Welcome to Extra English Podcast!

Welcome to Episode 1 of Extra English Podcast!

In this first episode, we introduce ourselves by telling you a little bit about our teaching careers, cultural backgrounds, and reasons for starting this podcast. 

This podcast is designed for English language learners who want to hear natural English conversation. You can learn new expressions and vocabulary while improving your listening skills. 

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Email us at extraenglishpractice@gmail.com

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Transcript

Larissa: We can all grow and learn and I don't know. Let's say something really inspirational here!

Misha: Hello, EEPers. Welcome to another episode of Extra English Podcast with Misha and Larissa.

Larissa: We're two Canadian English teachers talking about life in Canada, our lives, and anything else that might interest us and hopefully will interest you too.

Misha: So join us for another conversation.

LARISSA [0:31]: Hi EEPers! Welcome to the first Extra English podcast.

MISHA: First ever. So you’re here for a historic moment.

LARISSA: We are so excited to be trying something new using the podcasting format. So if you haven't met us before, I'm Larissa.

MISHA: And I'm Misha.

LARISSA: And we are Extra English Practice.

MISHA: This is our first ever episode. We're really excited. Our plan for this podcast is to have conversation. Larissa and I are both English language teachers and have been for many years. But this is not a lesson. This is the two of us talking, and you're welcome to join the conversation.

LARISSA: Yeah, listen in, um, leave your comments. We are working on making some resources to go along with the conversations if you want to do some self-study. But we're not going to be, you know, talking about a grammar point. We're going to just be talking. And hopefully you will learn new vocabulary, new expressions. Hopefully, you will become accustomed to listening to more natural, fast English. Um, and hopefully you'll have fun.

MISHA: That's the hope. Yeah. We're having fun. We are having fun. Hopefully, it's infectious through the microphone. We plan to talk about life in Canada, our lives, and anything else that may interest us and will hopefully interest you. We're open to suggestions. So if there are things you'd like to hear about, please let us know on Instagram or send us a comment any way you can.

LARISSA [2:10]: We should say that we are Canadian.

MISHA: That's right.

LARISSA: So we both uh were born in Canada, and we both currently live in Canada, although we have lived in other countries and we have visited other places. This is our home. So our accents are from, I would say, like typical Ontario accents. If you know Canada, Ontario is one of the provinces east of center. Um, and I would say we have fairly standard Ontario accents.

MISHA: That's right. When Larissa says we have an Ontario accent, that's specifically a Southern Ontario accent. So that's the kind of English you'll be hearing from us. I was going to say you might hear some Canadian slang, but I'm not sure I'm cool enough to…

LARISSA:  We're not cool. 

MISHA : We're not cool. We're not young enough for …for the cool up-to-date slang.

LARISSA: You might hear some out-of-date old-fashioned slang. 

MISHA: Some 90s slang - we're there! Um to start with, it might be good to share a little bit about each of us so you can get to know us better. So that's what we're going to do in this episode.

LARISSA [3:19]: So I grew up in various parts of Ontario, Canada, mostly in small towns. Um that makes a difference because I think the city experience and the small-town experience are quite different. I became a teacher early on. It was my very first career, and so I have been teaching English as a second language for 26 years now. Primarily in Canada, academic English in the college system. But I've also taught overseas a little bit, um, always with adult learners, some teens, some older kids. For a summer I worked at an English camp, but mostly teaching academic English to newcomers to Canada, and then also to other -- and international students -- and then to people in their own countries.

MISHA: Um like Larissa, I also grew up in a small town -- I guess a couple, we moved a couple of times, but I spent most of my childhood and teen years in a small town, Ontario. Uh teaching was not my first career. I did some community development work in my 20s and then came to teaching a little later. So I've been teaching about … I have to do the math … maybe 15 years or so uh teaching English. And also, like Larissa, we have a lot in common you will find, I have taught both here in Canada and overseas. Um in Canada, I've mainly focused on academic English. My particular love, which you will know if you have followed us for any length of time, is grammar. I love grammar. I love rules and patterns. It's my favorite thing.

LARISSA: Whereas I tend toward listening, speaking, pronunciation; I like oral communication.

MISHA: We're a good balance that way. Right? 

LARISSA: Yeah, we balance each other very well.

MISHA: And like you, Larissa, I have also taught children and adults, mostly adults, as most of my teaching career has been in Canada, and that's who I teach here. Uh, but when I was overseas, I had some rambunctious children in my classes. 

