December 2024 Vol 6 Issue 12
“Tell Your Story Newsletter”
Teaching English as a second language
Let us help you tell your story!
Welcome Mid-December, 2024!
In contrast to 2023, when Christmas saw virtually no snow and few days below -10 or -15 degrees (Celsius), this year Ol’ Man Winter packed an early punch (on November 18th) that has since stayed!
However, many of my readers have written me over the years to say they prefer a white Christmas, Advent, Hanukkah, or other celebration at this time of year. The snow can be beautiful.
Through the “Advent Appeal” program in my church, we have continued our
annual practice of collecting thousands of dollars worth of winter coats and
clothing, warm blankets, food and hygiene supplies for some of the city’s
burgeoning homeless population.
For this last issue of 2024, “Article One” revisits “Coping with Christmas,” a
publication of the American Hospice Foundation (AHF). Given the financial
struggles many face these days paying for housing and groceries, “coping” may be the “new normal” for many of us.
Entrepreneurs are studying markets, coping with the national postal strike and
leveraging new or renewed strategies to keep their businesses successful.
For those of us who care for others on a daily basis and/or who face complex
health problems ourselves, the AHF reminds us to be aware of our own emotional needs, so as to avoid burnout.
And in this month’s “Storytellers’ Corner,” I share a joke attributed to Oscar Wilde on exceptions to rules for spelling and pronunciation in the English language! As an ESL teacher, I find it warrants repeating, if you’ve seen it before.
In spite of inflation at our grocery stores and gas stations and other losses in these ongoing times, I hope that you, good reader, have warm and safe homes, not just this season, but throughout the year.
And if you (like me) are so blessed, I know you’ll share with those who are less so, whether through your “office pool,” the Salvation Army Kettle Campaign, or
similar work done by your faith or neighbourhood communities.
I also hope you’ll enjoy the final days of 2024 with family and friends, giving
thanks for the family, friends, mentors and clients who grace our lives. (Sometimes these roles overlap in wonderful ways!)
May you find peace this holiday season; and good health, happiness and prosperity in 2025!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth
Principal
Storytelling Communications
www.elizabethshih.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
ARTICLE 1: Feeling the Christmas blues? Here are some solutions (and
some hope!) . . . .
STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:
A joke on the (Christmas) potato: On the quirks of the English language
SHOP NEWS
ABOUT US
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Article One: Feeling the Christmas blues? Here are some solutions (and some hope!) . . .
For many of us, even if we have been blessed to enjoy Advent, Christmas,
Hanukkah or other spiritual traditions at this time of year, the holiday season can be painful.
Pain may come from to the loss of a loved one, a job or business, separation from a “significant other,” health challenges or financial difficulties, the excessive pressure to buy and give, and so on. The so-called “holiday season” can in reality be anything but “ho-ho-ho.”
This holiday survival guide, written originally by the American Hospice
Foundation, offers some ideas that may help as we plan (or, choose not to plan)
holiday festivities.
Please read on and share with others who may find this helpful.
And please know you are not alone if you have “holiday blues,” and that it is
important to live through the holiday season on your own terms.
Christmas or Holiday cards (choose one like these):
1. Mail (if Canada Post’s labour strike ends), or email to save on stationery and
postage
2. Shorten your list
3. Include a Christmas letter that you’ve written yourself
4. Skip it this year
Christmas or Holiday music (choose one like these):
1. Enjoy as usual
2. Shop early, to avoid Christmas music
3. Avoid turning the radio on
4. Listen to the music and allow yourself to feel sad (or to cry, if needed)
Decorations (choose one like these):
1. Decorate as usual
2. Let others do it
3. Choose not to have decorations
4. Have a special decoration for a loved one, who may have died or left
5. Modify your decorations
6. Make changes, such as putting up an artificial tree, instead of a real one
7. Ask for help from others
Shopping (choose one like these):
1. Shop as usual
2. Shop early
3. Make your gifts by hand
4. Make a list of gifts to buy
5. Shop online
6. Ask for help wrapping gifts
7. Shop with a friend
8. Give cash
9. Give baked goods
10. Ask for help
11. Give an “experience” gift, like a gift card to a much- loved restaurant, or a
concert or sporting event
12. Go giftless and (if possible) make a donation to charity
Traditions (choose one like these):
1. Keep the old traditions
2. Don’t attend Christmas parties
3. Open gifts on the usual day
4. Attend a worship service
5. Attend a totally different place of worship
6. Visit the cemetery
7. Attend Christmas or holiday parties
8. Travel to an entirely new place
9. Open gifts at another time
10. Do not attend a worship service
11. Light a special candle to honour a loved one
12. Bake the usual foods
13. Modify your baking and cooking, to save money
14. Buy the usual foods
15. Spent quiet time alone, in meditation or relaxation
Christmas or Holiday Dinner (choose one like these):
1. Prepare as usual
2. Invite friends over
3. Eat in a different location of the house
4. Go out to dinner (such as to a hotel restaurant), possibly with someone else who is alone
5. Eat alone, while listening to favourite music
6. Change the time of dinner
7. Have a buffet/potluck and share the clean-up, after
8. Ask for help
Post-Christmas and New Year’s Day (choose one like these):
1. Spend the days as usual
2. Avoid New Year’s parties
3. Spend time with only a few friends
4. Write in a journal about your hopes for the next year
5. Go out of town
6. Host a New Year’s Party
7. Go to a movie, watch a movie on a streaming service or even borrow a DVD
from the library (if it’s an old title)
8. Go to bed early and feel refreshed the next morning for the new year ahead
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A recent update on this holiday survival guide appeared from “Becoming
Minimalist,” over Facebook:
“De-cember:
De-clutter your home
De-tox your schedule
De-stress your mind
and De-cide what matters most.”
