of us and the cat. The windows have been changed, every door too, a front deck to enjoy the sun and chat while barbecuing and a great big pool in the back yard for endless summer fun. The cool dark basement has been transformed into a lively and warm place for my kids to entertain or spend some time catching up on DVDs in the family room. This past week we had four visitors sleeping there for four nights, guests of my eldest daughter. At the other end of the basement is my office. While it's kind of in the middle of things, it's got everything within reach and everyone knows where they can find me most of the time. PCs and Macs have found places under the giant corner desk, 500+ channels are available from my three satellite dishes all piped through a cool 5.1 sound system with a thundering sub-woofer and, when I want to reminisce, there is a Technics turntable and a Harmon Kardon amp to play my vinyl LPs on. Scanners, webcams, mics and earphones hang on hooks within easy reach. I've spent years creating my cocoon and I'll be damned if I'm going to feel guilty for spending a lot of time here.

Basically, I've been out. I've done the downtown scene, the work scene, the all-inclusive vacation thing and the be at home with the family thing. Right now, I prefer that last one. A fun time for me is cooking for 5 or 7 or 9 or 13 or any number in between. We spend a lot at the grocery store but we don't spend much at all in restaurants. I'm a better cook than anyone I know (modest too, right?) and time spent at our table creates memories for everyone involved. Family discussions are wide-ranging and fascinating. I really don't think anyone is bored because they keep coming back for more.

My kids are pretty much grown up now but they still bring their friends over for prolonged visits and meals. All three of them are A students, scholarship winners and pillars of whatever group or residence they are involved with. I guess it isn't fair to ask them about whether they missed out on daycare or babysitters because they don't know any other way. Careers are one thing, children are another. In my life, the two aren't of equal importance. If I die tomorrow it won't be with any regrets that I've spent too much time away from my kids. My wife and I have spent almost 21 years ensuring that our time was their time.

So, I spend a lot of time at home. Do I regret it? Not one bit. I've done things many people who read this haven't done. I've been places and seen things and experienced times that I can write about for years to come. This is a long answer to a short question but maybe anyone who is thinking the same thing about me will find an answer here.

The Academy Awards

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:04:07 GMT

The Academy Awards

It`s Sunday night here in Canada and one of my favourite shows is on, The Academy Awards. Every year I try to catch them if I can. Tonight, Jackie is watching them back in the family room while I write my blog here in front of my bank of computers. I have a TV card in one of my computers and I`m lucky enough to be able to have the Awards on one of my large lcd screens.

I just realized that for many people, those who are at work now in China or Australia will miss seeing the awards live. Then I wondered if these award shows are just a North American phenomena. Are they popular where you live?

I realize that there are other festivals and other international award shows but these are the Academy Awards! Maybe they aren't as popular everywhere else but here, it's big news! The telecast starts at the supper hour, around 6 and we get to see the stars walk into the theater where the awards will be held. Much is made of the dresses the women wear and the hairstyles as well as who is arriving with who. Of course, it's all what we call 'hype'. In the real world, none of this means anything at all.

My background is in movies. I studied film in university and I've always been interested in them. I've probably seen hundreds, if not thousands of films in my life. I don't really look at them the same way you do but I still enjoy them today, just as much as I did back when I watched Toby Tyler, the first film I got to see in a theater.

Let me know what your memories of movies are. Do you watch movies in your own language? Do you watch English films to help you with learning the language? What types are your favourites?

Not all teachers are the same.

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:31:39 GMT

Not all teachers are the same.

I talk to a lot of people about their classes and their teachers. Lately, because of what some people have said, I have learned that some teachers who teach English are abusing the system. Instead of working hard and teaching as best they can, some bad teachers are simple out to meet as many girls as they can! I'm disturbed by this and I wanted everyone who reads this to know that not all English teachers are like that. If you happen to have a teacher who asks for you phone number or wants to take you out for drinks or for dinner, think twice about it. Is he a friend or is he after something else?

I have heard of teachers who complain about how much money they make and they tell their students that some other country is better because they pay their teachers more money. Is this something a teacher should discuss with his class? I don't think so!

Lastly, a few students have told me that their teachers can't understand them when they speak English despite the fast that they sound perfectly fine to me when I speak to them on the microphone. I guess there are teachers who are better listeners than others.

Mapleleaf Man would really like to teach in another country, even for six months or so. Japan would be my first choice, followed by China or Taiwan. I think it would be interesting and very rewarding. Let me know what you think about this.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 15:19:41 GMT

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello, Young Lovers by Rodgers and Hammerstein

Frank Sinatra

Hello young lovers who ever you are
I hope your troubles are few
All my good wishes go with you tonight
I've been in love like you

Be brave young lovers and follow your star
Be brave and faithful and true

Cling very close to each other tonight
I've been in love like you

I know how it feels to have wings on your heels
And fly down the street in a trance
You fly down a street on a chance that you'll meet
And you meet not really by chance

Don't cry young lovers what ever you do
Don't cry because I'm alone
All of my memories are happy tonight
I've had a love of my own
I've had a love of my own like yours
I've had a love of my own

Happy Valentine's Day to all my fantastic and wonderful Ebaby friends. I know it's almost over in parts of the world but here it's just beginning. All the best and here's a kiss to all the girls from Mapleleaf Man! MMMMMMwwwwwwwwaaaaaaa! :)

Do I have too many friends on Ebaby? No way!

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:42:13 GMT

Do I have too many friends on Ebaby? No way!

I got a nice message from a young member of Ebaby today. She asked me if I had too many friends, if I had enough and didn't need any more. It seems she had seen my friend's list, which is nearing 500, and checked out my videos and my blog too. She was worried that I wouldn't have any time for her, to help her with English.

I wrote back right away, telling her that even though I had almost 500 friends, many of them didn't send me messages or even contact me after the initial invitation. Almost all of my friends on Ebaby invited me to be their friend, I rarely have time to go out and seek out new friends. That sounds vain probably but it's the truth. I spend a lot of time helping people learn English and there isn't much time left to add friends. But, I still have time for people who need help. This young lady was exceptionally polite and said some nice things about my videos so how could I refuse?

Mapleleaf Man can't help everyone but he really does try to help those who need it. Right now, many of my 'students' have become friends so I have a chance to share their lives. Besides being an English tutor or teacher I often have to advise people about situations they may find themselves in. I'm good at English but I'm also a pretty good counsellor if you need one!

So, remember this: I'm rarely too busy to help. I can't do long editing anymore but I can help you with a word or a sentence or a short paragraph. I can sometimes listen to you and give you tips on your pronunciation. And I can certainly find time to chat with you for a while, just to get to know you and see what your needs are.

Don't be shy! Say hi! If I'm busy I will tell you, if I'm not then welcome aboard! Remember: You're better than you think you are.

Are you boring or just bored?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:04:43 GMT

Are you boring or just bored?

Lots of my friends get the words boring and bored mixed up.I'll be chatting with someone and, for some reason, they will say they are boring! I have to sit and think for a second to figure out what they mean. Of course they mean they are bored, not boring.

Bored is something you are when you have nothing to do and you aren't excited with anything. Boring is what you are when you talk about yourself or anything that is not interesting.

So, you don't call yourself boring, you say, "I'm bored!" Someone else might call you boring but probably not. Everyone I know is NOT boring. Ok, there is one person, no wait, two... then there was that other one .... just kidding! Have fun!

Listening skills

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:17:17 GMT

Listening skills

I have had some questions lately about listening.Listening is probably more than half of the skills you need to speak English. Of course, it is hard but once you get some practice at it you will find it much easier and less frightening. Here are some tips:

1. Everyone has a DVD or a VCD player. You might not have one hooked up to your TV but you have on in your computer. Rent or buy a good movie that you really enjoy. It could be American or British or some other form of English. VCDs are popular in some countries and DVDs are pretty much everywhere. Pop the DVD or VCD in your player, sit back and listen.

Try to find a scene you really like, something without too much background noise and maybe just two people talking. Play the scene once and see if you can pick out a word or two. Play it again and stop it now and then and see what you hear now. If you get one word or two, then three or four, you will be getting better at listening.

2. Go to youtube.com and find one of those video blogs that are there. Usually these are American or Canadian bloggers with, what I would call, neutral accents. Play the video once or twice and see what you can hear. Play it a few more times or save it to your computer so you can play it whenever you want. (Use flashget for this). Over time, if you get used to the voice, you will be able to understand what the person is saying. Check out Happy Slip. She is one of my favourite bloggers on youtube and she is very funny and very cute. You will like her videos.

3. Using the same technique as number 1 above, you can play a DVD and choose the 'sub-title' playback. This is kind of cheating but you can use it for fun and when you want to relax. Play a scene with it off and see what you think is being said. Or maybe try to get a sense of what the scene is about. Then turn the sub-titles on again and see if you were correct. Toggle the titles on and off to see how good you are getting.

Good luck! Use these techniques to increase your listening skills while you relax. Remember : You are better than you think you are!

Some thoughts on English

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:43:23 GMT

Some thoughts on English

I see some lessons on Ebaby and other sites where the concentration seems to be on 'terms' and grammar. There is a lesson on the Superbowl, which is tomorrow, which mentions gerunds. Huh? What is a gerund? I speak English as a native, I took grammar for years in school and I write blogs and massive amounts of communication every day but I have no idea what a gerund is. Hell, after reading the description in two or three different places, I still don't have a real idea about what the word means.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, as I have said before, if I can't understand what a gerund is, then something is wrong with the lesson. If I don't know when I'm using one, then what difference does it make if I know what it is?

I would bet that most people in Canada and certainly in the US, because they aren't as bright as Canadians are, have never even heard of a gerund. If that is the case, then why would a person learning English have to know what a gerund is? I don't think they do.

English is hard enough to learn on it's own without adding unnecessary difficulty to it. Does knowing terms help you write or does it complicate the process? I use gerunds all the time, I guess, as well as all different kinds of other forms of grammar. If I know how words go together without knowing the rules then am I a bad writer? Am I supposed to know the rules before I explain to someone how to put a sentence together?

These are some thoughts on a Saturday night here in a cold, snowy Toronto! I hope you enjoy learning English and if you need some help, send me a message.

I talk to people frequently on my microphone that I meet on Ebaby. Almost every singe one speaks better English than many of the new Canadians I meet or work with here in Toronto. Trust me, I know who can speak decent English and who can't. I have written here many times and this is something to think about, You are Better Than You Think You are. Keep learning and keep having fun!

Interesting times for the world

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:48:43 GMT

Interesting times for the world

Just a short blog entry today. It's been a great week in the United States with the inauguration of President Obama. It's a time of hope, at least in that part of the world.

In China and most of the Far East, which is what we used to call it, it's also a time of hope. It's the hope of a new year, this time it's the year of the Ox. It's also the Spring Festival which is a time of celebration and happiness.

In other parts of the world things are changing but things stay the same too. Gaze is still under siege. The war in Iraq rages on with more deaths all the time. In Afghanistan, Canadians are still dying as they fight the Taliban, trying to win the freedom of the Afghani people.

What are you doing now? How is your world changing? What political situations are you following? Comment on this blog and let everyone know what is on your mind. Let's hope that it is a time of hope and peace for most of the world.

Kong Hee Fatt 恭喜发财 or Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:11:22 GMT

Kong Hee Fatt 恭喜发财 or Xin Nian Kuai Le!

With the whole of China and most of the Chinese world now celebrating the Lunar New Year, I wanted to wish everyone there a super and happy and fun and rewarding Year of the Ox!

Depending on which version of time you are using as a guide, the year is either 4707, 4706, or 4646. I lean towards 4646 because it is oldest and sounds best when you say it.

I went to a Chinese New Year Festival last night here in Toronto. It wasn't worth the money we spent but there was a very exciting Lion Dance so it was worth it! I recorded some video and took pictures. I will put the video up on youtube so you all can see it. It will be available in my next blog entry.

In case you don't know, everyone in China goes home for the New Year and the subsequent Spring Festival. If you know people there, and you haven't heard from them in a while it's because they are home with their families and may not have Internet access. It's a wonderful time for most of my Chinese students. Some aren't too happy about being home because their parents have such high expectations for them. If you have children, please take the time to praise them for what they DO not for what you want them to do. OK?

Remember to keep in touch and to let me know if you have questions about English. I will try to help as many as I can.

Have a prosperous New Year! Kong Hee Fatt Choy! Xin Nian Kuai Le!

恭喜发财

学业进步 :)

A new video is up now!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:54:11 GMT

A new video is up now!

Hey all you English learning type people! I just put up my latest video right above this so check it out. I had fun making it and I hope you have fun watching it.

It's bloody cold here in Canada, It always seems to be below 0! My pool is full of snow and the trees are all weighed down with snow.Watch the video, read the poems and find out what life is ilke here. See ya!

A Snow Poem

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:44:45 GMT

A Snow Poem

Since it is so cold here in Toronto now, -22 this morning, I wrote a poem yesterday to go with a picture that someone took of a cold, snowy January day. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it.

The Sounds of Winter

I think it is the sounds that you notice first.
The crispy crunch of snow under your boots
the silence when you stop and hold your breath

then your breath, sometimes the only sound
except
the wind
split into a hundred pieces by the bare branches of the maples
sliced into millions of pieces by the pine and spruce needles
each piece making a tiny whistle all its own
some high, some low
almost a moan when they are put together
into one.

A jay chatters off and away
a lonely sound of winter
then a dee dee dee above you
and you know the bouncing happy bird is close
the other bird of winter
less lonely, less angry somehow
a happy call to no one except another chickadee
or to no one except you
so listen well.

If it is cold enough, and surely it is sometimes
you will hear the cracks
the cracks of the ice on the pond
some close, some far
some right under your feet

then far off, maybe near the jay
the crack of a tree trunk
or a limb
under pressure from the iciness
pressure from within
pressure that you don't feel
pressure you have forgotten here in the woods
with just the snow and the cold and yourself.

An amazing event! M. is back!

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:33:57 GMT

An amazing event! M. is back!

Well what a difference a day makes! Just yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that three women had walked out of my life in 2008 and today, one of them walked back into it! M. came out of the wilds of her country and chatted with me for a long time. She isn't here long, just for today but we made plans for the future and, hopefully, the future begins in about 10 days.

I am so relieved! M. and I were very close, very good friends and probably more too so it's wonderful that she came to me at this time. In just moments we were back to ourselves and feeling comfortable again. Her soft voice and words came back to me in a flash.

So folks! My world is bright again. I know that the stars will shine again! M. is quite a bit younger than I am but that doesn't seem to matter. It sure doesn't matter to me anyway!

I guess the point of this blog is to say that no matter how far down you are, there is always a way out of your problems. There is a saying that 'when one door closes, another one opens'. For me, today anyway, that is exactly the way it is!!!

2008 ends, 2009 begins

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:24:25 GMT

2008 ends, 2009 begins

I will always remember 2008. It's the year that three women spent some time in my life and the same three women stepped out of my life and, I guess, into someone else's life.

First there was J. who had been with me for a long time. The ending of that relationship is still being played out. J. has a new love but we still keep in touch almost daily. The spark and fire has gone but the deep love still remains. She is a special, fiery passionate woman who can drive me crazy but still has a huge part of my heart.

Then there was M. who stepped into my life at this time last year. She was a fan, a beautiful young woman who liked me for many reasons and, after a short time, I began to like her just as much. We spent many hours together online and then something tragic happened in her life that threw her world into total disarray. She left her home and hid away off in another village, doing her profession and sometimes keeping in touch with me. I still don't know the end of this one, either. I hope M. will resurface someday and return to me. It's impossible after all of this time I guess but I'm a dreamer. Sometimes dreams are all you have.

Last on the list is E. E walked slowly into my life using a calmness and a gentleness that belied her true past. I started out teaching her English and she ended up teaching me about life. This average looking woman has, astoundingly, had about 100 lovers in her life. She is under 40 and continues her search for sexual nirvana. Although she seems soft and gentle on the outside, there is a fire burning within her. She can meet a man as a stranger and be in bed with him in an hour. I'm crazy about her but there is no hope for us now, the past crept up to us and knocked us apart. She will continue, I guess, searching for the right man. I wish her luck. She is married and wants children but I'm not sure this is the right path for her. Fate will decide what will happen to her, I'm sure.

