Arctic Mark in Stanley Park

ARCTIC MARK IS GOING TO BE ON TV TONIGHT!!  

Yes, it's true, and for those of you who managed to escape my mass-emailing a few days ago - otherwise known as "Shameless Self-Promotional Plug #246 - I present for your perusal below one of the many CBC newsletters I've received over the last few weeks. This is the quiz show that I took part in last March 17 in Toronto, where I was flown by the CBC to be one of 40 high-school English teachers from across Canada, competing against six other teams. The show was taped for broadcast later in the year, which happens to be tonight, so you'll finally get to see what all the fuss is about. You can also take a gander at my posts and Photo Galleries from last February and March to see my backstage photos and read all about my experiences traveling to Toronto and doing the show. I have no idea how often I'll be appearing or visible during the two-hour show, or whether my 15-second interview by Brent Bambury ended up on the cutting-room floor. All will be revealed tonight at 8pm on CBC-TV. If you want to play along and take the quiz live in "real time," you can keep track of your answers with pen and paper, or you can log onto the CBC site below and play on-line. My score was a pretty respectable 59 out of 70 (84%), so I'd love to hear how well any of the rest of you do on the quiz.

Can you beat Arctic Mark's score in the ultimate test of verbal virtuosity, grammatical  greatness, linguistic liveliness and literary lithesomeness?? I believe the gauntlet has been thrown down. ;-)

 
CBC TELEVISION TESTS THE NATION’S LANGUAGE SKILLS!!
WILL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS OUTSMART THEIR STUDENTS? TUNE IN THIS SUNDAY, SEPT. 9 AT 8 P.M. TO FIND OUT!!

Ever wondered what teens r tlkg about? Need a transl8tr? Canadians will have an opportunity to decipher teen speak, and a chance to test their linguistic wits—Canadian style—when TEST THE NATION: WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE telecasts Sunday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. on CBC Television. Wendy Mesley (Marketplace) and Brent Bambury (Go) are back to host the second edition of the series, a two-hour interactive quiz show about how we use—and abuse—the English language, with a unique Canadian twist.

There’s no doubt about it—Canadians have their own highly distinctive form of the English language. In fact, Canadian English is so unique we even have our own edition of the Oxford Dictionary. But, how well do we actually know Canadian English? Can the average person tell a metaphor from a spoonerism? What about regional expressions?

The show will also challenge common beliefs about language aptitude. Will participants who watch 16 to 20 hours a week of television outwit the bookworms? We know that girls often start talking before boys, but which sex will prevail in TEST THE NATION: WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE?

In the studio, seven teams—a total of 240 people from every province and territory—will be tested on their word wisdom. The teams are word gamers, ad writers, English teachers, fraternities and sororities, comedians, romance novelists and celebrities. The celebrity team includes Cathy Jones, Sheila McCarthy, Kim Stockwood, Patrick McKenna, Sook-Yin Lee, Russell Smith and Andrew Coyne. In addition, 10 high schools from across the country will battle it out: Lester B. Pearson High School, Alta.; Rick Hansen Secondary School, B.C.; Shaftsbury High School, Man.; Harbour View High School, N.B.; Gander Collegiate, Nfld.; Halifax West High, N.S.; Gananoque Secondary School, Ont.; Morell Regional High School, P.E.I.; Philemon Wright High School, Que.; and Walter Murray Collegiate, Sask.

Studio contestants and viewers at home will be asked 70 questions in seven categories: Spelling Eh?, Language Terms, Made In Canada, Teen Speak, Everyday Mistakes, The Arts, What the …? and Word Origins. At the end of the show, the results will be averaged and each group’s overall score will be announced as well as the highest individual score.

“More than 1.5 million Canadians loved the interactive element of Test the Nation: IQ, and 200,000 played online,” said Kirstine Layfield, executive director, network programming, CBC Television. “We’re confident that viewers will be entertained when they sit back and take the language test with their families.”

Viewers can play along live by logging onto http://www.cbc.ca/testthenation, with pen and paper or with the official scorecard provided by Quaker in the Sept. 8 edition of the National Post and available for download on the website.

The next instalment of CBC Television’s TEST THE NATION franchise, testing knowledge of world trivia, will air in January. TEST THE NATION: WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE is a CBC television production. The executive producer is Jim Williamson.