Today we surprised our March teachers of the month in class.  Every month our students have a chance to vote for their favorite teacher.  It is a simple ballot with only two questions:  Name your favorite teacher?  and the reason?  This second questions is super important as we have the opportunity to collect so much wonderful feedback from our students about their teachers.  We take the time to type up all the comments and proudly display them in the teacher’s room.  We love sharing this feedback with our teachers to continue to motivate them, to show our appreciation to them and to demonstrate how very much they are loved by their students!  It simply creates such a positive atmosphere at the centre! This month, Shayan and Essadia received the most votes!  We first surprised Shayan in class.  Today is also his Birthday, so in addition to presenting  him with his teacher of the month certificate and gift, we brought him a cake to share with this students!  We all sang “Happy Birthday” and his students cheered for their favorite teacher!  They all posed very proudly in the picture. Next, we surprised Essadia with her certificate and gift.  Essadia is our most senior teacher and still holds the record for the most teacher of the month wins!  Her students absolutely adore her.  She is dynamic, enthusiastic and passionate in the classroom! We want to thank all our students for taking the time to vote and for leaving such wonderful comments about their teachers. We are delighted to share them all with you: She is very, very, very good! He is the best! He is so fun! Good classes. She’s so nice! Her classes are very dynamic! He is funny. He is good! He cares about the students learning process. Good! Les … Read more

Besides busying themselves with their English or French classes today, our students at EC Montreal had a lot of extra sweets on their plates, delicious sweets, I might add. This afternoon, students participated in an Easter cupcake and cookie decorating activity!  The student lounge came to life with laughter and fun!  Students spent the afternoon creating edible art and showing off their creations!  They had a variety of Easter toppings to choose from.  We had miniature eggs, jelly beans, sprinkles, marshmallows and different colored frosting! The lounge was bursting with pastel colors and the sweet scent of candy!  It was a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon in Montreal!  Many students saved a few treats to share with their friends and homestay hosts! A reminder that Easter is this Sunday, April 1st.  EC Montreal will be closed on Good Friday.  We hope everyone enjoys the long Easter weekend!  There is a 3-day trip to Toronto & Niagara Falls and there are also many great things to do in the city! Happy Easter from your EC Montreal family! Join our EC Montreal English language school!

Gastronomy month is just around the corner at EC Montreal and we have more good news to share with you!  OpenTable has named Montreal the second-best city in Canada for having the best nightlife restaurants. OpenTable picked 100 of Canada’s top eateries for a night out and 21 of those are in Montreal! Toronto came in top place with 30 of the city’s restaurants making the list. OpenTable based their ranking on 550,000 restaurant reviews submitted by diners for more than 2,500 restaurants in Canada. This is what OpenTable had to say about Montreal: “With a factsheet of $3.6 billion dollars in 2017 and attracting some 6 million tourists, Montreal’s ongoing festivities, busting food scene and nightlife have built the city a solid reputation with locals and tourists alike”. The top 5 restaurants in Montreal for a night out according to OpenTable are: Bevo bar & Pizzeria Brasserie 701 Brasserie ! Damas Deville Dinerbar Another great ranking for Montreal and another great reason to choose Montreal for your language learning!  Make sure to pack your appetites! Join our EC Montreal English language school!

April is Gastronomy month in Montreal.  It is a time to celebrate food and drinks in the city! At EC Montreal, most of our social events will include food!  We will be giving our students a taste of Montreal by introducing them to poutine, sushi making lessons, cupcake decorating and an international potluck picnic to conclude the month!  Our cultural outings will include a taste of Montreal bagels, a tour of the Jean Talon market and other group dinners. In addition, we just learned today that the week of April 9 to April 15, Montreal will be hosting Mac n’ Cheese week! There is a long list of restaurants participating in this festival!  All diners will have a chance to vote for their favorite mac ‘n cheese.  The winning restaurant will be crowed at the end of the event!  The restaurants are putting together an impressive and very diverse mac ‘n cheese creations!  You can find mac ‘n cheese sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, tacos and salads.  The higher end restaurants are adding some very special ingredients such as fois gras, truffles and lobster! We will make sure to include a mac ‘n cheese outing for our students during the month of April at EC Montreal! For a list of all the participating restaurants refer to this link: http://www.macncheeseweek.com/ Bon appetit from all of us at EC Montreal! Join our EC Montreal English language school!  

The maple themed activities continued this week at EC Montreal.  We held a tea and conversation activity for our students.  We had delicious maple tea brewing and maple cookies.  Although yesterday was the first day of spring, it has been unseasonably cold in Montreal.  The cup of warm tea was just what our students needed before heading outside to the -10 degree temperature outside. The students lounged around with their friends sipping tea and chatting up a storm! At EC Montreal we like to create these opportunities for students to interact with one another and to make new friends.  These opportunities are especially important for new students or those students who are shy and have difficulty socializing. Creating a sense of an EC community at the school is also our goal through these weekly complimentary activities.  We want the students to stay at the school as much as possible bonding with their fellow school mates. We look forward to our last March activity next week, when we will be an Easter treat decorating activity! Join our EC Montreal English language school!  

