David Suzuki, Canadian Icon

September 2, 2010 – 3:46 am

I grew up watching a program called The Nature of Things, hosted by Japanese-Canadian eco-icon David Suzuki. As my hometown is near Suzuki’s hometown of Vancouver, BC, he was also considered a local and my family and friends were all fans of his. The Nature of Things was a program dedicated to educating the world about the balance of nature and alternative ways of living that allow for all creatures to live in harmony with nature. And of course- it was a cool show! My whole family watched it together weekly, and it was always followed by excited discussion, and sometimes lifestyle changes. Today, this type of program is common, but 20 years ago it was ground breaking.

As I mentioned, Suzuki is something of a Canadian legend. He was recently voted Read More »

By Edward | Posted in Living in Japan, SSE Ohtsu Corner | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Enjoying 英会話 English Teaching as a Life

August 31, 2010 – 7:58 pm
スミス英会話　京橋 Flyer Team

スミス英会話　京橋 Some Local Promotion

I have been teaching English in Japan now for many, many years. In fact I taught my first lesson with Smith’s School of English back in 1996. In those days I was teaching in Higashi Osaka and these days I teach in Smith’s School of English Kyobashi and Fukushima. After all this time some people may want a change but not me, I love this English teaching life. I have plenty of time with my family, I have time for the sports I love. I want to learn more about teaching English everyday and am constantly surprised by what I learn from Japan, my fellow teachers and my students.  It’s all right here!

Yesterday my day started with a little local promotion of Smith’s school in Fukushima. I met a few friends and we did a few flyers then walked around the are doing some letterboxes. We were all wearing Smith’s T Shirts and hats and it felt great to be out there telling people about our schools.  I always wear my Smith’s wear and it was Wednesday last week when I was standing out there  just looking in an antique stores window and a sprightly young lady of about 65 years of age came up to me and asked where our school was. I offered to walk her over to the school and she accepted. She entered the school upon invitation and sat down as I made her we had a cup of coffee. We chatted about the history of Fukushima area and I learned a great deal. As she got up to leave she said, “I am going to tell my daughter about your school”, I really enjoyed the chat and never really expect much to come of  her promise. Fukushima has a fascinating history and it was just great to have the chat.

I have been living in Japan a long time now and so can’t be sure but I think this kind of instant friendship is kind of unique to Japanese / Foreign relationships.  Maybe not but either way it is always so refreshing to have such a nice chat so easily.

Partly because of the local promotion we do in the community, partly because of Smith’s websites, I have done a few free demo lessons this last week and as such had the pleasure of  teaching a new student last night.  I asked a little about herself. You know, all the usual stuff, Where do you live?  Hobbies? and then I asked about her family.  She said “You know my mum, she drank coffee here”

英会話 京橋 and 英会話 福島 Teacher

By moderator | Posted in English School Articles | Comments (0)

A Great Day

August 30, 2010 – 7:52 am

Today I handed out flyers for my English conversation school (英会話スクール), Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話　塚口校) in Tsukaguchi (塚口), Amagasaki  (尼崎市), Hyogo Perfecture (兵庫県), Japan.   Many people had “good morning” said to them!  I hope that I brightened their day! (^.^)

Later on in the day, after my last lesson teaching English conversation (英会話) at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi, I found out that I had gotten a new student!  I was very happy!  \(^.^)/ I always enjoy getting new students whom I can teach English conversation to in a caring environment.  I look forward to teaching this new student and having a great time with her as I do with all of my students!  (^.^)

Derek

Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi

月謝制英会話のスミス英会話　塚口校

http://www.smithweb.co.jp/school/tsukaguchi.shtml

尼崎市の英会話スクール

By Derek | Posted in English School Articles, SSE Tsukaguchi Corner | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

McCartney or Lennon?

August 30, 2010 – 1:00 am

At Smith’s School English in Okamoto スミス英会話岡本校, in two weeks we will be exploring the question of which Beatle was the most prolific and best songwriter, McCartney or Lennon.  There was a great post on Yahoo about it. ‘Was it John or Paul?’

As you may remember Read More »

By Al Bartle | Posted in English School Articles, Franchise Owners' Speak, Living in Japan, SSE Okamoto Corner, english in japan, enjoyed this a lot, my high level students, my passion: language, rewarding job change, students keep coming, teaching: why i do it | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

What I Strive to Do in Tsukaguchi

August 28, 2010 – 3:34 am

At my English conversation school,  Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話　塚口校),  located in Tsukaguchi, Amagasaki (尼崎市), Hyogo Prefecture (兵庫県),  I have such wonderful students.  I am always happy to see them and they always seem happy to see me.  I really have a great time teaching them English conversation (英会話).

Outside of classroom time in Tsukaguchi, I always strive to make people get familiar with me and the Smith’s name by wearing my Smith’s t-shirt as much as I can, including when I hand out flyers for my English conversation school (英会話スクール).  I believe that some people like getting a flyer directly from the teacher and that they get a good impression of me seeing me out there working hard for my school.  This can lead to them coming to Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi for a free trial English conversation lesson (無料体験英会話レッスン) and hopefully allow me to teach them at my English conversation school for as long as possible!  (^.^)

Derek

Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi

月謝制英会話のスミス英会話　塚口校

http://www.smithweb.co.jp/school/tsukaguchi.shtml

尼崎市の英会話スクール

By Derek | Posted in English School Articles, SSE Tsukaguchi Corner | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

スミス 英会話 高円寺Two Major Tokyo Festivals

August 27, 2010 – 5:36 pm

NRG

Today and tomorrow two of Tokyo’s most popular festivals will take place -the Samba festival in Asakusa and the Awa Odori festival here in Koenji -the second largest street dancing festival in Japan.