Besides these three women, many more have stopped by to say hi. My QQ list is full of wonderful women from China and my msn is packed with lovely ladies from many countries. Oh yes, I also have some men on my lists so don't think I discriminate at all. I have even met someone who lives right here in Canada but who still needs some English help. We're in touch almost every day and she is becoming a great friend.

If you need help, don't be afraid to ask. I use MSN, Yahoo, QQ and Skype to help my friends from Ebaby. Check out my videos on Youtube too! Maybe they will help you learn a bit on English.

Lastly, I hope 2009 is a great year for everyone here at Ebaby! Keep practising and keep trying, you're better than you think you are!

A Christmas Wish for you all!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:33:43 GMT

A Christmas Wish for you all!

Merry Christmas everyone! It's December the 16th and the big day is rapidly approaching. While we don't have snow right now, I hope for some before Christmas. Our tree is up, the gifts are piling up underneath it and the excitement is growing.

My children are now mostly grown up, Jackie is the youngest at 15 but it's still exciting, even if you are my age! For many people, Christmas is a very religious time of year but for us it is just a big family celebration. This year is a bit different since my father passed away in December but I hope everyone will still be happy and cheerful, in spite of that.

For many Christians, Christmas is a religious time of the year. While I was baptized as a Christian I don't practice religion at all. As many of you know I believe religion is just another way to separate people and my aim in life is to bring people together. Let's be people first, friends next and once all of that is settled then we MIGHT move on to religion and politics. Better to just be friends with everyone, I think.

I have a new video up on my profile page. Just a Christmas greeting from me to you. I didn't subtitle this one, watch it many times and you will be able to improve your listening ability I hope.

Again, Merry Christmas to everyone! And a Happy New Year too!

A death in the family

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:32:18 GMT

A death in the family

Well, there were five of us for 56 years. Five strong willed, intelligent people, a close family for many years before time and distance separated us. Today we are down to four. My father died today, in a hospital in a city 250km from me. I had been down to see him for the last time two weekends ago. At that time it seemed to be moment to moment for him but he rallied and had almost two more weeks. He had enough time for some more Sherlock Holmes DVDs, a beer or two brought by the wonderful nurses there and some smiles from his family. His heart, which had lasted him through six years of World War II, through North Africa, Sicily and Italy had finally given out. He soldiered on for a long time, running a farm that occupied us all for many years while fixing everything that he could fix, often with no previous knowledge of what he was fixing. Even to the end his sense of humour was there, laughing at himself almost exclusively the whole time. His last words, that I can remember clearly, were a big, "Holy Mackeral!" when he saw his family waiting for him when the hospital staff were moving him from one room to another. Goodbye Dad! No pain now but so many memories. We all loved you a lot.

Christmas Approaches!

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:49:18 GMT

Christmas Approaches!

It's almost December and the city is full of the sounds and sights of Christmas. Yesterday Jackie and I took a tour of the downtown core, checking out the window decorations and trying to get a sense of the season here in Toronto. It was cool but bright and we had a lot of fun. I'll post some pictures here on Ebaby so everyone can see what Christmas is like here.

What's it like where you are? Do you celebrate the day? I have no religious affiliation at all and, for us, Christmas is just a day for family, for gifts and great food. Is it important to celebrate it at all? I think it is because, aside from the religious overtones that some people think it has, it's a special day where you can just stop and be with the people you love. One day of the year when everything stops. Sometimes you need that. Sure, it's lonely for single people and people who insist on not celebrating the day but it's still a good day to chill out with your 'homies'!

Send me some messages and tell me what goes on for your Christmas. Is it a big deal? Do you have another day that is comparable to Christmas? Let me know!

A Sign of the Times

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:28:28 GMT

A Sign of the Times

Lately, I've been getting all kinds of messages from people who are looking to immigrate to Canada, who have business ideas and want me to comment on them or help them and absolute SPAM. Not the usual Nigerian crap but the "I need an associate for my company here in Dubai" or something like that.

I guess with the world economy going to hell in a hand basket, things are tough all over. I know that restaurants here in Toronto are offering many 2 for 1 deals now. Stores are having Christmas sales early. Gas is down to well under a dollar a liter and it seems that prices in general fell 1% in the US, mainly because the price of gas came down so much. I think we are in for a long period of financial upheavel.

I hope my friends all over the world are surviving. Sometimes I wish I had a huge house here in Canada where everyone could stay and find nice jobs and be protected from the cold, hard world out there. It's a dream, a fantasy but I really wish I could help more people.

Finally, as in my last blog, I will say that I help with English. Nothing else. If someone becomes a friend and needs some personal advice, well then I can do that too but I don't have time to help strangers look for jobs. Sorry, I have to draw the line somewhere.

I should add that today, November 19th, we are having our first big snow of the winter. It won't stay for more than a day or two but, right now, there is about 5 cm on the ground. Oh, the joys of winter!

There seems to be some confusion.

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:18:19 GMT

There seems to be some confusion.

I got a message today from a young man who seemed quite disappointed that I didn't spend a long time answering his first message. He was angry that I didn't write him a long email about my life and Canada and things like that. He used words that seemed to be aimed at insulting me rather than understanding me.

I am on Ebaby to help people learn English. I write my blog, I do my youtube videos and I edit SMALL things for people. This doesn't leave a lot of time for what I would call 'chit chat'. This was only the second letter from the guy and already he is telling me he is upset at me for sending him a short message! Hey! Didn't I answer him? How many people even answer their messages? Not too many, that's for sure. I ALWAYS answer my messages. (If I haven't, please remind me. I might have missed yours.)

The point of this blog is to say that I do my best. I have a life too, I don't spend all my time here. I have many msn friends, many QQ friends and I do many other things. Please don't think I am shirking my duties if I don't spend a lot of time on my message answsers. OK? In Canada we would say, "Give me a break!"

Thanks. Let me know what you are thinking, ok? I am never to busy to read your messages, your comments or your chats on msn or QQ.

Seems kind of dead here on Ebaby!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:35:25 GMT

Seems kind of dead here on Ebaby!

Geez guys! I take the summer off and lose my audience! Wow!

Well, I'm back on Ebaby and so far no one has noticed. Big deal, they say. I've just put three new videos up on Youtube, which can be accessed from my profile page, or HERE

They are all about the Canadian Thanksgiving. You can learn how we cook our big feast and learn some English at the same time. It's a win/win situation, people!

Anyway, I hope everyone is happy and healthy. Keep in touch, don't forget about me!

Indian Summer

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:41:21 GMT

Indian Summer

I was going to write about this a while ago but now it's even nicer so I will tell you about the Canadian 'Indian Summer'. I'm not sure where the term came from but Indian summer is a phenomena that occurs sometimes in the Canadian autumn. Summer ends, we have a few frosts, maybe even some snow, and then the Indian summer arrives with warm, sunny days that take our minds back to the glorious days of summer.

We don't have these every year. Sometimes we get nice hot weather in September or October but, since we haven't had a frost yet, these don't qualify as Indian summer.

In Western Canada, specifically Alberta, there is another phenomena called a 'Chinook'. A Chinook is a very warm wind that blows in from the west coast of Canada, over the Rockies in the middle of the winter. Alberta can get very cold in the winter, often there are weeks of -30 to -40 degree temperatures. When a Chinook arrives, it melts a lot of the snow, warms the hearts and souls of the cold Albertans and generally makes the winter a bit easier to take. The Chinook doesn't last long, of course, and after a few hours or a day or two, it's back to normal...cold, freezing winter!

Lastly, there is a Canadian phrase that drives many people crazy so I will tell you about it. In Eastern Canada, let's say Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa, the cold is very intense because there is a lot of moisture in the air. In Calgary, there isn't as much moisture so in the winter and in the summer the extreme temperatures are easier to take, supposedly. So we have this phrase that covers this difference in moisture. We say either, "It's a dry cold" or "It's a dry heat". It could be -30 in Montreal and feel incredibly cold but in Calgary the -30 would seem not as cold since, "It's a dry cold!" It's a very overused phrase but I think you get the point of it.

Take care of yourselves! If you have questions about English or just want to say hi, then send me a message. OK?

My jury duty

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:56:45 GMT

My jury duty

This week I experienced my first 'jury duty'. A jury is a group of people (usually 12 but sometimes 6) who sit in a group during a trial and decide together whether the accused person is guilty or not. It's part of our freedom here in Canada. We don't make any money being on jury duty, unless you are on it for a long time.

This week I was chosen to serve on a jury for a criminal trial. While it isn't very exciting, it really is a bit interesting. I can't say anything about what is happening in the trial but it's kind of cool to be sitting watching a real courtroom drama take place in front of you. Some parts are very boring but some parts are interesting.

If I am not as active as I was previously, or if I haven't chatted as much as before, then it's because I am busy for once! I will write more when my jury duty is finished,

Take care all of you! I hope to be more active soon.

Broken hearts make me work harder!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:18:22 GMT

Broken hearts make me work harder!

I`ve just been through two emotional upheavals in the last few weeks, three in the last couple of months. What is the result? Well it seems that the result is another video, available on my profile page, and a blog entry here today. It seems the more my heart hurts, the more I get done.

What's next? More videos, more blogs, maybe something new altogether. Maybe a teaching job in Japan! Hahahaha. No, maybe not now. A few weeks ago maybe but not now.

This is a short entry, but I wanted to tell everyone about my new video. Here is the link to it :

Mapleleaf Man's Latest Video

Let me know what you think. Give me some ideas for a new video. What problems are you having? Let me know. Maybe I can plan a video around it. OK?

Facebook. What's it all about?

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:01:49 GMT

Facebook. What's it all about?

A few of my friends on Ebaby have joined Facebook recently. I've also joined Hi5, Bebo and a few other sites too, because of invitations from my friends here. Most of the other sites are the same, more like a dating service than a friendly site like Ebaby. Facebook, however, is rapidly becoming my first home.

I'll try to explain Facebook and how it works. I believe that it's all in English so it would be a good place to learn about the language. And I'm there too so if you need some help, look me up. You must be a friend of mine on msn or QQ in order to be a friend on Facebook. Shouldn't be a problem for most of you. Ok, here is the scoop on Facebok.

1. Join up and edit your profile. Put up a pic, if you are allowed to, and give some details about your life. DO NOT put your phone number there and DO NOT put a private email address there. Create a new account on hotmail or somewhere and use it specifically for Facebook.

2. Start searching for people you know. Facebook isn't a good place to meet strangers. Ebaby is much better for that. Facebook is more for your friends and family. No doubt you will meet people but you will meet them through your friends and family.

3.If you want, you can send out messages to your email friends or your msn friends to see if they are on Facebook or if they want to join.

4. Facebook, for me anyway, is a place where I can share photos of my life, my family and my friends. I do a lot of photography and much of what I do on Facebook has to do with that. I am a member of several photography groups and we all post pictures and comment on each other's work. It's a bonus feature of Facebook but it's the one I use the most.

5. Play some games! There are many word games, computer games etc. on Facebook that you can play on your own or you can challenge your friends. Scrabble is one, Word Twist is another and then there is JETMAN! I love Jetman but I'm not very good at it. You can invite your friends to play with you or on their own and Facebook will keep track of the scores.

6.Keep in mind that adding a friend is more difficult than most sites. You have to ensure that the people you add are your friends. Write them a message or ask a friend to refer you, something like that.

7. Set up some photo albums, write a blog, comment on someone else's pictures or use the search engine to find some old friends or family. Facebook is a lot of fun. Good luck with it.

If you need some help, as always you can ask me. I'll be glad to help you set yourself up on Facebook.

Time for another entry, I guess

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:09:50 GMT

Time for another entry, I guess

Hello class! Hahahaha, how I would love to say that in real life. But if this is as close to teaching as I get, it's fine. I've had a lot of fun with Ebaby and the people on it. It's a great class!

Autumn is just around the corner here. Sometimes I get so moody in the fall, the smells, the sunlight and the changing temperature all add up to make me a bit weird. All of the seasons have different moods and fall or autumn is a mood of despair, sadness, a growing fear of the cold weather that is looming in a few months.

But autumn is also a season of beauty.In Canada we have the colours of the leaves, the ever changing patterns of red, yellow, orange and everything in between. We have mists in the morning, clear bright skies in the daytime and, right now anyway, a wonderful yellow moon in the sky at night. There is a beauty and a sadness all rolled into one.

I hear the Autumn Festival is coming soon. In the Muslim world, it is Ramadan, a time of reflection and religious intensity. In Brazil, spring is coming! There are celebrations and happiness all over the world. It's a very intense time for sure.

If you're back in school now, and need some help, let me know. If you haven't sent me a message in a while, then please say hi. If you're not on my friends list, and you need a but of help with English, then say hi and add me. I don't give out my msn or QQ number here but, if you are nice and polite, I will add you to my list.

I hope to do some videos soon too so keep my profile handy!

Keep practising and remember, " You're better than you thnk you are!"

After the Olympics...what next?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:40:57 GMT

After the Olympics...what next?

All of my friends in China were so excited about the Olympics finally coming to their country. It was such an intense buildup to the Games and now, on the Monday after the closing ceremonies, I'm sure there is more than a bit of heartache and depression. The Games were awesome in their splendour and execution. I do think a bit less organization and a bit more real people presence would have made them perfect. When something runs like a machine instead of like a human, you tend to miss something, something that you can't quite put your finger on.

My suggestion, and this may be a first for this idea, is to have a China Games every year. Using the same facilities, and timed to not interfere with the Olympics or the Pan American games, and other things like that, the China Games could be the biggest event of the athletic year. This way, the Chinese people and the rest of the world could share and relive the intensity of this past Olympic Games. What do you think? Suggest it to your friends and remember where you heard about it first!

Another summertime dream.

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:59:39 GMT

Another summertime dream.

It's August the 1st today. I decided, after a discussion with a friend on Facebook, that I would take this month to get started on a 'get fit' routine. Somehow, and this is hard because I am inherently lazy, I will do something each and every day to either lose weight or get fitter, or both.

I have a basement full of equipment from a rowing machine to a stationary bike to an actual treadmill/cross country ski thing that I picked up for 20 bucks at a garage sale. Why don't I use them? I think it is the 'inherently lazy' part of me.

But summer is a good time to start this, right? I have the pool to cool me off, the nice weather to walk or run in and my swimming suit that tells me what a gut I have managed to put on.

This all started with a challenge. But the challenge didn't work out since the person I was challenging was already in perfect shape! What kind of challenge is that?

I will keep everyone posted on how this works out. I probably will even take some 'before' pictures just to compare them to the 'after' pictures that I hope to take on September the 1st. I don't think I will show them to anyone, hahahaha, but it will be good to see the change that I have managed to make.

This weekend, the first in August, is a holiday weekend in most of Canada. It's what we call a Civic Holiday on Monday. It's not officially a holiday, I mean not a 'statutory' holiday, just one that most people get. We needed a holiday in August so this semi-holiday suffices.

My family is away all weekend. They just left, actually, so I am feeling a bit blue, a bit sad, a bit lonely. I work on weekends usually, but I don't work much during the week. I like it better this way but it's a bit hard when my family unit takes off to the cottage and leaves me here with the cat and the pool.

My saving grace is that I have friends all over the world! If you feel so inclined, say hi to me if you see me online or send me a message on Ebaby. I'm always in the mood to help people with problems in English.

I hope everyone is having a great summer, those of you who are in the summer mode. Let's keep in touch, let's keep communicating and let's keep on learning Engish!

Summertime, and the livin' is easy!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:20:21 GMT

Summertime, and the livin' is easy!

Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high!

Well, it seems that everyone has left on vacation! There are fewer messages here for me on Ebaby, many of my university friends are off for the summer and everyone else seems to be taking a break for the warm months. At least in the Northern Hemisphere it is warm. In the Southern Hemisphere it is now winter but, for some reason, I don't have many friends from below the Equator.

