Take any problem in the World and it's invariably caused (or made worse)
by a lack of education. Too many kids hate school because it's too boring.
The aim of Genki Learning is to have all subjects in all countries taught
in a fun, engaging and effective way. There are already a few million kids
benefiting from this, and even a whole country where the government has
put it in all their schools. But there's still a long way to go!
While I'm on the road you'll hear about my travels & workshops, and
when I'm doing studio work I'll keep you up to date with ideas, updates
to the site and some of my favourite teaching resources. So if you want
to find out what's it's like behind the scenes or how & why I do what
I do or even if you're just nosey or a bit bored, have a read.
I'll update the diary as often as I can, so keep coming back. And of course
whilst I'm away, the office staff are always ready to send off your CD orders just as soon as you send them in!
June 30th 2009 - "Really" Big Mega Review + Big Surprise
Wow, I can't believe how much stuff I've got done over the last couple
of days, lots of exciting new things coming up!
Today was newsletter day. The game of the month is a very cool way of combing lots of different themes together to come
up with things like "Can Baby Monkey eat noodles?" which I don't
know about you, but always sounds quite impressive to me!
Actually it can get even better if you teach the word "really"
e.g. Can Baby Monkey really drink tea?
And for those of you who've joined Genki English in the last 6 months there's
a great surprise for you. Well it applies to everyone else as well, but
you guys already have it all: CD Vol. 10 songs for free. But hurry, it won't last forever!
June 29th 2009 - Take a Holiday
I can't remember the last time I took a holiday.
So this weekend I went away and it was really, really nice.
Kyushu is a beautiful place and we had some of the most amazing Japanese
food, I'll have a video for you soon. Most of all it was just in the mountains,
peaceful and relaxing. That's something I've never until now ever thought
I needed. And for the first time in a very long time I didn't even want to check my email. Then we finished off with a wonderful champagne party
last night.
To be honest I was feeling a bit burnt out last week (which you might have
noticed with the lack of blog posts.) Trying to balance writing all the
new music with also having to run a business really messes with both halves
of your brain.
I would love to be able to sit in Starbucks all day every day writing songs,
but there's so much behind the scenes work that needs to be done to keep
Genki English going. Plus having to motivate others all the time often
leaves me little time for others to motivate me. Of course who you go with
makes a huge difference, so thank you. I really appreciated even just a
two day holiday this weekend.
So that's my advice for the Summer, take a holiday...
June 23rd 2009 - Baby Monkey: Make your own!
Over on the forum we've had people making their own Baby Monkey for the kids.
Funnily enough my Mum's also just made one for my niece who seems to take
it everywhere! All you need are a couple of Baby Monkey pictures and a touch of felt.
I've also been asked about Baby Monkey T-shirts. The only way I can think
of doing them would be with something like Cafe Press. Would that sort of thing be OK? Or are the shipping charges too much?
I'm also having my computer sent in for cleaning this week, so I might
be a little slow on the email replies!
July 20th 2009 - Why you have to light the blue touch paper
It's thirty years today since we first set foot on the Moon. 30 years.
And what have we done since?
When I was doing my undergraduate degree, using a NASA satellite to study
an Active Galactic Nuclei, I thought man landing on the moon was the most
important thing we'd ever done. If aliens came to look at Earth in 2009,
today they'd see Google and the iPhone. Hardly comparable to stepping foot
on another celestial body.
So why didn't we go back?
Two reasons, one is apathy. People got bored of seeing the same pictures.
Yeah, we've done that, they say. This is human nature. There's a ton of
stuff on Genki English, but you only come back everyday to read what's new. Give your students
a textbook and they'll look and then get bored. Give them something new
each week and they'll be excited again.
NASA should have figured this out at the time, and gradually rolled out
new things as they went along, promising more each time, to keep people
enthralled. But to be fair they were a little busy with other things.
The only way to get 100%
The second reason is that we stopped being lead. Leadership is the reason
we got to the Moon. President Kennedy set the goal and it was something
that everyone could see and work to towards, and they all worked miracles.
Can you imagine if someone wasn't working 100% on the lunar project? It
would never happen.
Fast forward 20 years later when I was first being offered science PhDs
and there was no leadership, no target or goal to aim for. Spending four
years studying the ultra violet variation of one particular star just didn't
enthrall at all. So I decided to come to Japan. I got a real telling off
for that, even from Nobel prize winners. To be fair my aim was to learn
Japanese and then join the Japanese Space Programme. But 1997/1998 was
when all their rockets blew up and they canceled the entry programme for
foreigners. Now I know I'll go into space, but I'll just buy a ticket from
Richard Branson.
Saving the world isn't done how you think it's done...
One reason we didn't go back was that people started looking at the Earth,
saying how can we spend billions on sending people to space when there
are so many problems here? For a long time I agreed, surely we could use
all that talent and ability to clean up the planet and then move on to
the next step?
Now I believe that this thinking was wrong and has caused more problems
in the world.
The fad now is saving the world. It's what girls give you adoration for,
it's what guys give you credit and respect for. When I choose new projects
now, helping to save the world, even if it's just in a small part by helping
poverty or improving education, feels good. Both for myself, the karma
aspect and that's what people compliment me on most.
But what I, and many other people in the field, have found is that we already
know many of the solutions. We know how to solve poverty, we know how to
educate, we even know how to feed and clothe people. "Hang on, it
can't be that easy, why aren't we doing it then?" you may say. That's
where we come back to the leadership thing again.
With your 24hours...
It's because as a people we don't have a super goal, we don't have an overall
time span, we don't have a moon to shoot for. Saving the world might sound
cool, but what does it actually mean? How do we know when we've done it?
When do we have to do it by? Remember Kennedy's goal was putting a man
on the moon and bringing him back before the decade was out. It was the
last 3 words that made the difference.
And how many people do you know who actually get up, switch off the TV
and actively do something to help these days? Without a defined and time
limited goal, people procrastinate, we can never give 100% because there's
always a nagging feeling we might not be on the right road. It's easier
to leave it to someone else.
Starbucks everywhere?
The teachers I work with in some of the slum areas are some of the best
in the world, but they still need motivating and leading. They too need
to see what future life they are leading their students to. We certainly
don't want McDonald's and Starbucks on every Hyderabad street corner. What
do we mean by taking people out of poverty? Does it mean all our happy
smiling kids in China and India have to start worrying that they didn't
get the latest DS game?
Until now politicians have traditionally done the leading, but politics
is now out of date because the world isn't split into countries anymore.
Politicians can never think globally, or beyond, because their power is
local. NPOs and NGOs have the reach but not the resources. Big business
should be the way to do it, but too many of their leaders have sullied
their reputations.
Flies and States...
What we need is a supra-national goal. What we need is a leader to give
us a beautiful turn of phrase that we can all relate to. Something everyone
can believe in and go for. Something that religion or nationalism can't
disagree with, something that everyone can get on board with and give 110%
towards.
And what we need is someone to give us that vision.
Why is Neil Armstrong not out there inspiring the youth of today to do
amazing things like he did? Well, I hear it's because his communication
skills aren't that good. Interestingly enough he did become a teacher,
but then quite when his school became a state school. (see yesterday's blog)
President Obama might do it. So far he's not Kennedy, although he might
end up being more if he puts those fly swatting skills to good use. I really
hope he does because his life until now has been the embodiment of a 21st
century role model. If he decided to do something we'd all follow.
Guess who...
I can tell you something though. The next, next world leader is out there
now. And she or he is sitting there in one of your classrooms.
She or he knows what has to be done.
He or she is waiting to be inspired.
She or he will have unnatural talent, personality and abilities.
But he or she is waiting for that one person to light the blue touch paper,
to provide them with the pivotal memory or experience that will catapult
them into making their destiny real.
That inspiration will be something small, one turn of phrase, one activity
or one image. It will be over in an instant but stay with them forever.
And in 9 cases out of 10 that inspiration will come from a teacher.
It will come from you.
June 19th - Wanna be a Rockstar? Learn English! says Apple
Reason to learn English No. 157: To be a rock star!
