I made a new, old friend yesterday while handing out flyers. We started managing Smith’s Shimokitazawa location (スミス英会話下北沢) 4 years ago. As you can imagine, we have completed numerous flyer runs. Shimokitazawa station (下北沢駅) gets a lot of traffic, but it is still small enough to recognize regulars. One of the regular commuters is a [...]
October 8, 2008 – 6:50 pm
I recently read that Japan has inaugurated a new Tourism Agency. Here at Shimokitazawa Smiths we were thrilled!
Both Geo and I are from a country that knows the economic and cultural potential that a thriving tourist industry can bring. We also know about the necessity to be able to communicate in an international [...]
September 25, 2008 – 11:22 pm
As summer draws to a close, it’s time to once again look at the variety of students that Shimokitazawa Smiths is attracting. For the first time since we started managing and teaching at Shimokita branch we are attracting University students.
This is pretty exciting for me as it shows a keen interest by young people [...]
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 [...]
Often lesson plans may seem like just that – a plan for a lesson, but there’s nothing more exciting than a lesson plan that has been put to the test and comes out on the winning end!
Shimokitazawa Smith’s youngest student had the pleasure of seeing the results of a successful lesson plan. Let’s call [...]
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. [...]
January 15, 2008 – 7:21 am
One of my favorite students loves manga and anime and often our conversations revolve around these topics. He mentioned that his favorite manga as a child was “Akira”. I shared with him that although I didn’t read the manga, I enjoyed watching the “Akira” anime when I was younger. He was excited to learn that [...]
September 26, 2007 – 1:01 am
Summer is gradually winding to a close and now we look ahead to cooler evenings and a bite in the air!
In addition to the excellent Smith’s curriculum, one way to get and keep students is to make a connection with them. Asking about their hobbies and interests is one way to do this. One of [...]