East and West Learning Connections
Instructor: Professor Emma Gorst
Time and venue: The second Wednesday of the month in the evening from 7:30-9 P.M. on Zoom
For details, the latest schedule, and Zoom link, please visit: Reading for Culture with Emma: the Western Literature Book Club @eAWLC 2022.
Please come back to check this page often as we will keep updating the reading materials and podcasts.
Continue reading “Readings and Podcasts for EAWLC Western Literature Book Club 2022”
Book Club Instructor:
Emma Gorst obtained her PhD in Medieval and early modern English literature from University of Toronto. Before that, she copy-edited textbooks for Pearson and worked in online marketing at Random House. She did her postdoc at Yale University in 2013-2014. Emma teaches university and college writing at Seneca College and tutors young readers in her spare time.
For more details about Emma, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmagorst/
Continue reading “Reading for Culture with Emma: The Western Literature Book Club at EAWLC 2022”
* We are constantly recruiting native English-speaking facilitator volunteers for the English Social Conversation program! Please see the invitation message at the end of this announcement.
Have you ever wondered what to talk about in a social conversation? Or as an immigrant do you sometimes feel it is difficult to join your local co-workers’ conversation because you don’t know the people or things they are talking about, or you have some everyday questions that you would like to know how local people would think or deal with? Or do you just want to find a safe, relaxing and friendly environment to talk to some native English speakers, and enjoy a pleasant conversation?
Judith Lawrence and her native English-speaking volunteer team are kindly facilitating Social Conversations to address those questions for you at the East and West Learning Connections. They come from all walks of life. We are so delighted to have a group of open-minded, friendly and fun people as our facilitators! You are welcome to bring questions of interest to the breakout rooms. We try to keep a ratio of facilitators to participants at maximum around 1 to 4 in every session.
Time:Every 1st Wednesday of the month at 8-9 P.M. Eastern Time, except for summer and winter breaks.
In 2022, it is March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1, September 7, October 5, and November 2.
Please note you will need to register for each of the above dates. Registration for the month is open right after the previous session is finished.
Zoom registration link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIscO6oqD4uE9I4m3zjcUvl4TeGS1lLMJhZ
Zoom room will open 15 minutes prior. Please be on time.
Cost: Free
For inquiries, comments, or sending over topics of interest, please write to info@eawlc.org. Thank you!
Message from Judith:
“CASUAL Conversations
I am inviting you to join me in English conversation in the comfort of your home on zoom! We can talk about many topics and learn from each other. I am a retired high school teacher who has spent many years travelling the world. I like reading, and am running an audio book club. I have been to the East and West Learning Connections a few times, and wanted to volunteer.”
The experiences, thoughts and ideas exchanged between facilitators and participants are from individual perspectives only, and do not represent the opinions of our organization or any specific community on the whole. We proudly promote conversations of this kind so people of different cultural backgrounds get to know each other a bit more at an individual level.
Professionals, students or home-makers, everyone is welcome to join us, and have English talks with our awesome conversationalists!
* Finally, here is a short introduction of the program. If you know some native English-speaker who could be a good communicator, and would like to come and help as a facilitator, please feel free to forward the message — it’s an invitation!
“The East and West Learning Connections is a federally registered non-profit organization that helps people of different heritages break cultural barriers and get connected through learning, communicating and volunteering opportunities. We are running a free English Conversation program to help immigrants improve conversational skills in social settings. We cordially invite native English speakers to join us as volunteer conversation facilitators. It is a good opportunity to share your knowledge and perspective, plus to exchange thoughts and life experience with neighbours of different cultural backgrounds. The attendees are mostly well-educated, first generation immigrants who would love to learn more about the society, people and customs here in Canada. We hope everybody at the event will have a good time talking to one another!”