Dear John

Tuesday, May 4, 6 pm:
This week's English movie at Thalia Hollywood is Dear John, based on the book by Nicholas Sparks.


Starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, the movie tells the story of a soldier who falls in love with a young woman. When he is deployed to the war, they keep in touch by exchanging letters, but will the distance and the absence be too much for their relationship to bear?




Bonus English tip: The title of this movie is a bit of a play on words. Although in this case the letters are literally letters to someone named John, a 'Dear John letter' is also an English idiom for a letter to a boyfriend or husband, ending the relationship. For more on the meaning and origin of this expression, check out the Wikipedia page.

Idioms

Every language has its idioms, those frustrating phrases that make no sense even when you can define all the words :p.

An idiom is a group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one they would have if you took the meaning of each word separately.

Take this dialogue, for instance:

Jennifer: I think we got off on the wrong foot. Can't we just let bygones be bygones?
Grace: Absolutely. It's water under the bridge. Let's move on!

You know what "water", "under", and "bridge" mean, but what does it mean to say that something is "water under the bridge"? This website is a handy guide to English idioms - there's a list of "most popular" idioms, as well as an alphabetical listing of idioms. The link is also in the sidebar if you want to find it later. Understanding idioms can improve your understanding of English texts as well as your writing. Plus, a lot of them are funny and/or strange and might give you something to laugh about!

Canadians really do love hockey

This article makes me laugh and proves that some stereotypes (in this case, "Canadians love hockey") are based in fact!

Air Canada learns that hockey trumps flying
Canada's largest airline has learned it sometimes has to take a back seat to the country's biggest sporting passion, ice hockey, the head of Air Canada said on Tuesday. The airline was forced to delay a flight from Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games because passengers watching the end of the gold medal final on airport televisions ignored repeated calls to board.

"We incurred a flight delay for a reason Air Canada had not yet encountered in over 72 years of existence," chief executive Calin Rovinescu told a business gathering.

The Canadian fans were rewarded for their delay, as the nail-biting end to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics saw Canada beat arch-rival United States 3-2 in overtime.

There are also a couple of good vocabulary words and an idiom, which are in bold type.

to trump: If you trump what someone has said or done, you beat it by saying or doing something else that seems better.

to take a back seat (figurative): to become less important than someone or something else.

nail-biting (adj): If you describe something such as a story or a sports match as nail-biting, you mean that it makes you feel very excited or nervous because you do not know how it is going to end.

Olympic Vocabulary

Today, I thought you might be interested in learning some Olympics vocabulary!

medal (noun): at the Olympics, medals are awarded for first, second, and third place. An athlete who wins a medal is called a gold, silver, or bronze medallist.


podium (noun): this word has several meanings, but during the Olympics, the podium is where the athletes stand to receive their medals. The gold medallist stands on the highest level, in the centre.


favourite (noun): in sports, the favourite (or favourites, in team sports) is the athlete (or team) expected to win. Example: "Canada's hockey players are gold-medal favourites at the 2010 Olympics."

long shot (noun): in sports, long shot describes an athlete who is unlikely to win. Example: "Sarah James is a long shot, but she has a chance if she plays well."