Just went along to the Tenjin Apple Store workshop on how to break it on
the world stage as a musician, on your own, without any money and make
a living doing it! They were talking about how to use YouTube to promote
your music, iTunes to sell it and then fans around the world to organise
gigs and things for you. All with lots of real world examples, including
one Japanese band who'd just done a tour of Poland this way.
What the guy was saying though is that as the internet is so underdeveloped
in Japan the key to making your big break is to get into the minds of American
fans. And that takes English!
Of course in five years time all the big record companies will have figured
this out and dominate the market, but right now it's the perfect time to
be a musician. If you have any students who want to do it, encourage them
all you can, and email me if you need any help.
After all Genki English is basically one big online record company!
June 15th - Strange Foods 2 - Snake Salad anyone?
Gaz has been causing quite a storm over on the members' forum with his additions to the "strange foods" cards.
You use them with the Do you like ...? theme to elicit the "No, I don't!!!!!" response in the most dramatic
fashion. Kids love them!
So today we have A4 cards and mini cards including such delicacies as snake salad, mayonnaise milkshake, octopus
yoghurt, pea juice and scary toast! Plus there are my original weird foods
with worm ice cream, cockroach pizza etc. over on the Do you like ...? page!
Today was a visit to Yumiko's school in the Okayama countryside. I gave them the discount rate and
the PTA paid my expenses so the plan was a kids "Motivation Training" show in the morning and then a Teachers Workshop in the afternoon. Here's how good Yumiko's kids are!
I often get emails from people asking how to teach mixed age groups, and
today with all the school + parents and grandparents I think we had over
300 people aged from 5 to 85!
The school teachers had of course decided not to bother setting everything
up even though they had a list of what was needed, but the event went ahead
very well anyway.
It is exceptionally tough keeping such a diverse group occupied. But I
tell you you don't even need to teach Genki English, you could just play the animations for the kids and they start laughing
out loud and singing along on their own!
Songs wise we did Disco Warm Up, Rock, Paper, Scissors and Superhero, plus the two rules of "I can do it! and "losing means try again"
and by the end they were all amazingly loud and confident - even the parents!
Then in afternoon I had the teachers workshop and in contrast that was
horrible beyond belief.... full details tomorrow!
June 14th 2009 - Okayama Pt.2 Public School is Dead
In the morning I had the kids show, then the teachers workshop...
Rude beyond belief
Over lunch things didn't sound promising though. First of all a lecturer
from one of the universities I'm presenting at in Summer had asked the
school if she could attend. They agreed. I also needed to talk to her about
August so asked the school if it would be OK for her to be my guest. They
agreed. As the PTA had paid most of the money, the workshop was advertised
on TV yesterday and I was basically giving them a free workshop for the
teachers, you'd think they would be OK with a guest of mine attending.
But oh no, I was invited to the head teacher's office after the kids' show,
but the lecturer wasn't allowed in!!! I said I had to talk to her but they
actually wouldn't let her stay in the same room and moved her somewhere
else! Then they told her she had to go home and wasn't welcome at the workshop.
Dude!!!! Common courtesy? A chance to have a foreign language teaching
expert to help? I really do not like schools who behave like that.
Of course at the time I didn't know about this, so I was talking away with
the head teacher. One of the comments I made was that a project he was
thinking about (accosting foreigners in Nara) sounded a little like racial
profiling and surely goes against the International Understanding aspects
of what we teach. To which his reply, in total honesty and not malice but
complete ignorance was basically, what's wrong with racism? Ahhhh.
I was ready to walk out...
But anyway, the teachers might be better? And ... their initial reaction
was "why do we need to change?" Ahhh. This is why I don't do
these for free anymore, if you do that's the value people place on things.
So...
MacJobs
In places like Okayama that are on the verge on bankruptcy, you can starkly
see today why they need to change. Basically there isn't enough tax revenue
to supply public services. Hospitals are closing and the quality of life
is being reduced. The reason? Japanese kids aren't creating enough wealth
in the "arubaito" and "freetaa" McJobs they are doing,
and there aren't enough working people to pay for the aging population.
The solution? Either kids learn to have bigger dreams, create more enterprises,
companies, jobs and wealth. Or workers are brought in from abroad.
Either one of these requires communication skills, international understanding
and passion. And that comes from education.
Passion?
The people I usually work with are absolutely passionate about what they
do. We truly believe we are changing the world by changing education (great
new video coming soon!) So it was just such a come down to do my first
public school gig of the year and see the total lack of energy in these
teachers. Apathy wasn't even close. How can they possibly inspire the next
generation of leaders?
For two hours instead of talking about English education I had to basically
do a course on why do we come to work every morning. I'd never get away
with this in Australia, the UK or Canada where teachers are trained in
what they do. Of course in Japan all they are trained in is book work,
nothing to do with why we have schools.
Why?
If I had just done an English workshop they would have sat there and resented
it.
So I asked them to make a list of why they wanted to become teachers. Again
most of the people I work with give reasons like "to improve children's
lives", "to give back to the community", "to make a
difference" etc. Today it was "because I like school" "because
it looked fun" etc.. Totally superficial and focussed on what they
get from the job, not what you can give. Fair enough, but you could do
any job if that's all you care about.
Whose job is this?
The thing is that I can get an unmotivated teacher genki in 2 hours. I
can get them to see the big picture of why what they do is so important,
and get them to give their best. But that's not my job!!!! That's the head
teacher's job. He's the one being paid, with my tax money, to do it.
No private company would ever get away with having such a lackluster management
system. Just like a successful CEO, the head teacher should be motivating
his staff on a daily or weekly basis, constantly improving and checking
results. That's the education world I come from. Why do we accept this
level of incompetence from public schools? Shouldn't they be accountable
for what they do?
And today even basic things like human rights, immigration, or addressing
poverty or the environment, all big issues on the word stage that children
need to learn about, the teachers were ignorant beyond belief. Discussing
immigration and why that is one reason English will become so important
for their students, upon realising that more foreigners would have to come
to Japan to shore up the working population you should have seen the utter
look of disgust on one of the teacher's faces. It made me sick.
Incentives?
But there's no long term motivating these teachers. There's no incentive
for them to do well. If they do a good job all that happens is they get
given more work to do. If they do a bad job they can never be fired. One
of the exercises we do is what to do with a bad teacher. Fire them, I say,
they said "move them to another class" but that's denying the
next class the chance of a good education.
And what do we do with good teachers? That's a challenge I'm trying to
find a solution for now. Teachers (too!) often go on strike after attending
my week long workshops. This is a big problem! But in the poorer areas
they can't often raise their wages. Plus if you make a good teacher a manager
or trainer, then they aren't spending time what they are so good at. So
how do we reward them? Anyway, that's for another blog post...
Back to Japan
I spent ten years volunteering hours and hours training teachers in Japanese
public schools. The reason was that I always believed it was the right
of every child to have a first class education.
Today was the final confirmation that if you want a good education for
your child you have to either do it yourself, and take them out of the
public system. Far too many teachers are not preparing their students for
the future, they're simply wasting away the time till graduation. Education
isn't just about passing exams or getting through the day, it's about inspiring
kids, about preparing them for life with all the skills they need to be
successful.
There are good schools out there, the ones with the good head teachers,
usually women who've had to battle hard for their success. But it's far
too hit and miss. And more often miss than hit. Today they didn't even
get out of the starting gate. The kids were amazing in spite of the teachers,
as they had a great teacher last year who this year hasn't been asked to
help, which is such a shame. Every kid has such huge potential. Every teacher
has huge potential. But they need the system in which they can thrive.
Apathy like today throttles ambition instead of inspiring it.
The ironic thing was at the end today they were talking about the parents
this morning who were asking to buy Genki English CDs. We can't have that
if it's an "eigyo mokuteki" ("aim of selling") they
said. But it's totally a "kyouiku mokuteki" ("aim of educating")
because I'm having to do the job they are supposed to be doing!
Next week I'll post my entry of how to start your own schools, because
we can't leave it to the random public school system any longer. Not unless
we want whole prefectures in Japan to go bankrupt because a whole generation
of kids are lead to believe that all they can achieve in life is working
a few hours a day in a convenience store...