I'm planning my fall routine, videos and blog entries and work on my new website. And basically chilling by the pool! I've taken some pics with my new Canon camera and I'll put some up here.

Have a great summer everyone! The Olympics are right around the corner. Good luck to China, I hope the games are the best ever!

See you in September!

Canada is 141!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:30:43 GMT

Canada is 141!

July 1st is Canada Day here. It's our 141st birthday, we started this thing of ours in 1867. Since then, as the second largest country in the world, we seem to have made an impression on the world stage. When a country is in turmoil, Canada is called upon to keep the peace there. Right now, we are in Afghanistan where we are trying to provide the Afghani people with a decent standard of living, something which has been missing in their lives for a long time.

Unfortunately, we have lost almost 100 of our soldiers there. Tomorrow, July 1st will be a day of celebration for all of Canada but, personally, I will take a few moments away from the fun to remember the fallen soldiers.

Many people think that Canada is just a mirror image of the United States. Even though we speak the same language, Canada is as independent of the US as we are from Mexico or Russia. We don't pick fights around the world. We are not bullies. We don't force our culture on anyone or sell it to a developing nation under the guise of 'foreign aid'. We don't use 40% of the world's oil production. We listen a lot more than we talk. If we talk, it is in a dialog not a diatribe. We don't fight for the right to carry guns, in fact, we don't have guns on any major scale. We aren't fighting wars on drugs, or terror, or aliens. We are not in Iraq and never have been. Right from the start Canada knew it was a bad idea and our decision not to enter into that war has saved us from the critical embarrassment that the Americans are suffering now. We are proud of being Canadian. We can travel safely in virtually any country in the world. We don't have to hide behind a maple leaf when we travel as so many Americans do. We aren't right all of the time but we try to be right, and do the right thing, most of the time. We have the best free medical system in the world, in my opinion. We have high taxes, yes, but our country isn't trillions of dollars in debt and we don't have to worry about our aches and pains. We don't go broke paying doctor's bills for our children. From coast to coast, we have the best education system and our universities are world class institutions. We are friendly to our new citizens and we try to help anyone we can. If you come to Canada, you can maintain your own identity. You aren't forced to 'Canadianize' yourself or your children. We are truly free, not pretend free. We don't have to tell everyone about freedom and democracy because we live it every day.

What started out as a short blog entry became a very long one. Happy Birthday Canada!

Soccer!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:40:03 GMT

Soccer!

Who's your favourite team? Who will win the Euros this year? I'm not a real soccer fan but I can't help being caught up in the thrill of this year's tournament in Switzerland and Austria. Everyone I know is pulling for one team or another.

Soccer, that's what we call here in Canada, got its name from 'association football'. I think most of the world calls soccer football but, here in the US and Canada, we call the other game football, the one with the helmets and giant shoulder pads and the longer tubular ball. Soccer is a more enjoyable game to watch, except for the ridiculous antics of the players who get 'hurt'. Even the stars act like that so I guess the epidemic is widespread.

Right now, I'm pulling for Turkey just because they are the underdogs. That means that they have no chance of winning really but they might come through.

Good luck to everyone! I hope that all of your teams win. We'll wait impatiently for the world cup in two years. :)

The Conversation - a real chat about English

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:02:45 GMT

The Conversation - a real chat about English

You all know that I chat a lot on msn and QQ and, sometimes, Yahoo. Well, this morning I had a wonderful and educational chat with a friend in Viet Nam. We talked about some problems that she was having with English. Here is the chat (The names have been changed to protect the innocent! :))

"Viet Friend says:
I am studying
i have a question

Mapleleaf Man says:
ok

Viet Friend says:
what is the difference between "little" and "a little"
and the same question to "a few" and "few"?

Mapleleaf Man says:
little describes something, as in size
a little means a small amount
the little room was dark but we could make it brighter by adding a little more light
did you get that?
few is a measurement of numbers of things
few people
few clouds
few men
a few is the same but it has a different sense

Viet Friend says:
my teacher said that " little" often attach with positive meaning
and "a little" with negative meaning

Mapleleaf Man says:
no
little children, little trees
or a little salt in the recipe
I would love a little bit of that dessert
nothing negative about it

Viet Friend says:
but "little children" is about size or amount?

Mapleleaf Man says:
size
small children
a little is only used for an amount of something else
are you mad at me? A little.
that means you are a little mad at me
do you love that man? A little bit
are you tired? A little

Viet Friend says:
ooh, i got it

Mapleleaf Man says:
in a sentence however
you could say
I see a little tree, but that would mean a small tree
but I see a little sun, means that you see a little bit of sun
not a small sun
it's a bit confusing but there is nothing negative
about it

Viet Friend says:
if I say "little sun", am I still right?
If iam right, what that means?

Mapleleaf Man says:
a little bit of sunshine
we don't always say sunshine
we say sun to mean sunshine
is it a nice day? Yes, I see a bit of sun

Viet Friend says:
it mean it is sunny
not so bright
i think so

Mapleleaf Man says:
that's right
good question!

Viet Friend says:
little with size
and a little with amount

Mapleleaf Man says:
yes
you got it!

Viet Friend says:
thank you

Mapleleaf Man says:
no problem

Viet Friend says:
so, what about climate and weather?
what is the difference?

Mapleleaf Man says:
climate is weather over a long time
weather is day to day
climate is the whole year or the whole region
Canada's climate is quite varied
we have cold and snow up north and moderate temperatures in the east and west
day to day weather changes
all the time
Viet Nam is generally warm and humid
it has a tropical climate
but weather is rainy today, sun tomorrow
rain today

Viet Friend says:
aah, i got it

Mapleleaf Man says:
ok

Viet Friend says:
something I heard that " I sort of imagine"
what is "sort of"

Mapleleaf Man says:
well you can imagine it a bit
not too much
sort of feel sick
sort of like you
sort of tired
a bit

Viet Friend says:
wait
tire or tired?

Mapleleaf Man says:
are you angry? Sort of
tired

Viet Friend says:
i think what follows "sort of" is a verb
not adjective

Mapleleaf Man says:
right
no wait
what colour is it? Well it's sort of brown
what is it? Well it's sort of a car

Viet Friend says:
it is different

Mapleleaf Man says:
it just means that it isn't really what it looks like

Viet Friend says:
i knew "be sort of"

Mapleleaf Man says:
it has two meanings
a little
or kind of
if you aren't sure of what it is
you use sort of to describe it as what you can say it is
did you see that thing in the woods, what was it? Well, it was sort of like a monster
sort of like a bear
but it wasn't a bear

Viet Friend says:
yah, right

Mapleleaf Man says:
it just had some bear qualities
and it means a little
sort of tired, sick, angry
or for colour, was it brown? Sort of brown, sort of red
kind of a reddy brown
hahahahaah

Viet Friend says:
but...
with only" Subject + sort of...."
following that just verb
right?

Mapleleaf Man says:
explain it in a sentence
give me an example

Viet Friend says:
" I sort of think about this problem"

Mapleleaf Man says:
yes
you don't really think hard about it
but you do think of it
now and then
sort of is conversational
it isn't to be used in a written work
unless you are writing fiction
and you are quoting someone

Viet Friend says:
ahah

Mapleleaf Man says:
it's not good english
it's teen, or childish or between friends
not to be written down
in chat it is ok

Viet Friend says:
i understood

Mapleleaf Man says:
but don't put it in an essay
you will hear it often but only in conversation

Viet Friend says:
oooh
oook
i will put what u just said in my head
and now i've goota go"

So this is how it goes. Someone asks me something and it goes around and around until we both figure it all out. I hope you enjoyed this.

Where is everyone? Are you all so busy you can't say hi?????

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:16:55 GMT

Where is everyone? Are you all so busy you can't say hi?????

Hi crew! I haven't been getting emails or messages or updates from anyone in weeks! Are you all so busy that you can't keep me up to date on what you're doing? I know one girl who is getting married and two whose computers are broken but the rest of you ! Where the heck are you? :)

I changed my profile pic back to a normal one instead of the usual Home Alone one where I looked shocked. I wasn't getting any friend invites so I figured I was scaring people away. Ahhhhh!

How is your English education coming along? If anyone needs some help or if you have questions, please contact me. I am never to busy to help. I may look busy but I'm not.

It's a very exciting time for many of my friends. They are graduating from University, some of them anyway, and will become English teachers soon. A new crop of eager beavers will be released into the world. So cool! Congratulations to you all!

A lesson in rock and roll terms and slang

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:06:04 GMT

A lesson in rock and roll terms and slang

On Tuesday June 3, 2008 I went to a Tom Petty concert at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. It was an awesome concert so I thought that I would do a blog entry on entertainment slang for my friends at Ebaby. This was supposed to be a lesson but I don't want to go through the application process. Here goes:

Some Entertainment or Rock Music Slang:

gig        a show, a concert. Tom Petty played a gig this week                  in Toronto.

on tour       Tom Petty is on tour now, he is playing all over                     North America

roadie       a worker who sets up the equipment for every show                 and strips it all
                down again after the show. Roadies were                                 immortalized in Jackson Browne's
               song 'The Load-Out/Stay' back in the 70's.
groupie    a groupie is a girl who shows up at all rock shows,                 sometimes only for
                one group, and is willing to do anything to meet the                 group members. Not as
              popular now, groupies were once very popular on                    the rock tours.

encore       once a show appears to be finished, the audience                   can keep cheering and clapping and, very often, a                  group will come back and perform another few                         songs. Encores are almost normal these days. I                     guess you would really stink if the audience didn't                     invite you back for one.

light show   Tom Petty had a particularly nice light show at his                 concert. Rather spectacular lighting effects that                       added to the beauty of the concert. Some                               performers use laser light shows, Pink Floyd for                       instance.

opening act   some rock shows have two groups on the same bill. Tom Petty had Steve Winwood open for him this year. The opening act warms up the crowd and gets them in the mood for the main performer.

tour bus   the vehicle that takes band members around from city to city. Usually these buses are very luxiourious and provide a 'home away from home' for the performer.

set       usually means the songs that are played. In the first set, Petty performed You Wreck Me. Set can also mean the whole list of songs from the concert. This is called the 'set list'.

sell-out crowd   the audience in a sold-out show. Tom Petty didn't sell-out at the ACC.

reefer, tea,
joint       various names for the marijuana that was used at the show by quite a few audience members.

fusion        refers to the type of music that Steve Winwood played during his part of the concert. I thought it was more jazz but my son, the expert, said it was fusion. Lots of solos by the different band members, as in jazz, but some progressive rock bits too.

riff       a few notes strung together, a recognizable but short part of a rock song, the opening notes of a song that everyone recognizes, for instance.

lick a non-repetitive bit of music, "Hey that was a hot lick you just played."

chops good skills, good guitar skills or drum skills

Is it better to help people with English or just have fun?

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:33:52 GMT

Is it better to help people with English or just have fun?

I spend a lot of time helping people on Ebaby. It's very rewarding, don't get me wrong. I've met many great people here. I will continue to help people on this profile.

But I have a friend, a girl actually, who is only interested in talking to boys. She pretends to be someone else, even as far as putting a picture of an actress on her profile, and all of these guys say hi to her and want her to be friends.

Well, I've been thinking of doing something the same. Maybe a Mapleleaf Man 2 profile, just to meet girls. Ok, I'm 56 but I have a young personality! Hahahaha, right? That's what my students tell me anyway.

So don't be surprised if one day you see this hot looking old guy (me!) on a new profile that is only about having fun. What do you think? Is this a dumb idea or what?

How to save youtube videos to your computer

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:35:21 GMT

How to save youtube videos to your computer

This is the second time I've done this today! Step by step, here is how to download videos from youtube.com.

1. Download and install the Firefox web browser from here:

Firefox

2. Once Firefox is installed and running, go here:

UNPLUG

and install Unplug.

3. Go here :

Gomplayer

to download and install the Gomplayer. This player is great for all media, plus you can slow your videos down to a crawl to catch all the action, and repeat scenes endlessly to work on your listening skills. Plus, Gomplayer plays all kinds of media, the FLV files from youtube as well as Divx and mpegs.

4. Go to youtube.com

youtube

The link takes you to my profile there. Click on a video and wait till the page loads, you don't have to wait until the whole movie plays. Then look at your Firefox window. Up at the top, you will see the word TOOLS. Click on TOOLS and you will see UNPLUG in the list that drops down. Click on UNPLUG and a new page will open up.

At the top of this page will be an orange check mark beside a link. Click on the link and choose SAVE, then the file will be saved to your computer.

5. Wait until the file is downloaded then double click on it to open it. Gomplayer will open the file and you can watch the video anytime you want! Cool huh?

6. The file you saved is an flv file, a flash video file. It will be saved as getvideo or getvideo.flv depending on how you have your computer set up. In order to keep track of the videos, you should right click the file and choose RENAME. This way you can rename the file in order to keep track of it on your computer.

Good luck with this. If you have problems, send me a message. I'll try to help you with your problem. OK?

Ebaby time out strikes again!!!!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:18:17 GMT

Ebaby time out strikes again!!!!

Oh, gigantic F word! I spent a long time writing an entry about how to save youtube videos onto your computer. I took several breaks and forgot to save the things I wrote. Ahhhhh! My own fault but it still bugs me! I'll write it later today. What a duffus I am!

Two new videos!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:30:04 GMT

Two new videos!

Hi Crew!
I added a couple of new videos to my profile. Check them out. Let me know what you think of them, good or bad, ok?

Some people have said that I speak to quickly and they can't understand what I'm saying. You can replay the video again and again to listen to it OR you can actually download it to your computer. In my next blog, I will tell you how to do that.

In the meantime, if you are using Firefox to browse the Internet, and you should be, then get the plugin called "Unplu" and see if you can get it to work. It allows you to save Youtube videos to your hard drive. It's saved as an 'flv' file. You can then watch the file in either Media Player, if you have the right codec, or in Gomplayer. I'll explain this all in my next blog. I'm working today so this will have to be it for now.

Talk to you later!

OMG! English is so crazy!!!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:15:29 GMT

OMG! English is so crazy!!!

Yeah, it is. A new friend of mine, and my only friend from Japan, has asked me some very interesting questions lately. My last two blog entries were suggested by my friend and today we discussed another problem that she had encountered.

Only is such a simple word. Its meaning is pretty easy to figure out but it's use is actually quite difficult. Here are some examples. Can you figure out the meaning?

1. I only feel like talking to you.

2. I feel like talking to only you.

3. I feel like talking to you only.

What the heck? Wazzat? Hahaha, that's what I say when I am completely confused. Were you able to figure out the meanings of these sentences?

The first means that I don't feel like doing anything else but talking to you. Nothing else! I ONLY feel like talking to you. But, depending on how you say it, it could mean that you don't want to do anything else with the person, except talking. Remember my lessons on INTONATION? This changes the meaning of the sentence. Look up the videos on youtube if you aren't sure what I am talking about. OK?

The second and third sentences mean the same thing as each other but not the same thing as the first sentence. I don't feel like talking to anyone else, only you.

Right now, I'm trying to make other sentences that are as confusing as these but I can't seem to do it. Can you make a totally confusing sentence using only? Send it along or make a comment. I'll be sure to respond.

House and Home

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:27:15 GMT

House and Home

Someone else asked me about 'house' and 'home'. I had been talking about my father and mother and had said that my mother was in a 'home' but my dad was still in our house. What the heck does this mean?

Well, if you are older and can't take care of yourself, sometimes you go into a home. In this case a home means a big building with nurses and caregivers who do the things for you that you used to do yourself. They care for you in the 'home'. That's one of the meanings of home.

The other meaning of home is really a concept as opposed to a real meaning. A house is a building but a home is a special feeling, a special house that is yours. It's the one that means warmth and comfort and family. A house is the place where you live but a home is the whole concept of house and people and warmth and comfort. "I live in California but I still call Canada my home". This means that while you spend your time in California, you call Canada 'home'. Canada is the place where you are comfortable, where you feel safe and where you can be yourself.

