Cafetalk Tutor's Column

Winter in Toronto

Image: Icicles on the building across from my homeToronto is one of Canada’s southernmost cities, s...

Role models

Image: My father and I (during a trip to Manitoulin Island last year)When I was a child, my role mo...

Quick tips: ungrammatical (?) questions

Most languages have ways to reduce the grammatical forms of questions, and English is no exception!...

Toronto’s unofficial mascot

Thanks to all of the parks and green spaces in Toronto and across the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), t...

Talking about fictional worlds in English

Many adjectives in English have nuanced synonyms that can be tricky to use. In my most recent artic...

The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか)

The Boy and the Heron, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is a Studio Ghibli movie that came out in 2023, ...

Talking about New Year’s resolutions in English

In my most recent article (titled Goodbye 2024 - Hello 2025!), I reflected on the past year and tal...

Goodbye 2024 - Hello 2025!

Happy New Year, everyone! As I look back on 2024 and look ahead to 2025, these are some of my refle...

Holiday decor: Part 2

In Part 1, I introduced some of the most common Christmas decorations, and today I’d like to add a ...

Holiday decor: Part 1

Photo: My grandmother’s living room, decorated for Christmas. If you’re not accustomed to celebrat...

Eggnog

One drink that I only consume during the winter holidays is Eggnog. My father loves it and always b...

The “Tough Guy Santa” genre

Santa Claus has long had the image of a gentle old man with a big smile and a jolly laugh, but in r...

Holiday gift ideas

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash       I have four suggestions for holiday gifts this year, a...

Talking about your favourite things in English

The weekly column topic is Your favorite place on Earth! this week, so today I’d like to share some...

Quick tips: should have vs. should of

Have you ever come across a sentence such as “They should of fired the coach” or “I should of known...

Should feeding wild animals be illegal?

For many years I have enjoyed feeding peanuts to the squirrels during my visits to local parks and ...

Quick tips: groups of animals

Did you know that English has many words to describe different groups of animals? Here are the most...

It's time to build a puzzle!

Image: The Halloween puzzle that I built this year.I think that building things is a lot of fun! Yo...

A cinematic Halloween

Halloween was unusually warm in Toronto this year, with temperatures reaching 20 degrees Celsius, w...

Halloween word origins

Photo: A Halloween decoration in my neighbourhood in Toronto.Halloween is a holiday which has been ...

Talking about fall/autumn leaves in English

Fall is here and the leaves are changing colour in Canada, so today I’d like to share some vocabula...

Northern Ontario road trip

In September, I took a long road trip with my father, driving for 5 days through the province of On...

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The juice is loose!

The original Beetlejuice movie, a quirky blend of horror and comedy, came out way back in 1988 (whe...

Quick tips: slide vs. slider

The word “slider” is sometimes used in Japan to refer to a long, smooth structure that one can slid...

My top 5 fun activities for autumn

Exploring When the weather cools down in the fall, it’s time to get out and start exploring again!...

The little monster that’s not so scary

We don’t have a lot of scary or dangerous insects in Canada, but the house centipede is one that mi...

Quick tips: learn vs. learn about/of

This is a tricky one because both “learn” and “learn about/of” refer to gaining new knowledge/infor...

No-see-ums attack!

Have you ever heard of a “no-see-um”? Until just a couple of days ago, I hadn’t! They’re tiny insec...

Talking about festivals and holidays in English

This week’s column topic is Summer festivals, so today I would like to share some ways to talk abou...

The Canadian National Exhibition

The Canadian National Exhibition is a festival that takes place in Toronto and marks the end of Sum...