Have you ever wondered what kinds of animals live in Canadian cities? How about the wild animals that live in the vast wilderness of Canada? Join Andrew and Morag as they talk about Canadian wildlife in this special listener-requested Simplified Speech episode.

Fun fact

Orcas, also called killer whales, are found in all Canadian oceans. They don’t have any natural predators, live in family groups called pods, and can grow to weigh up to 5 tonnes and measure up to 9 metres!

Expressions included in the learning materials

* To pop up

* Loud and clear

* To be bad news

* Down south/up north/out west/back east

* Leave it at that

Sample Dialogue

Andrew:

we’re going to do a Simplified Speech episode where we

have a natural conversation and we use normal, everyday vocabulary, but

we speak at a slower pace than we would in our regular lives. Let’s kick it

off, let’s start the episode. And I’m curious, Morag, what is your favourite

Canadian animal?

Morag:

Mmm, that’s a bit of a tough one. I think it would have to be the seal.

Andrew:

The seal. I wasn’t expecting that answer. OK, why a seal?

Morag:

Well, I love the ocean; I’m definitely a coastal girl. And they’re so cute. Oh,

my God, little baby seal eyes, like they just have these giant, brown eyes

and they come, and they’re fat and adorable and really friendly, so if you

are out on a wharf, say, on either coast, west coast or east coast—pretty

sure on the east coast, definitely west—you will get these seals that come

up and say hello, and just sort of pop up. They are the cutest things in the

world, Andrew.

Andrew:

They are cute. I know, when I lived in Victoria, occasionally I would go to

the harbour downtown, and there’s a couple of seals that just hang out

there all the time. And yeah, they come up and say hello. And they’re very

cute, you’re right.

Morag:

They’re adorable. They’re also—I did a lot of kayaking when I was a kid in

Victoria—and they’re some of the sea creatures, when you are doing sea

kayaking, that aren’t scary when they come say hi. Because if you come too

close to a whale, that can be kind of dangerous, but if a seal comes up and

says hello, it’s just nice.

Andrew:

Now, you just touched upon my favourite Canadian sea creature.

Morag:

The whale?

Andrew:

The orca whale. The killer whale.

Morag:

Oh, the orca. OK, because it has two names, yeah, the orca whale or the

killer whale, and it’s a sort of image of the west coast. It’s used a lot in First

Nations art, and is all over west coast-ey things, you know.

Andrew:

Yeah, it’s a very iconic animal.

 

 

 

 

 

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast