Already January is passing and we are well into 2008. It occurs to me how nice Kotoen is with its many cool shops, friendly locals and tasty restaurants. My Smith’s Franchise in Kotoen is just as comfortable. The two-classroom store is tastefully and warmly furnished and Heidi and I work with many charming and well-educated [...]
スミス英会話布施校講師が書いた記事。日本語はこちらへ I was getting the lesson plan and picture cards ready for my 7pm class when the door bell rang once and in came the cheerful lady. “Hey, how is everything going?” I gestured her in and moved to the fridge to get her usual glass of orange juice. “Pretty good! I had a very [...]
I’ve been thinking about the environment a lot recently, what with concern for global warming publicly becoming a prerogative for many countries. The United Nations have pointed out the need to assist developing countries to invest in environmental protection in order to avoid the negative repercussions of economic growth. Japan is in a unique position [...]
There are many unique and interesting customs in Japan but one of the most attention-grabbing is probably Setsubun (the day before the beginning of Spring). Setsubun has many customs surrounding it that date back to the Ming Dynasty in China, that were then adopted by Japan in the Muromachi Era beginning in 1392. It is [...]
My last student of the night ended up being about 10-15 minutes late, I was starting to think that she wasn’t going to turn up. Thank goodness she did, as it was a great lesson. She was a higher level student so we went through the ET and Routine like a breeze, which was good [...]
When my regular weekday student showed up on a Saturday afternoon at Kyobashi school, I hardly recognized him. Apart from the thick black overcoat, his whole outfit changed from total business to absolute casual! We’d only seen him in his formal business attire since he usually came here right after work, so it was nice [...]
I almost always come to Smith’s School of English Kyobashi everyday at least thirty minutes early. That leaves me with just enough time to prepare my files and get ready for my first lesson. Sometimes, I have a couple of minutes on my hands with nothing to do and go off in search of a [...]
I just returned to the Kyobashi lounge from a lesson two green students and one yellow students, feeling really elated. In terms of student talk time, development and stretching, it was the ideal lesson. At times it can be difficult to balance a lesson of high level students who don’t know one another, but this [...]
I love using the Smith’s expanded curriculm and during the last two and a half years have learnt to appreciate how much thought and effort went into developing it. One of my favourite items and one that students readily participate in with increasing levels of confidence is “Phrasal Verbs” . It is a very detailed [...]
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