LARISSA:  Rambunctious, that's a great word. 

MISHA: That's a good -- it's a fun-sounding word. 

LARISSA: Yeah. It means energetic. 

MISHA: Yeah, wild, a little bit. 

LARISSA:  A little bit. 

MISHA [5:39]: Uh, it might also be interesting for you to know, and I think it's relevant since we're doing a podcast in Canada that might sometimes talk about life in Canada, uh, to know about our cultural backgrounds since Canada is so, so varied in that way. Um, so my family, my parents, grandparents, great, all the way back, are Amish Mennonite, which is uh originally German, although they left Germany many years ago. Um it’s a religion, but also a cultural group. So I would say that I was not raised with a lot of the religious aspects, but my home had a lot of those cultural aspects. If you live in Ontario or parts of the United States, like Pennsylvania, you might be familiar with this group of people. Uh they are visually quite different often, their clothing and the way they get around. But that's my background. So it's an interesting topic because I wasn't raised within that religious tradition, but uh certainly my parents were, and I think the home I grew up in was very much influenced by that group.

LARISSA: Yeah. So when you say they're visually different, can you describe what you mean? Like what is the clothing? What is the aesthetic?

MISHA: So, not -- this isn't how I grew up, but my great-grandparents probably, and to a certain extent, my grandparents wore… traditional Mennonite clothing can vary, but women would wear dresses generally, something called a cape dress that's a particular style, usually homemade, usually in plain fabric, so not bright or flashy or wild prints, but something more plain. Uh, and the men also would wear plain clothing, modest clothing. Women would often cover their hair with something called a bonnet, a little white, in my specific group, a little white covering on their hair, which my grandmothers did wear for a lot of their lives. Um yeah, men often wear hats. They're farming people, so all of my ancestors were farmers. My dad also was a farmer for a large part of my childhood years.

LARISSA: And some um Amish Mennonites wouldn't use like automobiles, right?

MISHA: That's right, yes. They -- many of them, and there are different groups within this larger cultural group, but many of them use uh something called a horse and buggy. So the small town I grew up in, you would often see a horse and buggy on the road, which is a horse pulling a small wagon or cart in which people would ride. So it's quite different than how most people in Canada live. If you've lived in an area where this culture exists, for sure you will have noticed them because they are noticeable. Uh and again, just to clarify, this is not exactly how I grew up, but it is how my great-grandparents and in some ways my grandparents would have lived.

LARISSA: Yeah, and it influences each generation a little bit less, but it still influences. 

MISHA: That’s right. Yeah, exactly.

LARISSA: Uh speaking of the horses and buggies, when I was a child, I grew up um, I would say in maybe a more mainstream Canadian home. Um, whenever we visited my grandma who lived close to one of the areas where many Amish people settled, Mennonites, um, we would get so excited when we would see a horse and buggy. It was.. it was fun. Very different and unusual and fun.

MISHA [8:59]: Yeah. You know, in my hometown, all the grocery stores have horse parking as well as car parking. It's very strange. Still, I think. Anyways, so we'd go to the grocery store and there would be horses parked outside. Parked?

LARISSA: I guess parked. 

MISHA: I guess you park a horse, I don’t know. And uh, people, I think generally people who came from elsewhere would sometimes be taking pictures with the horse or with the -- sometimes they would even ask whoever was the owner of that horse to take a picture. It was very odd. That’s strange.

LARISSA: Mmhmm, maybe inappropriate, but also I understand as an outsider how that would be so interesting and I would be curious and I would ..I would.. I would want to take a picture.

MISHA: Yeah, like even I like to see the horses. I mean, it was fun, it's a fun thing to see on the road for sure. Where my parents live now, I often try to avoid going there on a Sunday because the roads, the country roads will be full of horse and buggy.

LARISSA: Yeah, people visiting each other, going to church and then visiting each other after?

MISHA: That's it. Yeah.

LARISSA: Yeah. It's interesting. 

MISHA: It is. My.. I should mention, worthwhile, uh, both my grandfathers were ministers in this religion. So uh my parents' upbringing was quite informed by that religion. There you go. So that's me.

LARISSA: That’s you!

MISHA: That's my background. What about you, Larissa?

LARISSA [10:22]: Um, I grew up in uh in a religious family as well, but it was Protestant, Protestant-evangelical. That's kind of the language we would use for it. So I grew up going to church every Sunday. I was involved in youth groups as a young adult and um Sunday school as a kid. Uh I went to a regular public elementary and high school. I think you did as well. 