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And now it’s your turn: Does the Christmas, Hanukkah or holiday season present challenges for you? Please consider some of the above options to experience the holidays on your own terms.
And remember that crisis counselling is available 24/7, such as at number
9-8-8. Please do not suffer in silence.
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STORYTELLERS’ CORNER . . . .
STORYTELLERS’ CORNER: Words, Stories and Riddles on Writing and Editing . . .
A joke on the (Christmas) potato: On the quirks of the English language
For many cultures that will engage in Christmas, Ukrainian Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or other celebrations this winter, the lowly potato will be a part (in some cases, a staple) of the cuisine.
The potato may be thought “lowly,” as the late Queen Elizabeth the Second was reported to dislike the starchy vegetable (she apparently refused to have it served at dinners over which she presided).
Yet the potato has historically been an inexpensive, bland and versatile vegetable that easily becomes “comfort food” in holiday times (e.g. Bangers & Mash; Scalloped Potatoes; Latkes; Perogies; Poutine; etc).
Now, what has the potato to do with spelling or pronunciation of the English
language, you may ask? Well, I present from friends on Facebook a joke attributed to Oscar Wilde, on the underappreciated potato.
The word itself may be used to show some of the many exceptions that exist to the rules of English spelling and pronunciation! Exceptions that beset the newcomers who study English with me.
Buckle up! Here we go:
” If ‘GH’ can stand for ‘P‘ as in ‘Hiccough,’
If ‘OUGH’ stands for ‘O’ as in ‘Dough,’
If ‘PHTH’ stands for ‘T‘ in ‘Phthisis,’
If ‘EIGH’ stands for ‘A‘ as in ‘Neighbor,’
If ‘TTE’ stands for ‘T‘ as in ‘Gazette,’
If ‘EAU’ stands for ‘O‘ as in ‘Plateau,’ . . . .
Then the right way to spell (and pronounce) ‘POTATO’ should really be this:
‘GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU!’ ”
Now, if you try to explain the above (joke) to a newcomer to Canada, you may
soon join the late Queen in her distaste for the potato!
And now it’s your turn: Have holiday foods or activities familiar to you raised
challenges in the English language for you or others? Please write in and share
your stories for a future issue!
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SHOP NEWS:
Entrepreneur of the Month:
I’m pleased to introduce a new member to my writers’ group, “Saskatoon
Freelancers’ Roundtable”: Carmen Gilmore.
Carmen entered the freelance world after working in environmental and energy policy. Then, her “bread and butter” was writing briefing notes, memos and drafting policy.
For the past five years, family responsibilities have seen her hyper-focused on local environmental issues and on connecting families and children to nature, through art.
Carmen has experience in writing grants and annual reports for non-profits; and in creating marketing materials, websites and social media for small businesses. Her graduate degree in public policy keeps her interested in governance, lately on non-profit boards.
Like many freelancers, Carmen says she “tiptoed into communications work
through volunteer roles, putting her hand up to say, ‘I can write that
article/newsletter/report!'” A long-time enthusiast for heritage research, she is interested in place-based storytelling. Carmen created a history walk that landed her awards in both Provincial Heritage and in Regional Centre of Excellence UN Sustainable Development.
She enjoys creating hands-on learning resources on nature for families and educators.
