{"id":612,"date":"2024-03-10T05:53:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T05:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/172.105.28.161\/cms\/?post_type=news&p=612"},"modified":"2025-03-24T18:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:21:07","slug":"where-have-we-come-from-and-where-are-we-going","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/nych.ca\/cms\/news\/where-have-we-come-from-and-where-are-we-going\/","title":{"rendered":"Where have we come from and where are we going?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The last I can remember is being at the North York Central Library on March 4, 2020.\u00a0 This was just a week before lockdown.\u00a0 We were all huddled together in a small meeting room for our weekly English Conversation Circle.\u00a0 There were four groups of approximately five participants in each group, talking, laughing, and sharing stories.\u00a0 Soon after that meeting, we were informed NO MORE SESSIONS AT THE LIBRARY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.\u00a0 COVID 19 hit hard and out of the blue.<\/p>\n

During the winter session, when things were still normal, the volunteers had been approached, about making a presentation on topics related to Canadian culture.\u00a0 One talk I gave was focused on Famous Canadians.\u00a0 Since music binds us together, I chose Leonard Cohen\u2019s HALLELUJAH<\/em><\/strong> which we all sang together with great fervor. Energy and excitement could be felt around the room. Oh, how we yearn to sing HALLELUJAH<\/em><\/strong> again, when the vaccines have been administered and herd immunity has been reached.<\/p>\n

In another talk, I spoke about Canadian Heroes.\u00a0 One such example I gave was Dr. Robert Banting, the founder of insulin. Little did I know that in the next few months populations around the world would be depending on vaccines for COVID 19.\u00a0 These research scientists are saving our lives!<\/p>\n

In order to keep contact with our participants, NYCH quickly acted and created ways to keep learning consistent.\u00a0 ZOOM was introduced and thanks to the patient staff, Maxine McCoy, Maria Antonietta Crupi, and Shaobin Zhang, I am able to continue helping the participants to improve their conversation skills.\u00a0 I found it very challenging to learn the ZOOM program, as I am not a tech person.\u00a0 I really appreciate the guidance of the Canada Connects Program Workers who are supervising my sessions.<\/p>\n

Soon after learning ZOOM, the volunteers were asked to prepare their own lesson plans.\u00a0 I decided I must find creative ways to keep the sessions fun. So, Fun Fridays began.\u00a0 My main goal was to keep the participants \u201cthinking outside the box.\u201d\u00a0 I did much research and \u201cgoogled\u201d everything that I could think of to get ideas.<\/p>\n

These are some of my favorite types of exercises and techniques I implemented:<\/p>\n