June 13th 2009 - Okayama Maruzen
Had a great workshop and superpack
signing in the Okayama Maruzen today. Thank you to everyone who came
and of course everyone who bought Superpacks!
I nearly didn’t find the venue though. We had a big group of
teachers and sold way more than Maruzen expected, but they’d put us up
out of the way on the 4th floor, hence all the teachers were people who
already knew Genki English. On the first floor, where all the other
customers were, was an Irish band. I’m sure they are very good, but it
would have been great to do the GE workshop there and get more people
involved. It’s always crazy when I do gigs like that!
Many of you were with me in turning down the Italain Terrorist
role last week, but I really do need to find a way to get the word out
more about Genki English to the average person on the street.
How does this help you?
Well because with the business model at the moment you guys (very kindly!) buy the Teacher’s Sets once,
and then get effectively lifetime updates and new materials. I don’t
really want to go down the franchise or license model, as this current
one works out cool for everyone. But it also means we’re dependant on
always getting new people buying the products if we want to pay for
developing new things.
Today would have been a great chance to get even more people turned
on to Genki English if I had been on the first floor of the store, but
the management won’t allow it because they’re not teachers and hence
don’t know about Genki English. A sort of Catch 22! Even when they
see the freak sales increase, they don’t realise where it comes from!
It’s the same with teleshopping, I’m sure we could sell a ton of
superpacks on there, which would then bring in lots more revenue for
new projects (did someone say cartoon versions of the picture books?)
but they won’t have me on until GE is better known amongst the average
person on the street.
So…. how do we do it? And how do you think you could help get the
word out there? I’m sure with all your talents and connections we
could make everyone turn on to GE. Just imagine what cool stuff we
could make then!
To follow on from the raving success of Baby Monkey's Winter Clothes, I guess there just had to be a Summer Clothes song as well! So here's
the first demo version for you to try out:
Right click and select "save as" to download. You'll need you
member's password, as usual if you don't have one yet, just order the Download Pack or Teacher's Set and you'll be joining us in no time!
I'm still working on a combined set of picture cards (with much better
colour sense than the picture to the left!), and they should be available
soon.
And in case you want to print them out, here are the lyrics:
Baby Monkey it's Summer! ====================
by Richard Graham
Baby Monkey it's Summer.
Let's go to the beach.
Baby Monkey it's Summer.
Let's go to the beach.
Don't forget your hat.
Don't forget your t-shirt.
Don't forget your shoes
Don't forget your shorts!
(Repeat Chorus)
Don't forget your bucket
Don't forget you spade
Don't forget your fishing rod
Don't forget your shades
You should also be able to link this up with the Weather Picture Book from the other week.
The chorus is a bit different to the other Genki English songs, but it
does stick in your head! Anyway, what do you think? Is it useful as it
is or anything to change?
I'll try and give it go at the workshop in Maruzen in Okayama on Saturday, so pop along if you'd like to see it. Or if anyone is up for a beer or
two tonight (Friday) in Okayama then let me know!
June 11th 2009 - Family Value Homepacks!
In the UK my 18 month old niece is addicted to Baby Monkey and is apparently
impressing all the parents in her playgroup so much that they've been asking
to buy the Genki English CDs as well!
Unlike the teacher's set the Family Value Homepacks don't come with permission to use in a classroom
setting nor access to the members club, but they come in two flavours.
Plus we're doing an offer of giving the Mini Cards Book free with the Super
Value set for the moment!
If you know any friends who could use a bit of Genki English then be sure
to direct them to the Family Value Homepack Page - it's also linked up from the main menu page!
P.S. keep tuned in for something really cool tomorrow!
June 10th 2009 - Autism & Genki English
I get a lot of emails from teachers using Genki English with Special Needs
students. Here's one I thought I'd share with you from Teresa:
Richard-sorry it has taken me a little while. Here is the way I use Genki English in my classroom. I am not trying to suggest to you how to market your
program BUT if I were you...I would start exploring marketing this to the
Autistic population- we NEED programs like this that are so repetitive,
teach common responses to common phrases, increase vocabulary and mean
length of utterance! Yet, you've made it so affordable. Our district's
budget was cut (by millions) so we had no money for Language programs-
yet, this was so affordable that I was able to purchase the entire program
out of my own pocket.
In the classroom
I use your Genki English program in my classroom with my K-5th grade students
with Autism. We start every morning by "Getting Genki!!" The
kids actually come in the door asking for it! "Who's ready to get
Genki?!?," they'll say.
I've used various programs over the years and I have to say that Genki
English is nothing short of amazing! It has increased my students mean
length of utterance, ability to respond to standard phrases and INITIATION
of phrases (ex. "hello, how are you?")
I think the reason my students have met with such success with Genki English is that it is very a) Repetitive b.) Motivating c.) Provides for extension through the games and lesson plans d.) Is so simple in format (no complex terminology to learn-just put in
the CD and learning begins immediately) e.) Introduces the vocabulary FIRST through the mini-lesson f.) Because it is so simple in format - it has been typically easy to generalize
these phrases in other environments and with other people g.) Provides visually cued instruction through the CD, of course, BUT also with the A4 cards h.) The fact that it teaches common responses to common phrases and teaches how to initiate common phrases in such a simple way makes
it very easy for generalization to occur.
I want you to know that some of my students get private language therapy,
as well as what is provided at school. I had two parents within the past
three weeks come in and say that their child's PRIVATE THERAPIST was inquiring
about what we were doing at school for language because their child's language
had increased so much since August (the start of the school year.)
One of those kiddos (whom we had had for a year) had not yet begun to INITIATE
conversation- he is doing that now. He actually asks his friends "What's your favorite sport-etc."
This is just simply a good,good thing you've done here Richard.
The thing that is so very appealing as a teacher is that Genki English
is so easy to use. You've provided such good direction with your lesson plans and video guides.
I typically introduce the vocabulary for the new song, Do the mini-lesson then the song (several times-because my students continue
to ask for it-once is NEVER enough!) We then play one of the CD games. Afterwards we do an extension activity-that I typically make up (relevant
to their specific language needs but based on Genki English.)
For example, with "Where is Mr.Monkey" the children all sit in a circle around me and I "hide"
Mr. Onk Monk ( an orange fluffy stuffed monkey-who by the way, is Mr. Monkey's
cousin!) "in" the box, "beside" the box, "near"
the box -etc. For further extension we do one of the handouts. All of this
is about a 40 minute Language activity and I use it as part of my 90 minute
Literacy block - which is required by my district.
Thanks again Richard!
Teresa
-----------------------------------------------
Thank you Teresa, I'm always so heartened to receive emails like this.
It's amazing for me to think that something that was made for one purpose
is helping people in other circumstances. I hope it gives a few more teachers
the chance to try Genki English in their classes.
Does anyone else have any experience or advice on using Genki English in
Autism or Special Needs classes? Please write it up in the comments as
I'd love to hear it.
June 1st 2009 - Italian Terrorist
With a big thanks to Mark, I had a few meetings today with producers and
agents about upcoming Genki English TV projects. They could be very exciting,
so keep tuned in!
I also got invited to audition for the lead role in a new drama series
as an Italian terrorist. At first I thought it would be fun, wearing all
the cool suits and getting the extra exposure. But then I figured playing
a terrorist on national TV would mean I'd never get another board of education
to hire me ever again!
So I turned it down. But what do you think, should I have taken it?
June 6th 2009 - ABC Song Dance Video
This week the Phonics ABC Song has just hit 1,000,000 views on Youtube which is quite cool.
I've also found this really great video that Nigel in Fukuoka (I'm guessing
it's you Nigel!) made of his kindergarten kids doing his hip hop dance
to the song! With the comment:
Thanks to Richard of Genki English this makes phonics so SO much easier to teach.
As you can see it works great as a phonics review.
You can find this slower version of the song on CD7 or the Download Pack.