It is maple season in the province of Quebec and EC Montreal is introducing our students to everything maple!  We have already had a maple festival at the school, a pancake breakfast and a maple tea and conversation activity in the student lounge.  We also offered our students an excursion to a maple farm and sugar shack last weekend!  We still can’t get enough maple! We are thrilled to announce that on April 28 and 29, Festival Gueule D’érable will take place at the Quai Jacques-Cartier in the Old Port.  It is a festival dedicated to everything maple! The festival will include food trucks, live music and other fun activities like axe throwing, pop-up shops, taffy tasting and beer kiosks. You can purchase your tickets online for only $18. Old Montreal is always a beautiful place to visit on the weekend!  It will be a lot sweeter participating in this annual maple festival! Join our EC Montreal English language school!  

Attention EC Montreal students, more good news for the city of Montreal!  We have just been named the 4th best city in North America for Quality of Life in the annual Mercer survey report. The Mercer survey looked at 231 cities around the world and focused their ranking based on the following criteria: Political and social environment Economic environment Socio-cultural environment Medical and health considerations Schools and education Public services and transportation Recreation Consumer goods Housing Natural environment Montreal made the top 30 worldwide list at the 21st spot! We are happy to report that other EC North America destinations made the top 10 list.  Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, Boston and New York were among the best cities on the report. Another great reason to choose Montreal when deciding where to learn English or French! Join our EC Montreal English language school!

EC Montreal has been hosting a small group of students from the Showa school.  Sadly, this is their last week at EC.  Before their departure, we asked them to share their experience.  We are happy to share their feedback below: Wakana Usuda I learned especially grammar and listening.  I don’t know how much I improved but I was a level up the class before I came here.  I think that my communication ability has improved through the communication and discussion with my friends. My favorite activity was visiting the ice hotel in Quebec City.  It was a very beautiful spot and I will never forget the views.   Nagomi Umetsu The reason I chose Montreal is that I like historical cities and I also learn French so I want to hear native French.  When I came here, I could not communicate with teachers and friends because I did not have confidence in my English.  Now, I have a positive attitude for my communication.  I am not afraid of making mistakes. I took the English in the city class.  It was the best class for me because members are talking all the time, discussing interesting things deeply and I could know about the city of Montreal. I liked my host family so much.  They prepared healthy and delicious meals every time, they talked with me and I shared Japanese culture and enjoyed our time together on the weekend. Thank you so much.   Riko Kurata Montreal has a lot of historical places and nature.  I learned how to debate in English.  I was surprised that my classmates speak a lot in class and they have strong opinions about government or global issues.  So, I thought that I have to think about those things more and read more newspapers.   My favorite EC … Read more

Last Friday, EC Montreal’s staff and teachers participated in a delicious team-building activity.  We went to the Lincoln Apartment Bakery and learned how to make macarons! Many EC Montreal gastronomy students have taken baking lessons with Jessica McGovern at the Lincoln Apartment Bakery.  She is author of a baking book also titled Lincoln Apartment Bakery and host of a baking show called “Flour Power”.  There is such a happy vibe at the bakery.  Everything is so pretty and girly – even the fridge is pink!  It is so clear that Jessica loves what she does.  She gave us a warm welcome and was the perfect hostess to our team-building event! We were all asked to put on an apron and take a seat around the dining table.  She then explained to us how macarons are made.  We all did our part in the production process – beating, mixing, separating eggs and piping! While the macarons were baking, she had prepared a wonderful wine and cheese tasting. When the macarons were ready, she served us tea and we worked on the delicious fillings.  We created our own macarons and we finally got to taste our wonderful creations! We were given cellophane bags to wrap up our leftovers so we can show them off to our friends! We had a lovely afternoon bonding over baking!  It is so important for us to find time to do fun things as a team outside of our work environment.  The opportunities really bring us closer together and enforce the family environment feel within our EC team. We purchased a copy of her cookbook and she signed a copy for us!  We will show it to all our gastronomy plus students at EC! Join our English or French plus gastronomy programme and get a delicious taste … Read more

The St. Patrick’s Day weekend is finally here!  It is a weekend that is much anticipated in Montreal! National Geographic has named Montreal as the 6th best place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  We ranked higher than any city in Ireland, surprisingly! Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is the largest of its kind in all of Canada and has a pretty high ranking in world-wide standings. Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Day parade has been going on since 1824.  The history of this Irish holiday in Montreal goes back to festivities taking place as far back as 1759 when Irish soldiers stationed here in town began to celebrate their Nation’s holiday. Here are the top 10 destinations to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the world: New York City Boston Chicago Savannah Montserrat Montreal Dublin Birmingham Cabo Roig Auckland Join our EC Montreal students by attending the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday, March 18.  Make sure you go out to an Irish pub on Saturday, March 17 to get a taste of a traditional St. Paddy’s day celebration! Whatever you choose to do, drink in moderation and stay safe. Join our EC Montreal English language school!