December 18, 2007 – 6:02 am
For most of my students this evening, it was the last lesson of the year and everyone was excited about the coming holiday. So I decided to have a little chat about holiday plans with my 8pm students before moving on to the loop. Since I am not doing anything special myself, I was glad [...]
December 18, 2007 – 5:47 am
Just the other day, Graham and Calvin, two main teachers at my Smith’s School of English franchise in Fukushima, hosted a Christmas Party for all the kids there! It was a huge success: 24 children, 9 moms and a ton of presents and treats.
Everyone had a really great time and I congratulate [...]
December 18, 2007 – 5:06 am
ET: When I was ( ) years old, I took up (A)
The first few minutes were spent on doing a bit of catching up since I hadn’t seen this particular student in a while. She was quite busy with her work and wanted to ask me what I would be doing for the holidays. [...]
December 18, 2007 – 4:33 am
It’s that time of year and the festive season is fast approaching which means that it is time to have a culture clash in class. I remember first being asked by students what I would be doing for Christmas and after replying that I didn’t have anything in particular planned I would get a grin [...]
December 18, 2007 – 3:16 am
ET: Long time no see
My first Tuesday afternoon student came in today with a cheerful smile and all ready to study English. She jumped right into the one point by announcing, “Long time, no see,” just as she sat down. It’s nice to see that she keeps practicing her one points even after [...]
December 18, 2007 – 2:45 am
Before I came to Japan, I was told that the Japanese people don’t celebrate Western holidays or traditions, one of them being Christmas. Is this true? Judging by the drastic increase of people frantically shopping around for presents, the change of standard gift wrapping to festive greens and [...]
December 18, 2007 – 2:30 am
I had a lesson with 2 green and 1 red student last week. I noticed that 2 students had recently joined. Since I hadn’t met them yet I decided to start this lesson with some greetings and introductions. After we all met each other I reviewed last week’s B5 one point “today I feel______ because_______”. [...]
December 18, 2007 – 2:17 am
Just the other day I went to Starbucks (as I think every gaijin does) and I went to order my drink that is no longer on the menu. Here I was speaking my very minimal japanese and then the young lady behind the counter just outright said “Pardon?” I was very suprised and also slightly [...]