Japan is truly a nice country in which to live. For the most part the people are very pleasant and a lot has been done to make Japan a comfortable, clean and convenient place to live for all residents. I like the U. S. too but it is difficult to [...]
By Al Bartle
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Also posted in English School Articles, Fair to teachers, Living in Japan, SSE Okamoto Corner, a reward in itself, english in japan, enjoyed this a lot, teaching: why i do it
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Tagged スミス英会話岡本, Life in Japan, Smith's School of English, スミス英会話
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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 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 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 [...]
December 4, 2007 – 10:59 pm
With the recent addition of fingerprinting foreigners at immigration, there has been a lot of talk this past month about the treatment of foreigners in Japan. Here is something you probably don’t hear much about:
Last week, I had to go to one of the government offices to get some documents changed. I recently had my [...]
December 2, 2007 – 3:21 am
I have often remembered my students birthdays and gotten them a piece of cake from one of the fine bakeries in the neighborhood of the school. As Okamoto is well know for great bakeries, this is always fun and I have never ever gotten cake that the students do not enjoy. But this [...]
September 23, 2007 – 8:33 pm
So, what does it take to be the owner of your own successful school? Well, it doesn’t take too much money but it does take willpower. Now, not everyone has the willpower that he/she thinks he/she does. I asked myself “Do you want to enjoy teaching English? Do you want to [...]
September 1, 2007 – 7:38 pm
Initial Investment Payback in less than 13 months!
So I have now had my Smith’s school for 14 months after purchasing it for 2.7 million Yen in 2006. After starting with only 15 students I now have 49 but 7 are Man-to-Man (Private) which is like having 56 students. The clear earnings [...]
August 11, 2007 – 9:19 pm
Yesterday was my usual busy Saturday….7 straight lessons! In the middle of my busy teaching schedule, one of my man-to-man (private) students told me that she felt I must be a very rare English teacher in Japan since I have so much international business experience.
Having worked in Japan for a large Japanese electronics manufacturer for [...]
Truly the best compliment I have ever received from a student was from our very first student (#001), who of course is still studying with us at Smith’s Azamino and has begun her 4th year with us. (Her son is also a student!)
She is a teacher herself, and therefore understands the value of reviewing one’s [...]
In my lesson yesterday my student (doctor and his wife) shared our “bad experiences” with a particular American car maker’s cars. It seems that we had exactly the same kinds of troubles: power windows that stopped working, air conditioning that broke multiple times, especially just before the hottest season, and transmission problems. [...]