Koenji yesterday had a feeling of expectation about it as the locals (me included) wandered around watching the final preparations being made -lighting, bunting, portable stands, emergency services tents, crowd controllers, security services etc

The highlight of yesterday was however tn the evening at 6pm when a thousand or so dancers rehearsed their routines in the PAL arcade and some shopping areas to the north of the Koenji JR railway station. I took some great photographs which will prove to be better than any I take today or tomorrow as I was able to get some close up shots which will be impossible to do during the next two days because of the large crowd –usually more than a 500,000 throng.
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My school will be open as usual today and as the festival starts at 6 o’clock when I’m starting my last lesson I have decided to move out of Koenji tonight and participate in the festival tomorrow.

I’m sure that tomorrow night, just like this evening, will be an electrifying event the same as the last four that I have attended.

The good thing for those attending the festivals is that the weather forecast is for fine hot weather not like last year when the heavens opened up to torrential rain at the moment the street dancing commenced .

May it be a successful weekend for not only the festival attendees but for the local businesses as well, restaurants, shops etc The convenient stores and supermarkets all do a roaring trade as do the numerous street drink and food stalls which are patronized through to the early hours of the morning.  I also noticed that many of the recycled clothing shops stayed open beyond their normal trading hours and there appeared to be some brisk trading taking place.

Footnote: The crowd over the weekend was estimated to have exceeded 1 million. 

I love Koenji

Ken
Smith’s School of English
Koenji

By Ken | Posted in English School Articles, Franchise Owners' Speak, Living in Japan, SSE Koenji Corner, SSE Lesson Plans in Action, Sightseeing in Japan, english in japan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Welcome to Otsu, 35 Degrees North

August 27, 2010 – 4:33 pm

At the far end of the platform at JR Otsu station is a large globe, and I always wondered what it was. So the other day I walked out to the end of the platform and had a look. Apparently (this was unknown to me beforehand), Otsu is sitting right on the 35th parallel! The sign beside the globe explained that Otsu City is on the 35th, and named other famous places around the world that are also on the 35th. These include: Cyprus, the island of Crete in Greece, Baghdad, Tehran, Tibet, and in the USA, Oklahoma City and Memphis, Tennessee. The 35th also marks the border between North Carolina and Georgia.

When I read these names and thought of some of the cities, quite a few things clicked in my mind. First, when I think of Baghdad, I think of Arabian Nights and the desert and I think- that’s why Otsu is so hot… its on the same parallel as Baghdad! Then I think about Memphis and the fact that Memphis is famous for jazz… as is Otsu, host of a half dozen jazz festivals every year! But then I think of Tibet… and my image is of cold, snowy mountains… and I can’t find any comparison to Otsu!

What caught my eye about this whole 35th parallel thing was that Read More »

By Edward | Posted in English School Articles, SSE Ohtsu Corner | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Japan has Many Good English Speakers!

August 24, 2010 – 12:54 am

This morning while distributing flyers to promote my English school in Kobe (スミス英会話岡本校） I talked to one woman on the street near the station who spoke English quite well.  She said in English that I was ‘exaggerating’ when I commented that she spoke English well.  Again, as has happened many times recently, I realized that nowadays, there are a  fairly large number of Japanese who speak English well.  Of course there are also many who do not speak English and are really not interested to speak it.  As this is Japan and the language of the land Read More »

By Al Bartle | Posted in English School Articles, Franchise Owners' Speak, Living in Japan, SSE Okamoto Corner, english in japan, enjoyed this a lot, my high level students, my passion: language, students keep coming, teaching: why i do it | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

kids

August 22, 2010 – 4:53 pm

One of the reasons I enjoy teaching English here at Smith’s 英会話 Hirakata is that I have a couple really cool kids classes. In one class I have two sisters, they are 10 and 11 years old. Actually, they are great kids, and get along together very well. I really kind of push them sometimes, but they just smile and laugh and continue to try hard every week. They never frown or get upset, they just have fun together and put there best foot forward, and I think it’s starting to pay off. They may not be able to speak perfect full sentences right now, but whenever I introduce new work to them they pick it up quickly, and like I said, they have fun and laugh a lot. In the future if they keep studying they will be great speakers. I’m sure of it. The other class is a brother and sister duo. I believe they are 9 and 11 years old. They just started so they have to struggle a bit to figure out how to study here, but they are very good students. They try hard as well, even though they are a little shy. It’s nice to see them overcome their shyness and continue on. I get a kick out of seeing them learn the games that are new to them and then become competitive with one another. It’s pretty nice to watch them have fun playing the games, because you can see the point the games stops being an English lesson and just become games to them and that is when they start learning. I know they will also become good speakers as well, and again, I’m sure of it. They just have to keep on studying.

If only we all took that advice.

Jerry

By Adrian | Posted in English School Articles, SSE Hirakata Corner | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Okamoto School Interim Report (6th year of operation)

August 22, 2010 – 5:33 am

This is an interim report on the Smith’s Okamoto school. I took over the Smith’s School of English in Okamoto in July 2006.  It had been in operation since September 2004  (6 years total so far) and it had only a tiny 15 active students at the time I took over.   This month (August 2010) student number 224 joined.  (You can do the math to Read More »

By Al Bartle | Posted in English School Articles, Franchise Owners' Speak, SSE Okamoto Corner, a look back, a reward in itself, english in japan, my passion: language, students keep coming, teaching: why i do it | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

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