February 28, 2008 – 7:04 pm
I started teaching the Smith’s curriculum in December, and i have discovered some great lessons. But i know that many of you have been working with this curriculum for a while and probably have some great ideas. I want them! So i wrote an article title “Stretching the Morning” under “English Lesson Plans” explaining my [...]
February 28, 2008 – 7:04 am
Last weeks seminar was all about asking yourself what you want in life, and how to get it. And today i randomly found this little gem:
“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.” [...]
February 27, 2008 – 7:42 pm
We bought our Smith’s franchise in December 2007. When i did training at Kyobashi, Gavin told me “The Morning Routine is a great routine” (not an exact quote), and i thought “yeah, whatever” (exact quote). Anyway, after teaching “The Morning Routine” a few times, i realised that it IS a great lesson. After teaching it [...]
February 26, 2008 – 9:08 pm
There are a lot of times where a familiar sight or sound in Japan makes me feel just a little bit homesick. Although these sorts of feelings are only natural, it’s much more pleasant if they can be negated or avoided. Either that or quickly bribed with an interesting [...]
February 25, 2008 – 8:53 pm
For the past few years I’ve run my Smith’s school pretty much by myself - and I was happy. But last year with the disappearance of the biggest English conversation school I felt that it was time to make a move. I immediately started interviewing possible candidates that would mesh well with the Smith’s system [...]
February 25, 2008 – 8:45 pm
one of the best things about being part of Smith’s has to be the support of both the staff at the head office, the other teachers’ assistance and Mark’s business experience here in Japan. If I have a concern regarding expansion, curriculum, training, staff, etc. I simply pick up the phone. That’s a pretty powerful [...]
February 25, 2008 – 3:29 pm
For those of you who don’t know me yet: my name is Edward, my partner Chiharu and I bought Otsu School from Craig and Sonoe. We took-over December 1st and have been loving every minute.
Last Sunday we attended our first seminar at Smith’s Kyobashi. From the beginning, we had a sense of support from Smith’s, [...]
February 25, 2008 – 7:23 am
Last week I started the ‘B’ section of the 1-points with a class I’ve been teaching for some time at my Smith’s School in Fukushima. It was refeshing and satisfying to hear the following direct quote produced by one of the charming students:
I prefer Smith’s School in Fukushima to other English schools because I [...]
February 25, 2008 – 12:46 am
Yesterday I attended a Smith’s seminar at the Smith’s head office in Osaka. It was great to see fellow franchisees there and talk with them. As always, I had a great time and learned very interesting things from Mark Smith. He really cares about our success. Mark, who is already a very successful foreigner in [...]
February 24, 2008 – 11:46 pm
That’s an important question. Many people are so busy just going through their daily life that they never stop and think about this question and whether they are achieving something or not. Yesterday, I realized that I too am one such person. Given a chance to write down a goal for myself [...]
February 24, 2008 – 10:39 pm
Yesterday we had our first Osaka regional franchisee seminar of 2008.
It was nice to see some older familiar faces of franchisees that have been around for years and also to meet a couple of new franchisees who joined us recently by purchasing developed schools!
A big welcome to:
Smith’s School of English in Kamishinjo and
Smith’s School of [...]
By Alex
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Posted in Action Teacher Training, English School Articles, New start up or franchise?, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, franchise v. small business
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Tagged ビジネストレーニングのセミナー, ビジネス・マネージメント, マルチタスク, 一度に複数の仕事をこなすこと, 並行作業, 企業経営, 多重タスキング, 多重タスク処理, 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, 目標設定, 英会話四ツ橋校, （人）の仕事効率を上げる
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February 24, 2008 – 9:52 pm
I recently had my first experience at a triple trial in Horie! Talk about a full house!
I was a bit nervous not knowing what to expect or how I would conduct this lesson and gauge their levels within the allotted time.
In they came at 8pm, three young ladies, obviously long time friends who were quite [...]
By Alex
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Posted in English School Articles, New start up or franchise?, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, franchise v. small business, rewarding job change
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Tagged チラシ, ビラ, マンツーマン体験授業, 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, 配る
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February 23, 2008 – 3:57 am
I am a bit slow sometimes to update my soapbox here, though I always have a list of things to write about; however I recently received a big motivator to log on here and write.
A few days ago at a trial lesson at Smith’s School of English in Fuse I asked my student how she [...]
February 23, 2008 – 12:51 am
Last week, I did a bit of research for one of Smith’s School of English Kyobashi’s high level students. He had requested some information about comic book stores in Japan after a conversation that we had about comic books and superheroes. After hearing about how I had learned a good deal of kanji [...]