Home also is a place where you go. You don't go to house, or simply to house but you can go home. "I'm tired now so I'm going home." "I want to come over to talk later. Will you be home?" You might be in your house but one doesn't say "Will you be house?" But you can say, "May I come over to your house?" "I'd like to see your house. I hear it is beautiful." So, you can see a house but you have to feel a home. Right?

This may seem a bit confusing but I hope I have cleared up some questions anyway.

Here's a song that might make it all a bit clearer. John Denver's "Back Home Again"

Here are the words, courtesy of John Denver:

There's a storm across the valley, clouds are rolling in
The afternoon is heavy on your shoulders
There's a truck out on the four lane a mile or more away
The whining of his wheels just makes it colder

He's an hour away from riding on your prayers up in the sky
And ten days on the road are barely gone
There's a fire softly burning, supper's on the stove
But it's the light in your eyes that makes him warm

Hey it's good to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes,hey, it's good to be back home again

There's all the news to tell him, how'd you spend your time
Tell me what's the latest thing the neighbors say
And your mother called last Friday, "Sunshine" made her cry
And you felt the baby move just yesterday

Hey it's good to be back home again - yes it is
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes hey, it's good to be back home again

Oh the time that I can lay this tired old body down
Feel your fingers feather soft upon me
The kisses that I live for, the love that lights my way
The happiness that that living with you brings me

It's the sweetest thing I know of, just spending time with you
It's the little things that make a house a home
Like a fire softly burning supper on the stove
And the light in your eyes that makes me warm

Hey it's good to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes hey, it's good to be back home again

Hey it's good to be back home again - you know it is
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Hey, it's good to be back home again
I said hey it's good to be back home again
I said hey it's good to be back home again

Soon and early!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:13:55 GMT

Soon and early!

My friend also asked me about 'soon' and 'early'. These words are easier to figure out so this will be a short blog entry. I will be done soon! :)

Soon means in a short time. "I hope you come home soon." "Soon it will be summer." "If we don't get there soon, I will be asleep."

Early means a few things. It means 'before a scheduled time'. "I got to the school early, before it opened." Or, "Please try to be early tomorrow, I have a busy day ahead."

Early also means a time of day. Early morning, early evening, early in the month or near the first part of the month. It's not specific, it could mean almost anytime before the middle of the month.

Both of these words are general words. They don't mean anything specific and they mean different things to different people. Early might be half an hour early to you but an hour early for me. I like to get to the airport 'early'. That means about three hours before my plane is scheduled to take off. My wife thinks early is an hour before plane time. You can see how it goes!

Soon is less specific and simply means 'in a little while'. Spring coming soon, obviously, is different than going to bed soon but both of them mean 'in a short time'.

I hope this is clearer now for everyone. If you have questions, send me a message. I'll try to sort out your problem for you.

Quick and fast

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:10:50 GMT

Quick and fast

One of my new friends asked me about quick and fast. What are the differences between these two words? When do I use quick? When do I use fast? Tough questions!

Fast is speedy. Speedy is quick. Hmmm. No answer there? Both words are adverbs, at least I think they are. They modify 'go' usually, or 'be'. "Go to the store and be quick about it!"

Fast is usually used to describe speed, like a car is fast, a deer is fast, a person is a fast runner. (Of course it also means to go without food for a long time which begs the questions, "Why do they call it a fast if it goes so damn slow?) So fast means speed at which you run or walk or drive.

Quick usually means to get something done in a short time. "Wow, you were so quick in getting that done!" "See how quickly you can clean up the kitchen."

I guess one way to settle it all is to say that you travel fast but you do something quickly so you are quick when you perform an action. Fast means getting somewhere in a short time while quick means getting something done in a short time.

I hope this helps you figure this out. My friend also asked me about two other words but I forget what they are right now. I'll be back as soon as I remember!!

Much or many?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:18:36 GMT

Much or many?

Someone asked me about the words 'much' and 'many' last week. I had a bit of a hard time with that! Things that I take for granted are much harder for people who are just learning English.

I explained it this way:

Many is used as an adjective and it describes nouns that are pluralized. Too many people, too many kids, far too many bills to pay each month.

Much is used as an adjective also but it describes nouns that can't be pluralized such as food or rice or happiness. Oh, that is simply too much food for me to eat now. Don't eat too much rice this week. There was much happiness in Toronto when we won the Stanley Cup (41 years ago!!!)

I hope this little lesson helps everyone a little bit. Many of my friends think there are too many rules to learn and they have much frustration! See you in a while!

Things about Toronto

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:05:50 GMT

Things about Toronto

Is it the same where you are? Your stores are filled with food from all over the world? Your neighbourhood has ethnic grocery stores, ethnic fast food outlets and stores full of saris and jade? Well, this is what makes Toronto the city it is. If your city isn't like this then you'll know why thousands of new immigrants come to my city every year.

I don't think Toronto went out of its way to be as multi-cultural as it is. It just sort of happened! We have festivals and street parties in the summer. A soccer victory can turn a specific neighbourhood into a frenzy. The World Cup is played out in corner grocery stores and bars all over the city. When the final victory occurs, you know that there will be a party somewhere.

I'll continue this at a later date. For information now, check out Toronto and you'll see what a great city it is. (Yawn, going to bed now!)

Why us? Why now? What does this mean?

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:48:05 GMT

Why us? Why now? What does this mean?

I see many posts in the forums asking similar questions. Why my country? Why my group of people? Why now? Why my religion? Perhaps people are feeling extra stress now in this world of 2008. There are wars in the Middle East. There is tension in Tibet and throughout China. North Korea is locked in a desperate struggle with famine and starvation under a cruel and ruthless dictator. Much of the third world is, or will be, severely limited in their diets in the very near future. Gaza is locked in a similar struggle which some people are calling a modern holocaust. What are we to do?

The average person now has the power to know the truth. The Internet is the great equalizer. Even though your own country might block some sites, there are many more sites out there that you can access for free which will give you a true sense of what is going on in the 'real world'. Very often your world isn't the real world. My own choice would be :

http://www.cbc.ca/

This is Canada`s national news and entertainment network. You`ll learn a lot about Canada if you look but you can learn about the world too if you look even closer. Go to this site:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/

and you will be able to listen to the news and commentary on international stories. Do you want to know about the rice shortage? Go here:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/22/un-world-food.html

Do you want to know about the situation in Tibet? Go here:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/03/14/tibet-protests.html

Of course there are many other links to many other areas of the site but you will be able to find unbiased reports on every situation that exists in the world today.

Canada isn't perfect but we are fortunate to be one of the most-liked countries in the world. We are not fighting in Iraq, as many people believe. We are in Afghanistan and we've lost almost 100 or our brave young soldiers there. We're the peace keepers of the world. We get along with almost everyone but we usually say what's on our minds. We have stood up to the Chinese government many times and we have stood up to the US government many times. We're not as nationalistic as many countries are now. Many of us find it silly to put our country ahead of common sense. Thank goodness we seem to have some common sense sitting in our government in Ottawa.

If you can't figure out why things are happening to you, then become more political. Figure it out on your own. If you wonder why your world is not the master of its own destiny, then speak with your wallet. Spend your money with care. If you disagree with American or Chinese policy, then stop buying products from these countries. Your dollar speaks louder than your vote, unfortunately. But vote, for god's sake vote too.

I guess this isn't being unpolitical is it? Ah well, it's English too. Keep on keeping on!

It's been a week already!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:48:53 GMT

It's been a week already!

Wow! A whole week has gone by since my last entry. I've had some good comments on my last edition but I've decided to stay away from politics, at least for now.

This site is about English and learning a new language. I assume that there are sites that teach Chinese, Italian and just about any other language out there. It stand to reason that anytime people from different countries and different cultures get together, then they will talk about religion and politics. It's hard to separate your reality from someone else's but, when you are talking politics and religion, you have to keep an open mind.

Now I'm not saying that I've always maintained an open mind. As a matter of fact, as some of you know, I'm very opinionated. But I've realized throughout some of my discussions with various people that they have opinions too. I have my sources for my information and they have theirs. I have my beliefs about God, and I don't think there is a god, while they firmly believe that there is one. So many people and so many different opinions. But the best part of all of this is that we start out trying to learn English and our discussions blossom out into being about life and cultures and, yes, politics and religion.

What's the point? Well, we're moving towards a universal language, at least here on Ebaby. Can't we move towards a universal acceptance of others? Does it really matter that much if there is a god or there isn't? If you believe it, then fine. But isn't there only one god? If we start there then maybe we can move towards one truth, one political belief, one set of standards for women and men everywhere in the world. Maybe it's an impossible dream but, as we know from dreams. almost anything is possible.

Keep dreaming!

China! What are we to do with you?

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:37:50 GMT

China! What are we to do with you?

So many of my friends are Chinese, so many nice people, so many friendly and warm people. I'm worried that China is becoming more and more political as the Olympics approach. Once China becomes more political, they step up on their efforts to try to prove to their own people that the rest of the world is against them. This isn't true! The world is not against China. There are Chinese people in every part of the world. Toronto and Canada in general has a huge Chinese population. Don't ever think that the world is against the Chinese people. We aren't!

The Olympics is a stage on which the host country is on display. China, the world's largest populated country, would dearly love to show the world that their Olympics will be the best ever! How will they do that if Tibet is in the news every day in the Western World? Well, they can do that by telling their own citizens one thing while the rest of the world hears something else. They can do that by shutting down all of the pollution-spewing factories for a period of time before the Olympics in order for the air to be as clean as possible. If you live in Beijing, you will notice your air is much clearer during the Olympics than it is right now.

CCTV will blame CNN and the BBC for many things. CCTV will try to make the people of China believe that the world is against China. The world is not against China. The rest of the world knows what is happening in China and if we blame anyone, we blame your government, not the Chinese people. By comparison, we don't blame the American people for the war in Iraq. We blame the American government.

If there is one thing I have discovered at Ebaby, it's that people are pretty cool wherever they are from. Look at my friend list. Check out the countries where my friends live. From China to Columbia to Taiwan to Ghana to Saudi Arabia and everywhere else, I have found friendly and kind, wonderful people. Don't let a government tear us apart. If your government tells you one thing then you should look elsewhere for the truth.

The new word of the day is propaganda. Look it up. The Chinese government uses it, the US government uses it and, I guess, the Canadian government uses it. But the truth is out there. Don't believe everything you hear.

Losing a dream

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:41:10 GMT

Losing a dream

Even at my age, 56, I still dream about some things, not at night, although I dream then too, but in broad daylight when the sun makes reality look very stark and harsh. A dream can keep you going when times are bad. It can pick you up when you're down. A dream can make a rainy day sparkle with a special light.

What happens when you lose a dream? Is it as easy as getting another to replace it? Is there a grieving time that is appropriate for a dream that's lasted almost two years? Does a two week or two month period of grief equate to the time spent dreaming? I guess I'll find out.

Having a dream is not like having a goal. A goal is very often attainable. A dream is seldom attainable but it doesn't have the sharp edges that a goal has. A dream can be round and fluffy like a cloud. It can have a shape, a texture or a taste. You can taste a dream, I think. I'm not sure if you can taste a goal.

I will keep dreaming. I'll find another balloon to pin my dreams on and let it float up and off into the sky. Maybe this one won't go quite as high, however. Once a dream gets bigger than you want it to, and the balloon pops, then there isn't much left to hold onto.

If this was a poem it would be over now, like my dream is over.

Don't give up on your dreams. Don't stop dreaming even if it hurts when that big, fat balloon pops. Set your goals within your limits but let your dreams grow to be as big as the sky. Broken balloons can't be repaired but, I guess, they make a lovely noise when they pop.

More Dolch podcasts

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:34:08 GMT

More Dolch podcasts

One of my friends found the Dolch lists quite helpful so I decided to record the rest of the lists and post the podcasts here. Click on the link, there are four separate ones, choose SAVE and the podcast will be saved to your computer.

Here are the links:

Lists 3 and 4

Lists 5 and 6

Lists 7 and 8

Lists 9,10 and 11

The actual lists are here : Dolch lists

Follow along on the lists as you listen to the podcasts. The last podcast link is a bit longer as it contains three lists instead of two.

Enjoy!

Another podcast!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:44:03 GMT

Another podcast!

I've just put up another podcast. This one is about the Dolch wordlist. You can find the list of words here :

Dolch wordlist

The podcast is available here:

Dolch podcast

This podcast is quite long, about 16 minutes but I think it`s important. You can save it and play it on your mp3 player. You can also listen to it while you read the words on the link above. Either way, you will get to know English a bit better using the podcast and the website. Good luck!

Please leave me some comments about the podcast. I need to know if it was long enough, or too long. How is the quality of it? Let me know, ok?

My first podcast!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:30:32 GMT

My first podcast!

I've spent the last two days working on a podcast for my Ebaby friends. Not the whole time, of course! I mean I did other things!

A podcast is essentially an mp3 that you anyone can access, just the same as you can access a website. You record the mp3 and put it up on a website somewhere, add some confusing xtml code, as opposed to html code, and voila! There is your podcast.

Click on this sentence to listen to my podcast.

It's not much, just me saying 'hi' basically but you will get the idea of what I'm trying to do. I'll let you know when I get another one finished. Thanks for reading!

Why are you learning English?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:51:07 GMT

Why are you learning English?

I've been talking to many people in the last little while, some of whom are taking English lessons, expensive English lessons. My question to you is, "Why are you taking English lessons?" I guess there are lots of reasons. Perhaps there are social reasons, business reasons or maybe it's as simple as a trip abroad. Whatever the reason, you have to ask yourself, "Do I want to just speak English or do I want to be able to read and write English like a native?"

My point in all of this is, for this blog anyway, if you just want to speak some English and make yourself comfortable with the language, do you really have to know what a participle is? How about a dipthong? If you're going to teach English then I'm sure all of this intense grammar is worth it but if you are simply trying to communicate in English, then forget the grammar and have some fun!

Grab an English DVD, something with your favorite actor in it, make some popcorn and listen to it. Yes, you heard me correctly. Listen to it! Take one scene. Listen to it again and again. Hear how the words are formed, listen to the beat, close your eyes and listen to the English. If you can't sort out the words at the start, listen to it again. Try to pick out one word, then two, then maybe a complete sentence. Don't worry if you don't recognize what the words mean, that will come with time.

I try to put words to my videos. Dvd movies have subtitles. If you play the movie and choose 'subtitles' then you can tead and listen at the same time. Sooner or later the two things will come together and make sense.

Above all, don't give up! English is complicated and tough to write but it's not too complicated to speak on a basic level. I'll write another entry soon about all of this. Keep reading!

Ebaby and missing messages!!!!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:14:35 GMT

Ebaby and missing messages!!!!

If you have ever spent a long time writing a message to somenone on Ebaby and then clicked send, only to lose the whole thing into the vapour that is the Internet, read on!

Ebaby sets a timer when you are logged into your account. This is because many people on Ebaby use Internet cafes and school computers to access this website. If there was not a timeout feature, anyone could access anyone else's account. The timeout feature is for your safety, not to screw you up!

So, where does that leave you? Ok, so you start to type a message to Biff or Sport or Meg or Tiffany (don't you love those names!) and you decide to answer the phone or take a pee break or go for a bath or whatever, and then you click SEND and OMG! Ebaby asks you for your login and you have lost your message! Yikes!

Don't despair! Don't fret or sweat or get your knickers in a knot! There are two things you can do. Here they are:

1. Hit the back button at the top of your browser window, do this either before you log in or after. Your message is still there in your cache. If you haven't logged in, hit 'back' once and COPY the message into Notepad. Then log in and resend it in a new window after you have pasted the message you just copied.

2. Before you hit 'SEND', highlight the message (click and drag the mouse over the whole message until it is highlighted) then right click and choose 'copy'. Then hit send and see if it goes. If it doesn't, log in and open a new message window and PASTE the message you have just copied into the window.