MISHA: I did as well, yep.

LARISSA: My parents are both descendants of European settlers. So on my mom's side, my grandparents immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands, um, I think on their honeymoon!  

MISHA: Romantic! Starting a whole new life. 

LARISSA: Yeah. Uh and so my mom grew up understanding the Dutch language because her parents spoke it. She can't read and write it, but she can still communicate.

MISHA: Interesting! She could have a conversation in Dutch now? I didn't know this.

LARISSA: Yeah, when we've visited uh the Netherlands, we've visited Holland, she can talk to everybody, but she can't read the newspaper. 

MISHA: Well, conversation’s important.

LARISSA: Yeah, absolutely. Uh we didn't keep a lot of the Dutch traditions. So there's a few things that like we would eat some of the foods, and we have a few words for some things around the house, but it didn't really pass down to my generation. And I think that's because my grandparents worked so hard to integrate into Canadian society. They learned English right away, they got jobs, they um … it's hard to be an immigrant, as many of you I think are well aware. So um, yeah, my mom can speak the language, I can't, but I still claim to be half Dutch.

MISHA [12:04]: Yeah! We're … we're similar in this way, where we have these cultural backgrounds that are not exactly how we grew up. We grew up Canadian, whatever that means. 

LARISSA: Whatever that means!

MISHA: Both part of that mainstream society but have that background that I think has a big influence.

LARISSA [12:19]: Yeah, it does. On my dad's side, his great-great-great-grandparents came from England and Ireland, and there's a little bit of Pennsylvania Dutch in there, which is another Amish kind of …

MISHA: That's my … my … my grandparents would have spoken Pennsylvania Dutch. I think my grandpa ministered sometimes in Pennsylvania Dutch, but I think it would have been their parents' first language. And my grandparents spoke it, but it wasn't what they spoke together in their home. And my dad can say a couple nursery rhymes in Pennsylvania Dutch. Something about kittens and mittens, I think.

LARISSA: Yeah, I have um friends growing up with who would sing little songs in Dutch. They didn't really speak it, but their grandparents did. Same kind of thing. 

MISHA: Oh, interesting. Yeah, right?

LARISSA: You hold on to a couple of different things. 

MISHA: Little pieces. 

LARISSA [13:03]:  So we don't have a lot of that European culture from my dad's side. They moved to Western Ontario -- Western Canada when they came here. They farmed, so they were like Saskatchewan farmers for a long time, eventually came here. And yeah, I don't know. I don't think I would feel at home in either England or Ireland. I don't think I would feel that those were my people, but I might feel that a little bit more in the Netherlands because it's only two generations back.

MISHA [13:33]: Right. We thought it's important to tell you about our cultural background because Canada is so varied. We're so diverse. And while on this podcast we might share some things about Canadians or about life in Canada, we are not representative of every Canadian. 

LARISSA: No, no, no.

MISHA: Or even the average Canadian necessarily. And also we are not Indigenous Canadian, which is another voice that's very important to hear that we can't bring to you, which I think is an important point to keep in mind. So when we talk about this is what things are like in Canada, we are talking about our lives and our experience.

LARISSA: Yeah, and what we have noticed, but keeping in mind that there are going to be so many different experiences that are all valid and are all Canadian.

MISHA: That's right. I'm sure many of you are Canadian and have very different cultural backgrounds to us. So it's a great thing about our country, I think, that variety.

LARISSA: The one thing about us is we can't say we're Canadian something else, right? Like when a lot of my students are Canadian-Congolese or Canadian-Syrian, or something. Like they… they have those two. I'm just Canadian.

MISHA: That's it. Canadian.

LARISSA [14:51]:So that's a little bit about us. Uh, another thing you might be interested in is why we're making a podcast. 

MISHA: Why are we making a podcast? 

LARISSA: Misha and I are colleagues and also friends, and we really like talking to each other.

MISHA: We do.

LARISSA: We also really like um the work that we've done with extra English practice making learning content for you. And so we thought, let's combine the two.

MISHA: Mm-hmm. Try something new. We also both like learning, so it's fun to have a new medium.

LARISSA: Yeah. And uh, and hopefully this will be something that benefits you, the listener, and that we can enjoy doing together. And uh, we can all grow and learn, and… I don't know, let's say something really inspirational here!

MISHA: Done! All that to say, we're glad you're here, and we look forward to seeing where this goes. So stay tuned for more. 

LARISSA: Yeah, we'll see you soon.