I'm Canadian and went to a Canadian University with a pretty good ESL program. Having grown up in an RCMP family, I knew all about being the new kid and ended u

I'm Canadian and went to a Canadian University with a pretty good ESL program. Having grown up in an RCMP family, I knew all about being the new kid and ended up volunteering fairly regularly with the ESL program. Taking people (particularly those from China) shopping in Canada was always fun. I'd make the standard small talk: (How's it going? Good, how about you? Good, loving/hating the weather?? Oh yeah, it's cold/hot/windy). And, inevitably, my poor charges would be standing behind me, rapidly trying to write down the exchange. I had three big problems: - explaining why I went through the ritual at every stop. - explaining why the weather is so important. - explaining what 'how zit going' means. Turns out that enunciating is not my biggest strength...:)