February 21, 2008 – 4:53 am
I regularly read posts on the soapbox , and there is a always a good balance of helpful posts about teaching as well as interesting points about Japan. A lot of the franchise owners and the part time teachers have a gift of writing that makes the most ordinary subject a joy to read! It’s [...]
February 19, 2008 – 4:21 am
One of my students came for her lesson last night and was very excited to show me he score report for the TOEIC. She made a 90 point improvement and this has been since she started studying with me. This made me feel great too!
TOEIC is quite a hard test for our students. [...]
February 19, 2008 – 2:44 am
I met an incredibly interesting student this afternoon. He’s brand new at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi so he voluntarily offered up quite a bit of information on his job/hobby. His job and hobby are actually one in the same - learning and teaching about Chinese history. For the past 30 odd [...]
February 18, 2008 – 8:25 pm
Last Sunday I and my wife went to Splendido, an Italian restaurant on the first floor of The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Umeda, Osaka http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Osaka/Dining/Splendido/Default.htm . We sometimes go there for the Italian Buffet which is on Sundays between 11:30am and 2:00pm. We love going there because for a reasonable price, we can enjoy many [...]
February 17, 2008 – 7:25 pm
Valentine’s Day has come and gone once again and it always amazes me how much more intense the chocolate-buying process has become. I went into the special event floor of two major department stores and was completely overwhelmed by the number of women in the process of choosing the right chocolates for their favorite [...]
February 16, 2008 – 8:19 pm
Our 2008 New Year’s Party was a blast for everyone. We had over 20 participants at this year’s party which was held at Cafe DECO on the first floor below my school. We had a lot of fun conversation, good food and drink and played some English games. Click on the link [...]
February 16, 2008 – 8:08 pm
This Saturday, one of my man-to-man students came to her class and I was all set to do the Ability 2 lesson on making invitations. After practicing making and accepting these for a while I realized that there is not much difference between an invitation and a request which we had covered in a [...]
February 16, 2008 – 2:26 am
In recent years, I hadn’t really gone out of my way to celebrate Valentine’s Day any differently than in the way that I was accustomed to. Although shopping for the perfect gift can be a major pain, I had grown so reliant on boxed chocolates and candy arrangements that to [...]
February 15, 2008 – 2:53 am
So in my last lesson last night I was asked by the two students to give them something to practice the R and L sound. I came up with the above sentence. I had them each read the sentence and then corrected their “R” pronunciation for the words “really” and “lyrics” which turned [...]
February 13, 2008 – 3:47 am
It’s really cold today! It’s been quite cold for a while now, it even snowed most of Saturday. Today the cold is tinged with wind however. I was looking forward to coming into Smith’s School of English, Kyobashi all day, actually, because of the great heating system we have here!
Although I really enjoy the cold, [...]
February 13, 2008 – 2:50 am
It’s that time of the year again! Everyone is talking about plans for the special day and all I hear is chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!
Not that I have anything against chocolate or Valentine’s day, on the contrary, I love both of them! But for the whole last week, every time I walked past the [...]
February 12, 2008 – 5:28 am
Today a lot of students just happened to be carrying around a stash of candies. At three different times tonight, three different students approached me with chocolate offerings. I thought that this was an odd coincidence but a deliciously welcome one. It’s not every day at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi that [...]
February 12, 2008 – 12:40 am
And maybe you are too…
And I’ll bet there are numerous other franchisees out there who have acquired this same name in their areas too.
It seems that after being seen in my school area for years now, passing out flyers, shopping, etc… many of the locals greet me by the name
“スミスさん”
They just assume I am Mr. [...]
By Alex
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Posted in English School Articles, Living in Japan, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, enjoyed this a lot, rewarding job change
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Tagged Mr. スミス, 挨拶, 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, 西長堀
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February 10, 2008 – 10:01 pm
When most folk I meet outside of Japan are asked their impression of Japan the response is usually missing one very important point. Japan is not well know as a location to go for outdoor sports. I strongly believe that a healthy body makes for a healthy mind and so was very happy [...]
February 10, 2008 – 5:44 am
In reference to the Smith’s Curriculum 1-point, I’d love to work at my Smith’s School in Kotoen everyday but I can’t because my other Smith’s Franchise in Fukushima is also very busy and requires the same amount of due diligence.
Both of my schools are wonderful places to work at largely because of the wide variety [...]
February 9, 2008 – 1:08 am
When I woke up this morning, I wondered why it was so dark outside. As far as I knew, rain hadn’t been part of the weather forecast last night. So I pulled back the curtains to peer outside and was pleasantly shocked to see a flurry of white snowflakes raining down on the [...]