January 31, 2008 – 7:06 pm
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 [...]
January 31, 2008 – 4:50 am
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 rewarding afternoon!” She [...]
By Wendy
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Posted in SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, enjoyed this a lot, teaching: why i do it
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Tagged 指図する, 日常会話, 月謝制のスミス英会話堀江校, 月謝制のスミス英会話布施校, 東大阪市英会話, 英会話四ツ橋校, 英語, 英語で道順を教える
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January 31, 2008 – 3:23 am
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 after [...]
January 31, 2008 – 12:16 am
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 [...]
January 30, 2008 – 6:28 pm
One of the reasons I love living in Japan is the great food. There is so much variety and I am pretty sure that most of the veggies are the freshest that money can buy. But what’s more is the quality of beef in Japan is superb. Even when you order the [...]
January 30, 2008 – 4:22 am
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 for [...]
January 30, 2008 – 4:19 am
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 [...]
January 30, 2008 – 3:24 am
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 [...]
January 30, 2008 – 3:21 am
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 was [...]
January 29, 2008 – 2:20 am
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 topic [...]
January 29, 2008 – 12:46 am
Quite often at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi, I find myself serving as both a teacher and confidante to the variety of students that attend classes on a regular basis. Aside from the new friendly faces of students who have recently joined Smith’s School of English Kyobashi, there are the familiar ones that I [...]
January 28, 2008 – 2:12 am
Somewhere in the Smith’s School of English curriculum is the statement “Traveling in America isn’t as safe as traveling in Japan” (I think it’s part of comparisons 2). Personally, I always agree with this statement. Though I’m not from America, I’ve done some travelling there, and in other parts of the world, and really I’ve [...]
January 28, 2008 – 2:05 am
I have a friend staying with me at the moment. She has been here for two weeks. She is off back home tomorrow, it’s been great having her here. I have been able to practice my Japanese since I don’t have my boyfriend to rely on when we are out and about enjoying Japan.
We have [...]
January 26, 2008 – 11:29 pm
Many years ago the thought of eating raw fish was not very appealing. I tried it off and on, only when I was under peer pressure to eat it, and swallowing a mouthful of maguro was a painful experience.
Then there was a day in which I had been on the go for hours, no time [...]
January 26, 2008 – 11:04 am
A few days ago I biked to a new Starbucks Coffee shop at Tsukashin, a shopping center conveniently located in Tsukaguchi not to far from home and my school, the Smith’s Tsukaguchi franchise. I had what I usually order at Starbucks Coffee, which is a cinnamon roll, scone and “tall” coffee. As always, all were [...]
January 26, 2008 – 2:29 am
Sometimes in a lesson, especially one with high level students, it’s nice to have some honest, down-to-earth discussions within the lesson structure. There are times where the student really gets into a topic and wishes to elaborate or go off in a completely different direction due to individual interests or past experiences.
We were on a [...]
January 26, 2008 – 12:22 am
There are many popular foods in Japan but the most intriguing is perhaps the onigiri. Whenever I ask students what they’ve eaten for lunch, at least one usually answers with “onigiri”. I myself eat at least two rice balls per week. So what is so special about these rice balls that they [...]
January 24, 2008 – 2:12 am
It happened in a cold place where most of the things were frozen except for three strange animals. They have strong hands and weigh 1,000,000,000,000 pounds.
(To be continued - by Ena, age 7 Smith’s Okamoto School)
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January 23, 2008 – 10:43 pm
Thanks to Gavin we now know how to include a picture in our post. Back in October last year we had a very pleasant Halloween Party at a local cafe in Okamoto (Kobe) and I posted the story on my school’s site.
Here I just want to try out the picture insertion process that Gavin of [...]
January 23, 2008 – 3:27 am
Last week, one of Smith’s School of English Kyobashi students told me about a cooking course that she is taking at ABC Cooking School. She’s been going there for a while and is learning how to bake cookies, bread, and cake. Apparently, this month and next, that cooking school is offering a special course for [...]
January 23, 2008 – 3:26 am
Winter is certainly upon us, and each time students come up to the lobby they eagerly receive their steaming cups of coffee or tea to take some of the chill off. Partly, too, due to our hardworking heater, the lounge has been particularly cozy of late. Also, integral to any season in Japan is the [...]
January 21, 2008 – 8:26 am
Recently I have been giving lessons to some of my special students, “man to man” students that is- theme: Hachiko.
Hachiko was a dog…Now a very famous dog that was very loyal and devoted to his master. His master was a professor at Tokyo University. Hachiko followed him to Shibuya Station daily and met him [...]
January 21, 2008 – 4:41 am
Today I really took notice of a bit of interesting culture that has gradually and naturally worked its way into our lobby here at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi. For at least as long as I’ve been here there has been a rather cute bear sitting in a basket perched ontop of the counter in [...]
January 19, 2008 – 2:29 am
It seems like with the New Year also came some ‘new’ weather. We’d been experiencing a fairly warm winter up until the two week vacation period where things started to really cool down. And along with the cold scarf and glove (or mittens, depending on your preference) weather came [...]
January 17, 2008 – 10:56 pm
Recently I was asked about the process for including photos in Soapbox posts. I figured why not post it up here so everyone can benefit? It’s as quick and easy as making links in your post once you know the process.
It’s important to note that the pictures that can be added to Soapbox [...]
January 17, 2008 – 7:35 pm
Last year in August when I was passing out flyers I met a guy in front of JR Settsumotoyama Station who seemed interesting and was interested in what I was doing. It turned out that he was a recent graduate of the Paris Conservatory of Music and had won a gold metal in classical [...]
January 17, 2008 – 8:08 am
Six months ago she was a “deer in the headlights,” scared to death of me, scared of foreigners, scared of group lessons…Watching her confidence build over the months has been very nice. Tonight this nurse (I have many nurses for some reason), attacked “The Restaurant” routine with full confidence…no fear…I got her…She is mine, my [...]
January 17, 2008 – 4:02 am
I had a lesson with a high intermediate student this week. I hadn’t seen her in a long time (6 months in fact). She was a long term student here at Smith’s School of English , Kyobashi so I was happy to see her again. She usually has some good interesting tales about her friends [...]
January 16, 2008 – 8:13 pm
On Saturday December 15th we had our first event night at Smith’s Otsu. 6 students and 2 coaches attented. We played “The Kanji Game”, with 1 student at the white board and the other 2 students trying to explain how to draw a kanji on the board. After about 20 minutes, we pitted the teams [...]
January 16, 2008 – 7:17 pm
Hello! My name is Edward Iwaskow and I am the new teacher at Smith’s Otsu as of December 2007. I live in Otsu-shi, about 15 minutes bike ride from the school. I have been in Japan since January 2007, and I really love it here. My hometown is a small city on the west coast [...]