3. Ok, so there were three alternatives but I said two. If you are still reading this, you get 10 points and a gold star. Last tip is to write your message in Notepad or Wordpad and then copy and paste it into an Ebaby mail window.

So many of my friends have lost messages and then become discouraged, I had to write this blog entry to help them. Share the knowledge people! Don't keep it to yourself. Share my blog with anyone you want. You don't even have to say it came from me! I'm here to help people, not for glory! :)

Word lists are great for learning English

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:32:01 GMT

Word lists are great for learning English

If you could learn 220 words that account for from 50 to 75 percent of the English words used in textbooks, newspapers and magazines, you'd jump to it, right? Well here you go!

This is a link to the Dolch words lists, 11 different sets of 20 words that make up the much of the conversation and writing in everyday life.

The Dolch Lists

The page is directed at young native English speakers but the words are the same whether you are six years old or sixty. I'm planning to do a podcast of each of the 11 sets of words. As soon as I figure out how to publish the podcast here, I will do it. You can then hear how each word is pronounced and soon, you will be on your way to feeling comfortable in English.

I'm sure you already know many of the words and can say them properly. Work on the ones you don't know and soon you will be pretty close to becoming fluent in English. Good luck!

You know I can almost guarantee that you are a lot better at English than you think you are. Don't give up!

About my latest video

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:27:54 GMT

About my latest video

The most recent video, as of March 7, is about compound words. A blackbird as opposed to a black bird. Two different concepts or ideas. When I was making the video, I neglected to say that the difference between the two ideas is in how you SAY the words.
In the compound word you emphasize the first word, so it becomes BLACKbird. In the other term, black bird, you emphasize the second word so it becomes black BIRD or green HOUSE or every ONE.

Remember that I do these videos ad lib which means they aren't really scripted. Less professional perhaps but a lot easier to make. I should so a flashy, professional video to see if the reaction is any better. I kind of like the amateur feel of the videos. I hope you do also! Comments are welcome.

A tubing experience

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:14:48 GMT

A tubing experience

Here we go with winter in Toronto. This Saturday we went tubing at Forest Valley where my daughter Kathleen works for four months between university sessions. We had such a hoot! Here is one of the videos!

Tubing at forest valley

Is spring getting closer?

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:47:04 GMT

Is spring getting closer?

Yesterday, in the cold and blowing snow, I heard my first cardinal of the season. This morning, in the cold, I heard him again. His song sounded so cheerful and pleasant outside my living room window. The male cardinal is a bright red bird with a song that goes on and on all day, from about 4 in the morning until the late evening. He sits on the highest branch as says " Look at me! Look at me!" He's looking for a mate to settle down with for the summer. Sometimes two or three cardinals will be in three different trees singing in a competition for the female cardinals.

This weekend will be sunny and the temperature will be above 0 finally. I'd really feel better if the snow disappeared and the flowers came up out of the cold ground. Each year it's like being reborn! This winter, as I have mentioned before, has been incredibly long and dismal. Better days ahead!

My last video SUCKED I know but it was a spur of the moment thing. Hopefully tomorrow, Thursday, my co-star and I will be able to put together something better. If you have suggestions for videos, or topics that you want to see us discuss, feel free to send me a message or comment here on my blog. OK?

Books online! A terrific find!

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:14:13 GMT

Books online! A terrific find!

If you've been looking for an online source for English books of all types, here is a link that will keep you busy for a long time:

http://dailylit.com/

There are links at the top of the first page for books you have to pay for but at the bottom of the page there are links to free books. Topics include: classics, crime, biography, women's fiction and so on.

You have to register on the site, which is free by the way, and then set up to receive installments of the book you choose.

Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) at the top of the page in order to figure out the process of reading these books online. Let me know if there are any problems with the link or with the site.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:21:51 GMT

Miscellaneous Ramblings

This morning I dropped my wife off at the subway and went to get some bread at the local bakery. Then I got some milk at the corner drug store (I know, it's strange but they have the best price for milk at the drug store). As I was walking out of the store I thought I should get eggs too. "I'll get the staples" I thought.

The staples? Well, then I started to think about this crazy language we call English. If English people are so smart, why don't they use a different word for everything instead of the same word for several different things. Staples are bread, milk, flour, eggs and salt (maybe with beer thrown in for me). But staples are also the things that hold paper together. The square U shaped pointy things that you use in a stapler. Couldn't we have thought of another word for one or the other of those things?

Then I thought of paper clips and then the word trombone. Trombone in French means a paper clip but a trombone in English is a musical instrument, with a slide. Did the French call the trombone after the paper clip or did the English name the musical instrument after the French word for paper clip?

Ok, here's what I think we should do. Let's vote that we have enough, no....too many English words. Let's drop about 100,000 of them and make up new words for the things that we don't have individual names for. Things like staples or nails (would that be finger or steel nails?), or any of the dozens of words that are so damn hard for everyone to figure out because they mean two completely different things!

That's it for Friday February 15, 2008. I feel better. I think the world will be a better place now thanks to this blog. Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. I have tried to keep up with your messages. If I've missed answering anyone, PLEASE write back to me and tell me. Apologies if I've missed sending a reply to anyone.

It's a small world after all

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:24:49 GMT

It's a small world after all

Not really but it makes a good title. When I joined Ebaby,I had no idea how involved I would become with different people from around the world. At first it was nice to help with a few words of English here and there. Then I met some members and got to know them on msn and yahoo. Next came the blog and finally the videos.

Through all of this, there is one thing that I have discovered. I've discovered that there are nice people all over the world. No one country has a monopoly on niceness. China is full of wonderful people. The Middle East, Turkey, Russia and many more countries are simply brimming with cool and friendly people.

By numbers, China occupies my time more than any other country. Since I've joined Ebaby, I have come to know many areas of China that I didn't know existed. I've discovered warm people with a rich history and a love of their country. It's impressive to talk to people who live in cities that are a few thousand years old.

If you haven't managed to meet anyone here, keep trying. Talk about English, life or geography but talk to people. My wish is for everyone to have as great a time as I have on this site. One by one we will make this small world a much better place, in part because of Ebaby!

Uninspired these days.

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:33:12 GMT

Uninspired these days.

It must be the February blahs! Blah is a feeling of nothing, of depression, of just a low, dull mood. February is the last month of our winter, more or less. We will have snow and cold in March too but by then it seems easier to take since April is right around the corner. Well, ok, we get snow and cold sometimes in April too but it's easier to take since May is just around the corner.

I guess you can see how it goes! We might as well enjoy each season as it is instead of wishing it away to get to the next one.

Winter can have it's beauty. The other night as I was digging out from a 20 hour snowfall, I noticed how bright the evening was. The snow, which was on the trees, the cars, the walls of the house and every surface it could cling to after being windblown as it fell, reflected any available light making the outside seemingly as bright as day even at 10 PM at night on a very grey, overcast evening. There was no moon and no other source of light except the streetlights and the city lights but it was so bright and so unusual. Even winter can have some beauty aside from the falling white snow.

A note on my absence

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:13:35 GMT

A note on my absence

It's been more than a week since I've posted a blog entry on here. By way of explanation, I've developed a temporary physical condition that has prevented me from performing my normal activities here. I will still make videos from time to time and I will still write entries here when I can, so there is no need for concern.

I would also like to get into developing lessons so look for my new entries in the lesson section of this site.

Keep sending messages here, keep smiling and I'll be back to full strength soon.

April is supposed to be the cruelest month according to T.S. Eliot but January is right up there! January 21st has been named Blue Monday by a professor at Cardiff University in Wales. Here is a link to the story. If you're feeling a bit or a lot depressed these days, read on and you might discover the reason :

Blue Monday

A new way to listen to spoken English

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:04:20 GMT

A new way to listen to spoken English

Here in Canada we are blessed with probably the best national television and radio coverage in the world. Our national network, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) is as Canadian as maple leafs and beavers.

If you go to their website http://www.cbc.ca

you can cruise around and find all things Canadian, podcasts, news and weather, sports, entertainment...a virtual Canada!

If you go to their news site, here : http://www.cbc.ca/news/

you can watch and listen or just listen to the latest news. These items are short and you can replay them to get the whole sense of what is being said. This morning I spent a few minutes helping someone with their 'listening' skills on that site. I was able to help with an assignment and the person was thrilled to find a site where she could listen and learn about Canada. Try it out! Let me know how you make out on the site. There is no advertising on the site or on the radio so feel free to surf the CBC to your heart's content.

Remember : You're better than you think you are!

A beautiful video.

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:27:45 GMT

A beautiful video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c

I'm not sure everyone will be able to see this video but I thought I would share it with as many people as possible. It's pretty cool, very touching and it speaks volumes about doing something that seems impossible. When learning English seems impossible think about things like this video. You can do it! If these two dancers can do it, you can too!

Fun and games with the Pillsbury Doughboy

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:56:39 GMT

Fun and games with the Pillsbury Doughboy

I came across this today as I was sorting out some things. See if you can get the jokes that are in this obituary for the Pillsbury Doughboy. I didn't write this by the way. I wish I had, it's pretty funny.

Obituary for the Pillsbury Doughboy:

It is with the saddest heart that I must pass the following news. Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment industry.

The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, The California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was fill with turnovers. H was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a bit flakey at times, as a crusty old man he was considered a roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough, and his children John and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

Renaissance man!

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:00:31 GMT

Renaissance man!

I knocked out a wall today in the basement. We purchased new laundry machines and in order to move them into the laundry room I had to remove a wall. It seemed easy and now I will rearrange the hallway a bit to add a door that wasn't there before.

Through all of this medium hard labour, I thought of the phrase 'Renaissance Man' for some reason. I guess my childhood on the farm provided me with many skills that a lot of guys don't have. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? This is how I learned to cook, sew on a button, iron my shirts, clean the house, feed the cows, milk the cows, clean up after the cows, paint, repair, plumb and carpen (these aren't words, I just made them up. Plumbers plumb don't they? Carpenters carpen, right? :)

Since I've been a home owner I have changed every door in the house, changed almost every window, put in a new bathroom, built wall to wall bookshelves in the basement for my thousands of books, and built and repaired dozens of computers. Add to the mix my various web pages and, drum roll please, we have a Renaissance Man. Ok, so I can't play the piano but I can write a mean poem!

I've been using the microphone again with some of my friends and, as always, please remember that you are better than you think you are. Virtually everyone I talk to speaks better than many of my neighbours here in Toronto. Don't give up!

Holy Moly!

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:20:01 GMT

Holy Moly!

Just for fun I thought I would write out some exclamations for you. Holy moly is one. Oh my gosh (OMG) is another. There are more:

1. Holy cow!

2. Holy smokes!

3. Holy Mackinaw! (Sometimes it's Holy Mackinaw Saphire!)

4. Far out!

5. Get outta town!

6. Holy sh*t!

7. No way! (sometimes answered by "Way!"

8. Golly!

9. Wow!

I will add more as I think of them. These mean all the same thing, disbelief or sounding incredulous.

Isn't language funny?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:32:23 GMT

Isn't language funny?

Here is a link to an Indian music video. I thought we'd have some laughs after Christmas and New Years so the video will, hopefully, cheer you up after the holiday season,

The video is fun, lots of dancing and has beautiful women in it and handsome men. The point of putting it here on Ebaby, however, is the words that the singers are singing in the video. The person who made the film used English subtitles to show what he thought they were singing but, since they are not singing in English, sometimes the English words seem pretty funny!
A friend of mine here on Ebaby showed me the video in Portuguese so I guess this particular Indian language, and maybe someone can tell me what the language is, lends itself to different interpretations.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZA1NoOOoaNw

Remember that I am not laughing at the video, I am pointing out that sometimes we can misinterpret what someone is saying and that sometimes all languages kind of sound the same! If you have ever seen Russell Peters do a comedy routine then you will know exactly what I mean.

What's the language and what are the real words to the song? Help!

The tail end of a good time, next is New Year's Day

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 03:00:52 GMT

The tail end of a good time, next is New Year's Day

I put up a Youtubevideo of the Pogues and Christy MacColl singing Fairytale of New York. Here are the lyrics to the song:

It was Christmas eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The rare old mountain dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
Ive got a feeling
This years for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
Its no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York city
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy fagot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God its our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

_______

True love built around dreams and dreams built around myths. "I could have been someone" "Well so could anyone" are the words of arguments all over the world. But the last lines, "You took my dreams from me" "I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own. Can't make it all alone. I've built my dreams around you," make all the difference and signal the end of the argument. It's not just a tale of Christmas, but a tale of life. You build your dreams and hope that someone will help you finish them. Cheers! Raise a glass to the New Year!

Loonies and toonies and things that are Canadian!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:10:17 GMT

Loonies and toonies and things that are Canadian!

Canadians are different, If you haven't noticed that I am different, then you will just have to take my word for it. We are usually calm, peace loving people. Unlike our neighbours to the south, we don't start wars. We try to stop them and if there is one, we generally step in and try to keep the two (or three or four or five) sides apart.

We are definitely distinctive. Canadians buy their milk in bags. 4 litres of milk comes in 3 bags that you can drop, throw, freeze or put into a plastic pouring jug thingy and use on your breakfast cereal.

Canadian money is colourful! We have wonderful thematic scenes on our fives, tens, and twenties etc. We used to have one dollar and two dollar bills but these have been replaced by the 'loonie' and 'toonie'. A loonie is a one dollar coin, so named because it has a loon etched onto the surface. A loon is a bird that makes the incredible haunting sound that you hear in movies about lakes and cottages. The toonie is a two dollar coin, the first bimetal coin in the world and so named because of the loonie, right?

Canadians have Smarties, Swiss Chalet, 24 packs of beer (called two-fours), hockey, the CBC (only the best radio/television network in the world) and many other things that are peculiar to Canada. We spell the 'or' words with 'our' usually, and speak in a neutral accent except for people from Newfoundland who speak in another dialect completely! Not really and if you have ever met a Newfie you will immediately love them. The friendliest people live in Newfoundland!

There is more, much more about Canada to discover and I will write more blogs about this beautiful and sensible country. Tell me what is peculiar about your country, ok?

Messages and missing people!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:22:20 GMT

Messages and missing people!

I have no excuse at all! If you have written to me, and if I haven't written back, please forgive me. I got a message from a good friend yesterday which chastised me for not writing back to them. I felt so bad. With work and my kids and my videos and all of these things, I must confess that I don't have time to respond to everyone immediately.Sorry!!!

Don't despair! I'll try to answer each message as soon as I get it. More later, and I have a new video planned. Maybe tomorrow!

Snowstorm!!

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:39:32 GMT

Snowstorm!!

Well, today is Sunday and Toronto and southern Ontario are in the middle of the worst snowstorm in 60 years. Fun, huh?

If you want to check out Toronto, and if you are online right now as in Sunday December 16th at about noon, follow this link and click on a blue camera sign. You will see what Toronto is like at the moment:

Toronto traffic cameras

The current picture is the big one, the two in the right are from the summer time and are used to allow you to see where you are as you scan the cameras. Enjoy!

A story that will not go away

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:24:16 GMT

A story that will not go away

No matter how much I try to forget about this story, there is something that compels me to talk about it. I have two daughters and the horror of what happened keeps me awake at night. Follow this link, read the story and keep in mind the words of Ansar Ahmed :

"Acts of faith, whatever they may be, have to come from within – they cannot be imposed on anyone, if they are, they are not true acts of faith," he said."

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/285180

I know this isn't the place for this type of entry but for the life of me, I can't get this out of my head. Why do I feel that this is happening all over the globe and all it would take is a bit of understanding, a bit of communication to settle these things instead of killing your own flesh and blood? Is this the way that God wanted it to be? Was this in the Great Plan? I am an atheist but I am still very much human. The only good that will come of this is discussion and maybe someone somewhere will be able to offer girls such as Aqsa shelter from a raging parent and raging brothers.

