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
|
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, rewarding job change, teaching: why i do it
|
Tagged スミス英会話岡本, Life in Japan, Smith's School of English, スミス英会話
|
Smith’s- why do i love thee so? Let me see……. when i “worked for the man” at another English school in Japan and we had a slow day, i would be assigned some boring paperwork or cleaning job. Lately Wednesdays have been quiet at MY school, Smith’s School of English FC Ohtsu
By Edward
|
Also posted in English School Articles, SSE Ohtsu Corner, a reward in itself, enjoyed this a lot
|
Tagged 大津ã€æ»‹è³€, broadway, broadwaymusicals, English school Japan, 英会話ã€è‹±ä¼šè©±å¤§æ´¥ã€english, love, musicals, of, Smith's School of English, teaching, trip
|
Last night I had a great lesson with two of my newest students, a husband and wife. He is a Japanese engineer and she is a Chinese housewife. They are a very nice couple and get along very well during the class. Their participation is great. They are beginners but I [...]
My 6:00 p.m. Saturday lesson this week included two students. We worked on making requests and went through the normal lesson plan with no problems but when I asked them to think of and make requests on their own, they seemed to stumble. In some cases I give them a simple scenario such [...]
The laughs are abundant at Smith’s School of English. This week my Saturday 3pm lesson included three students who were tasked with miming some activities to get their partners to guess what they were doing and to use the past continuous tense. It never fails that one of the students does something [...]
April 10, 2008 – 11:29 pm
Students who are “Normal” can get very comfortable with their teacher and classmates, so it’s always an interesting twist when a new face pops into class.
Recently, two of our more mature students had their first class together. The last time that Mr. T and Mr. S saw one another was at the Smith’s Halloween [...]
I would like to write about a certain very special new student of mine at Smith’s School of English in Fuse who is an absolute pleasure to teach!
She is so focused on the lesson, she asks for time to write down everything on the board, especially the new vocabulary words, she does her best to [...]
By Alex
|
Also posted in English School Articles, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, a reward in itself, enjoyed this a lot, teaching: why i do it
|
Tagged つづり、スペリング, 勉学に励んでいる, 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, 発音チェック, 英会話四ツ橋校, 英語, 語彙を増やす, 語彙構築
|
As Edward noted earlier, he learned an interesting technique from Gideon about how to get the students to really work with the Phrases and I have been using this method recently with my higher level students to get them to find the missing words and put them in to complete a passage that I have [...]
Students often ask what steps they can take to become better at English. Of course there is no single answer but if I were pressed to give one, it would be to simply “use” English every chance you get. Though there are not millions of native speakers in Japan, there are a [...]
Yesterday’s 2008 Smith’s School Cherry blossom viewing party ( スミス英会話お花見会 ). Was a great deal of fun for all! Excellent weather, beautiful blossoms sometimes fluttering down like snow and terrific conversation were had by all. Students from the Okamoto, Fuse, Otsu, Horie and Tsukaguchi schools got together to enjoy great food, drinks, conversation, [...]
Smith’s School of English provides a very different kind of experience for our students. Our teachers care about each and every student and we really try to stretch their ability in as many ways as possible. We often arrange for special events to give them the opportunity to practice the English they have [...]
Last night, I met one of my students in front of the station. He has been going to company introduction meetings and interviews all week and he stopped to tell me about his experience. As we were standing there, a young woman who was obviously a new company employee passed by and as [...]
March 30, 2008 – 12:47 am
What’s different about Smith’s School compared with the multitude of English conversation schools in Japan? Bottom to the top it’s totally different. It’s truly a breath of fresh air. No stale lesson plans, no stiff teachers looking truly uncomfortable in ties, just a down-to-earth well thought out curriculum which provides what Japanese [...]
March 23, 2008 – 10:32 pm
The first year of teaching is always difficult, whether you are working for yourself or for a large company. Working for yourself presents a few extra complications and worries, and I must admit that I didn’t always have a lot of confidence in what I was doing or how I was doing things. [...]
March 23, 2008 – 12:59 am
English in Japan is everywhere but at the same time it’s not. In many cases it exists in varying degrees of correctness as decoration on T-shirts and so on, or the “OPEN” and “CLOSE” signs on the stores. From this you can begin to see that there is a real need for Japanese to seek [...]
March 23, 2008 – 12:04 am
So what is good about the Smith’s opportunity? Well, in my case, it allowed me to come back to Japan on my own terms and not at the whim of the company for which I was working. It allowed me to bring my wife back to be near her aging parents and my [...]
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 [...]
By Alex
|
Also posted in English School Articles, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, a reward in itself, enjoyed this a lot
|
Tagged 国際フレンドシップ, 国際親善, 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, 海外で働く, 海外で勉強する, 留学する, 英会話四ツ橋校
|
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 Smith’s [...]
By Alex
|
Also posted in English School Articles, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, teaching: why i do it
|
Tagged ニュージーランド, 外国訪問, 日常会話, 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, 海外出張, 海外旅行, 英会話四ツ橋校
|
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 – 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
|
Also posted in English School Articles, New start up or franchise?, SSE Fuse Corner, SSE Horie Corner, franchise v. small business, rewarding job change
|
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
|
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 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. [...]