To learn more about Carmen, or to explore the possibility of working with her,
please visit her website: https://www.woodlandartadventures.ca/
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Heartfelt thanks go out in this final issue of 2024 to friends, colleagues, followers and mentors who encourage me to facilitate language (ESL) classes; who respond to my blog postings and this monthly newsletter; who have coached or encouraged me to achieve greater clarity in entrepreneurial goals; and who have lightened some of the weight of elderly caregiving that I have carried for the past five years.
With apologies to anyone whose name I temporarily forget, here is a roundup of some of the truly beautiful people who regularly grace my professional and
personal lives:
Chief Visionary Officer, Monica Kreuger, and the amazing team at the Praxis
School of Entrepreneurship (PSE); English and ESL teacher, Steve
Cavan; Saskatchewan’s best entrepreneurial coach (and PSE facilitator), Deanna Litz, of Powerful Nature Coaching & Consulting, Inc.; Minister of Word and Sacrament, the very empathetic Rev. Roberto De Sandoli of St. Andrew’s
Presbyterian Church; the always supportive Ashleigh Mattern (of Vireo
Productions) and Julie Barnes (of Julie Barnes Creative Services) for co-leading our monthly writers’ group that we pioneered, more than 10 years ago, and for offering leads or contracts to fellow members, when available.
Fellow writers, including both Ashleigh and Julie, along with Merle (Massie)
McGowan, Adele Paul, Ashlyn George, Tara Kalyn, Meredith Hambrock, Carmen Gilmore and Dawn Loewen keep pushing the envelope as they write (illustrate and/or publish) their remarkable work.
A “thank you” and smile to the wonderful Katrina German for sending freelancer Carmen Gilmore to “Freelancers’ Roundtable”; and to Candiece Griffiths and Sydney Boulton, for connecting with us by prospecting through WESK or Editors SK.
Many of us in the writing world have shared insights on self-employment and
been the better for the camaraderie.
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Congratulations to my client and fellow writer, Greg Gilroy, on this month’s
publication of his memoir, Behind the Wheel: Ramblings of a Veteran Bus
Driver, which I had the pleasure of editing last summer and fall.
Fellow transit drivers and riders, past, present and future, will enjoy and benefit
from reading the stories of Greg’s 32+ years of driving city buses in Saskatoon.
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I’m also grateful, as always, for the support of dear friends, Erin Watson, Dani
VanDriel, Barbara McEown, MaryAnn Lyle, Martha Fergusson, Donna Briscoe,
Jane Campbell, Sharon Wiseman and other “St. Andrew’s women” (too numerous to name here), as well as lawyer, Ben Nussbaum, and–especially, this year, to parish nurse extraordinaire, Laura Van Loon.
With a grateful heart, I dedicate this issue of “TYSN” to Laura and her family.
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For providing me with a good home-office space, I am thankful to Colliers
McClocklin Ltd, including Gladys Fehr, Kirstin Halliday, Gabriela Valdez, Rick,
Ann and Brenda Dietner.
Thanks are due every year to Kanchan Manek and the Manek family of the Raj
Manek Mentorship Program, who since 1998 have provided monthly seminars and facilitated extraordinary relationships between junior entrepreneurs and seasoned mentors on the Prairies.
Thanks also go out to the team of Women Entrepreneurs of SK (WESK) for
hosting refreshing and collaborative networking events that prompted me to renew my membership well before the official start of their fiscal year in April, 2025.
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I have especially appreciated the chance to teach English phonics this past year to one of my (now graduated) students from North East Africa; I wish her every success in her future studies and career.
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At a time when senior care in our province is challenged and when many private care homes struggle to provide sufficient support at high costs, the geriatric transition ward at Saskatoon City Hospital provided a bulwark from the storm, for one of my family.
My family remains grateful to its staff (City Hospital) as well as to several of the hardworking staff at Sunnyside-Adventist Care Centre, where a “first bed” offered stability and support to my family.
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As we look back over the past year, I’m sure that you (like me) have experienced your own losses or disappointments–and not all small ones.
But I hope you have also felt the support and camaraderie of peers and
organizations in our friendly and beautiful city, for which we are grateful.
And . . . if you are, or know, a newcomer to Canada who wants to elevate their
degree of fluency in English (listening, speaking, reading and writing), please
reach out to me. (Email is usually fastest: shih.ea@gmail.com .) I’d be happy to
conduct a no-cost, 15-minute interview to assess the learner’s needs for English language lessons.
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Meantime, at the portal of a New Year, I wish all of you, good readers, the very
best!
Look out, 2025: Here we come!
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ABOUT US:
Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country.
Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now
help economic immigrants to land better jobs or secure larger contracts by
improving their language skills. . . . And I help major companies write and edit
their legacy stories.
Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant
website.
After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss services with you!
Please visit my website for more
information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca)