February 7, 2008 – 2:33 am
Just the other day, one of the students at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi was telling me about her unusual pet. She has not one, but two ferrets! I haven’t heard of many people in Japan housing ferrets as pets because miniature dogs are all the rage over here. I’ve only seen a ferret once [...]
February 6, 2008 – 7:35 am
I went out to do some flyers the other night, and during the lulls between the express train hordes I got to thinking about what I’ve learned over the years of promoting my school by handing out flyers.
Beyond the common sense questions of where to stand at the exit, how often to vary locations and [...]
February 6, 2008 – 4:48 am
I’ve noticed that every year around the end of Jan and beginning of Feb, the local supermaket I frequent will have a special corner for dried soybeans and sushi rolls. The big Chinese characters on the promotion tag mention some sort of festival, but it took me a while to finally decipher what they meant [...]
February 6, 2008 – 3:30 am
Today’s first class started out phenomenally well considering that the weather outside was dreary and not so inspiring. One of the students brought in a folder of photos that he’d taken during one of his scuba diving expeditions. Before seeing these pictures, I had no idea that he was such an avid diver. [...]
February 5, 2008 – 11:29 pm
Cell phones in Japan are amazing. With my cell phone I can send email messages, access the internet and take quality photos, amongst other things. If I wanted, I could get a cell phone with TV! Now for me, being able to send email messages from my cell phone with nice pictures is the best. [...]
February 5, 2008 – 8:24 pm
Today, my helper and I were passing out flyers in front of the JR Settsumotoyama Station and my student’s mother stopped by to introduce herself and say that her son had told her that I was a great teacher! Wow! That surely made my day. I thanked her and told her that [...]
February 5, 2008 – 1:51 am
Everyday, regardless of the time or weather, as soon as I arrive at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi, the first thing I do is look out the windows. Not just one window, or several detached singular windows, but a wide expanse of windows that encompass the entire lounge area. The view is quite spectacular from [...]
February 4, 2008 – 9:01 am
Having lived in Asia for over 20 years now I must say that I’ve been spoiled. I’ve stayed at 5-star hotels, had maids and drivers and eaten at some fantastic restaurants. I remember when I first came to Japan 14 years ago as a student I thought prices were high here but since that time [...]
February 2, 2008 – 2:14 am
For the last few weeks, a friend of mine has been chasing after me to install a new program on my computer. It’s kind of like a role-playing game, or so I’ve been told. I can’t really be sure until I play this hyped up game. So, giving into the peer pressure, [...]
February 2, 2008 – 2:12 am
There’s nothing better to warm you up when you come in for a lesson at Smith’s School of English than a nice hot cup of tea.
Not only is tea delicious, but we often hear that tea is really good for your health as well. Tea has been been proven to be good for all sorts [...]
February 2, 2008 – 1:14 am
“So, anything exciting?” I asked my 4pm student as I walked her into the classroom in Kyobashi school.
“Well, I finally decided the departure date for New Zealand!” she beamed.
It’s not every day that students tell you exciting news like this, and she apparently wanted to share this with me, so we kept the conversation [...]