And over on the forum we're also discussing the new 70 lesson Genki Phonics Synthetic Phonics programme. Unlike most phonics programmes in ESL, including the current Genki Phonics, this new course follows the UK government's recommendations for a "high
quality" phonics programme, and is, hopefully, going to be very tightly
integrating into Genki English so even kids who know zero English yet will
be able to start reading after just a few lessons.
We've been trialling similar programmes in India and China and the results
are phenomenal AND really easy to teach.
Just like the ASL ideas the other day, if you have the time this could be another real game changer in how fast
kids can learn English. If you're a member then I'm hoping to start trials sometime during the Summer!
What do you think of the dance?
P.S. the winner of May's Comment Competition was Joy K! Keep the comments
coming and you might win this month!
May 31st 2009 - Tokyo Maruzen
Photo by chez-sugi
NOTE: The next one of these events is in Okayama on June 13th - be sure to reserve
soon as the Tokyo one was fully booked and we had to turn people away! Details are on the main page!
Today we had a bit of a CD9 Launch Party and CD signing at the Maruzen bookstore in Tokyo. I used
to do these slap bang in the middle of store and we had a massive vibe
as everyone was crowding round and joining in. We also sold a ton of CDs this way. Unfortunately for an hour none of the surrounding departments
sold anything! So they banned me to a separate building that no-one could
ever find!
Luckily today we did get a room in the store itself but I also got strict
instructions to not be loud. The rule for sales presentations, or lessons
even, is "the louder the music, the more CDs people buy" or
in your case "the louder the music, the more English the kids walk
away with!"
But anyway, we had a good bunch of people, we tried our best and everyone
who didn't already have a Teachers' Set (or rather the Japanese Superpack) ended buying one, so that was cool.
Success Education
One of the frameworks I used today was focussing on Genki English as a
"Success Education" product rather than just an English programme.
That's really the core of things, but making it explicit seemed to strike
a chord. Mind you this was only after I'd properly introduced all the other
Genki English projects, before that they were just treating it like your
average English course!
Why the same?
But this is the reason that, for example, things like How are you? has 4 words which are essentially the same, it's to get the kids walking
out saying "I'm happy, I'm great, I'm good, I'm OK!" and get
a very positive vibe for next time. Or the same with the weather song, whereas most courses focus on each weather equally which means you end
up with more "bad" weather terms and walk out of class with images
of rain and snow, with Genki English there are purposely 4 similar "positive"
words at the end so you end up going home with an image of English as "It's
sunny, It's fine, It's hot, It's a beautiful day!" It makes such a
big difference when you have this positive mental image.
Mind you I will admit I wrote that song considering "hot" as
a positive weather word, which isn't always the case in some countries!
Anyway, I hope to see you at the next one in Okayama on June 13th!
June 2nd 2009 - ASL in ESL *The Amazing Discovery!*
Here's something I'm very excited about! As many of you know I'm always
on the look out for the next "magic bullet", the next technique
or method that will make as much a difference to our teaching as the songs and games already have. Well, I think we may have found it....
The uber talented Val from Daddy Ross Preschool in Argentina has sent in
this report and video which could very well be a game changer in how we
use Genki English. It's using ASL, American Sign Language, but for me at
least this is the first time it has really clicked just how amazing it
can be. Check out the video, then I'll let Val explain in her own words....
Hi. My name is Val, I am the mind behind the activities and videos of Daddy Ross Preschool (YouTube) but most of all I am a teaching methods creator.
I made an experiment in two of my eel classes about the amazing benefits
of using ASL in ESL.
The best teachers know that: English without GESTURES is like a lamp without light. Right?
Yes, gestures are the key to learning the vocabulary for good.
I noticed in my teaching activities that sometimes I found myself struggling to find the best gesture for new vocabulary or commands.
And when I was doing some reading about teaching ASL to hearing babies, I realized how descriptive those signs were! Almost the same kind of gestures I have been using in my ESL classes.
So, I decided to make a little fun experiment and see if there are any changes in the learning process by using ASL in my ESL classes.
The experiment
Having 2 ESL groups with almost the same characteristics (like age, routines learned, level of English, same themes studied and positive attitude to learn) I was attempting to do a little experiment:
BOTH ESL HEARING STUDENTS WILL BE EXPOSED TO THE SAME NEW THEME, THEY NEVER
SAW BEFORE, I PICKED I LIKE VEGETABLES.
BUT ONLY ONE OF THEM WILL BE EXPOSED TO ASL. THE OTHER GROUP WILL CONTINUE LEARNING THROUGH GESTURES AS WE ALWAYS DID.
THE RESULTS WERE OVERWHELMING ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER I BEGAN THE CLASS!
The difference in the speed and quality of learning between the 2 groups was highly marked!
The results:
The groups who used ASL were more focused, relaxed, comfortable, and active in class from beginning to end.
They learned faster and took advantage of that by doing 3 times more games
or activities in the first class because they all have the vocabulary and
their meaning inside their mind, and when they couldn't remember, they
started to use the signs by themselves to help remember the new words learned
as if they had an ORAL INSTANT FLASH CARD build in INSIDE THEM.
They showed high self esteem in their English skills, because they could
learn a whole lesson in a matter of minutes and also learn a new way to
express themselves through ASL. (They loved to show off all of this to
their family)
They participated more!
They talked so much more too!
Their learning process could be compared to a ROCKET!
Otherwise the other group who use the gestures I created for them and not
ASL, their learning process could be compared to a plain old car or a fast
bike. They showed the normal struggling and confusion while ESL students
learned new vocabulary, even though they tried with such a great positive
attitude, they couldn't assimilate all the words, so they couldn't follow
the song, or do a decent game session in the same amount of time the other
group did 3 times more.
WHY this HUGE difference if they are both gestures after all?
Well:
- ASL is clear, easy and descriptive in signing the word that is expressed.
- They learn ASL attached to the new English word.
So the sign is only related to the English word and NOT to the word in native language.
- They learn the sign language first because it is fun to do and easy and
the sign DRAGS along the English world almost automatically.
-By themselves they started using the ASL as an Oral Instant Flash Card. Can you imagine putting a dictionary in your students brains? This act almost likes that! LOL
All this is the main reason WHY using ASL IN HEARING ESL students makes them learn FASTER and in a relaxed and positive atmosphere.
If your student could learn easier and move directly to games or activities, it is natural that will develop a hunger to learn MORE and more!
I am not an ASL teacher. I just taught myself the words or commands I would need for a theme.
There are so many wonderful sites on the internet to get yourself acquainted with ASL.
As a teacher I realized by using ASL in my hearing ESL students that I could have the perfect sign for each word or command from the experts! Even though those words were very difficult to find a gesture in flashcards, like Zoo, Farm, Vegetables, family members, or colors.
Now I am able to help my students in their language acquisition right on
the spot! Without having to look for flash cards, point to far away posters
or act out like crazy! I just repeat the word they don't know what it means
with the sign. And they get it.
ASL make the more shy students also participate!
My kids also understood that the ASL signs belongs to a word with a meaning
and not to a fancy choreography of one song.
And not to mention the happiness I see them learning ASL with so much respect for people who cant hear us!
After all learning a language is not about learning it for itself!
It is to express yourself to each other!
To open new path of adventures!
Pretty cool eh? To be fair the vegetables theme is probably the perfect one to choose here as it's very difficult to come
up with normal gestures. And for example the Superhero gestures are a big part of the song. But did you see the difference in
the kids? Amazing. This will also help with one of the biggest problems
with GE which is what to do in the chorus of songs that don't have obvious
gestures. Well, ASL!
I have had teachers saying we shouldn't teach two sets of sign language,
e.g. if they are already learning Japanese sign language. But as Val points
out, the link is between the English and the sign, so this should be no
problem. And I guess ASL is a better choice in the big picture than the
British version!
Anyway, I hope you are as excited as we are about this and let's discuss
it in the comments. If everyone is on board I think we can start making
new videos and things to get ASL signs for all the themes! Cool!
Be genki,
Richard
May 30th 2009 - Keisen University Part 2
Part one is here:
Then after a break it was showing how we teach these exact same "success
secrets" to kids using Genki English. Until now they'd been picking
up things like Left & Right and How are you? but not understanding the underlying confidence parts of the programme.
