Cafetalk Tutor's Column

Native speakers use subtitles, too!

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash       Do you use subtitles to understand TV shows or mov...

Talking about compass directions in English

Describing compass directions can be a bit tricky when it comes to remembering whether to use capit...

What is “Saskatoon”?

Photo: My friends and I at a gift shop in Saskatoon So, in September, I wrote a grand total of zer...

What I’m into lately (unexpected hobbies?)

Photo: Me with my container of cicada husks and a live cicada on my arm The weather was beautiful ...

Six months of movies

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash       In the first six months of 2025, I watched 51 movies and 10 ...

Quick tips: I’m going to… vs. I’m in a… (pronunciation)

I was watching a video recently in which two men were demonstrating a game and announcing what they...

10 English expressions with the word “cat”

Photo: My parents' cat "Trouble" Friday, August 8th is International Cat Day, so what better time ...

The Tractor Man

Have you ever driven a tractor? It’s pretty fun! I grew up on a farm, so there were always tractors...

Quick tips: barbecue, barbeque, barbie, or BBQ?

It’s the middle of summer and it’s time for a barbecue! Or is it a barbeque? A barbie? Or just a BB...

A late night out in Toronto

I’m not a night owl. I can’t even remember the last time I stayed out after midnight, but last nigh...

Quick tips: expressing surprise with “holy”

There are many ways to express surprise and shock in English, but one of the most common and casual...

What is “mad money”?

Photo byPiggyBank onUnsplash With my birthday coming up on June 17th, my father, as he always does...

More things to do in Niagara Falls

Photo: Birds hanging out at the Bird KingdomI wrote a short article about Niagara Falls after my vi...

The cost of being a sports fan in Canada

Photo: The Hockey Hall of Fame in TorontoBeing a sports fan doesn’t have to be expensive, but if yo...

How we measure things in Canada

Photo by William Warby on Unsplash In many areas of Canadian culture, we find a mixture of various ...

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...