ESL NEWS for October 29th, 2012
Story 1 Halloween
Are you ready for Halloween? Once the sun sets on October 31st, the creatures will be out! Children will be dressed in many sorts of costumes-from cute to creepy. There are many fun events happening all around the city, but for many children, the thrill is about staying in their own neighbourhood and going door to door trick or treating. For many parents, they want their children to have fun but want to make sure they stay safe. Kathy Lynn, from Parenting Today, has some suggestions for kids to stay safe. She says that when kids go out into the dark, it is a good idea to have lights. They can have flashlights or anything fluorescent. They can add reflective tape to their costumes or carry glow-in-the-dark stickers or necklaces. Kids love these and it helps to make sure they are visible to cars. She also suggests white pillow cases for loot bags. Kids can put their candies into the big bright bags and be more noticeable. Also make sure kids only go to houses that are well-lit. A house with its lights off is a sign that the owners are out or do not want to participate in Halloween.
Story two -Earthquake in Haida Gwaii
Last Saturday evening, there was an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale. People felt the earthquake all over BC and even Alberta. The quake hit at 8:04 pm. It originated near the Queen Charlotte Islands, which are 200 km southwest of Prince Rupert. The Queen Charlotte islands are also called Haida Gwaii. There were many aftershocks or smaller earthquakes including one at 8:14 measuring 5.8 and another at 8:52 measuring 4.8. The quakes lasted up to 4 minutes. Steve Querengesser lives in Haida Gwaii. He said he felt the whole room sway and shake. He thought it was just a storm starting because he is used to many storms on the pacific island. When he realized it was an earthquake, he ran to a doorway. He and his family then got ready to evacuate and leave to higher ground because he was thinking about a tsunami. After an earthquake, there are often tsunamis or tidal waves. This is when big waves start at the centre of the earthquake and get bigger as they move on.
Story three-Vancouver Inspirational pass for local tourist attractions
The city of Vancouver now has a new pass that families can borrow for free from any Vancouver Public Library. The pass will allow any Vancouverite to have free access to many venues in Vancouver. These include The Vancouver Aquarium, The Vancouver Art Gallery, Science World, The Museum of Anthropology as well as fitness centres and skating rinks. The pass is available to anyone who has a library card age 14 and older. People will be able to borrow one of the 250 passes from their local library once a year for up to two weeks. One pass can get a family of two adults and four kids into any of these cultural places. Mayor Gregor Robertson says the city wants to make these great experiences accessible to all residents, especially those with lower incomes. Anyone wanting a pass can reserve one through the library starting November 1st. For more information you can go to this website: vpl.ca/inspirationpass.
Story Four-Hurricane
Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the east coast of the United States on Monday morning.
People living in areas around New Jersey are preparing for strong winds, flooding and major
power outages. This storm is responsible for 45 deaths in the Carribean and Central America.
Officials say that it could get even worse if it mixes with a cold front from the west. They say it
could be a “superstorm”. Residents in New Jersey’s Barrier islands evacuated Sunday night.
They hope to come back to houses still standing. Others are stocking up with supplies including:
toilet paper, water and flashlights. People who have experienced this before say it is horrible
waiting for the storm to hit.
Story Five-Canadian households more multilingual
The 2011 census data that Statistics Canada released last week shows that there are more
multilingual households. A fifth of us now speak a language other than French or English at
home. The report says that there are over 200 separate languages spoken from coast to coast
to coast. We are seeing that 80% of immigrants come to Canada with another language other
than French or English. As immigrants settle in Canada, they learn French or English and
therefore speak at least two languages at home. There is also a sharp increase of immigrants
coming from Asian countries which shows an increase in those languages spoken in Canada.
The percentage of Immigrants from Asian countries is up 56%. Over 20% of Canadians (6.8
million) say their mother tongue is a language other than English or French. This has increased
from 2006 when it was just 5.2 million. The census report also notes that the percentage of
Francophones or French speaking people in Montreal is declining. Quebec politicians worry as
the amount of people who speak French as their mother tongue has dropped from 62.4 % in
2001 to 56.5% in 2011. They want to do what it takes to keep Montreal a predominately French speaking
city.