So I started off with the Superhero song, as it's the easiest song to illustrate things!
We started off with the Superhero pose. Of course many of them were still
half hearted, and in their presentations many of them were slouched. This
is a great time to introduce body language, where only:
7% of communication is what you say, 30% is how you say it and over 50% is what you look like saying it.
How to feel genki whenever you like!
I really love the "think genki be genki" skit here. You get everyone
to stand up straight, to look up a touch and smile with your feet apart
and your arms by your side. Naturally this makes you feel good. Try it
and see!
Then I tell them to, without moving their bodies at all, make themselves
feel sad. Try it yourself, it's impossible!
Then I ask them to drop their shoulders, to bring their feet together,
to lower their head and lower their eyes. Naturally you feel depressed.
However hard you try it's impossible to be Genki without moving your body.
So then you just go back to previous pose and you instantly become happy.
It's such an amazing, liberating feeling to realise that you can change
your mood just by changing your body, and the students looked really impressed
with it!
Anyway, for the superhero you have to go even further and really do a super superhero pose. I had
a few new skits here which worked great especially the "fireman"
one!
The first being not to look over the heads of the students!
They were teaching how they thought it should happen, not how it really
should happen. Keeping eye contact with the audience is one of the main
things. Again it's traditional Japanese to keep eye contact with your opponent
at all times! Shrugging shoulders and slouchy posture were banned. I chose
the people at random, so got a teacher at one point. You could tell the
difference straight away, but she went the other way with a loooonnnggg
list of of stuff! "If I had more time, I would have written less"
said Mark Twain.
Then it was the usual psychological stuff behind the lesson e.g. how "I
can fly" is true, confidence points etc. Then how we build on the
language to do Can you speak? which then led into talks about international understanding and North
Korea. All stuff that is natural in the international community I deal
with everyday, but of course not if you've only ever lived in one country!
Visualise it!
Then I finished off with the future lifestyle visualisation like last week.
With university students it's not wholly a problem of communication, it's
that they often don't know what to communicate. And it's fine saying they
can do anything in their lives, but they often don't know what they want
to do! So this is the best activity I have for the "lifestyle"
aspect of this. Again the students had never experienced anything like
this and half of them looked like they were going to burst into tears at
the end!
It's not often I get moved by audiences these days, but seeing these "kids",
well 20 years old is a kid to me, open their eyes to what they really can
do and the reactions and comments afterwards made me really think again
about Japan. This type of lesson is maybe where I could be making a bigger
difference, it was so amazing to see their reaction.
So I need to try again, polish up my materials and see if other universities
want to invite me! Do you know any?
May 30th 2009 - Keisen University
These days "university" means to me research and testing the
methods we use, how to have control groups, seeing what gets the best results
and how to reduce external variables. I often forget that universities
also have the undergraduate side, and today was a presentation for such
students.
Currently one of the biggest problems with Japanese university students
is the lack of communication skills and the associated problems that brings.
Today's universities have to devote a lot of time to developing these skills
in the students, many times using techniques similar to Genki English but
without the English. Of course these are the exact same skills we incorporate
into Genki English lesson plans and are the exact same skills that companies pay fortunes for in enterprise
training.
So today instead of starting with how to teach Genki English (all the students will become teachers) I was asked to first do a 1 hour
personal development workshop, including communication and confidence skills,
then how we use those in primary schools with the songs and games.
Japanese Stories
Before I started, the students were doing presentations of Japanese stories
and games, to improve their skills. But what I saw was people at the same
level with the same problems and same good points that we see in our elementary
school students! They were good, but had the potential to be so much better!
So I started out with Genki Relax (not a good choice today as they then become sleepy!) but went on with
the "with our thoughts we make the world" type workshop, showing
that, well, whatever we think about happens. And how we can use that to
achieve whatever life or lifestyle we want.
Showing photos of my recent travels as well as the TV photos certainly
helped to reinforce that with the students!
Great Teacher! Bad Teacher!
I based the rest of the lesson on the "Good Cop, Bad Cop" exercises, but this time I changed it to "Great Teacher, Bad Teacher." Not "good" teacher, because no-one wants a good teacher,
what everyone deserves is a great teacher. Then I figured out why this
was resonating with the students so much, the famous manga comic "GTO"
doesn't, of course, stand for "Good Teacher Onizuka", he's a
Great Teacher!
But I was surprised that they'd never had lessons like this before. I guess
I always assumed that people knew that everything is what you make it,
and the key to success is simply the right way of thinking, but they were
almost in shock whilst I was doing things, like someone who'd just been
handed a million dollars!
Although I will have to work on the lesson plan more, adding in more practical
exercises, as it is a little heavy in one go!
If you decide to give it a try, I'd say split it up into maybe just one
or two sections per lesson. And I'll try and figure out more practical
activities we can use to break it up and maybe get through more each lesson.
If you do have any ideas then please write them in the comments!
P.S. I also added in the kittens today, trying to go for the "cute vote" (the idea is the sleeping
kitten is having sweet dreams after doing a good days work!) Unfortunately
they all though the "bad teacher" kitten was cuter!
Part Two Tomorrow!
Tune in tomorrow for part two: how to teach all this in primary school
+ how to make yourself genki whenever you like!
May 28th 2009 - $40 Digital Whiteboard?
If you can't get the free digital whiteboards, how about one for $40? Or even free if you've got a Nintendo Wii!
You may have seen the buzz around Johnny Lee who has written a free piece of software that let's you connect your PC to a Nintendo Wii's controller and then
you simply point at a screen instead of using a mouse. Have a look, it's
amazing!
How cool is that for your kids? It is serious motivation. And all for $40!
The instant application for Genki English is "digital flashcards"
where you put a Genki English CD in the computer and you just touch to see and hear the new words. Then
they can also play the computer games from the CDs just by touching the screen, which even adults love. The
cool thing is that unlike the $6,000 plasma touch screen TVs that many
schools in Japan have but don't use (see below!) you can do it for $40.
If you're at public school it's a fantastic way to get the kids more involved
very cheaply, and if you run your own school or lessons it's a huge marketing
boost as you can say you teach using all the latest technology. That always
impresses cost conscious parents. And impressed parents means more word
of mouth and more students for you!
May 27th 2009 - Bye Bye Beijing, Hello Tokyo
By the time you're reading this I should be jetting off to Tokyo. I've
got a professional development workshop at Keisen University on Saturday,
then a CD signing event at the Maruzen Marunouchi Store on Sunday. The
Maruzen event is open to the public, so please pop along. It's free, I'll
be going through lots of teaching ideas and you just need to give Maruzen
a call on 03-5288-8881 (in Japanese) to reserve your place!
What we did find out very quickly was that it's not just low-income schools
that need/want Genki English, many of the private evening English schools,
called centers over here, were really into it as well. I had some really
great workshops and meetings with some of the big chains and the British
Council even invited me to tender for a 15 city Workshop Tour!
So a very big xie xie to everyone who attended a workshop, organised a
workshop, came to my class, met me in Starbucks, invited me to the Great Wall or bought me a beer! I had a great time.
When you're also limited by time, my visa was only 2 months, then you do
really appreciate everything about a place.
I also figured out Chinese food, forget anything from Beijing and get stuff
from Sichuan. Now that is nice food, just look at all those chilies!!
Plus due to unbelievable good luck and some very clever negotiating I was
staying in the most beautiful city center hotel suite for a ridiculously
cheap price.
Anyway I hope to be back in China later in the year so keep your emails
coming, and lets hope Japan lives up to all the experiences of the last
2 months!
May 26th - Picture Card Pack C Update & Cheap Colour Printing
Obviously these packs aren't for everyone, but if you're short on time
they can be a real time saver.
Or if you want to order outside Japan, they are huge big packs and the
postage is very expensive but email me with where you are and I'll get you a shipping quote. For the previous
packs I think the postage prices were around $80 to Seoul, $128 to the
EU, US or Australia and around $220 to South America!
So in that case it might be better to just sit down and laminate them yourself.
