With my red man-to-man student on Saturday, I covered the lesson on imperatives. I always get a kick out of the pictures in the Smith’s curriculum. In case of many of them, no imperative warning could possibly save the person shown from sure death or severe injury. A steel I-beam falling from [...]
Just earlier today I received an email from a former student of mine who is currently living and working in New Zealand and she absolutely loves it!
I keep in touch by email with countless numbers of students but just today I realized how many “international” pen pals I have developed while teaching at Smith’s School [...]
As strange as this may sound…… on Australia Day we have a special event night called “Canada Event Night”! This was unplanned, obviously i am not aware of Aussie holidays. Anyway, we had a very multicultural event night, including Canadians, Australians (my flyer guy), Brazilians and of course Japanese! We had fun playing trivia and [...]
Spring is my favourite season in Japan. After the cold winter, it’s wonderful to get mild weather and to start wearing lighter clothes. I had been wearing a down jacket during the cold period but yesterday I switched to my lighter Smith’s School of English jacket. I prefer wearing it to the down jacket because [...]
Today, 6 of my students, my wife and I went out to have a bowling and karaoke party in Kobe. During this time, each student sung songs in English and lo and behold one of my quietest students belted out several songs with a voice I could not believe. Singing Backstreet Boys, Billy [...]
Yesterday I had two new students who are beginners (pink), but as everyone knows all Japanese students are false beginners. If they were complete beginners they would be like our kids students who cannot read. With a little bit of prompting, they soon become able to handle the grammar forms being taught and [...]
Most successful schools in Japan have good teaching materials whether it’s a textbook, flashcards or other various materials. A good school knows there can always be improvements but it’s important that teachers working for a school know how to use their schools’ system first and foremost. Too many teachers think they always know better and [...]
Students often ask me how they can improve their English…while there are shortcuts to learning anything the true secret to learning anything is simple - desire. Obviously talent, hardwork, practice, tests, friends, traveling all help but in the end desire is the one thing that keeps us going when things get tough. Desire isn’t something [...]
When group lesson students finish their lesson at Smith’s School of English in Tsukaguchi and all head towards the exit to leave, I sometimes say “ladies first”, inviting the ladies to go before the guys. In Japan, it is men first, so to hear me say that to them seems to make them happy, and [...]
Several Smith’s Schools are planning to have a fun Cherry Blossom Viewing Party at Osaka Castle on April 6th, 2008. So far the Otsu, Fuse, Horie, Okamoto and Tsukaguchi schools are planning to attend. There should be 6 or more foreign school owners and 35-80 students attending this event from about noon [...]
At long last it appears winter is on the way out. That’s good news for all of us, in part because Japan is such a nice place to be in the spring. But also people will renew their feeling to study and learn and, considering the changes the industry has experienced in the [...]
Last night I taught two high level students using the “New Events” part of the curriculum. The story is very entertaining and allows us to teach a lot of good vocabulary and phrases. Although there are a couple of small errors in the story such “crap” circles and a missing article etc., this [...]
Today I bought some airline tickets and travel insurance to go to Canada with my wife during a coming Smith’s School of English holiday. I bought them a local H.I.S. travel agency, not far from my Smith’s School of English in Tsukaguchi, Amagaski City. The service is excellent and one of the staff members can [...]
While every student that comes through the door at Smith’s yearns to speak English smoothly they all start off at different points in their English mastery. Some have studied at other language schools, others have majored in English and some have simply forgotten most of what they learnt back in junior high school. For the [...]
As a person who’s made the decision to do just that, let me review your options from my point of view.
OK, I can work for a corporate school and earn 250,000 to 300,000 a month working about 40 hours a week. I would put on my necktie and go to work when I was scheduled [...]
As Edward says, the morning routine is a great foundation for us and our students. It allows us to teach so many questions and verbs along with practicing prepositions and conjunctions. It also can be expanded when the student does past and future by covering it again using those tenses. Past tense [...]
As my fellow franchisee, Alex Stanciu explained, Smith’s School is not only for Japanese students of English. I too have had a Chinese student and may soon have a Brazilian student who now lives in Japan and wants to work on her English. She is of course fluent in Portuguese and Japanese. [...]
A student of mine at Smith’s School of English in Tsukaguchi, who has been studying with me for about 4 years, does all of the English to Japanese translations on my school’s web site for me. We also do language exchange and exchange e-mail in addition to her lessons with me at Smith’s. She does [...]
I don’t know if this has been mentioned on the soapbox before but it just occurred to me this afternoon while teaching a class at Smith’s School of English in Fuse.
I guess when people read about teaching English at Smith’s School of English, or anywhere else in Japan for that matter, we just assume that [...]
This is a country which I have not had the pleasure to visit yet though I know several of my fellow franchisees have visited, especially given the amount of holidays we have here at Smith’s School of English, and it seems to be a very popular destination for Japanese people as well.
Just today at [...]
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 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 – 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]