Genki English Newsletter

May 2001

Hello! I hope you're OK, and your kids are enjoying their Genki lessons! In Japan we've just started the new school year, and the site has been really busy with teachers getting ideas for the new term! So there have been loads of new things up on the website almost every week!

As seen on TV...

As I'm now back in Japan, we're ready to go with another set of Genki Shows ( http://genkienglish.net/show.html )in June and July! But it's really difficult to actually tell what we do without seeing it! So I've uploaded one of the TV news bulletins from last year. If you have the "Realvideo" software on your computer, then you can have a look and see what we mean by a Genki English Show!!! And if you want us to come to your school or area, get in touch and we'll see when we can fit you in!!
http://genkienglish.net/news1.ram

P.S. forgot to mention, the video is in Japanese - but you can get the gist of it from the songs and actions!!

Big Genki Seminars!

In May we'll be presenting a teaching seminar in Tokyo on May 13th, and Osaka on May 20th. The meetings are organised by one of the top teachers in Japan, Ritsuko Nakata. The workshops are open to anyone. Members of Nakata Sensei's AETC have to pay yen 500, but visitors are required to pay 2500 yen. They are taking membership applications now for 2001-2002 year starting this April to next March for individuals and organizations. The annual fee for membership is yen 7000 for individuals and yen 15000 for organizations. Three people from an organization can participate for the yen 500 fee.

Genki English will not be receiving a fee, but will be selling our CDs ( http://genkienglish.net/songs.htm ), so please come along and get some great ideas! We'll be in the area from Tokyo to Osaka during the week of the 14th, so if you want us to come along to your area, get in touch!

STOP PRESS: We'll also be holding a special seminar in Matsuyama, Shikoku, on June 11th. If you know any teachers who may be interested, ask them to get in touch!

Need help planning your curriculum?

We can help! We are now starting a new service where we can build you a customised English or "International Understanding" curriculum for your school, including lesson plans, schedules, resources and complete training for the teachers! In certain cases we can even come to the school and do demonstration lessons. Plus of course there will be full back up and follow up training where necessary. If you need more details, email us or give me a ring on 090 1328 6924.

Hotmail contact

Lots of people contact us every month. But I noticed that many of our viewers use hotmail and hence couldn't use the email buttons on every page. So I've created a new page where you can simply type your message into the webpage, without having to use any email at all!

http://genkienglish.net/contact.htm

Weather Lesson

One of the hottest new things on the site this month is a "Weather Mini Lesson!" ( http://genkienglish.net/weather.htm ). This ties in with my "lesson plan page"( http://genkienglish.net/lessonplan.htm )from earlier in the month. You basically get to see how I introduce vocab during my classes. It's also really great for the kids to learn directly from the webpage!

A few things to look out for when teaching vocab are:

1) Do some words, go back and keep repeating and reviewing!
2) Don't teach too many new words (8 answers plus 1 question is good for a 40 minute lesson)
3) Use lots of "Yeah, goods, brilliants etc.", confidence is the key!
4) Use funny ways of saying the phrase. E.g. raise or lower the pitch of your voice. This allows the kids to say the phrase more times without it getting boring!
5) You say and then the kids say straight away!
6) Make it genki! Jump around, shout out the words, use funny pictures to make it interesting and fun - hence easier to learn!!
http://genkienglish.net/weather.htm

Phonics Worksheets

I opened a real can of worms with my talking phonics page ( http://genkienglish.net/phonics.htm )a while back! Now it seems lots of you want more phonics resources! Remember that phonics is dead easy, and it's simply a way of showing kids the relationship between letters and their sounds.

I've been working on a way of getting kids used to phonics without actually teaching much (if any at all) writing. And what I've come up with is a series of "Odd one out" worksheets. Basically there are several pictures on each page and one of them starts with a different letter to the others. You say the words to the kids and they pick out the odd-one-out! On the page you can download sheets for H, K and L (the latter one is very amusing in Japan!). Please email me with any feedback you may have and if people like them I might be able to produce some more!
http://genkienglish.net/phonicsws.htm

Teaching other age groups?

The reason I started this page was because there were no resources available to me when I started teaching in Primary School. Now Genki English is probably the most useful site out there, but we do concentrate on kids' English. So if you want some resources for other age groups, why not try Ian Hewitt's http://eslgames.com or Neil Coghlan's http://www.geocities.com/easylessonplans ? If you are teaching languages other than English check out http://www.lingualearn.co.uk .

Genki English Aussie Adventure Tour
by Will

In March I took a group of kids to Cairns, Australia on the first Genki English Aussie Adventure Tour. For 10 days the students did everything from hold koalas, feed kangaroos, stay with a homestay family for 3 days, attend an Australian school, snorkel/scuba-dive at the Great Barrier Reef, throw boomerangs and spears, ride horses, have BBQs, swim in outback rivers, do Aboriginal painting and of course, go shopping! We sang Genki English songs in the car and I had them use English everywhere we went. I told the kids to be confident and smile and not to worry about making mistakes when speaking English. They threw themselves into the world of Aussie English with gusto everywhere we went and when it came time to go back to Japan no one wanted to leave!

-Will Jasprizza

Game Idea: Apple3 !

This is a cool game idea sent in by reader Sarah Cox,

1. Sit the kids in a circle (groups of 15 are best, any more and you should make 2 circles)
2. Give each kid a different object or a picture card that they know in English.
3. Teacher stands in the middle, but they want to sit down!
4. The person in the middle says one of the words 3 times e.g. Apple, Apple, Apple. If they do this, they change places with the person holding the apple and repeat from 4.
5. But, to defend your seat, you say your word one time before the person in the middle has said it 3 times. E.g. person in the middle says "Apple, Apple" and then the apple person says "apple", they have defended their seat and the middle person must challenge a different person!

Make sure the kids know all the words, and that the words don't sound too much alike! Also, make sure that the kids know that the aim of the game is to be sat down (and not be centre of attention in the middle!!!).

If any other readers have some cool ideas, please email me or put them on the discussion board! This is a really cool game, thanks Sarah!

Speaking of which..... when I was back in Europe I found that my English had gotten so bad by living in Japan! So it's always good to hear some real English from back home, why not try listening to England's Radio 1 on the internet? http://bbc.co.uk/radio1 My favourite is Mark and Lard from 1 PM (9PM in Japan), if your students can understand all what they say you're teacher of the year!!! And listen to who does the breakfast show (on in the early afternoon in Asia)!

And Finally

I did mean to send out 2 newsletters month, but it turned into one long one again!!! Mr Monkey's cooking corner was also mentioned in a "Doraemon's guide to the internet" book recently (Doraemon is a famous blue cartoon character in Japan). For the next few months we're going to be working flat out of CD3, and some special video projects! But along with the shows and seminars, they'll still be plenty of new stuff on the homepage, so keep checking back as often as you can, you don't want to miss anything!!

STOP PRESS: Did you see the Japanese NHK TV news last night? They were doing a report about the new Japanese education curriculum and featured a classroom who were using my "What's your name?" song ( http://genkienglish.net/namesong.htm ) to teach English! Pretty cool, eh?

See you later,

Be genki,

Richard!

======================
Richard J. Graham B.Sc. AMInstP
Primary School English Games, Songs and Activities
Email: richard@genkienglish.net
http://www.genkienglish.com

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