Smith’s School of English Soap Box

Going to work each and every day is a treat. Each week they come in with a story or something funny that never fails to make me laugh. We often say that laughter is the best medicine but I think this can apply to English as well. If you’re enjoying yourself during class then English comes so much easier as it breaks down the barrier that many students have of making mistakes. The other day one student came in with a question as she was having trouble understanding something on the Eiken test she just took. The structure was something like “the satellites are much cheaper to launch”. Normally I would have sat down and gone over it in English rather than resort to using my Japanese but as I was pressed for time I decided that I would just have her tell me what she thought it meant in Japanese so then I would be able to explain to her the area she had misunderstood. Anyway, as she told me another student came in and it took my attention away from her for just a split second and didn’t quite clearly hear what she said. At first I said “ok…” but then my brain caught up with what she had just said and I realized her mistake. She had read “launch” as “lunch”. I just looked at her and smiled as she her eyes were so sincere and she truly believed that it was lunch. I took my finger and asked her to read out the word carefully and it was then I saw her eyes sparkle…she then said “No wonder…” Little things like this happen all the time, sometimes it’s a cute mistake, sometimes a great comment but no matter what we always enjoy ourselves. And for that I have my students to thank.