Echo concert, echo pen

Yesterday I had coffee with an old friend at Metrotown. She and her husband were in town to see Sir Paul McCartney. It seemed right, she said, because she saw the Beatles in Vancouver in 1964, when we were all still in high school.

While we girls sat in a sunny window chatting over afternoon drinks, my friend's husband went off to look around the mall. I looked out the window at the crowds swirling off the train and into the shops.

"How can he stand it?" I asked. "It's so busy."

"He likes certain stores," she replied. "Today it's electronics."

After a couple of hours visiting, we too ventured into the mall, to meet Edward at the prearranged place. Jaunty in his plaid cap, he looked as if he'd been having fun.

"See anything exciting?"

He'd been looking at echo pens. I'd never heard of them. "They've been on the market for over a year," he reported, adding, "They'd be perfect for your ESL students."

While listening to a lecture, you use your echo pen to write notes on a special pad. At the same time, the pen makes a recording. Later, as you read your notes, you might see a word you can no longer remember how to pronounce. Touch it with the pen, and presto, you hear the word again.

Even better, the echo pen will play back the sentence for you, so that once again you can hear the word in context. Sounds like dream tool for a language learner.