This is an English lesson designed to help you improve your English listening and pronunciation. The listening lesson is a short story about something that happened in my life in Canada. There is also a short pronunciation explanation about a word or sound I used in the story.

This week’s story is about Mother’s Day! The pronunciation explanations are the / ŋ / sound AND words with a silent ‘L’.

If you have trouble with your listening skills, here’s something that may help:
How to practice listening

Listen to the podcast:
*Try to listen at least once without looking at the words!

Download the podcast in .mp3 from Podbean.com or itunes!

Listening Comprehension Questions:

1. In Canada, what day was Mother’s Day on?

2. Who invented Mother’s Day?

3. Why did she want a day for honouring mothers?

4. What did I get my mother for Mother’s Day?

Transcript

What would we do without mothers? Throughout history, mothers have been celebrated for giving us life and taking care of us until we are ready to go out into the world on our own. Mothers dry our tears when we’re hurt and love us unconditionally. In Canada and the U.S., every year on the 2nd Sunday in May we celebrate Mother’s Day! This year it was on May 9th. It’s a day to thank our moms for everything they have done for us. People spend so much money on phone calls and gifts on Mother’s Day that it’s the second biggest holiday next to Christmas in terms of how much money is spent! Can you believe that?

I always thought Mother’s Day was invented by Hallmark to sell more cards, but actually it was invented by an American woman named Anna Jarvis. In 1907, she decided to have a ceremony to honour her mother who had died a couple years earlier. It probably would have been better if Ms. Jarvis had honoured her mother while she was still alive, but better late than never! They’d had an argument and Ms. Jarvis felt guilty that she was not able to make up with her mother before she died.

She later campaigned tirelessly for the day to be recognized across America, and in 1914 American President Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday on the 2nd Sunday in May! The funny thing is, Ms. Jarvis never became a mother herself! At some point in history, Canada decided to observe Mother’s Day on this day too.

May is the perfect time for Mother’s Day – it’s in the middle of spring so the weather is beautiful, and flowers are in full bloom everywhere! That’s why one of the most common things to do on Mother’s Day is to bring your mother some flowers! When I was a kid, we would always make something special for our mothers at school. Handmade gifts are always the best kind!

Last year we went out for dinner but, as you can imagine, restaurants are really busy on Mother’s Day, so this year my mom decided to have a quiet dinner at home. My mother really likes old movies, so this year I got her a catalogue from a movie company in the U.S. It has information on thousands of old movies, including some she had never heard of before. She can choose any movie from the catalogue, no matter how old, and have it put onto a DVD. She loved it and she was really excited about it.

Discussion Questions:

Do you celebrate Mother’s Day in your country? When is it?

What did you do for your mother on Mother’s Day?
-or-
What are you going to do for your mother on Mother’s Day?

You can discuss these questions in the comment section below!

Pronunciation
This week there are two pronunciation lessons!

Part I – the silent ‘l’
In the story title, I used the word ‘would.’ Can you hear the letter ‘l’ in this word? Of course, not – because the ‘l’ in ‘would’ is silent!

In some English words with an ‘l’ before a consonant, the ‘l’ is silent – it’s not pronounced. ‘Would’ sounds exactly like the word ‘wood.’

Other words in which the ‘l’ is silent include:

should
could
calm
talk
walk

Part II – the ‘ng’ sound
This sound is difficult for many English learners. Listen to the difference carefully:

thin – thing
ban – bank
run – rung

The front of your tongue does not touch the top of your mouth (like it does for the ‘n’ sound). Instead, raise the back part of your tongue, and the air (and sound!) comes out of your nose.

Other words with this sound include:

spring
thank
anchor
punctuation
young

Vocabulary


Hallmark
I always thought Mother’s Day was invented by Hallmark to sell more cards
= an American company that has many stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and sells cards for every occasion.

a holiday
= a day of celebration; a ‘public holiday’ means no one has to go work.
= it could also mean a vacation.

tirelessly
(adverb)
She later campaigned tirelessly …
= someone who does something with a lot of energy, without stopping and without getting tired

a catalogue
= a book with a list of everything you can buy from a particular company