Cafetalk Tutor's Column

Talking about function, purpose, and method in English: Part 2

Continuing from Part 1, today we’ll look at how to explain the method of doing something and the to...

Talking about function, purpose, and method in English: Part 1

It can be tricky to figure out which structure to use when talking about how to do an action, why a...

How I organize my work desk

As I describe the setup or layout of my work desk today, I’d like to introduce some ways to talk ab...

The LEGO man

Image: LEGO Super Mario taking a napI’m an only child, so I spent a lot of time playing by myself w...

Jury duty

Photo by Wesley Tingey on UnsplashToday, for the second time in my life, I received mail from The M...

Talking about luck in English: Part 2

Continuing from where we left off In Part 1, today I’d like to introduce some lucky actions as well...

Talking about luck in English: Part 1

The weekly column topic is Do you have a lucky item? this week, so today I’d like to share some way...

Adventure!

Image: A “roper” monster from the event (which you can defeat by hitting its tentacles when they li...

Quick tips: weary vs. wary

Recently, I’ve been hearing more and more English speakers mixing up the adjectives “weary” and “wa...

Quick tips: adverbs of place

Adverbs of place tell us where an action takes place. For example, in the sentence “I went downtown...

The tales of Edgar Allan Poe

These days, I’m reading The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, which is a collection of ...

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...