Rich in diversity, Toronto is a destination for visitors and immigrants alike

Today's expression: Spoiled for choice
Explore more: Lesson #124
January 28, 2019:

In the first of an occasional series on destinations in the English-speaking world, we explore Toronto, Canada's largest city and its financial center. Thanks to Canada's welcoming immigration policy, Toronto is rich in diversity (which inevitably leads to delicious food). Visitors can explore museums, take a hike, enjoy the theater, or go out in the distillery district. Sports fans can see the Stanley Cup"”awarded to the best team in Canada's favorite sport, ice hockey. Today, you'll also learn the English phrase "spoiled for choice."

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It’s big, it’s bustling, it has skyscrapers and the tallest structure in North America. People from all over the world go there to study, to start businesses, and to seek refuge. While it’s not the capital, it is the country’s biggest city and its financial center. I’m not talking about New York—I’m talking about Toronto, the biggest city in Canada.

Welcome back to Plain English. It’s great to have you with us once more. I’m Jeff, the producer is JR. Our email addresses, if you’d like to get in touch with us, are [email protected] and [email protected]. Today is episode 124 and we’re going to do something a little bit different today. I thought that every so often—certainly not every week, but every now and then—we might talk about a place in the English-speaking world. You’re learning English, so I thought you might also want to know a little more about some of the places around the world that speak English. So today will be the first in an occasional series on destinations in the English speaking world, and we’ll start by talking about Toronto. I picked Toronto first because I traveled there a lot from October to December last year, so I had a chance to get to know the city.

This may be a new type of episode, but some things never change here at Plain English. As always, the transcripts are available on the web site. Like I said, this is episode 124, so that means you can find the transcript at PlainEnglish.com/124 . We also have our translations from English to Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and French. All of that at PlainEnglish.com/124.


Destination: Toronto

Toronto is a big city. Big buildings, professional sports, museums, a big lake. It’s situated on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes that sit between the US and Canada. One of the things I love about big cities in Europe and the United States is that big cities have people from all over the world. In fact, of all the places I’ve been to, Toronto probably ranks third in terms of having people from all across the globe. I would say London and New York are tied for the top two, but Toronto is a close third. Whereas in many cities, there seems to be one or two most common ethnicities, Toronto is truly a mixed bag. You see people from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

Toronto’s diversity is a result of Canada’s relatively welcoming immigration policy. Immigration in the United States is all based on families: if a close relative is a citizen, you have a good chance of getting in yourself. Canada does it differently: it’s all about what you can contribute to the economy and to society. So regardless of your family situation, you can score points for things like having an advanced degree, speaking English, or having very specific skills. I know a lot of people from my job that had trouble with immigration in the United States, so they went to Toronto instead. The result is that there are people from all over the world working in downtown, especially in business and finance.

You can’t talk about a multi-ethnic city without also talking about great food. And it’s all the more interesting in Toronto since there really isn’t much of a Canadian cuisine—unless you count poutine or Montreal-style bagels. There are great Lebanese restaurants there—which is great if you like shawarma, like I do. There’s also great Indian food there, owing to a large Indian population in Toronto. One trend that is taking Toronto by storm is a food hall. Picture a big open space, and there are small restaurants along the outside, and lots of tables in the common areas. If you go with friends, you can each pick a different place to order from and still all sit together.

One of my favorite food halls is called Assembly Chef’s Hall. I go there for lunch a lot. When I do, I’m spoiled for choice. At once place, I had gnocchi with chorizo, another place has Thai food that I can’t pronounce, there’s Korean barbecue, and some innovative burgers.

If you do want some typical Canadian food, you can try poutine. It’s French fries, covered in gravy, and topped with cheese curds. If that’s a little heavy for your taste, you can just stop by a Tim Horton’s. That’s the most famous donut and coffee shop in Canada and they are everywhere in Toronto.

There’s a lot to do culturally in Toronto, too. The CN Tower is the largest structure in all of North America. It’s not technically considered a building, since it’s not an office tower or apartment building or anything. But it’s taller than all the buildings in North America, and you go almost to the top and get sweeping views of the surrounding area. One favorite attraction for me is the Hockey Hall of Fame, where you can see one of the two copies of the famous Stanley Cup, which is awarded to the best hockey team each year.

They also have a great art museum called the Royal Ontario Museum, or the ROM as they call it. It has a distinctive look—kind of a jagged-looking, modern exterior that looks like shards of glass or ice shooting out from a more traditional building. The museum is the largest in Canada, with over six million artifacts. You can see everything from famous artwork and historical artifacts to meteorites and even skeletons of dinosaurs. If modern art is more your style, you can check out the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Toronto also has some peculiar attractions. If you’re looking to take out some frustration, you can try axe-throwing. You heard that right—if darts are too tame for you, you can throw an axe at a wooden target. There are also museums dedicated to textiles, shoes, and even the history of televisions. That has great examples of all the original television sets from the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

If nature is more your thing, then you can always take a stroll in the city’s High Park. Accessible by subway, High Park is 400 acres and includes nature trails, sports facilities, a zoo, and educational facilities. Of course, Niagara Falls are a short drive away; a lot of people see the famous waterfalls at Niagara Falls while they visit Toronto.

What I really like about Toronto is the energy in the city, the diversity, the different kinds of food, and the things to do at night, whether that’s go to the theater, see live music, visit the distilleries, or drink good local beer ( not in January, of course). There’s one quirky thing about the city that you might not know about unless you’ve spent a lot of time there. There’s a huge network of underground tunnels that connects the office buildings and the main train station, Union Station. You can walk almost anywhere in downtown without ever going outside. That can be really helpful in the Toronto winters. The office I was working in was connected to the Path, as they call it, and it was nice to be able to walk underground to get lunch or do some shopping at the Eaton Center or Hudson’s Bay store. In fact, when I was there, I had about a ten minute walk from my hotel to the office, and I could walk the entire way, except for the first minute or so, entirely underground.

Hudson’s Bay, by the way, is one of the oldest companies in the world. It was started in 1670, almost 350 years ago. For most of its history, it was a fur trading company and controlled a huge portion of what is today northern Canada. Actually Hudson’s Bay Company is older than Canada itself. Today, it’s a famous department store and the company has recently acquired famous brands in other countries, like Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States, Galeria Kaufhof in Germany, and Vroom & Dreesmann in the Netherlands. They also own Gilt, a fast-fashion online site.


I want to say hi to a few people today. First of all, Carlos from Mexico, wrote to say he listens on Spotify and really wants to go to Canada someday; I hope this episode was helpful to you. Also Wellington from Brazil. He’s an accountant and discovered the podcast just a few days ago and loves it already. He works with people in the United States a lot, Boston, he said, so hopefully listening will help improve your confidence and vocabulary. Great to have you with us Wellington.

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Expression: Spoiled for choice