Community Forum

Hello everyone, my name is Blake Howe and I am the creator of Accelerate English. The original purpose of AE was to publish a series of e-books for English learners to use in order to self-study, and now I am excited to expand into creating a community through this forum! Currently, there are 3 purposes for this community and forum: 1. To create a place where you can ask questions about English and get answers to those questions. 2. To provide a place where people either visiting or living in Canada can share information, advice, and resources with each other to make the transition to Canada easier. 3. To make it easier for former students from my class to keep in touch with each other and also grow their network. I would like to explain my role in these three purposes below: Regarding the "English" discussion page, you are more than welcome to post questions about a word, phrase, or grammar point in English that you are curious about, and I will do my best to answer it when it's possible. However, please note that a complete answer to a complex question is not always easy to provide in a forum. For example, the general question: "Can you explain present perfect tense?" is not an easy one to answer and requires a full lesson that would take an hour in a classroom and a few pages of a textbook, so it would be difficult to answer this question completely in a forum response. I can try to give a basic answer, but I wouldn't be able to give a complete answer. Nonetheless, please feel free to ask what you would like to know and I will do my best to respond appropriately to as many questions as possible. Regarding the "Living in Canada" discussion page, I am a Canadian and have lived in Canada my whole life (except for 2 years in Korea!), so I am familiar with Canada but I have not experienced the process of moving here as a foreigner. Therefore, the people joining this community can be a better source of information related to common questions and challenges during the process of moving to Canada as a new country. I can certainly answer some questions about Canada too, but if you ask "where can I get the cheapest car rental in Toronto?", it will be difficult to answer as I don't live in Toronto or rent cars, so Google probably knows better than me! For this subject, please note that I cannot provide any information about visas, immigration, or any other legal process related to moving to Canada. I am not experienced in this area and I cannot risk giving an incorrect answer that may affect someone's opportunity to move to Canada. The information provided by others in this forum is not legal advice and you should always consult with the appropriate professionals. I will visit the "Living in Canada" page occasionally and provide any answers that I can, but I will be putting most of my attention towards the English discussion page, as English advice is where my time, energy, and expertise is most useful. Other members of the community are most welcome to answer each other's questions whenever possible. Finally, with respect to the "Networking" discussion page, I will play a minimal role in this page because it's mainly for former classmates to keep in touch and network with each other. This could be a great way to inform people that will be visiting their country, to help each other with career opportunities or connections if you are living in the same country, or just simply to say hello to a classmate from the past. All of this being said, I am delighted you have chosen to join our community and I hope that you find this a place where you can learn and grow and make new friends, too!