![]() By Kayo Arima Hawkins, contact: aardvarklearning@gmail.com My name is Kayo Hawkins and I am a Japanese person from Japan and moved to Canada 4 years ago. However I spent over 7 years living and teaching in English speaking countries (Australia & Canada). Even though having scored IELTS 8 Academic (Reading, Writing Listening & Speaking) in the past, there are still a lot to learn and improve my English as a second language. In this blog post, I would like to share some ideas in a series of post to improve your English in your busy life.
There are two benefits of listening to News Radio station like CBC. First, it is great for building your vocabulary and grammar. There are always specialists or guest speakers who talk about the topic with academic contents, vocabulary, and manner of talking like a native speaker (semantics). It is great way to learn how to speak in long sentences to add details, reasons, examples, and opinions to your statement in a short amount of time. The more you listen to it, the more chance that you would be able to imitate what you hear. Another good thing that happens to you from listening to radio is that those programs provide you something to talk about with local people. At work, at school, at playgroup, it is a nice way to start the conversation with people: “I just heard on the radio this morning that there is a thing like raccoon-proof green bin!” Personally I find the topics on the Radio so funny, as I lived in Tokyo or big cities in Japan most of my life, I never imagined the importance of racoon proof green bins :) in Canada. Talking about local news would make local people feel closer to you because that is something they can relate themselves too. Its a good speaking strategy to try one small topic in the conversation each day to participate in the conversation to be recognized that you are there as a part of the community that enjoys socializing with others. Radio programs also have Apps and social media websites to stay connected and interactive with listeners. Following these sites might motivate you to speak up and express your opinions and feeling about some issues to be shared with other people, which is another opportunity to practice reading and writing. Just simply turn on the news radio channel when you have a chance - it would surely take you to the next level of living in a new country as a member, not as a foreigner, with more curiosity and discovery of the land you decided to be. Kayo's Points to Remember:
Please feel free to add comments below, I am happy to respond. CBS Radio Links: http://www.cbc.ca/radio |
1 Comment
|
Archives
January 2023
Categories |