But it's always worthwhile asking if your school has a budget, you never
know they might just have one!
Cheap Colour Printing
If you do print them yourself and want to save money then I'd recommend
an inkjet printer and buying big bottles of ink online to refill it. As
the Genki English cards use lots of primary block colours then you'll often
find that printing colour this way is only slightly more expensive than
black or white.
But the educational effects colour gives of more motivated students, and
the word of mouth and hence extra income from parents as they see your
colour print outs, usually far outweighs the extra printing cost so I'd
always say colour is more than worth it and one of the best investments
you can make.
But then again if it's only cost basis, if you calculate your hourly pay
then it works out a lot cheaper to buy the packs from us rather than spending the extra hours sat behind a laminator!
Anyway enjoy the new pictures, they are looking great!
Just to announce the winners of March's and April's comment competitions
were Eduardo and June. I've sent you emails to ask which complimentary
CDs you'd like!
The CD9s have just arrived from the factory in big huge boxes, so Julian-K's
February winner and Yumiko & Margit's January winner we'll have sent
off today. I don't think I've forgotten anyone, have I?
If you'd like a chance to win, just keep writing comments on the blog,
I pick out a random winner every month.
Plus there's now another chance to win!
From this month I'll also be giving away another Genki English CD to one
chosen-at-random person who leaves a great comment on any of the song pages.
The aim is to get more people to try different and new songs in class,
so any praise or comments about how well each song worked in class and
/ or extra games or activities you used with it in class would be greatly
appreciated, especially on any of the songs that don't have comments yet.
You can get to the songs from the "songs" menu from the top of
the site and there are over 70 of them so plenty of chances to try and
win!
Want more students? Lots more students? More students and revenue than
you could possibly cope with? This chapter will help. It's the second part
this week's business & Genki personal development workshops. Have a
read of the first part to make sure you are up to speed on all the new Genki rules, then let's
get started...
Open or closed?
Selling is easy. It's easy to sell anybody anything. But many people have
no idea how to sell their products, their ideas or themselves. So today I got each
person in turn to try and sell me the easiest possible item: chocolate
cake!
They nearly all failed in the first sentence. They let me say "no".
As we are bombarded with sales people all the time we're naturally conditioned
to say "no" whenever we are given the chance. So the first person
asked "Do you like chocolate cake?" "No, thank you, goodbye".
It took several people before they got why this wasn't working. Any closed
question i.e. one that can be answered with yes or no will always receive
a "no". Try it and see!
Although one girl did try hard by asking "With this chocolate cake
you can get any hot girl. Do you want a hot girlfriend?" sadly we've
all been conditioned to say "no" even though many of us would
probably realise later we should have said yes!
So if you do ask any questions.they have to be open questions, i.e. where
it's impossible to say "no" because the language part of our
brain won't let us! What sort of chocolate do you like the best? Which
of our gorgeous cakes would you like? How many lessons shall we book today?
Then one girl started down the "it's very cheap, we have a promotion"
track. This never works. The instant reaction is "oh, this mustn't
be good if it's discounted. I don't want chocolate cake that no one else
wants". Social proof, if it's cheap other people mustn't like it.
Therefore I don't like it.
Cost nor product matter at all!
The first thing is to realise that it doesn't really matter what the cake
is about nor how much it costs. All selling is is the transfer of emotion.
Your job as a seller is to get the image of the feeling that the product will bring firmly into the buyer's mind. They have to
see it, experience it, feel what it's like to have this gorgeous, delicious,
moist chocolate cake gently crumbling as you move the fork, passing the
soft, fresh cream and the exotic wild strawberry jam layers. They have
to imagine the luxurious taste as the first delicate chips of dark, fragrant
chocolate caress your tongue. If your mouth is watering now, you want it.
You don't care what the cake is made of or what it costs, you want that
feeling now!
It's the same with anything you buy. You don't buy a car because you want
a car. What you buy is the feeling of freedom.
Starbucks doesn't sell coffee, they sell the energy and the feeling the
ambience creates.
As a salesperson, or teacher, you have to figure out what you are actually
selling. What feeling you are selling. Then you put the clear emotional
image of this feeling in the customer's head and you've made the sale.
Every time.
Why students really come to English class
For example students aren't buying English lessons from you. They aren't
buying the experience of sitting in a classroom for several hours a week.
Nor are they buying your wonderful curriculum or materials.
I asked one of the students today what she was buying when she came to
class.
"English lessons" she said.
"No" I said.
"Well, yes I'm buying money. If I learn English I can get a better
job".
"No, money's not want you want. You don't want a big pile of paper
on the floor."
"Yes you're right, I want to buy things."
"Really, the experience of buying things is what you want?"
"No, I want clothes."
"Pieces of cloth?"
"To make me feel comfortable"
This is one of the feelings people buy for, to feel comfortable. You don't
buy a central heating system, you buy the comfort warmth brings. You don't
buy a lock for your door, you buy the comfort the security brings.
So then I said to her "But those high heels don't really make you
comfortable, do they?"
"No!"
"So..."
"To make people notice me, to be attracted to me"
These are two more feelings. Everyone wants to be respected. Everyone wants
to be loved.
Comfort. Love. Respect. Freedom.
There are more feelings of course, some students just want the companionship
an English class brings, but these were the 3 that were driving this girl's,
and many others, decisions to come to English class. They are the same
reasons people want to pass exams. Eventually it's because they want to
feel comfort, respect and love.
Plus just like buying a car, buying English is buying freedom. The big
companies don't show pictures of classrooms or books in their brochures.
They show you pictures of smiling, loving faces and exotic locations.
So if you are selling your school, that's the image you have to put in
people's minds. Comfort, respect, love and freedom. Not whether they want
your "basic conversation" or "premium business package".
Comfort, respect, love and freedom. English allows you to relax and meet
other people, to know you can communicate with whoever you meet. In work
people will respect your new skills and English will allow you meet new
friends and acquaintances. Your English school is freedom to explore life
and travel wherever you choose.
Once you get that and can communicate it to your future students, you will
have an infinite amount of new, happy and motivated customers.
Look how good it makes you feel
It's just the same with Genki English. You aren't buying a big box of plastic or downloads of digital bits. What you are buying is the excitement of moving and singing
and dancing, the freedom of choosing when and how and what you teach. The
warm feeling inside as you see children smile and the satisfaction from
seeing the twinkle in their eyes as they learn new things. It's the comfort
from knowing that you are doing a very, very special day's work each and
every day. That's why you buy Genki English and the new CD9s for all your students.
As L'Oreal says, because you deserve it.
May 20th 2009 - Genki Personal Development Lesson Plan
Today I was asked to give my series of workshops on Personal & Business
Development. They were still technically English lessons, but they wanted
me to treat the participants as native speakers with real content. So fair
enough. I do like theses types of workshops, teaching workshops are basically
the same thing, but you're much more limited in what you can cover. Here
you can cover everything from making a million dollars to finding the perfect
soulmate, or whatever the students choose.
Usually it's usually businessmen who attend these types of workshops. Today
it was all girls, which was great!
Warm Up
So to start off with Genki Relax (just the first relaxation part at first). This gets everyone nicely unwound
after a hard day's work and mentally relaxed, willing to listen to new
ideas. It's exactly the same as the Genki English TPR Warm Up, but we're just chilling down instead of warming up.
Intros
Then my self intro. Normally my self intro has to be quite "humble"
talking about how other people use GE. But here I have to build credibility,
so it's my business experience, travel and the people I've met that count.
Which then leads into the students introducing themselves.
The questions I wanted them to answer today were:
1. Your name(s)
2. What's the best thing about their job (much better than asking directly
what they do, here you find out what they'd like to do!)
3. What's their biggest challenge with English (not a business question,
but I just wanted to check their English confidence level)
4. One word to describe yourself (you can tell a lot about people from
this one)
Then I started the workshop proper.
The Rules of Life
Whenever you talk about professional or personal development it all starts
off with the way of thinking. You have to think like a winner in order
to become one, whatever you do. Genki English doesn't work because it's a great English programme, it works because
it teaches the kids how to succeed, then they naturally do succeed with
the English learning tools inside.
