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 [...]
The Wine Tasting Course at my Smith’s School of English Franchise in Kotoen is taking off and one senior man who is particularly interested in European food brought an extraordinary gift to the classroom the other day. Although he laments that the economy really isn’t all that great and that it really isn’t very likely [...]
When I was a young boy I played with some toy tanks and trucks that I later learned had been my grandfather’s toys. My father had then played with them as a kid and I had inherited them. I still have them today and was able to find them in my room when I went [...]
When I ask students why they want to learn English a common response is because they want to be able to watch movies without subtitles. When I ask those students who their favorite actor one name always comes up – Johnny Depp. One of my students is such an avid fan that she even traveled [...]
Sitting across the table from my students in my classroom I often hear about students’ dreams. As they come to Smith’s 英会話 it comes as no surprise that many of them say that they want to speak English fluently but it’s not the only thing I hear; some want to live abroad to experience life, [...]
During the X-Mas break I had a chance to talk to my best friend from high school and he told me about something he had seen on TopGear – an English show on the BBC that focuses on the latest and greatest cars. However his favorite episode was called “Killing a Toyota.” As he explained [...]
Growing up I loved to watch Sesame Street, it was educational in a non-educational, very entertaining way. As my son has now started understanding words I felt it was a good time to share with him some of my favorite episodes and thanks to YouTube it’s easier than ever. Over the past two months I [...]
What is an “Application”? “An iPhone app, or application, is what Apple calls third-party software programs developed specifically for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The applications available can be downloaded directly by the cell phone, or downloaded to a computer and transferred to the phone. Apple has an iPhone app store for those who [...]
When I was young I had to deal with a lot of big problems that possibly a lot of kids didn’t have to deal with, so as a result my school work suffered. Well actually, I never even started my school work, I just coasted through. I never received much help with schoolwork from my [...]
One of the things I encourage all my students to do is keep a diary and try their best to write one entry per week. Unlike conversation, which is the focus of Smith’s conversation school (英会話), writing demands time. We are able to take the time to check vocabulary, spelling and grammar. Most students talk [...]
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