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, rewarding job change
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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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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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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. [...]
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 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 [...]
January 12, 2008 – 7:09 am
In one of my Man-to-Man lesson today, I covered Adjectives 2 and reviewed Adjectives 1. I think it was a good lesson in which I introduced and huge list of adjectives and encouraged the student to describe things and people. I encouraged her to always learn adjectives as pairs including the words of opposite meaning [...]
January 4, 2008 – 1:14 am
ちっとも見当がつかないよ。
全然［さっぱり］分かりません。／見当もつきません。／全く考え付きません。
Here at Smith’s School of English we use a loop type lesson format which includes teaching our students what we call a “One-point” at the end of every lesson. It’s basically a useful expression which they can memorize and immediately begin using.
http://www.sse-franchise.com/soapbox/category/english-lesson-plans/
I always encourage my students to use what they have learned as much [...]
December 30, 2007 – 9:30 pm
English in Japan. Simply put, it is everywhere and nowhere at various levels of correctness and authenticity. It is being used by some Japanese on a regular basis to communicate with foreigners they meet or correspond with through their business or study. It, or some semblance of it, is found on thousands [...]
December 16, 2007 – 5:24 am
Recently I noticed that more and more trial students are coming to the school with copies of my web pages. Copies of the main page and the pages for the events are usually included. I always mention that I noticed they had looked at my site. They always say, “Yes, it looks [...]
November 21, 2007 – 11:11 pm
My husband (and co-owner of Smith’s Azamino), Mike, has recently gotten back into golf, an activity he used to do quite a bit in Canada when he was younger, and one which we didn’t think we could afford to do here in Japan. While it isn’t cheap, it is not unreasonably expensive if you [...]
September 30, 2007 – 5:24 am
First, congratulations to Sue Six on her first trial.
Today I got two emails from my previous students. One who is studying for six months in Canada and one who is now in Sydney for about the same time. They are both doing well, making friends and getting use to using English everyday for [...]
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 [...]
When I wanted to teach “tired of” as a One Point English point, I asked the student if there was anything that she had recently done too much or eaten too often or would like to stay away from for a while. She thought for a while and said “nothing”. That really put [...]
I recently joined a local sports club I’ve been wanting to join ever since I arrived here 7 years ago. It’s quite expensive, so I’d shied away from it before. (Thanks to Smith’s School of English, I can now afford such a luxury!) Wouldn’t you know I ran into one of our students my [...]
One of our students is in the long process of trying to move permanently to Canada. Not entirely sure why, exactly, but it is her dream. Her husband has joined her in this adventure and went to Canada ahead of her in search of permanent work. After going on a student visa, he has finally [...]
We have several families who’ve joined our school. Sometimes they join together, but often they stagger it.
Our first family joined the first month we were open, 3 years ago. The husband dropped by one evening and rang the bell without an appointment. At that time we had hardly any students, so I was free to [...]
My husband and I took a short trip to the Izu Peninsula during Golden Week vacation. Before our holiday break, as is our custom, we discussed holiday plans with our students (our plans and those of our students). A great opportunity to use real English, it’s also a fabulous chance for us and students to [...]
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 [...]
Humble Beginnings
“Build it and they will come” is what I remember thinking when I first opened my English school franchise. It feels like just yesterday when I said goodbye to being an employee and made my decision to open my own business. I was young and enthusiastic but really didn’t have much idea of what [...]