A sad moment in the midst of our pre-Holiday season

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:11:46 GMT

A sad moment in the midst of our pre-Holiday season

Words can't express the pain I feel at this time for a young girl who was murdered by her own family just outside of Toronto. This is not the first time this has happened in Canada, certainly it is common in other parts of the world. Follow the link, read the story and feel the pain that I do. The horror of this event needs no editorial from me.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/284824

Christmas in Canada - Part One

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 11:59:06 GMT

Christmas in Canada - Part One

I've received quite a few messages lately about Christmas in Canada, the traditions and the customs. Instead of answering each message, I decided to make entries in my blog on this topic so everyone could read about it.

Right now, at least here in Toronto, the weather is cold and there is snow on the ground. That's the first ingredient for a perfect Christmas. Yesterday, my family went out to my father-in-laws tree farm and cut our Christmas tree. There was no room in the car for it so he will deliver it next week when he visits. Each year we choose an evergreen tree to put in our living room. When it is up and stable, we decorate it with strings of lights and many other decorations, some purchased and some home-made.

Once the tree is decorated presents appear beneath it, as if by magic! There is a tradition here that involves checking out who is going to get the biggest box! It's a wonderful time of year for the family to be together and spend time laughing and doing traditional Christmas things. More about this in my next blog entry.

Tell me about your traditions! Leave a comment and tell us how you spend your time before the big day.

The Dark Continent

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:37:24 GMT

The Dark Continent

For many years Africa has been called the Dark Continent in literature and the media. In the last 30 or 40 years that term has rarely been used. Writers and the media seem to have chosen to ignore Africa almost completely. National Geographic is an exception but there seems to be a concentration on the wildlife in Africa as opposed to the politics of the continent.

I received a comment on my last blog entry from someone in Tunisia asking me what I thought of North Africa. I had written about some problems that people in other areas of the world were having and this person felt I had ignored North Africa.

As far as the Western politicians and media is concerned, Africa isn't a popular topic at all. The problem seems to be that the people in Africa seem to be mostly black! If they are not black then, my god, they are Muslim! As we saw in Rawanda and in Bosnia/Croatia/Serbia one must be white and Christian or white and Jewish to be considered worth saving, according to the Western 'thinkers'. If you are anything 'different' your problems are put on the back-burner to be dealt with after the 'ethnic cleansing' has already taken place.

The Aids pandemic in parts of Africa is a looming disaster for the world at large. Education plays an important role in preventing this slow killer from spreading completely around the world. Meanwhile, the US is waging a war against 'terrorism' in Iraq that is driving that country into bankruptcy. The billions wasted every week in Iraq could very easily eliminate the Aids threat completely in a very short time.

Finally, there is a problem with the perception of the World of Islam here in the West. This perception has persisted since the American hostages were kidnapped in Iran back in the 1979. I believe that, up to that time, Muslims were thought of as different but they were not considered a threat to the West. That changed on November 4, 1979. Since then the Western media has presented Muslims as wild eyed terrorists in movies, print and television. This perception is compounded by the vicious acts of terror in Iraq (by both sides), in Afghanistan and, of course, right in America's front yard on September 11, 2001. Muslims will have to do a tremendous PR job before the Western media changes its mind on this basically beautiful religion.

So what is the step by step process for Africa? Educate women as well as men. Change the social stigma of rape in these parts of the world. (Hint: It's the men not the women that are the problem!) Become politically aware. Speak out against those who twist a religion completely for their own gain. Speak out against repressive laws against women and their freedom, against repressive laws and attitudes towards gays and lesbians (God created them too), and, most of all, try to interpret what people really mean when they say something. Are your religious leaders telling you the truth? Are you politicians speaking the truth or lies? Does the giant Western media machine have ulterior motives behind what it tells you is the truth? Your step by step process begins by picking up the newspaper or a history book and reading. The smarter you are, the better your world will be.

Sorry folks for the politics and religion. Next time I will try to keep on topic with the study of English!

YABTYTYA!

So what do you think?

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:21:02 GMT

So what do you think?

As Charlie Brown once said, "Life sure is strange. And they say you only come this way once....what did I come this way for?" That's one of my favourite lines from that comic strip.

Sometimes I'm sure that many of you wonder the same thing. I talk to people in China who feel stressed because of the competition for jobs, who work six days a week and who can only have one child. Other people in Turkey want to come to North America but are treated as third class people by the US and Canada. I talk to other people in the Middle East who feel that their culture is backward and needs to accept the present before their countries can move into the future.

What does this have to do with English? Well, all of these people, including myself, can make a change one step at a time. That's how we learn, step by step, bit by bit. Sometimes we take baby steps and sometimes we take huge adult steps but little by little we get closer to where we want to go.

Don't give up! Keep at it. If you only learn three words a day, you will have a vocabulary of over 100 by the end of a month, over 600 in 6 months and well over 1000 by the end of the first year. Trust me...you are better than you think you are! Start now and let me know where you are a year from today.

Hello Goodbye video now up

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:51:29 GMT

Hello Goodbye video now up

It's been a while since I have updated my blog. It didn't seem to me that I had been that busy but maybe I was, or maybe I was busy doing nothing!

As I am writing this, my latest video is being uploaded to the Youtube site. In a few moments it will be ready for prime time. This time it is about saying hi and saying goodbye. Hope you like it!

I was planning a video on puns but didn't get to it this time. I have tomorrow off and I might do it then. I'll have to brush up on my puns before I start recording. Usually I do the videos 'ad lib', which is Latin for 'freely'. It means that there is no script and I say anything that comes into my mind about the topic. Not the best way to get a point across but it does make them easier to write!

One thing I forgot to mention in the Audio links blog that I put up last week is this: if you download a book to listen to, you should get the same book from the library and follow along with the reader. That way you can listen and learn at the same time!

Enjoy the video! Let me know if you hate it or like it.

YABTYTYA!

Big Father? :)

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:24:49 GMT

Big Father? :)

I received a wonderful message the other day from a young reader. She had made a comment on my music and I wrote back and said 'Thanks'!

Here is her note:

I can see u are like a "Big Father" in here. Just want to help others. that´s really nice.
I am pleased that I have pleased u :0) simply said :0)
have a nice day

I smiled and wrote to her that her words were appreciated and that I would use them in a blog. Well, here is that blog. Thanks my friend!

Free audio books

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:09:12 GMT

Free audio books

After yesterday's trials I didn't feel like making a video today. I started two of them, one on computers and another one on different greetings in English but neither one made it past 'the cutting room floor'.

Instead, I'm offering some links to FREE AUDIO BOOKS! Remember when I told you about Moby Dick? Yeah? Ok, so you don't. Anyway you can download it from here:

http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html

Ok, so it's 600 megabytes but it's a great novel. There are lots of other free books on that site. Just download them, load them onto your mp3 player and listen while you walk, jog, eat or sleep. You will be wiser and you will learn English faster this way.

Here is another link:

http://librivox.org/

Here's a tip. If you click on a link to one of these books and you come to a page that has a Quicktime logo on it, and the book starts loading to play inside your browser (Explorer or Firefox but we all use Firefox RIGHT!), hit the back button and right click the link. Choose 'save link as' and then save the mp2 to your computer. Then it will download and you can listen to it at your leisure and also load it to your mp3 player.

Remember that if you have problems with a link or problems downloading things, send me a message. I'll help you out.

Finally, because of copyright restrictions, most books that are free online were written before 1923. Some new books are available however so keep searching.

If someone finds a link to a different site that seems cool, please send me message. I will post the link here.

Good luck! YBTYTYA!

What's love got to do with it?

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:44:00 GMT

What's love got to do with it?

I wrote this in response to a post that is now buried in the Ask English forum. I thought it was pretty good so I'm putting it up here on my blog. The technique is called 'stream of consciousness' and you should try it. Kind of like a cleansing solution for the mind. This is what love is to me.

How to say I love you? You can say it with a gift with a kiss with a hug and a smile you can say it with words or emotion or just being there when someone is sad and not ask for anything you can hold a hand or a shoulder or say it in bed or on the street or shout it from a rooftop in the rain or in a cave and listen to the echoes or underwater and say it loudly so the whales can laugh or in a store and ignore the stares and you can just do it when you feel like it not when you are asked and asked and asked because it's better when it is spontaneous and you can write lots of words in a row and not use any punctuation and no one will notice because it is love. :)

Whaddya think Jojo?

Drivel

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:01:53 GMT

Drivel

Drivel is a word that means something bad, usually a TV show that is awful. "There's nothing but drivel on at this time of night?" I guess it is a British term but it has made it's way into Canadian speak too. (Speak is like language. Newspeak is from the book '1984' by George Orwell)

So this blog entry is drivel. If you have patience to read it, continue. If not, I'll see you on the other side.

Today, it seems like so long ago now but it's still the same day, I discovered that someone wasn't who they said they were. What a shock! This person is still special and always will be but she wasn't who she said she was, for whatever reason.

In life, as in almost everything, when one thing happens in one place, something else happens in another. Today, two things happened in other places as well as the thing that happened in the first place. Have I lost you? Probably. Well there are a bunch of things that come to mind now.

"Things happen for a reason." "What goes around comes around". Two sentences that have everything to do with today. In one place, a feeling, a relationship dies while in another a separate pair of relationships start and grow over a period of time spent in a time of intense emotion.

While I discovered one person wasn't who I thought they were, I found out that someone else was exactly who she said she was. I should say, exactly the same and more.

This makes no sense at all except as a reading exercise and if some of you are smart enough to read between the lines and figure it all out then bravo! To you it might be drivel but to me, it's my life. And since today, my life is a whole lot more complicated and confusing than it was yesterday.

When in doubt, pick friends. When times get tough, make sure you have friends. Choose them wisely and choose the ones who will stand by you. Some friends seek you out and others just are there. Stick with the ones who hunt you down, seek you out, look for you. Get 'em, grab 'em and keep them inside your heart.

Another video tomorrow if I don't die of a broken heart tonight! Just kidding. This heart is good for a few more go rounds! Karaoke anyone? I'm listening to Journey and pouring out every emotion that's in me.

Ebaby is a humbling experience

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:37:57 GMT

Ebaby is a humbling experience

Ok, it's Saturday night and my Maple Leafs have lost (again) to Wayne Gretzky's Coyotes. What, oh what will cheer me up?

Your comments will cheer me up. Thanks to everyone who has made comments on my videos and on my blog entries. I know it doesn't take long to jot a note to me but when I see the kind words and praise that some of you have taken the time to write, I am very humbled and very thankful. To me it means that I've struck a chord with some of the people here on Ebaby and, through trial and error and blind luck, some of the things I have been doing are actually helping people learn English. Whoda thunk it? (That's not a sentence by the way so forget what you just read!)

My plans for the next little while involve some lyrics to songs and some poetry and some links to good sites where you can read decent English stories and novels online. I feel that everyone here has access to the Internet and probably a walkman or some type of MP3 player. I'll get links to some sites with free books, maybe even downloadable audio books that you can listen to on the way to work.

Many of my messages here have to do with 'listening' and with vocabulary. My videos, movies, songs with lyrics can all help with listening and reading can help with your vocabulary. One of my friends on Ebaby spoke to me this morning about a novel she was reading. It was by a German author and had been translated into English. I really had to admire her for even attempting to read this novel. To me, it showed true dedication to her English education as well as her competitive nature. Sure, the words are old-fashioned and probably aren't used very often now but by reading them and learning their meaning, she is taking her English education to another level, cranking it up a notch over anyone who simply reads popular novels. Don't worry though! Start small and work your way up, just like the acorn.

Remember: YABTYTYA!

Another trick!!! This one is so cool!

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:13:38 GMT

Another trick!!! This one is so cool!

How many of you surf the Internet with a dictionary beside you? Well, I have just discovered an easy way to look up words right in your browser.

1. You need to be using Firefox. You should be using Firefox anyway because it is much safer to use than Internet Explorer. Download it from here:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

2. Once you have it installed and working, go here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4175

and install the plug-in or add-on for the dictionary, it's named : MSTS dictionary.

3. Once it is installed, it will ask you to restart Firefox which is normal.

4. Your browser will open again and you will have a dictionary right there at the tip of your mouse cursor! When you see an unknown word, highlight it, right click it and choose LOOK UP. The meaning of the word is right there on your screen! How cool is that?

Enjoy this tip! YBTYTYA (You're better than you think you are!)

A trick to help you learn English

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:37:07 GMT

A trick to help you learn English

I was talking to a friend of mine at work on the weekend. I asked her how she had learned English when she came to Canada. Her native tongue is Portuguese, she is from Brazil, and I was curious about how she learned English.

She told me that she first tried to watch CNN but the titles at the bottom didn't always match what was on the screen. Finally, she tried the 'closed caption' setting on her TV set. This is the one that is for people who are hard of hearing. Titles are on the bottom of the screen which, more or less, match the words of the speaker. Well, if seems this didn't work quite as well as she had hoped. It seems she was watching regular shows.

At some point she decided to watch children's television and it was all very cool from then on. The children's shows use easy words and the sub-titles are excellent and move along with the words the speakers are saying. She found this to be the easiest and most efficient way to learn English. Once she got a start, and could listen to the flow of the language, she found it so much easier.

I've suggested watching movies before, with the sub-titles turned on but maybe, if you are just beginning, kid's shows might just be the answer. Check it out. I know, I know the shows are silly and basic but that's a good place to start. Later on, you can move on to something more age appropriate.

Keep it up! You're better than you think !

(I had to edit the first post because of a SPAM comment. Oh do I hate SPAM!)

Emails and messages and next week

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:43:19 GMT

Emails and messages and next week

Recently I've been getting quite a few messages here on Ebaby. If you have written to me and you haven't received a reply yet, you will. I just don't have a lot of time right now but this week I will try to answer everyone. If you still don't receive a reply, write to me again! Don't be shy, just give me a little wakeup call.

In the coming week I will have some time to myself and I'm planning another video. If anyone has any topics or suggestions for my videos, let me know. I've been thinking of doing something simple again , maybe just a tour of my house where I name the different things in it as I go. Almost everything has at least two names, sometimes more than two. In order to increase your vocabulary you have to learn all the different names for everyday items.

When we get some snow here I will do a video outside my home to show you what it's like here in Toronto during the winter.

Keep practicing, keep reading and listening and keep smiling! You're better than you think you are.

Mob Talk! The video is up now.

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:40:29 GMT

Mob Talk! The video is up now.

Hi gang! I put up a new (smaller) video, hot off the camcorder.Check it out on my profile page. Click on the weird looking guy (me) at the top of the page. It's pretty cheesy but I hope you have some fun with it. The words that I use in the video are here:

Eddie the rat got whacked last night. Shot through the mouth, some other wiseguy shot him, did some spring cleaning and went on the lam. I knew there was a contact out on him, he was always cranked up. A real liability. You eat alone, you get clipped. Turns out he wasn't packin' so the message job woulda been easy. Ah, the outfit is better off without that rat anyway. They say he got pinched coupla years ago doin' some shylockin' and turned over. Some wiseguy, huh?

Check it out. Let me know if it turns your crank or not. Next time? Hmmm...who knows?

Some words of inspiration - you're better than you think you are!

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:50:04 GMT

Some words of inspiration - you're better than you think you are!

Since I've joined Ebaby, I've had the chance to talk to a pretty good number of people. I'm not sure of how many but I've spoken to quite a few using microphones on msn or yahoo. The point of this blog is to tell you all how really good you are when you speak English!

First, let me tell you about my 'control' group. I work in a huge box store here in Canada. I design and sell kitchens and I get to meet people from all over the world. Toronto is the most culturally diverse city in the world so my customers are very different in their countries of origin. The people I have spoken to on Ebaby speak just as well or better than almost every customer that I talk to at work. Of course I mean customers who have a discernible accent, not the native English customers I deal with.

Besides my customers, I have co-workers from many different countries as well. These are people who work here in Canada, earning a living and enjoying the multitude of benefits that Canada has to offer. I know that you might think this is a stretch of the truth but everyone I have talked to from Ebaby speaks as well and quite often better than many of my co-workers.

