Last week I had very encouraging conversations with two students at Smiths Katsura (スミス英会話 桂).
One student was telling me about his two jobs. He has a full-time job and for a few days a week part-time job in the evenings. He’s a pretty busy young man, but he likes his jobs. We were also talking about his studying time at Smith’s and he mentioned that he is thinking to extend the number of lessons from 4 to 6 a month. I was very pleased to hear that considering his busy schedule. I’ve told him how much I appreciate his commitment, it’s something what makes my job so enjoyable. I hope he will find time in his busy schedule to take 6 lessons a month.
With the second student, we were having an English conversation(英会話) about his ‘after work’ activities. He owns a rice field. He also volunteers in an organization that takes care of Kamo River(鴨川) and Katsura River(桂川). Once a week he comes to Smith’s for an English lesson. On top of all that, he takes dance lessons. As you can see he is also extremely busy. That’s why he has decided to stop attending either the dance lessons or the English course in June and July. I was happy to hear that he’s going to quit the dance school and he’ll continue coming for his English lessons. When I asked why he chose to continue study English, he gave me a simple explanation: ‘Because it’s important’. I agree. Simple as that.
It gives me a great pleasure to witness such a commitment from students here at Smith’s Katsura (スミス英会話 桂). I couldn’t ask for more.
This week we discovered a fantastic a Capella group on You Tube. This group has 5 members and is cleverly named Pentatonix, penta being the Latin word for 5 and tonix being the Latin tone. 5 amazingly gifted vocalists singing the most beautiful harmonies and some brilliant arrangements make for a great and unique musical experience. In this week’s video the group does a medley of songs throughout history, starting with songs from the 1100s and progressing right up to present time. They have chosen a variety of songs from every decade and they have spliced them together to form a beautiful tune. At the end of each video the band does a little self promoting, so enjoy listening to their 5 gorgeous voices and enjoy!
Pentatonix – Evolution of Music
Hey everyone! Now here’s something for the benefit of all ……… maximizing the limited battery life of our comm devices. Advances need to be made in batteries and smart phone makers are using battery strength as a selling feature now! Luckily there are a number of things each of us can do to improve the performance of batteries, and they ought to be common knowledge.
1) Never Do Partial Charges!! – I see people plugging in their phones every chance they get… big mistake. The Lithium Ion (Lion) Battery hates partial charges. Doing so limits peak capacity and decreases overall service life. This is true for all Lion Batteries. Run the device to power down, then charge to 100%, run it back to power down. Make this a habit and watch the battery improve as it ‘breathes’ more deeply and increases its capacity threshold on the extremes.
2) Never leave it constantly plugged in. 3) Keep screen brightness as close to the dimmest setting as you can, turn off the auto adjust. Trust me, you’ll get used to it, especially when you note the battery improvement.
4) Try charging an hour or so above the 100% indicator. Over time the battery may take more. This is what I meant earlier in point 1 - increasing its threshold at the extremes. Mine now goes up to about ’103%’ and powers down at about ‘-2%’, obviously big gains. There’s a limit so don’t over-do it.
5) Download on WiFi! 6) Turn off apps when not in use. Apps running in the background are power vampires.
7) Turn off GPS Location Services. Do you really want everyone to know where and when you are!? The GPS tracker is invasive as well as a power vampire.
Martin Werner Zander マーティン・ワーナー・ザンダー
Smith’s School Kotoen 月謝制 Monthly Tuition English Conversation School
スミス英会話 甲東園 甲東園校 仁川 門戸厄神
Last Sunday, I went for a hike in the mountains near my apartment. I always enjoy going there, as the scenery is beautiful and the air is so clean. For me, hiking has been one of my favorite things to do for most of my life and I would often go hiking with my father regardless of where we lived, including Hawaii, Maryland, and (best of all) Colorado. On my latest venture to the mountains of Minoh, I was really struck by how every time I go there many people are out, enjoying nature and getting exercise in the process. I love seeing this, as I believe an appreciation for nature is something very important for a culture to have. The people of Japan have it.
One of my favorite things about my hometown in Colorado is the fact that many people love the Colorado Rockies dearly and often get out and enjoy the beautiful nature surrounding them. Colorado is annually ranked as the healthiest state in America and I completely believe it. The only other place I’ve seen people out enjoying the outdoors like the people of Colorado has been in Minoh. It makes my home in Japan feel a lot like my home in America!
My commuting to Smith’s Katsura (スミス英会話 桂) is very simple and convenient. Every day I use a Hankyu Line(阪急京都本線) from Saiin(西院駅). Not very long ago an unusual thing happened to me. I got stranded at Katsura station(桂駅) on my way back home. Not just a short delay, but properly stranded. Come to think of it, in my 4 years in Japan I have never experienced delays lasting for more than 5 minutes and even those I can count on one hand. So this was very unusual.
After waiting on the platform for almost an hour, one man approached me and we started to talk about the situation. My Japanese isn’t good enough to understand all details about the delay so he explained in perfect English(英語) that there might be no trains going to Saiin. Wow! It was already very late I needed to get back home.
