This is an English lesson designed to help you practice and improve your English listening and pronunciation skills. 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.

Story: A public holiday in Canada!
Pronunciation explanation: When the letters ‘ci’ together in a word are pronounced ‘sh.’

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) What is May 24th called?

2) Who is Queen Victoria?

3) Why does Canada celebrate a British queen?

4) What do we do on this day?

5) Who is Canada’s head of state?

Transcript

Today is May 24th. It’s a public holiday in Canada and the last day of a 3-day weekend! It’s Victoria Day today, and we call the entire weekend the ‘Victoria Day Long Weekend.’

May 24th is Queen Victoria’s birthday. I can hear you asking, ‘who?’ She was the Queen of the British Empire from 1837 – 1901. She is the longest-serving British monarch in history, and the longest-serving female monarch in the world. When she became queen, the land that is now the country of Canada was part of the British Empire. During her reign, the British Empire greatly expanded, and became the dominant world power. Also during her reign, Canada officially became a country, although we were still part of the British Empire.

The Victoria Day Long Weekend is also considered the unofficial start of summer! It’s the weekend that people open up their cottages and start planting their gardens. Winter is long gone, so there is no longer a threat of snow or frost!

Some people celebrate Victoria Day by attending a parade or setting off fireworks. Some people spend the day relaxing, or having picnics or barbecues with friends. What goes better with a barbecue on a beautiful summer day than beer?! For beer companies, this is one of their biggest selling weekends! It helps that in Canada, one way to buy beer is in a case of 24 bottles, which in Canadian slang is called ‘a two-four.’ Amongst young people this weekend is also known as ‘the May two-four weekend.’

Strangely, we’re the only country that celebrates Queen Victoria’s birthday with a public holiday. It’s rumoured that she never actually visited Canada! Furthermore, it’s a moveable holiday, so Victoria Day doesn’t always fall on her actual May 24th birthday. To ensure that Victoria Day would always fall on a Monday, thereby making it a long weekend, it is always on the last Monday before May 25th.

Some people think that celebrating a dead British queen is antiquated, but I think it’s an important part of our history. Canada is still part of the British Commonwealth, and the current queen, Elizabeth II, is still our head of state. Queen Elizabeth II is on one side of all our coins she’s on our $20 bill! For a lot of people in Canada, Victoria Day is just as important to our country as Canada Day [July 1st] is!

Discussion Questions:

Do you celebrate the birthday of any kings or queens in your country?

What holiday do you enjoy celebrating?

You can discuss these questions in the comments below!

Pronunciation – when ‘ci’ is pronounced ‘sh’

In the story, I used the word ‘unofficial.’ Can you hear the ‘sh’ sound in ‘unofficial’?

Sometimes in English, the letters ‘ci’ together in a word are pronounced ‘sh.’ Listen carefully and repeat after me:

appreciate
efficient
official
social
special
facial
physician
musician
politician
magician
delicious
suspicious
vicious
precious

Remember, the letters ‘ci’ together are not always pronounced ‘sh,’ for example listen carefully to the following words:

accident
science
cigarette
dancing

In each of those words, the letters ‘ci’ are together, but are not pronounced ‘sh.’

Vocabulary

a public holiday
Today is May 24th. It’s a public holiday in Canada …
= a day officially recognized the government; most businesses are closed on this day, and most people don’t have to go to work

a long weekend
…we call the entire weekend the ‘Victoria Day long weekend.’
= a 3- or 4- weekend; when a public holiday occurs on a Friday and/or a Monday

a monarch
She is the longest-serving British monarch in history,…
= a king or queen

a cottage
It’s the weekend that people open up their cottages…
= a small house, usually a summer home somewhere in the countryside

antiquated
Some people think that celebrating a dead British queen is antiquated…
= old-fashioned, out-of-date, irrelevant to modern society