My last control group is my neighbours here in Scarborough, which is part of Toronto. The man who lives across the street has been in Canada for probably 50 years. When we have a conversation, I can only understand about 20% of what he says. The lady who lives two doors down is a bit better, maybe 75% of what she says I can understand. She has been in Canada for 40 years or more. I could go on and give more examples but I think you get my point.

You're better than you think you are!

Don't get down on yourself! Everyone I have talked to can speak just as well and quite often many times better than the people in my comparison groups. Usually it is a simple lack of confidence that keeps people from realizing that they are much better than they think they are. If you are worried about your vocabulary, don't be! How many words do you think we use in everyday conversation? Not as many as you think. If you are worried about your pronunciation, don't be! I can guarantee that most of you speak just as well as most of the people I deal with everyday. If you can record an MP3 and send it to me, I will rate you on a scale of 1 to 10. Ok? Send me a message and I will send you my email and I'll send you a rating once I get your recording. A wav file would work too but they are much larger than an mp3. Give it a shot, I'm open to almost anything you want to send.

Ebaby videos

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:32:24 GMT

Ebaby videos

I wasn't really sure what to write about today but I had some time and thought I would comment on the one and only Ebaby video lesson I've seen. Ok, I should look at more to figure out if they are better than the one I saw but, after seeing one, I'm not sure I want to see any more.

It seems there is a bit of a soap opera going on in the videos. Two people meet and talk, usually while the other person is talking, and discuss the 'hot dog' girl. The story wasn't bad but the audio and video quality was pretty dismal. I am a native English speaker and I had trouble understanding what was going on. The girl usually spoke at the same time as the guy but because his voice was louder, he completely drowned her out. I know there are subtitles at the bottom of the video but they are not complete and we missed some of what she said.

Are these people reading from a script or is this all ad lib? Ad lib means made up on the spot. I think that a major site such as this should spend a bit more time and create a better video product for their viewers.

These are things that I found disturbing in the video:
1. the audio was so poor that much of the dialogue was impossible to understand.

2. a lot of what the girl said was not written in the subtitles at the bottom of the video screen.

3. the video was dark and we could not get a good view of the speakers face to see what either of them were saying. A simple two camera shoot would have been better.

What do you think? Am I off-base by criticizing the video? Do you find the videos help you? Let me know.

One word sentences.

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:09:59 GMT

One word sentences.

Someone on Ebaby wrote to me about one word sentences. I can't find the message or the comment anywhere so I thought that I would write a little blog entry about one word sentences.

The person who wrote the note to me said that he understood that each sentence in English had to have a subject and a predicate. Well, for every rule in English there is an example of something that breaks the rule. What? No? Really? Huh?

One word sentences exist in oral English and in fiction. I can't think of a scholarly work that would include a one word sentence but there may be some. Fiction, of course, has no rules at all. That's the beauty of it. It can be anything you want it to be. Fiction can ebb and flow, bend corners, stream from our consciousness and be whatever you want it to be. Conversation is the same thing. You can say whatever you want to say, in any form just as long as you get your point across.

Just as there can be sentences that begin with 'so', there can be one word sentences.

Next time, I'll try to do a stream of consciousness entry just to show what you can do it you let your mind float and forget about punctuation.

I hope the person who asked me about this reads this!

How to talk to a woman!

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:36:09 GMT

How to talk to a woman!

I get to see a fair number of messages that are sent here on Ebaby. Some of them are just fun messages between friends while others are 'lead ins' to a potential relationship. Here are some tips that you guys can use to actually get some attention from a female on this site! Wow! Whodda thunk it?

I'm not sure what the situation is like in your part of the world, but here in Canada women do not like to be called any of the following words in your initial message: chicks, gals, babe, gorgeous, hot, sexy, darling, baby, cuddles, sweetheart, honey, etc. etc. etc.

For those of you who say you 'respect' women, try hard to actually do that. Respect them! If you actually get an answer from some girl who you have sent a message to using any of those words, I can guarantee you one of two things : 1. She isn't a girl, she's a guy posing as a girl for whatever reason. 2. She is so bad at English and so hungry for attention that she will answer any message that comes her way.

Perhaps in your world, men are top dog, king of the hill, cock of the walk or top dog. Here in Canada women are pretty much equal to men. I know, I know, that sounds incredible but it's true. Women will appreciate a true gentleman much more than the latest smart ass guy who has a cool line and a cool nickname. All you Casanovas and hot_sexy_guys out there, change your nicks. Get something less glitzy!

Above all, respect the women you talk to. Maybe they have a nice pic up on their profile. That is not an invitation to be an idiot when you first say hi to them no more than if they are wearing a pretty dress in a mall. That isn't an invitation to be an idiot either.

Try to act with a bit of class. Try to encourage conversation. Wait for a while before hitting someone up for their msn or yahoo address. And drop the cuddles, sweetie, and gorgeous words from you vocabulary. If you don't then you might as well paint a giant 'L' for loser on your forehead.

My Intonation Video is online!!!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:47:32 GMT

My Intonation Video is online!!!

Check out my profile and you can see me explaining the intonation blog that I talked about earlier. Short blog but I have spent the whole day, well at least an hour, working on this. Please, please, please let me know if this doesn't work for you, ok? I have to know if the video works or not. Tell me why it doesn't work or if you don't understand it. OK? I hope to hear from you.

More idioms

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:44:44 GMT

More idioms

Hi crew! I haven't had time to do the video or mp3 thing for the intonation blog entry. I have some time later this week so I'll try and get it done then.

Meanwhile, I will put some more idioms in this blog. Hope you enjoy them!

all thumbs - basically you can't do something that requires a delicate touch. "I'm all thumbs when I have to do up my tie."

out of the woods - out of danger. "She was quite sick with cancer but now she is out of the woods."

smell a rat - suspect that something is wrong. "His whole story sounded like a lie. I smelled a rat right away."

get in my hair - what kids do sometimes. "I can't have my kids around when I am cooking, they get in my hair."

tongue-in-cheek - as a joke. " It was a tongue-in-cheek story of love and marriage."

bend over backwards - try very hard. "Her husband bent over backwards to please her."

don't have a leg to stand on - no chance of success. "Admit it! You don't have a leg to stand on!"

pulling your leg - play a joke on someone. "Ah, I'm not mad. I'm just pulling your leg."

take the bull by the horns - confront a problem, take leadership in working something out. "When it came to solving the teacher's strike, she really took the bull by the horns."

cat got your tongue? - being shyly quiet. "Why didn't you say hi to the new boy in your class? Cat got your tongue?"

for the birds - absurd, worthless. "That new schedule is for the birds."

knock your socks off - amaze you, excite you. "The new U2 CD will just knock your socks off!"

long in the tooth - old like me! "Wow! Brian is really getting long in the tooth!"

spill the beans - let the cat out of the bad - these two mean the same thing, revealing a secret. "Did you tell her? Why did you let the cat out of the bad?" "Keep it quiet. Don't spill the beans."

straight from the horse's mouth - direct from the source, reliable information. "It's all true. I got it right from the horse's mouth. Mr. Jones told me himself."

drive up the wall - annoy or frustrate. "Your friends really drive me up the wall."

play it by ear - do something without a plan. "Ok. We've never been here before so we'll play it by ear."

I hope you enjoy these! Have fun!

A little bit about Hallowe'en

Mapleleaf Man — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:45:44 GMT

A little bit about Hallowe'en

This past Wednesday, October 31st, we celebrated Halloween here in North America. It's only recently that I learned that Halloween or Hallow e'en isn't celebrated in too many countries around the world. How do the kids in those countries survive without it? :)

I've posted some pictures of the evening on my profile page. Basically, kids dress up and go around to the different houses in a neighbourhood, knock on the door and say, "Trick or treat!" The home owner, or apartment dweller, then hands out some candies or fruit or bags of potato chips which the children put into their sacks and scurry off into the night.

As you will see from my pictures, some home owners go all out and decorate their front yards with massive Halloween displays. Two of my neighbours do this. One, south of my house, tends to concentrate on scaring the children. Younger kids won't even walk on the other side of the street from this house but older, braver children clamour around the wild and woolly decorations. Each year they have a coffin in which one of the homeowners lies very still until the right moment when he or she pops up and scares the bejeezus out of any kids who are close by. Cobwebs and gravestones abound on the lawn and there is always scary music playing. They have recently added a fog machine which adds a whole other element to the display.

Contrasting this, my other neighbours on the west side of my street concentrate on the fun part of Halloween. Their yards is festooned with pumpkins, lights, some blow up ghosts waving in the wind and a few slightly scary but obviously fake people standing at the end of the driveway. These are the same people who go absolutely wild at Christmas and decorate their lawns with literally hundreds of lights and decorations. It is a spectacular sight on a cold December night to wander by and be amazed by the sights and sounds on their lawn. The two houses are owned by Filipino sisters and the question we all have is : Where do they store all of this stuff when they are not using it? The houses are very special places in our neighbourhood and we are all proud that they go to so much work to entertain us.

I've used some words in this blog that you might not understand. Look them up in Google first but if you can't figure out what I mean, just ask me. Don't be shy! If you don't ask, you will never know. Right?

Intonation

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:37:37 GMT

Intonation

This blog is for more advanced speakers, but everyone who can read this can have some fun.

Read this sentence. Figure out what meaning you are giving the sentence as a whole.

'I didn't say I spoke to him.'

Pretty easy right? Well, what if you emphasized a different word each time you said the sentence?

The first time you do it, it seems like YOU didn't speak to the person. The second time you say it, it seems like you DIDN'T say you spoke to him. What did you do? Did you speak to him or write to him or what? The third time it seems you didn't SAY you spoke to him. Maybe you sent him a text. Maybe you emailed him.

Do you see where this is going? That simple sentence has seven different ways that it can be spoken. The difference in all of these different ways is 'intonation'. If you want to excel in English you have to learn a little bit about intonation and how it can change the way a spoken phrase 'sounds' to a listener.

This is a fun example. Don't worry if this doesn't sound easy right now. Read the sentence and try to make it sound differently each time. I'll try to figure out a way to add an mp3 of me reading that sentence to my profile. Together, we will have you speaking English just a little bit better than you have before. It will be a fun journey!

New music on my profile

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 01:50:22 GMT

New music on my profile

Last week I added a couple of videos by The Tragically Hip, 'Poets' and 'Ahead by a Century'. I really like their music a lot, they are Canadian and their music makes you think. They have a song called 'Wheat Kings' which I really love but I can't find a good video of it. When I do I will post it and write a blog entry about it.

Today I changed the videos completely. First we have Peter Bjorn and John singing 'Young Folks', a bright, cheerful song that's fun to listen to and the video is fun to watch.

Next I have BNL, The Bare Naked Ladies singing 'Lovers in a Dangerous Time'. The song is cool, great lyrics but the video, to me, is superb. Why? Because it is shot in and around my neighbourhood right here in Scarborough, Ontario, CANADA. The film is kind of grainy and quite dated but it's still my 'hood'. Middle class houses and middle class values in the east end of Toronto. Things have changed since the video was shot and now the area is the most ethnically diverse city in the world. Pretty cool!

Lastly, I put a video of Neil Young. He's singing 'Old Man' from a concert at Massey Hall here in Toronto. A lovely song by a truly talented artist.

Records and LPs and vinyl

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:38:06 GMT

Records and LPs and vinyl

This morning I went to one of the local 'thrift' shops. These are stores that sell used items that people donate. Bascially it's like a huge 'garage sale' or 'boot sale'. Here in Canada we have garage sales where we sell things that we don't need anymore. In Britain, they have boot sales which are the same thing. There is another name for them in Britain but I forget what it is.

My only purchases today were 15 record albums. I'm sure some of you know what these are but for those who don't, I will explain it to you. Before CDs and before cassette tapes, musicians used to release their music on large vinyl 'records' that were played on turntables. The large ones play at 33 rpm (revolutions per minute) and the smaller ones play at 45 rpm.

Today, I 'scored' some real good copies of my favourite lps. An lp is a long playing record. Scored means 'found' but it has an excitement to it. So today I 'scored' a perfect copy of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. I also picked up a copy of Steely Dan's 'AJA' album, which I already have several copies of, but this one is a 'Limited Edition'. It's on coloured vinyl. Usually the records are black but his one is red and is transparent. I have several Disney albums that have artwork on them but his Aja album is my first coloured rock album.

For those who are interested in technology, the records have a single grove from the outside edge to the center. When you put a needle on a turntable into that groove, the needle wavers back and forth and creates electrical (analog) fluctuations which are made into sound waves by an amplifier. Actually a preamp feeds the signal into an amplifier but maybe this is too technical.

It's still Friday and I had to share this with everyone! I'm off to play my records now. I can also record the music from these records on my computer and make MP3s out of them. They sound pretty good actually!

Too much information!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:05:51 GMT

Too much information!

Well, I tried to integrate and English lesson into my blog but it didn't seem to go over that well. I got the fewest number of comments on it this month so I'll drop the lesson part and continue with my simple blog.

Ah, and that phrase at the top, too much information, is what you say when someone else tells you something that is a bit too personal. Your face turns red and you say, "To much information!" See how I can let a lesson creep in and you don't even know it?

It's baseball time here in North America. Colorado is playing Boston in the World Series. I don't know why there are no Japanese teams here for the 'World' Series but you know how Americans are. You don't want to make them upset, they might invade your country.

The air is definitely getting colder, the leaves are past their peak and now the trees are starting to look very bare. Soon there will be a big storm with wind and rain and all of the leaves will finally be gone.

The air in the evening around my area smells of woodsmoke since many people in my 'sub-division' have fireplaces. Our houses were built in the Fifties and many of them had beautiful fireplaces in the living room. We use ours all winter, when it isn't too cold. If it gets too cold then the smoke will be drawn into the house when the furnace or central heating unit cuts in.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Idioms - say what?

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:38:01 GMT

Idioms - say what?

Someone asked me about idioms and if I use them a lot in English. At first, I had no idea what an idiom was. Maybe they didn't have them when I went to school! Just kidding. Of course there were idioms then but I don't remember that they were named that back in the 50's.

Sometimes you can get all caught up in the names of things and ignore what the thing is. It's just another way of saying something. 'It's raining cats and dogs' is another way of saying 'it's really raining hard'. Well you can certainly say either one, and if you were in the middle of a business meeting I'm sure you would simply say that it's raining hard.

Learning idioms isn't necessarily for you to use them. I think it is more for you to understand them when you are in an English country or in an English situation. It's a bit like 'slang' and I think there are regional idioms as well as universal idioms. It's the universal ones that you might want to study. I'll put some of the more popular ones here in a moment.

(My laptop battery ran out so here are the promised idioms)

a pig in a poke - not knowing exactly what you are getting

letting the cat out of the bag - revealing a secret (originally this came from the same source as the first idiom in old England)

three sheets to the wind - drunk

the whole nine yards - everything, nothing missing 'they went the whole nine yards with their wedding'

shake a leg - get up!

rise and shine - get up!

son of a gun - surprise, a mild epithet, "The Leafs lost again? Oh, son of a gun!" "Who's the son of a gun who took my parking place?" "Look at that son of a gun play soccer! He's amazing!" Better to know what it means than to use it, ok?

I think every language has idioms. They might be things that your grandparents said but I'm sure we all have them.

Some of the ones I have used here come from the days of sailing ships and the old British Empire. Wow, the weather here in Canada is cold enough 'to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey!' This isn't as bad as it sounds. Look up the source of that idiom to see what it really means.

Rosetta stones

Mapleleaf Man — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:09:17 GMT

Rosetta stones

Everyone here is either trying to learn English or trying to help other people learn English. Ok, well some are just after entertainment but mostly we are all working toward the same goal.

What have you got in your home, or on your computer that will help you learn this tough language? If you are religious, and many people here are religious, you have the Quran or the Bible or the New Testament or the Declaration of Independence or The Joy of Cooking! What do these have to do with learning English? Read on.

