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Back to work feeling refreshed

I’ve just finished enjoying the Smith’s Obon holiday. While I really enjoy working at my school, Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi, it was great to take a break. I watched a bunch of movies at home on Cable TV, went out shopping with family, went to my sports center, TIPNESS to do weight training [...]

Fireworks Festivals Incredible !!

My wife Yoko and I get Festival Fever every summer.
Yoko’s main hobby is kimonos and she really loves to wear yukata during summer festival season. This year I promised to get her a special tailor-made yukata from carefully selected material, a hand-made indigo with traditional methods, a one-of-a-kind that would make her look completely unique. [...]

Liver varrey…what?? (Oh! River valley!)

Hi Everyone! Just finished one of my pronunciation lessons. We did something from our special Smith’s Pronunciation Course, and focused on the R’s and L’s this lesson.
I’m really impressed with how the students are doing here at Smith’s School of English Azamino. I’m hearing such big differences in their pronunciation and they [...]

A big thank you to a student

A student of mine from Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi in Amagasaki City recently prepared a great DVD which contains a video and photos he took at a joint barbecue event my school held with the Ohtsu, Okamoto, Horie and Fuse schools at Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park in Osaka, Japan on July 27th, 2008. This is [...]

Birthday Mania

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 [...]

Five Smith’s Schools Hold Barbecue Together

On Sunday, July 27th, 2008 Smith’s Tsukaguchi, Okamoto, Ohtsu, Fuse and Horie Schools held a joint barbecue event together at Tsurumi Ryokuchi Park in Osaka, Japan. It was our second event together. We enjoyed some nice food and played games in English. We had a great time!
I am looking forward to holding more events [...]

Calling all mums!

Hello - My name is Helena and, along with my husband, we own Smiths School in Nakamozu. I wanted to share my experience of living in Japan and in particular being a mum. If there are any Smith’s teachers out there thinking of starting a family I hope this will help!
When we first moved to [...]

We Are Smith’s

At a seminar that we had in Osaka, Mark Smith, founder of the company, mentioned that we (the franchisees) are Smith’s. We are, and the future of the company depends on us.
Derek Maeckelburg
Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi
What I have to say about it.

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Smith’s Summer BBQ at Tsurumi-Ryokuchi Park!

Well, it is time again for another fun joint Smith’s Event. Five Smith’s schools are planning to hold another fun event on July 27th. Fuse, Horie, Tsukaguchi, Otsu and Okamoto Schools will participate in this event this year. We are hoping that it will be as much fun as the Cherry Blossom [...]

Enjoying shopping at COSTCO in Japan

I love COSTCO in Japan! Last Sunday we had an appointment to go to there with a former coworker of my wife, his wife and his four-year-old boy. He and his wife had wanted to check out COSTCO and my wife had said that they could go with us. They picked us up by van. [...]

Going to Starbucks Coffee in Japan

The following is based on Smith’s School of English curriculum Routine 4 Lawson’s text and questions.
Going to Starbucks Coffee in Japan

I stand outside Starbucks Coffee thinking about having something to eat and drink for breakfast. I decide to have breakfast there so I go into the shop. I look for an available table. I find [...]

KOENJI - an interesting place.

KOENJI is in Suginami Ku in the western part of Tokyo on the Chuo line just four stations west of Shinjuku.
KOENJI received its name from the temple – Koenji - which was visited often by Tokugawa Iemitsu, who regularly rested in its tea room on falconry hunts in the area. There are a few other [...]