But in development courses it's fine to explicitly teach this way of thinking.
My favourite tool is to put pdf quotations up on the screen. Then one person comes to the front, reads it out, simplifies
it into easy English, and asks the group if they agree. You keep going
until you find something where some people disagree. With great groups,
like today, that's quite far in. With many groups, such as teachers, it's
much earlier.
Here's an example of the first four for personal development (numbers 5
and up are for business development). How far do you get before you disagree?
“Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. “ - Henry
Ford
+
"Those who say it can't be done are being passed by those doing it."
-- Unknown = Genki Rule No.1: I can do it!
'The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.'
-- W.C. Magee
+
"A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
-- William Shedd = Genki Rule No. 2: If you lose, just try again
'If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.'
-- E. Joseph Cossman
+
“I have no time to worry” - Winston Churchill = Genki Rule No. 3: If you can do it, do it. If you can't, use your energies
elsewhere. Never worry.
“Building a better you is the first step to building a better America.”
- Zig Ziglar
+
'It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.'
-- Unknown
+
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi = Rule No. 4 - It's up to you.
Everyone was very much on board with all this, which made life easy for
me. It's the "It's up to you" that causes many problems with
people blaming their spouse, or lack of money or time or where they live.
But today they all got it.
One round is to ask them what they want to do, and then ask who it's up
to. Do I decide? Does your boss decide? No, of course not, it's up to you.
Because the group was all girls, except for the staff guys, it did throw
up some interesting things!
One girl said "I want to have plastic surgery. And it's up to me!"
So fair enough, although I wished I had prepared more self image quotes!
And one girl said "I want to find a boyfriend" to which I asked
"And who's it up to?" and she looked at me, forgot to change
the sentence and said "It's up to you!". OK, that's one way of
throwing me off balance in the middle of a workshop!
How to get your dream job
Then we had a quick break.
Breaks are always good because you get asked questions, and it's here where
you really see what people want. One girl was wanting to be a lawyer and
was asking how she could get a job. Teaching people how to get a dream
job is quite an easy one, you just listen to what they say, then follow
the rules. Then follow it up with practical advice.
Here it meant phoning law firms, getting their prospectus, talking to their
HR department to ask what they are looking for and trying to make contact
with other lawyers in the firm to see if they will give you any advice.
The first rule is you have to believe you can do it. The second is that
many people will turn you away, so you just try again. You will lose faith,
but never worry about the outcome, do what you can, leave what you can't.
And finally realise it's all up to you, nobody is going to get the job
for you.
Role plays
Business in the21st century is very different to the old ways. In the 21st
century one Google search can make or break a company's reputation. Communication
skills, people skills and use of positive language are vital. So I practice
these with role plays. Students learn new techniques from seeing each other's
role plays in action and offer criticism for future improvements.
I have a funky "role play" generator that just scrolls through
different scenarios until you hit the space key. I had expected lots of
hard nosed business people so the role plays I had prepared were more business
orientated e.g.
Richard is a lazy worker. Motivate him. (for management issues) Make a sales presentation. Make us want to buy your new …. (sales language) “Your …. broke!” Make the customer a fan again. (customer relations) The plane is cancelled. Get compensation from the airline (Negotiation
skills)
All have to be done in a positive way with win-win outcome.
Today the girls were much more into the personal development side of things,
but the organisers wanted me to do business activities, so I just did one,
how to sell!
And for that you'll have to tune in tomorrow. How to get an infinite amount
of new students to your school!
May 20th 2009 - Weather Picture Book!
It's probably been the most requested item - a picture book to go with
the "What's the weather like?" theme!
As usual members can download the pdf file by clicking the image above.
Update 2: As requested in the comments, now there's a "How's the weather?"
version to go with the "How's the weather?" song on CD1.
What do you think? Any favourite pages? If you like them please let me
know.
The comment competition is still open, so please write all your comments
below!
If you're not a member yet, get your Download Pack order in today and you'll be able to enjoy it too!
Update: Thanks to Julian-K's request in the comments, I've just put up a picture
book version of last week's "Where is Baby Monkey?" Keep the
requests coming!
It's a tough one, can you get full marks? There's also a worksheet to go
with it:
This is another one of my "success secrets", as well as on an evening saying "Today I + past tense",
on a morning you can practice the future tense by saying "Today I
will..." and list all the things you will do today. Or if you're feeling
particularly British "Today I shall..." ; )
It's great for students to make a list of things they'd like to, but don't
know how to, say in English which you can then go through in class. It's
the ultimate in personalisation and saves a lot of lesson prep time for
you!
There are also now Spanish and Korean subtitles on the success secrets page, which I'm sure your adult students will love.
May 18th 2009 - New Workbook Sheets
I'm trying out some new workbook / evaluation sheets for each of the themes.
They're still in the idea stage so if there's anything you'd like changing
or adding then I'd love to hear them. We're over in the members forum. It's a great chance to have them just how you'd like them.
What do you think of these? Too simple? Or maybe useful?
Again I'd love to hear your thoughts!
May 16th 2009 - I hate my students!
I'm just reading another great book by Adam Khoo, in it he talks about the days when some people think "whatever I
do my students are terrible!" Here's an anecdote from the book about
a managing director, but it equally applies teaching:
One time the managing director and owner of a chain of boutiques attended
my training program. He complained that all his staff were unmotivated,
uncommitted and incompetent. He also complained that he kept getting clients
who were prone to bargaining and had little purchasing power.
‘For some reason,the staff that we get are always lazy and useless, we
never get the hardworking, ambitious type’.
I sat down with the man and asked him to list down the attributes of his
ideal staff. He took about five minutes and came up with an incredible
list of the perfect staff.
The person had to be highly motivated, responsible, have good work experience,
strong track record, passionate... the list went on.
I took a look at the list and a look at the MD and asked, ‘Would this ideal
employee want to work for you?’
Initially he was taken aback by my comment, but pretty soon, he was getting
my point. I went on to say, ‘If you want to attract the best employees,
you have to be the best company (in your field).’ ‘If you want to attract
the perfect staff, you have to be the perfect boss.’ For things to change,
he had to change first.
What would your ideal students be like? What would you have to become to
attract them?
Here's a "fill in the blanks" exercise I use with my business
students:
If you want the best staff, become the best .....
If you want the best children, become the best .....
If you want the best parents, become the best .....
If you want the best girlfriend, become the best .....
If you want the best boyfriend, become the best .....
If you want the best wife, become the best ...
If you want the best husband, become the best ....
If you want the best customers, become the best .....
If you want the best friends. become the best .....
If you want the best teacher, become the best...
And just for you guys....
If you want the best students, become the best...
Grab a copy of Adam's book, it's only $20 for the pdf version and well worth it!
May 15th 2009 - Eigo Note "I want to go to..." Help
One of the topics in the Eigo Note that has been giving teachers problems is Lesson 6 "Introduce which
country you wish to go to"
Curiously enough Sara has just sent in an update to her "Around the World Trip" game. I think this might make the Eigo Note lesson a lot easier! Instead of abstract things like "I want to go
to Italy because it has pasta" the kids can say things like
I want to go to China..
I want to see the Great Wall of China, eat lots of delicious Chinese food
and see some pandas.
SHORT CUT LEARNING TIP: When learning a new language, if you learn "I
want to..." and "I wanted to..." then you never have to
remember any other past tense verbs! For example, suppose you forget how
to say the past of "swim", you just say "I wanted to swim",
or if you forget "ate" you just say "I wanted to eat."
It's a great tip if you have language exams where you are marked down for
making mistakes!
or
A: What are you going to do this summer?
B: I'm going to visit Tahiti.
B: I'm going to go swimming and
visit a hot spring.
Of course the language is flexible, so do you think this would make the
lesson easier to do?
May 14th 2009 - Phonics: Back-to-Back Cards
May 13th 2009 - Public Beijing Workshop Next Week + Want to Teach in China?
Just a quick word to let you know I've got an "open to the public"
workshop in Beijing next week on Thursday 21st. It'll be packed with tons
of teaching stuff (and maybe a few freebies!) in English with Chinese translations.