He then suggested we move inside the station terminal and ask the staff about my options. The terminal was packed with commuters trying to leave Katsura(桂), everybody was seeking advice. My new companion explained my situation and I was told to immediately get on the train to Matsuo(松尾駅) where I might be able to catch the last bus to Saiin.
Everything happened so fast that I could only say ‘Thank you’ and ran to the platform.
I then promptly got on the train and was able to catch my bus at Matsuo. I got home before midnight feeling very lucky that I didn’t have to spend a night at school.
All thanks to a stranger who used his English skills to offer a helping hand to another commuter trying to get home.
I hope I’ll meet this man again so I can thank him properly.
Hi everyone! I hope you’ve been checking out my facebook page! I’ve had a lot of exposure to flowers recently, mainly thanks to my wife who is a real flower enthusiast, but also because they’re just growing everywhere this season. So the facebook page for Smiths Kotoen has a lot of nice flower pictures for all of you interested.
facebook
Flowers are growing everywhere around the Kotoen school neighborhood and also in Koshien where we live. There are a lot of people for whom flower gardening is not only a worthwhile pastime but a necessary chore. While as a young person someone may have had difficulty appreciating it, flowers really do enhance the sights, smells and emotional mood of our surroundings. A handful of English conversation students at スミス英会話 甲東園 would tell you the same!
Near the Smith’s School of English in Kotoen there are at least 30 species in full bloom as we speak. Why not take a look at the map at the links above and below and see where the school is!
Martin Werner Zander
マーティン・ワーナー・ザンダー
Smith’s School in Kotoen 月謝制 Monthly Tuition English conversation school.
スミス英会話 甲東園 甲東園校 仁川 門戸厄神
A few years ago one of my Junior High school students told me about 4-character Japanese idioms (四字熟語 ). I thought it was interesting so I asked her to give me an example.
She said 優柔不断。Which is pronounced YUU JU FUDAN and translates roughly as “procrastination” or “indecision”.
Hmm……? That seems to describe the state of thought that most Japanese young people are in from the beginning of high school to the end of college when it comes to taking action to really try to master English communication during those years when they actually have time to do it. Luckily some of them (very few unfortunately) decide to do it. But good for them! I can only help those who have decided that they need help.
No need to “put it off” until you start working. “The early bird gets the worm”. And I am happy to help those who want better “worm-getting” techniques. English can really help a person to stand out as a better job prospect and it will allow him/her to travel and enjoy communicating directly with a lot of people around the world (about 10x as many as speaking Japanese alone can do). It is really worth the effort. As an example I am really glad that I made the effort to learn Japanese when I was a university student.
Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English – Okamoto Kobe)
This video has been popping up all over the place, so I checked it out and was both amazed and saddened. Saddened that child abuse is so prevalent in our society, but amazed by the innovation of this organization to help kids. This sign is designed to both send 2 separate messages: a message visible only to adults and another private and hidden message to children, who can then get help. Such a simple concept, yet brilliant. Let’s hope this group can make as many of these signs as possible.
Anar Foundation Against Child Abuse
The narrator explains that Read More »
Hey astronomy lovers! Welcome to the second installment of Newtonian telescope vocabulary. As with the first chapter of this series, even if you don’t intend to use the instrument, the vocabulary is still essential for pertinent discussions at the Smith’s School of English in Kotoen スミス英会話 甲東園.
The OTA, Optical Tube Assembly consists of three sections, the UTA, Upper Tube Assembly, the dobsonian mount which houses the mirror cell and the altitude-azimuth bearings, and the truss poles which cleverly hold the two parts together at a very strictly calculated distance and position, and this is primarily based on the optical characteristic of the primary objective mirror. The truss poles are also key to easy construction and break-down of the instrument for portability and easy storage.
The UTA holds the secondary mirror, the focuser, the spider and the finder scope. The primary objective and its cell are constructed around the dobsonian mount near the bottom. It is at the UTA where the observer wants to spend most of the time, but it is the size and quality of the primary objective at the bottom that constitutes the true power of the telescope.
Martin Werner Zander
マーティン・ワーナー・ザンダー
Smith’s School of English in Kotoen 月謝制 Monthly Tuition English Conversation School
スミス英会話 甲東園 甲東園校 仁川 門戸厄神
This year the Smith’s School of English Golden Week (GW) holiday is from April 21 to May 6. We Smith’s teachers teaching English in Japan are very lucky to have such a long holiday. Thank you very much Smith’s Head Office! I am staying in Japan for the holiday and want to share some of the things that I did with you here on the Soapbox. One of them was going to Universal Studios Japan(USJ) with my family on April 23! Read More »
By Derek
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Posted in English School Articles, SSE Kawanishi Corner, SSE Tsukaguchi Corner
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Tagged Bumprider, Elmo, golden week, GW, Smith's School of English, Teaching English in Japan, Universal City Station, Universal Studios Japan, Universal Wonderland, USJ
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Last week I had very encouraging conversations with two students at Smiths Katsura (スミス英会話 桂).
