June 2026 Vol 8 Issue 6
Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):
Teaching English as a Second Language to Economic Immigrants
Let us help you tell your story!
Welcome Mid-June 2026!
After many days of grey, rainy (and windy) weather, Saskatonians have been craving sunshine and warmth to accompany the city’s many upcoming summer festlivities:
The Children’s Festival recently passed and the city excitedly prepares for another season of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan; the Saskatoon Jazz Festival and the Saskatoon Fringe Festival, among many events that will bring welcome foot traffic to downtown Saskatoon and to Broadway Avenue.
Sum Theatre has staged multiple plays in parks around the city and continues until month’s end. Ground Yoga will hold classes in Rotary Park for both new and expert participants. Open-air salsa dancing continues at River Landing, along with a spray park, outdoor basketball, elliptical machines, and a nearby ice cream stand!
The higher water levels of the South Saskatchewan River, after a snowy winter and with water descending from the Rockies, will allow the Prairie Lily river cruise to enjoy a busy season.
And not far from town are free trails to hike (and naturalists to present local flora and fauna) at Beaver Creek.
If a more cultivated garden appeals, our Berry Barn on Valley Road is happy to oblige, along with a restaurant that serves locally grown Saskatoon berries and Ukrainian perogies.
Thursday “Happy Hour” will return to the roof-top patio of the Remai Modern Museum this summer. The museum also offers free art activities for youth on Thursday afternoons.
Canada Day will feature vibrant fireworks, food trucks, face-painting and other activities at River Landing for city dwellers and visitors.
The Saskatoon Public Library now offers free family passes to our archaeological wonder, Wanuskewin Heritage Park (which awaits the results of its application for UNESCO World Heritage status). Seven-day passes are also available to camp for free in our regional parks (now until September 8th). Call the Frances Morrison Library for more information.
As the above (incomplete) list shows, there’s much fun to be had this summer in Saskatoon and area. This topic will be the mainstay of an ESL presentation I’ll deliver to two of my clients’ large classes next month.
The above kind of real-time, low cost activities will take many of us (I hope) out-of-doors this summer. Unplugging from tech and connecting with the outdoors is the advice of American marketing guru, Jade Bonacolta. What she calls “old soul” activities, were once the mainstay of our grandparents–reading books, getting exercise in the outdoors, taking in cultural events, and more.
These activities can restore some of the joy and energy that digital life (including AI) often takes from us, most of the year.
With the above lengthy introduction to “fun in the city,” good reader, I wish you two or three months ahead filled with adventure and pleasure, when you can enjoy the exhilaration of Saskatoon’s fun-filled summer.
And whether mid-calendar or in August, please share your tales of adventures with me for a future issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter.”
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Shih
Principal
Storytelling Communications
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IN THIS ISSUE:
ARTICLE ONE: On “Old Soul” Living with Jade Bonacolta
SHOP NEWS
ABOUT US
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Main Article: “Old Soul” living with Jade Bonacolta
In many ways, marketing guru, Jade Bonacolta, seems to be an exponent of late digital times, leading an ambitious online marketing program, “Archimedes” (with fellow marketers Ben Meer and Colby Kultgen) that boasts a high-level of international subscribers. She worked as a turbo-charged Google executive and has thrived in these challenging, high-tech times.
Yet Bonacolta reflects on the need to slow down and go off-line– advice I find especially relevant when the fleeting season of summer arrives (in Saskatchewan). I shared some of her insights last summer in TYSN. But they seem even more relevant today, while professionals debate the millions spent on cooling and cultivating AI developing technology, while children and underearning members of our local communities struggle to secure food and shelter.
She writes: “What if our grandparents had it right all along? They started their mornings with the newspaper and coffee—not scrolling through social media. They cooked Sunday dinners from scratch. They walked to the store and actually talked to their neighbors along the way.”
By contrast to them, we have more conveniences and technology but “we’re more anxious, distracted and lonely than ever. Why? Because our nervous systems were never designed for this. Constant notifications. Breaking news alerts. Dating app swipes. The happiest people I know have figured out what our grandparents knew instinctively: offline is the new luxury.”
She advocates that we all find more “freedom” offline this summer, and suggest cultivating six consciously “old-soul habits” to slow down our minds and bodies.
Here they are:
(1) Instead of asking ChatGPT for a simple recipe, ask your mom, your sibling, or your friends who love to cook.
(2) Instead of Ubering for baking ingredients at the last minute, knock on your neighbor’s door. They’re often happy to help, and it can be delightful to build a small community with the people who live close to you. (Offering your neighbour a few dollars, or later giving them a small coffee gift card will help to cultivate kindness between you.)
