Monthly Archives: November 2007

Smith’s School of English: Who are we?

With the recent failure of the largest corporate English school in Japan, I have come to wonder, shall I say “hope” that those 400,000+ students will take a hard look at how they were treated by this corporate school and decide to find a monthly tuition school like Smith’s so as not to be burned [...]

My First Day In Bentencho School

Well this was on the 5th of November 2007. It was amazing sitting in the class and thinking that very soon there wouldbe students in here wanting to learn. I suppose that sitting there made me realize how much this meant to me. ZTo know that soon I would be making a difference in some [...]

What do I like about Teaching and Owning My School?

Well that’s a good question. First, I like being able to set my own schedule. Second, I have the personal satisfaction of knowing that I am giving a good lesson since the Smith’s curriculum is solid and was developed considering the needs of Japanese students but is open-ended enough to be expanded to meet the [...]

Smith’s Okamoto School 2007 Halloween Party

On the 27th of October we had our 2007 Halloween Party. We booked a restaurant and gatherered there for 2 hours to share some fun discussion and even sung the “12 days” of Halloween Song”. Check it out on my school’s site. Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English – Okamoto)

Going to the movies

Last Saturday after work I and my wife went to the movies with a student of mine. He had invited us and we had happily accepted! He picked us up in his car. We went to MOVIX ROKKO on ROKKO ISLAND in Kobe. We watched The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon. http://thebourneultimatum.com/ It was really [...]

The Extra Mile

Last Saturday night, one of our students came to her lesson looking totally exhausted. She was shivering from the cold, and had a couple of very heavy bags she needed to bring home. Her husband, who usually picks her up after her lessons, was out of town. She doesn’t drive, so she was going to [...]

Confidence!

One of our students came to her weekend lesson as usual the other day. She was in great spirits as always, in spite of the rain. I had not taught her for some time, so it was nice to have a chance to catch up with her. I usually teach her son at that hour [...]

Catching up in Motomachi

I had the night off on Friday and by a lucky chance was able to meet up with an old student of ours. She had first joined the school when she lived in our neighborhood, then stopped for a while when she moved away to Hayama (in the Miura Peninsula). It didn’t take long before [...]

Teaching a Young Student Who Already Speaks

I have a student whose family lived in Vancouver for 2 years. She studied at a private kindergarten and elementary school for two years. She is reading at about 3rd grade level. However, she needs to practice writing, otherwise she will not be able to write at her level. She is a little reluctant to [...]

Yasuko

Yasuko is also one of my favorite students. She is serious about improving her ability to speak, listen, and read. She has been taking two courses with me for quite a long time – the Normal course for speaking, and One-on-One for reading. She has shown lots of improvement, especially in her overall confidence…I remember [...]

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