It is important for students of English to think about what the steps are deeply themselves in the very beginning before they set out to acquire good English skills. We as teachers, or as we prefer to call ourselves “coaches of communicative confidence”, can list up the steps and tell the students that these are [...]
Wow! Last night felt so refreshing! After the hotest summer on record it was great to finally sleep in a cool bedroom without the AC. But it only serves to remind me that Japan has some great seasons. They are very distinct and beautiful. Having lived in Japan for a total of 12 years over [...]
This week, which was quite busy with a few trials, walk-in inquiries and the usual full load of lessons, I got a special surprise. When I called in to ask about a student’s lesson, I was informed that a student who had taken a trial at Smith’s School of English -Fukushima (スミス英会話福島校）had decided to join [...]
I recently received a few bottles of a special beer from my student. She brought them back from Hokkaido. The beer is a micro-brew made using iceberg water. It is called Okhotsk Blue. The Okhotsk Blue Draft is one of the most unique beers around, counting a couple of unusual ingredients into its mix. Chief [...]
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 [...]
So if you asked me what was great about owning and teaching at my own Smith’s School of English (Okamoto School) I would have to say that, having been at it for about 4 years, I treasure each day and each minute I have the opportunity to help my students to make progress to improve [...]
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 [...]
I recently did a soapbox posting about using a contemporary event with great popular appeal as the subject of a lesson at my English conversation school 英会話, Smith’s School of English, Kawanishi スミス英会話川西校. This made for a really successful and very popular lesson. My lesson featuring the (not quite total) success of Japanese figure skater Mao Asada at [...]
Smith’s School of English’s 2009 Christmas party was held on December 13th at Capall Uisce Irish Pub in Nishinomiya Kitaguchi. Tsukaguchi,Okamoto and Kawanishi schools joined the party. 26 people including students, teachers, family members and friends attended. It was a lot of fun. When the party began to swing, we played a game named “White [...]
Smith’s School of English events are lots of fun, both for the students and the teachers. I always look forward to the next event, whether it is one for only my school, Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi（スミス英会話塚口校）, or a joint one with other Smith’s schools. The next event is a Christmas one and I am doing it jointly with two other schools, [...]
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