Southern Ontario Cooperative of ESL Ministries
Abridged by Colin Brewster There was a man. He was a kind, and mostly good man. He was generous to his family, and honest in his dealings with others, but each year when Christmas came along, he had a problem. He just couldn’t accept the Christmas story. “I’m really sorry to upset you”, he told […]
Check out the rich Christmas resources on our SOCEM site including Christmas lessons from the Virtues series and the Conversation Guides: https://eslministries.org/resources/teaching-materials/seasonal-resources/ An excellent reading about the North American Christmas traditions, with a glossary: http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/christmasday.pdf Christmas traditions around the world; good for starting conversations with students: http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/ http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/ Stories behind favourite Christmas carols and […]
By Marion Chang Imagine that you are a tourist visiting Canada for the very first time during this holiday season. You see coloured lights on houses and gaudily festive store windows as you tour the city streets. There also seems to be a large, bearded, old man in a red uniform all over the media. […]
By Tom More The last time I wrote an article for this newsletter, I reflected on Jesus the refugee. At Christmas time, we recall that shortly after the jubilant birth and angelic choir, the shepherds and magi, after the gold, frankincense and myrrh, Jesus was on the road and on the run. It occurs to […]
On October 26, 2019, SOCEM held its annual conference, Gathering XVI, at Trinity Church Streetsville once again. There were close to 110 attending, and participants came from all over Southern Ontario including Kingston, Oshawa, the Greater Toronto Area, Niagara Falls, Kitchener-Waterloo and more. After a brief opening worship and devotional, participants spread into different rooms […]
By Anne Sim The ESL Ministry of our church, Oak Ridges Church in Richmond Hill, started as an outreach effort involving a local Retirement Community. While praying for ways to grow and revitalize the church, our pastor encountered a chaplain who asked if church members could participate in ESL ministry alongside some of the elderly […]
By Allan Pole I am, by nature, a shy introvert. It’s not that I dislike people. I wouldn’t want to live out the rest of my days in a cabin on a mountaintop. However, I have been hurt and let down by people. Even though I enjoy interacting and socializing, I get worn down if […]
By Sandy Ho-Lam As an ESL teacher, I have wrestled with the question of how to become Jesus’ hands and feet while students seem to come and go through a revolving door without any chance of building long-lasting relationships. Then one day, things started to change. A student, one day, said: “Sandy…I have a lot […]
A review article by Timo Posti This helpful article was written by Dr. Allyson Eamer, a sociolinguist who teaches at The University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Dr. Eamer outlines the challenges of providing accessible, suitable and practicable language instruction to migrants. She lists several reasons why some migrants do not readily benefit from language […]
Many of us work with immigrants. Are you aware of the larger context we are working in? Below is some immigration and citizenship information released by Statistics Canada as part of the 2016 Census. See full details at this site.