Teacher: I'm not sure that all people in Russia eat turkey for Thanksgiving. We have our specialties and the occasions to celebrate are different too. But still people can go shopping and get a turkey and roast it when they want something special to celebrate the end of the harvest time.

Pavel R., sophomore at the Chelyabinsk University: Can you tell us about your children? What are they?

Ernest Epp: My children are grown-ups. I'm a grandfather and our eldest son is 41, he is a history teacher at a high school; so he isn't a teenager any more. My daughter is 39. She is a medical doctor and does a lot of surgery. Our youngest son is 32. He is engaged in research in the field of medicine in British Columbia in the very west side of Canada. So I have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.

Galina: You should be very happy. Grandparents are usually very fond of their grandchildren.

Ernest Epp: Yes, indeed, I am. There is a saying in Canada: If we knew that grandchildren would be so nice we'd have them first!.

Olga: When young people get married they face lots of problems to cope with. And to have and raise children is especially expensive. Did you have problems while raising your children? Is it expensive in Canada?

Ernest Epp: Yes, it is. But very often both parents will have a job and they will hire a lady to take care of the baby; that is quite often. It is expensive, you know. The costs in Canada to raise a child from birth to 18 years of age generally are considered to be around 130 thousand Canadian dollars. But both parents earn salaries. The average salary for let's say a teacher starting out is approximately 35 thousand dollars a year. Because it is quite expensive the first 15 or so years they do not have so much. So we are careful. The new families are small. A family with three is large. Only people in farming area will have four sometimes five children.

Olga: Thank you, Mr. Epp. But I have one more question.

Ernest Epp: You must be a very active newspaper.

Olga: Yes, we really try to be in demand. Can teens in your country have a job?

Ernest Epp: Yes, they can do many things. If you are going to a McDonald's you'll see always teenagers. They work just everywhere, sometimes at a service station pumping gasoline into your car. In grocery shops, just part time, and the government say you must pay them minimum wage - approximately 6 dollars an hour. And that's okay so.

Anton: Dear friends, we don't have much time left, unfortunately. Only one more question, please.

Anastasia: Everyone knows that teenagers have problems. What are the most frequent teens' problems in Canada?

Ernest Epp: That's a good question. We do have some serious problems. Sometimes when parents get divorced the children get very frustrated, they do not feel stable. Adolescents, these are children of 13 to 16 years of age, they start misbehaving in school and they have trouble with alcohol. You have to be 19 to buy alcohol but they still get. There are not many of them. Mostly children are very nice. One more problem we do have is teens in the first nations - Indian people. Teenage girls have babies - too many - that is a problem. How to cope with them? I think that school and parents should work together with the community and government. It is very important that society: home, the police, the school, the health service - they all work together so that the little one grows up in a healthy social environment.

Anton: Thank you so much, Sir, that you could come to share with our listeners your life experience and give us the chance to get to know more about Canada. Thank you again, and I wish only this broadcast could be listened to in your home city of Saskatoon, Canada and your fellow citizens could learn that we in Zlatoust, Russia admire their countryman Dr. Ernest Epp! We wish every success to you and to your family!

Teacher to students: Thank you to everyone for your contribution. Your have to do some writing at home. It is to be in a form of an article for your magazine or newspaper about this meeting. Optional it can be a letter to your friend or entry into a feelings diary.

Teacher to the guest: Dear Mr. Epp, we appreciate very much that you could come and be here with us.

Ernest Epp: It was very nice to be here and I would like to see what you write in your journals. This was an excellent experience for me. You were creative and fluent. I wish you all the best and some day I might see you in Canada.

OUTCOME OF THE PROJECT

"Places and Faces on Radio Europe Plus Zlatoust”

Anastasia P.: I liked this press conference very much. Dr. Epp is a very interesting gentleman. I think you should be lucky if you get to know a man like him. I think we need badly meetings like this one. It's also a great opportunity to improve our language skills.

Galina K.: I enjoyed this session very much. It is very useful for students to listen and learn how to respond to real English.

Olga K.: I can say that it was a very important day in my life. I see now that it's not so easy to listen and understand live English, even Canadian English. It is quite different from what we have in our textbooks.

Jane P.: I got impression that Dr Epp is a good mixer. I enjoyed very much his way to explain things.

Anton G., host of the program Places and Faces: In my opinion the conference went on quite lively. The questions of journalists were sometimes too detailed but Dr Epp was great! That's my impression.

Pavel R., sophomore at Chelyabinsk State University: Never could I imagine I would ever attend a live press conference with a teacher from Canada in our school. I wish we could have a chance like this two years ago when we were school students here.

Valerian Tukbaev, English teacher: I am happy Dr Ernest Epp could come to share with us his life and professional experience and I am proud of my students who have done their fair share for this session to be success.

Ernest J. Epp, D. Ed. CESO volunteer: This was an excellent experience for me. You were creative and fluent. I wish you all the best and some day I might see you in Canada.

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