Category Archives: my passion: language

Is Good English Communication Skill Getting More or Less Important for Japanese?

Really, the answer to this question is quite obvious and the fact that students continue to sign up and make great strides is proof of it. The ability to communicate well in English will most certainly continue to grow in importance year by year and I think this trend is already accelerating with the current [...]

Time for a nice break!

Last week, John of the Kawanishi School and I went to Ashiya to find a coffee shop and found a nice Italian style shop with outside seating.  With the nice weather these days and nice artistic cafe late (this one had the patter of a leaf in the froth), we could really enjoy a nice [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 What is an Oxymoron?

I recently received an unsolicited email in which there was a list of oxymorons (or oxymora) and it prompted me to share them with my ESL pupils at Smith’s School of English in Koenji part of the Smith’s School of English,pay by the month, franchise English conversation schools throughout Japan. An oxymoron is a figure [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 Being a Coach of Communicative Confidence

Living in Japan and working with students at Smith’s School of English – Koenji (スミス英会話高円寺) is an everyday scintillating experience . My classroom is a place of learning and not only for the students to who I am a coach of communicative confidence, but also for me as I get to chat about an incredible [...]

Smith’s School of English Joint HANAMI 2010

Wow! What a great time! Sunday we were blessed with wonderful weather here in KANSAI. And this was perfect for enjoying the wonderful cherry blossoms in the Osaka Jo Park. We were unable to stake out our usual spot next to the outer moat but did grab a very large spot across the walkway from [...]

Electronics – Future???

As many of you know, I used to work in the electronics industry. I worked as an engineer and manager for Alpine Electronics, Oki Electric and Mitsubishi Electric in the US and Japan. Recently John Coleman and I have been making many videos and in-class lessons for our students and for Smith’s Schools in general [...]

Coming Soon! In-class lessons related to the weekly online TOEIC Listening Lessons!

John Coleman, the owner and head teacher of the Kawanishi Smith’s School of English and I (Al Bartle of Smith’s School of English – Okamoto) have been working hard to make TOEIC Part 3 type listening lessons for the Smith’s main site. So far we have made 11 lessons. You can see the free online [...]

スミス英会話提供の無料TOEICレッスン (Free online TOEIC Listening Lessons from Smith’s School of English)

Smith’s School of English is now providing free online listening lessons for students to practice over and over at home. There are three ways to access these videos. From the Main Site TOEIC Lesson Page 無料TOEICレッスン From the Japanese Blog 無料オンラインTOEICレッスン From the Smith’s School of English YouTube Channel: ssejapan Listening practice is good for all [...]

The Greatest Reward of All – 1 Year On

I have been the franchisee and teacher of Smith’s School of English, Kawanishi スミス英会話川西校 for one year today!!!!!!!! I have always loved languages, especially English, so it is really rewarding being able to earn my living teaching my favourite language at my own English conversation school. I always enjoy my lessons with my very special students, [...]

What is an International Language?

Of course English is perhaps the most widely accepted international language. But actually any language, including Japanese, can be an international language. I personally experienced this about 15 years ago on a business trip to Taiwan for a design meeting with our Taiwan supplier who was to make a charger stand for our my company’s [...]

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