Has anyone heard of the Rosetta Stone? It was a piece of stone discovered in 1799. It had three translations of the same story (passage) on it, two in Egyptian (demotic and hieroglyphic) and one in classical Greek. The key to understanding hieroglyphics came from this stone. A French scholar finally translated the hieroglyphics in 1822-24.

How does this fit into your English study? Well, pick up something in English at a bookstore. Then look for the same book in your own language. Maybe choose poetry, a book of songs, maybe even the script from a popular movie. Hey, a cookbook will do!

While the words won't be EXACTLY the same, you should be able to follow the English version of your book when you read the same book in your own language. I have read that some people have learned English in this way. Simple but effective.

The alternative is to rent a movie and watch it with the subtitles in your own language several times. Then, scene by scene, go through the film and try to figure out what the actors are saying. Sooner or later it will all begin to sink in. Just sit and watch, don't get frustrated. In a while you will be able to figure out what the actors are saying.

The Internet is full of song lyrics. What group do you like to listen to? Download their music and then find the lyrics online. Listen to the music and read the lyrics as you enjoy the tune. Sooner or later it will start to make sense.

Your local bookstore, your library or even Itunes has your "Rosetta Stone'. Look for it and you'll be proficient in English in no time! Good luck!

Some funny words.

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:23:03 GMT

Some funny words.

Hi Crew!

That's what I used to call my team when I was coaching baseball and soccer. Crew! My baseball teams were mixed sometimes so crew fit better than 'people'. When I was coaching just girls I always said 'crew' also since it sounded better than girls or ladies.

So, that isn't a funny word but 'chock a block' is. So is 'cheek to jowl'. Oh, and there is also 'packed like sardines'. Did you get an idea of that all of these words mean? Crowded, they all mean crowded. "We were packed like sardines in that elevator!" "There we were on the bus,cheek to jowl, during rush hour". There is another word for the same thing, 'chock full'. The car was chock full of people. These are fun words, not really things you would find in a book but you would hear them here in Canada.

Here are some more:
butter me up - make me feel good by complimenting me

stick in the mud - a person who can't seem to have fun or relax

Then there are words from Aesop's fables. Is Aesop a universal writer? Has everyone heard of the Tortoise and the Hare? "Slow and steady wins the day". I was speaking with someone today and she said that she would learn English a little at a time, and I said that this is the correct way to do it. A little bit at a time. But you know I had a Latin teacher in high school, Mrs. Sunderland. She always said that the human brain is a fantastic thing. If you cram enough into it, the things you put in will come out when you need them. And that, crew, is true.

Over the years, from five years of Latin through hundreds if not thousands of books and thousands of movies, the stuff keeps coming out when I need it. So for English, read, listen, speak, write, do whatever you can and you'll soon find that "what goes in will come out sooner or later" and you will be a confident speaker/writer/listener of English.

A long blog but I hope you enjoy it. Several people have told me that they enjoy my blogs. Well, I can tell you that you don't enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them!

It's all about me!

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:54:09 GMT

It's all about me!

Someone asked me how I got to be what I am or where I am or who I am, something like that. I wasn't really sure how to interpret this since I haven't been asked this before. You know how language can be changed when it goes from someone's mind who doesn't speak English naturally to someone who does. Well, this very dull blog will attempt to answer her questions. Bear with me, ok?

When I was in school, the early school years back in a very small town in Ontario, I used to get bored. The only real book that I had to look at in class was a dictionary so that's what I did, I read the dictionary in class. The teacher, Mrs. Davis used to comment on that to her future students. Maybe that's how I got interested in words, who knows?

Earlier than that, I guess in Grade 3 or something, maybe later, I used to load up with books to take home for the weekend. We lived in an old stone and frame farmhouse that had no insulation. In the winter, the only warm place was my bed so I would read there in the evenings. I would read and read. Some evenings I would draw also but I never became a good artist but, I will admit, I'm not a bad writer.

Later on, in high school, I started to write. Poetry about the girl of the moment, about the wind, about the weather, about the seasons, whatever moved me at that time. One summer, the summer when I was 15, I wrote a story about a magical chair that could satisfy your every need. I sent the story off to a local Canadian magazine. Wonder of wonders! They bought it! I was in heaven. Even then the cheque they sent was pretty good: 75 Canadian dollars. I forget what I spent it on but that set me off on a spree of writing. All that summer I explored my talent, or lack of, writing everything I could think of. I still have all of it. I guess my kids will discover it after I die.

University time came and I headed off to Montreal to attend what was then Loyola College. It was heaven and hell all in one. I was away from my future wife but I loved the classes and the people there. It was cool, too, taking film courses at night and English courses in the daytime. I slept through the classic Russian series but managed to stay awake for the Hitchcock films. My writing continued and I was lucky enough to get a centrespread in the Loyola school newspaper.

Later, I moved to Toronto and attended Ryerson, got my degree in Motion Picture Technology and kept writing. I never sent anything else off to get published, maybe I should have, but I never got around to it.

So what makes me 'me'? Exploring, interacting, talking to people from everywhere, watching and observing everything I see and reading. I read almost my whole time when I am not working or not sleeping. While computers are my main interest, I also really enjoy talking to people online. Listening to stories about different cultures and different countries is the most interesting thing I do these days.

That's it! If I think of something more to add to this creation, I'll add it later. Don't fall asleep reading this!!

Autumn Colours

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:18:22 GMT

Autumn Colours

This was supposed to be about the fall colours here in Canada and there was supposed to be a pic of those colours but someone, namely me, can't figure out how to insert an image!!!

Anyway, it's a very nice time to be in Canada right now. The colours of the trees, at least those that lose their leaves (deciduous) are incredible. The maples, more than anything else, are awesome.

It's a sad time of year for some people. Summer is over, the cold will come but there is a crispness in the air too that is invigorating. I'm not a fan of either cold weather or snow but the cool air of fall is refreshing. I wrote a poem about it once, let me see if I can find it. Here it is:

Poem 3.
Last night I heard the wind,
the first wind of winter.
It curled around the corners of my room and flew past my window, screaming ...
from fear I suppose at it's speed.
It was the same wind that had frosted my cheeks in younger days
and caused my nose to drip onto my sweater.
It was the same wind which had caused me to climb a tree last year,
reminding me that it was probably the last chance before the snow fell.
(I had neglected my tree climbing that summer.)
It was the same wind which reminded me of a night a week or so before.
That night the wind was warm and full. Her name was Linda. We had talked of the wind.
Alone now, I see that the wind and her love were similar and had turned cold together.

OK, so it was about later in the fall but it reminds me of this time of the year.

What time is it on Ebaby?

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:01:35 GMT

What time is it on Ebaby?

I discovered the answer to someone's question about the time on Ebaby. When you send a message or post in the forums, there is a time stamped beside your name. At this point, the time is either Pacific Daylight Time or Mountain Standard Time. After October 31st, the time will still be Mountain Standard time, since PDT will change to PST, Pacific Standard time.

My time here in Toronto is now 10:56 AM so my time stamp on this post will be 7:56 PDT or MST. I am -5 hours from Greenwich Mean Time so you can calculate your hours from there. After October 31st I will be -4 hours GMT.

Does this make sense? Does the time change in your country? There are parts of the States and Canada that don't change their times in the spring and the fall. I think Mountain time is always mountain time, so your time stamp on here should always be constant from there.

The race is over.

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:53:05 GMT

The race is over.

Well, the race didn't go as well as I had planned. My time wasn't that much better than last year's time so I feel I have been wasting my time all year. I know that isn't the case but it seems like it to me right now.

I think the problem was the hour the race started was about two or three hours earlier than when I usually run. Either I should start to run earlier in the day or I should just not concentrate too much on my times and just enjoy myself.

I'll post my time here later as well as picture of myself from the race, as I cross the finish line.

I buckled!

Mapleleaf Man — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:41:58 GMT

I buckled!

Ah, now that is a cool word...buckled. That means I gave in, I quit, I gave up the argument. I guess the term comes from when metal can't take weight and buckles under the pressure.

I took most of my pictures down, for now anyway. It doesn't seem to matter since I have added two new friends in the days since I removed the pictures.

It's early, very early on Sunday morning here in Toronto. The weather is now cool, I guess some people would say cold. It gets down to 8 at night and the highs during the day are 12 to 15 right now. We'll have warmer weather again but then I think we are in for the deep freeze! Snow and cold will hit soon.

I'm up early because this is the morning of my 5K run in the Toronto Marathon run for a local cancer hospital. My son, James, is going to run with me so I am really looking forward to today. The race is at 8. Wish me luck! I'll write more when I get home. 27 minutes, here I come!

What the title means...

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:11:20 GMT

What the title means...

The title of my blog is, "The Maple Lead Rag". So what does that mean? Well it means two things actually, which isn't unusual in English.

First, a 'rag' is a newspaper. It's slang, of course, and it is generally derisive as in, "Ah, you're not reading that rag again are you?"

But a 'rag' is also a type of music, fast and usually played on a piano. It's an old term and this title was made famous by an American composer/pianist named Scott Joplin. If you have ever seen the movie The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford then you have heard Joplin's music. One of this compositions was The Maple Leaf Rag!

I guess I should say that a rag is also an old piece of cloth that you use to clean up a spill with, so that is three things. Um, ok four now since it can also mean an old dress as in, "I didn't have anything new to wear so I wore this old rag." I better stop before I think of more meanings. There is a fifth meaning but I won't get into that!

So that's where the name comes from. And the maple leaf is the symbol of Canada, as well as the beaver so I thought it was a cool play on words, music and newspapers all in one.

A storm over my pictures!

Mapleleaf Man — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:47:54 GMT

A storm over my pictures!

Instead of my old guitar pictures, I put up some pictures of me. I thought it was fun to show people what I look like. It's not like I'm a fashion model! Here I am 55 years old, crooked teeth and one ear that is lower than the other! So what's the big deal?

Actually, I don't know. Someone is very upset that my pictures are on my profile. Tell me what you think? If a guy puts pictures of himself up on Ebaby is it something to be jealous about?

My friend has put her pictures up on here in her profile. My argument there is that a picture of a pretty woman is far different from pictures of a mature, smiling man. Am I wrong? The funny thing is that since I have put my pics up here, I have had fewer people wanting to be friends! Hahaha, Maybe my mug shots drive them away!

This is what we would call 'a tempest in a teapot!' That means that someone is making a big deal out of what seems to be nothing.

Eid!

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:27:17 GMT

Eid!

Since many of my friends on here and in my life are Muslim, I wanted to wish them all a happy and fun Eid. They have all had a long month, I believe it ends tomorrow on the 13th of October.

While I am not at all religious, I know that many of my friends are quite religious and that their religion gives them a strong footing for their lives.

Our Thanksgiving on Monday was the warmest ever in history by 6 degrees. No wonder it felt so warm in the house when I was cooking the turkey! Now it is back to normal here, cool at night and just nice, about 15, in the daytime.

A sad note, which means the end of summer, is the poor treefrogs. In the hot weather you can hear them chirp endlessly at night. Now, in the cool evenings, their chirp has wound down to one every few seconds. They still try to sound summery but it's tough when you are cold-blooded!

A new pic and a new day!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:46:08 GMT

A new pic and a new day!

Ah the twists and turns of my crazy life! It's Thanksgiving Day here in Canada. This is the day that we say thanks for our food and our family, things like that. Usually we cook a feast of turkey or ham and lots of fall veggies, make some pies and eat in the middle of the afternoon.

The other turkey day is Christmas and it's a bigger feast but this one is a good one also. Since my family is out of town until later today, I will be the dedicated or designated cooker of Mr. Turkey Lurkey.

The bird has been thawing in the fridge for a few days and should be ready to stuff and roast in the oven.

Last night, I had a wonderful long chat with an old friend from Ebaby and, if she reads this, I want to thank her for her moral support. A friend in need is a friend indeed and she was the friend indeed last night. Lots of laughs and some tears from me at the end due to a situation that developed on another front. Thanks my friend!

Friends and lovers: redux

Mapleleaf Man — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:04:03 GMT

Friends and lovers: redux

Redux means revistited. So, lovers are ok now! Yeah, we made up. I overreacted and things are peaceful again in lalalalalaland. Lala Land usually means Hollywood but for me it's the land of the unreal, of the virtual love and virtual affairs. The feeliings are real but, of course, nothing is real. Try to get the MP3 'Imagination' by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. He used it on his Smile album and it is a fantastic song. Give it a whirl! That means try it.

I will try to explain everything as I go along so my readers, all two of them, can follow my blog.

Today I ran another 5K run and I set a personal best! Just under 30 minutes. I know , I know, it's slow but hell, I am 55 years old! I'm still a bit overweight, about 175 pounds or 79 KG. My phone is cool! It translates these things for me. So in the last two weeks I've lost a KG or more just because I am running 5k regularly. Most of it is in sweat but it's still fun and there are no ill effects yet.

I've had lovers, I've had friends..friends are better

Mapleleaf Man — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:40:53 GMT

I've had lovers, I've had friends..friends are better

Friends are better because they don't do things behind your back. They don't pretend to be someone else. They don't usually lie and cheat and screw around on you.

For the last year I've had an 'online' girl that I became very close to, very close to. I said that twice for effect! Now all of the secrets are coming out, the multiple msn accounts, the multiple Ebaby accounts and running more than one msn on the same computer, all of the games that a teenager would play but she is not a teenager.

Ebaby is great for learning English and for my girlfriend it's a great place for meeting guys! I'm laughing through my tears now at my stupidity but I have one solace in my life.

My one solace is my friends. I have one who wakes me up on msn shouting "get up get up you lazy old man!" There is another who loves music and we trade songs back and forth whenever she can break away from her busy schedule.

Another lives in the far north and we talk about people and places and things, all the time trying to help her learn English. Her children are young, mine are old so we talk about them too.

One friend lives in the hottest place in the world, so far from the cold north and from here in Canada. We talk about Canada, about English and about her country too. Mostly about English since she wants to take a proficiency test.

There are more, all just friends but at a time like this in my life, they are all needed and all very much appreciated.

Is this Monday?

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:05:26 GMT

Is this Monday?

Yeah, it is. I ran another 5K today. It's getting much easier now, even though I am a goner! Goner means old guy in myspeak. Myspeak is how I talk. Remember the novel, 1984 and the word 'newspeak'? Well now newspeak is chatspeak. Gonna, your instead or you're, brb, lol, and all of that. I guess at some point these words will make their way into the Oxford dictionary but for now, try to speak in oldspeak!

What's up with me? Just settled a long time argument with a very close friend, ok, a girlfriend. Jealousy reared it's ugly head too many times. Just listened to Sting on a VH!Classic special. Some pretty good songs on it.

You know, with 3 or 6 billion people on earth, it sure seems like a lonely place for some people. I know some folks who are surrounded by money and luxury but are so lonely. I know people who are poor and have almost nothing but they are rich with friends and the comfort that friends provide. So money is nice and cool to have but give me a friend I can call when I am low and, dammit, I would value that much more.

Someone said, I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better. Well, the only way someone is rich is if they have lots of true friends.

I am lucky enough to have some very good and close friends. Ebaby has allowed me to meet some incredible people, and to rebuild and rework some relationships that I already had. Sometimes friends get in the way of relationships but we need both, right?

Long blog, more later. Feel free to comment, ask questions or booooo me. It's all good, ok?

September already!

Mapleleaf Man — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 01:50:54 GMT

September already!

It seems my last blog caused some concern among some of my friends so this time I will try to make a totally innocuous blog entry. Fitness is still a big part of my life but so is friendship and fun.

I changed my page a bit, just sort of spruced it up with some things. Although I haven't been involved in the forums as much as I would like, I have been trying to help people out with their English now and then.

As far as fitness goes, I ran 5K three times last week in preparation for my two falls 5K charity events. The first is this coming Sunday, the 30th of September and the other one is in two weeks. Wish me luck! The point of running isn't to finish first, but to have fun, meet some other runners and spend time with my family after the race. At my age, 55, I really don't think I will beat 30 minutes but that's my goal.