(3) Instead of texting or posting online to a friend, “Happy Birthday,” call them and talk for a while. You’ll be so glad to hear their voice. And they’ll remember your call long after they’ve forgotten the 17 emoji-filled texts they got that day,” Bonacolta says.
(4) Instead of doom-scrolling in bed at night, read a few chapters of a really good book. It does wonders for your mind (and your quality of sleep). (On my bedside table are Anne Lamott and Seth Godin. . . .)
(5) Instead of listening to a podcast or ebook when you walk, she writes, “give your mind some whitespace.” You’ll get the best ideas, in the course of walking (as writers including Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and, much more recently, editor Daphne Gray-Grant have all argued).
(6) Instead of checking emails in line for coffee, smile and say hi to the person next to you: “You never know what it could lead to. A new friend. A business opportunity. A moment that makes someone’s day. Or maybe just a small reminder that the world is still full of good people.”
These six “old-soul” habits require “more effort upfront, but they pay enormous dividends in the long run,” Bonacolta concludes.
Calling your mom or a friend for their chicken recipe will take more time than using AI. But they’ll feel far closer to you and you’ll remember that feeling for days, she adds.
Similarly, “knocking on your neighbor’s door could feel slightly awkward at first. But that small moment of courage could turn into years of friendship.”
Reading a book demands more focus and effort than “doom-scrolling.” But that novel, poetry or essay “will nourish your mind in a way that no algorithm ever could.”
When our world “pull[s] us further apart from each other,” Bonacolta writes, “it promises you convenience, but it doesn’t mention the cost hidden in fine print at the bottom. Connection.” Emotional connection.
The advent of lighter weather this summer (especially on the Prairies) and the reality that many of us take a short “pause” in the year for holidays, make this the ideal time to seek connection over convenience; collaboration over competition; in sum, “old soul” activities.
The bonds that we forge and memories we make can serve us for years (not just days or moments) ahead.
It’s up to us to cultivate these “old soul” activities. High-octane, former Google executives like Jade Bonacolta see the need for them. We smaller fry should, too.
I wish you, good reader, a summer blessed with “old soul” activities and the emotional revitalization it can bring you.
And now it’s your turn: How often do you set technology aside to live in an old-fashioned, connected way? What difference does it bring to your soul?
Please write in; I’d be delighted to hear back from you.
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SHOP NEWS:
I’m glad to share this month that I have been working with newcomers on idiomatic pronunciation and accent modification. They are employed at a manufacturing company in Saskatoon’s industrial region.
While the work can be challenging, I’m glad to work with adult learners from across Europe and Asia. As they strive to integrate into our community and economy, I encourage them to listen and speak more precisely, in a context of encouragement and support.
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Thanks are due to my ESL mentor and friend, Steve Cavan, for sharing resources in recent months. While diving deeply into numerous books, I’ve planned better classes, thanks in part to his insights. (He has logged in thousands of hours and multiple languages, over italki.com).
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I greatly appreciate the nearly weekly webinars on professional issues for ESL teachers, offered by my former training institute, TEFL.org, by host Carl Cameron Day and tech strategist, Alan Moir.
These two gifted and experienced teachers share useful knowledge and hands-on, marketing strategies in their presentations and on-demand Q&A periods.
I have no doubt that TEFL.org has earned its B-Corps certification status for responsible company culture, and fair treatment of both learners and teachers.
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Thank you very much to a new and valued contact, Tahirih, in leadership, who shared conversation with me last month about building English fluency among some non-native speakers in Saskatoon and area.
It was a delight to meet Tahirih (and to learn the correct pronunciation of her beautiful Persian first name). I greatly appreciated her time, insights and sharing, which I have worked with, since.
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More in the direction of “old soul” time, I send a warm nod to the owners of Fable Ice Cream on Avenue H (in Holiday Park, across from Riversdale Park) that offers the city’s best and freshest artisan ice cream, made with local ingredients, served in delicious sugar-cones (or cups) by neighbourhood youth.
I especially enjoyed a scoop of “Key Lime Pie” flavoured ice cream with one of several friends whom I visit there. But in fact, I’ve enjoyed all of the confections Fable has served, over the past two summers!
It’s a treat well worth a little added cost and I remember the advice (from both a nutritionist and a friend) that eating such a treat, away from home, is less likely to derail one’s eating habits than buying a carton of (the inferior) Haagen Dazs every week from the grocery store.
And how great to support a local business, too!
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And thank you, good readers, for continuing to read and reflect on this mid-month newsletter, now 15 years in production!
As always, I’m grateful to receive your comments and suggestions for future issues!
There are always new people to thank and new entrepreneurs to promote.
But for now, this is a wrap for mid-June!
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