Our New Flyer

It has been a long time coming but we have finally have a new flyer.  Christopher worked
hard on it, took him a few months to finish but I think it looks nice.  We need to do something
about the map but for now it is alright. Here it is

This is the old one we are replacing.  It is really out of date, the baby in the picture is now 22.

I am hoping to get lots of new students!

Happy New Year

Back to teaching last Saturday!
Great way to start the new year as it is the busiest day for me!  It was nice to see
my students after a few weeks break!  Everybody looked happy and refreshed after
the winter break.  One of my students is heading off to Canada as an exchange student for a year!

My goals for this year are to improve my teaching!  I tend to get lazy and not focus on text work, especially with my adult students.  I want to change this and really focus on what everybody needs.  I also want to improve my Japanese.  I was surprised at how long it took me to write out my name and address in Japanese.
New year, new start, lets make this a great year!

Looking forward to 2020

It's the time of year when one reflects of the past and starts to build goal for the future.
The past year we managed to get a lot of students through their Eken tests, passing levels they
didn't think possible.  I am so proud of my students as they worked really hard and deserve the great result they got.  Some of the younger students are starting to gain confidence to use English to communicate, not just copying what the teacher says, but actually using English to say what they want.  It's a great step forward.
For the new year I need to improve my Japanese.  I had to write out my name and address for a form for Hannah's scholarship.  Usually I get David to write out these forms but the company was very strict on this point. Took me an hour to write two lines!  So back to study for me!

Happy New Year to everybody, hope that it is wonderful!

Busy few months

I thought that I could write more on here but the past few months have been very busy.
We have finished the first part of Eiken test, almost all of our students passed.  I'm very proud of them, they worked hard and deserve the results they have.

I have to study about all the new tests that are coming out for university entrance tests.  There is such a wide choice now and each test emphasises a different aspect of English.  One problem is learning enough vocabulary!

The weather has cooled down which means I have  a bit more energy to do things.  I have spent most weekends the past few weeks sorting books and moving things out of our house.  It feels nice to have the place a bit tidier and clean!

Bad Blogger

I haven't found the time or energy to write recently.
Summer holidays were great.  But as always far too hot for me.
This past two week have been back to work and I hope back to blogging!
One thing I am thinking about is how to have lessons where all four
skills are taught, this is so important for the new university tests, so I
want kids to learn the four skills from a young age.

In other news we have 3 new kittens!  They are about 2 weeks old and so cute!

Mama with the new kittens

Finished Eiken Tests

Sunday was the Eiken test here.  We had about 10 students doing the test this time.
Our youngest was a 3rd grade girl.
The range of the tests taken was the 5th grade level, the easiest to 1st grade, the most difficult.
One thing I have found is that the kids who are in junior high school or high school have enough grammar to understand the tests but very little vocabulary.  The past few months we have been
doing a lot of vocabulary work.
The second part of the tests from the 3rd grade level is in the interview test.  It's not that difficult but it makes students rather nervous, so a lot of practice for that in the next couple of weeks.

vocabulary

One phrase that is used a lot is "the good old days"   古き良き日 or 昔はよか
On face book there are number of pages dedicated to history or memories of certain towns. I've joined a few.  The memories are interesting, especially photos of places I grew up in.  But a lot of people seem to think that the past was better than today.  There were good times, growing up in the 1970's was interesting and exciting.  Things seemed to change a lot.  People were friendly and polite, people talked to each other more.  There was sense of community, now it seems like almost everybody has a smart phone and is more interested in interacting with that!   But there were problems. In the UK there sere so many strikes, terror attacks and violence at football matches.
I think when we look back we need to balance things in our minds, every era has good and bad things happening.

British English vs American English

In Japanese schools American English is taught.  So even though I'm from England I
teach more American English.  I usually point out differences between British English and American
English.
I came across this web page. It's in Japanese and explains a lot about British English.

https://britisheigo.com/?fbclid=IwAR2tRT9Wwg1caXAEmfE1iInR7S5O0ZIR-eL5TWd8DlNqI1TAa7-KQMHHM8Y


Hope the link works, if not search for British Eigo.  Enjoy.

Learning Japanese

The other week Mikey and I were cleaning out the room we use for teaching. I
was surprised at how many Japanese language books I have.  Most I have
had for a few years but they still look new.  Buying books doesn't mean
learning anything!
I thought about my attempts at learning Japanese and one thing that  I have realised is that I have
tried to do it by myself. I've never been to any classes or asked for help!
So when I got stuck or couldn't understand anything I would give up. There are somethings that I
can do by myself like learning how to write hiragana, katagan and kanji.  I watch Hannah
and see how much she practises for her kanji tests, he spends hours writing out the same
kanji until she has memorised it.  I think that is the only way to do it.
But other areas I need help, reading and grammar are confusing, having somebody to sit
with me and help me out would be a big help!  So I am going to ask my kids for help!
I need to do better in this!

Just a few of my Japanese books

Baby Animals

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, been very here the past few weeks!
Our Mama cat had her second lot of kittens.
This made  me think about baby animal names.  In English there are quite a few.
In Japanese the kanji for child is put in front of the animal name. So a puppy is
koinu, inu is dog, ko is child. Nice and simple.
Here are a few baby animal names in English

Dog   Puppy
Cat    Kitten
Horse   Foal
Lion   Cub
Bear  Cub
Mouse  Pup
Goat    Kid
Elephant  Calf
Cow    Calf
Ape    Baby
Camel   Calf
Rabbit    Kitten


These are just a few.
To finish some pictures of our new kittens.

Vocabulary

One thing I have found is that in Japanese schools English grammar is taught
very well. Most Japanese have a better understanding English grammar than
I do!  But very limited vocabulary!
So part of this blog is to introduce new vocabulary.  Words that are not
taught in text books, words that I come across in my reading or from watching TV.

So the first word is:   adorable   愛らしい
Hannah came out with this the other day when she was playing with the cats,
"He is so adorable."  she said as the white cat sat purring.