Tag Archives: 英会話

7-Eleven to the Rescue!

Just want to draw attention to the kindness of people here.
Today I was having lunch at a restaurant across the street from our school in Azamino, and decided to make a quick run to the convenience store to pay a few bills and pick up a couple of things. We’ve had rain the entire week, [...]

水天宮 Suitengu Shrine with Smith’s Students

I wrote this ages ago, and meant to post it then. Better late than never!

Mike and I are expecting a baby in September (2008), so a class of students decided to take me to Suitengu shrine. Everyone had been asking me if I had been to that shrine yet, so I was really glad to [...]

Who will be the Big Winner?

         Here at Smith’s School of English,  Azamino, the students have all been making predictions as to when Deana and Mike’s baby will be born.  When someone suggested a “baby pool“ with a very small entry fee, everyone thought that would be a lot of fun.   
      More than half [...]

A Safe Country Indeed!

Don’t you just love Japan ?    Where else in the world are people so honest and trustworthy ?   I recently moved from my weekly rental in Futakotamagawa to another rental in Kozukue.   My first apartment locked with a key but the new place uses a numerical passcode entry system.  Although they gave [...]

Work / Family Balance

 

I was just over at Hub Pages, reading comments to a story by fellow franchisee Derek at Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話 塚口). Someone posted a link to another soapbox story, written by Helena at Nakamozu (スミス英会話 なかもず). It was a great read for me, as I am expecting our first child very, very soon. Her comments about family time [...]

Why we’re still in Japan after 8 years

I wrote most of this as a comment to a story posted by Derek (from スミス英会話塚口), but I think I should share it with all of you too!
We are very excited to be having a baby in Japan. Japan is a place I can feel safe every day, at any time of day or [...]

Birthday Mania 誕生日がいっぱい!

The other day at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi, I asked 2 students studying in the same class when their birthdays were. One of them said “today” (July 28th) and the other said that hers was on July 30th! We laughed because his birthday was on that very day and because their birthdays were so close [...]

I Love Live Music; I Live in Japan

When I first moved to Japan, the thing I missed most was the live music scene that I enjoyed back home in Nanaimo, BC, Canada. But I have been slowly uncovering the ive music scene in and around Kyoto, as has Jim in Tokyo. Many annual festivals feature free live outdoor music, such as Taiko [...]

スミス英会話大津校:Let me introduce myself!

Hello everyone! This is Chiharu from SSE Ohtsu.

I have been coaching since April 2008 and enjoying interacting with our students very much. As my partner Edward has posted in May, I was very nervous at the begginning; however, I quickly felt very comfortable being in a classroom with our students. Thanks to the SSE system [...]

Extra Advertising

This month we did a little bit more advertising to build on the flyering that we already do 2 or 3 times a week.

First, we printed 2000 copies of A4 sized flyers (on Sakura colour paper!!) and put them in the Mainichi Shinbun. Second, we posted our school information in Shiga Living (a weekly newspaper [...]

New SSE Coach, Nervous SSE Coach: No Problem!

In April of this year, my partner Chiharu starting teaching at our school, Smith’s School of English Ohtsu.

At first she was very worried that students wouldn’t like having a Japanese National for an English teacher.
But her worries quickly abated as she realized several things: (1) she is an amazing coach with a deep understanding of [...]

An Amazing Month: Nagasaki and Personal Bests

Chiharu and I had an amazing month at our school, SSE Ohtsu.
We started the month with the second half of our first Golden Week at Smith’s. As Don mentioned in “Golden Week Excursion” and Derek mentioned in “A taste of Canada at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi“, Golden week at Smith’s is wonderful and the [...]