Price is 500 RMB per person. Email me if you'd like more details in English or here are the details in Chinese (to maybe get your school to pay!)
The leaflet also has a really good general description of Genki English if you'd like
to use it to introduce GE to your schools.
I've also got a CD9 launch workshop in Tokyo on May 31st, again email me for details.
It's kindergarten so it's a tough job, but they're training people this
Summer. Full details of the job, pay and a downloadable booklet are on
the Teach English in China page. If you apply be sure to tell them I sent you!
Plus I also replied to and emptied all my emails today (wahey!) so if you've
written and I haven't replied yet then just try me again, it probably got
stuck in spam filters somewhere!
I've also got a few dozen new crosswords to edit and add to the site.
But which would you prefer, ones like this below or ones with the writing
underneath each word?
Gaz has also been busy at work on some coloured clothes you can clip on
Baby Monkey. They work great for mixing the colours and winter clothes themes.
Gaz is also working on some summer clothes so if you have any requests
then write them in the comments below.
And what do you think of the poster? If you find it useful I might have a few more to bring you!
May 9th 2009 - Adults Course Part 3
My plan for today was Hip Hop Songs, probably Have you ever, to show the staff that GE works for any level. Then use the funky "Genki
English Conversation Generator" to practice the English in a game.
You'll have to remind me to upload that because it's really great for advanced
classes, it sparks so many great conversations.
Or if the students weren't at that level I'd do How are you? -> What do you think of? Then get one student to ask each person in turn "How are you?"
then from memory say "I think she's happy and he's hungry and she's
tired, but he's OK" get it right and you get a point. This is to get
them used to making long sentences as well as getting an exchange of information.
"I think .." is a really useful phrase for adults. I think it's the phrase I
use the most in Chinese. Oops, just used it again!
I'm a ...
In the event though it seemed like everyone had missed their morning Starbucks!
I did the motivation talking but the class teacher who was translating was more like "well, he
says to be sort of confident and stuff, if you like, and maybe speak up
a bit, well maybe, if you want, sort of" So it was pretty much an
uphill struggle! Thanks to the lackluster translation they thought confident
voices, answering my questions and eye contact were optional. Any teacher
should know they're not, but I also have to take responsibility because
I can't really expect them to respect what I say if I can't do it in their
language yet.
After I did get them to smile and loosen up a bit, they were also having
trouble expressing words they didn't know. For example they just froze
up when asking about their jobs, rather than trying to describe, or even
gesture, what they do. This is one key skill, the ability to use skills
you have to describe something you don't yet know how to say. It's the
reason companies spend so much money on business workshops that concentrate
on body language and expressions.
The I have a question theme is usually how it get round this. So I went through the game really
slowly. If you're not familiar with it, what you do is to put up flashcards
of nouns, fruit and animals and things on the board, pick one and the students
have to describe it without using the name of the object. For example in
the song they learn to ask, with gestures, "Is it an animal? Is it a fruit?
Is it big? Is it small? Is it red? Is it green?" etc.
Just read...
But today they didn't know the fruits or animal names and they didn't even
know the colours or simple adjectives. They were really, really stuck.
Much more than even say a Japanese or European class where much more of
the language is similar to English.
That's fair enough. If they were a beginners class I'd be happy with this
and just teach them the new English, after all that's what GE is there for, what it does best and what they come to lessons for.
But.... these students are using Jack Richard's Interchange as their textbook!
How on Earth can they possible comprehend anything at all in the book if
they are at this level? What do they do in normal lessons? Well, I bet
I do know, I bet they just "read" through it looking up words
in a dictionary then say they've finished that part.
The first step: "I don't know"
I still had 20 minutes left so figured I'd just try and teach them something
new, so I just did the colours lesson as they really only knew a couple. They did actually improve, which was
good. But they were also having problems admitting when they didn't know
something. Again this is a crucial skill to admit when you don't know something
and not just say "yes" or give a blank stare!
My usual line on that is "Saying I don't know is the first step to
learning something new". Then I'm thinking, hang on, that's Chinese
philosophy! What am I doing teaching them this? One of the big barriers
here has been "some teachers only know the traditional way of teaching,
they aren't used to this innovative way". But there's nothing innovative
about Genki English at all, it's the traditional ways of teaching that
have been used for centuries, Confucius or Bruce Lee didn't teach like
they do! I tell you we should do a Chinese philosophy class with them first!
Just let the computer do the work...
Anyway, I didn't get to try out any advanced stuff because, unlike the
textbooks, with Genki English if you can't do the English then you can't
do any of the activities, and I didn't want to demotivate the students
in that way. So to sort of finish on a bit of a high note I put them on
the Fruit Market computer game. In a small group of students, up to say 7 or 8, this is
actually a really good way for them to learn vocab they don't yet know.
It's also really easy for the teacher, just sit back and watch them learn.
At the start the only word they knew was "banana". So it took
20 minutes for them to learn them all and finish. Then the teacher said
"I think this is for kids, it's too easy." Ahhh. Then they went
off to read through their textbook...
P.S. for some happy news check back tomorrow for some very cool new printables!
May 6th 2009 - Adults Course Part 2
Had another day of testing Genki English with adult classes...
Class 1 - Coffee Morning Class
People who have the time to turn up at 10AM on a Wednesday morning are
probably less than likely to be high flying business people so I kept things
nice and easy. Again the aim was to find out which themes they need and
which activities work well with them. So after the Disco Warm Up and intro motivation rules, I started throwing a few questions at them as they were supposed to be
higher than yesterday's classes. The only thing they picked up on was "When is your birthday?" Even so they were having problems with the months, so I decided
to run through the song. The Japanese sounding intro wasn't popular, but learning the words with
the rest of the song and animations was. So then as an activity I got them to line up in birthday order, which
was easy except for two people who were born in January and they didn't
know how to say which day.
It's always a good thing to be flexible in lessons and if something crops
up like this then run with it, they're much likely to learn something if
they picked up on that they need it. So first we did the normal numbers song to plug the few gaps in the numbers they knew and then the 13 to 32 song. Again the songs made it really easy to teach and they were well, happy.
Then I did the "13, 30, 14, 40" game from CD8 to get them able to distinguish between "teen" and "ty"
They really liked the game, so I also did the "Do you have any brothers & sisters?" computer game from CD7 just as a bit of fun and they were asking to do more! Great. It was in
general a pretty relaxed pace of class and using the computer so much really
gave me a lot of spare time as the teacher whilst the students were busy
picking up on the English. Them wanting to do more computer stuff is also
great news for when we come to sell the download pack in China!
Then I wanted to move on to do the 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. ordinal numbers so
they could say their birthdays. Not having any software here really slowed things down! Even using gestures and still having lots
of smiles, not having the computer to show the pictures on the big screen
and speaking the words in different voices really felt like a let down
after the previous songs. This isn't a theme I usually teach to kids (there
are many more important ones!) but I think I'll have to make a song and
software for it for adults. I don't know but the computer really does make
things seem effortless, I guess because it also takes away the pressure
of remembering what to do next as well.
They did sort of get it eventually and we played the timebomb unlucky 13 game this time with 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.
Then to finish off we did the How much? song. Again it's fluency that we are going for here. They "had done"
the English before, but couldn't use it, it just wouldn't come out of their
mouths until we'd done the song. They'll still need a review in the next
lesson, but they were much more confident and able to say most of the numbers
quickly and use the phrases without any hesitation. Which is what we aim
to do!
Then after a couple of hours of computer work I had two ...
Chinese Lessons for Me
There's no point me trying to introduce my way of teaching here if I don't
use it to learn the local language myself. So I asked two of the teachers
to give me Chinese lessons. It was also good to see how they normally teach.
It was really good of them to take the time out and it really helped me.
1 on 1 lessons are probably the most difficult, but a couple of things
I would have picked up on:
Instead of introducing something and practice it in context e.g. with
a Q&A structure, they just moved on to the next phrase. I usually like
to do practice skits and ask each other questions. Especially if they are
open questions with different answers it keeps things interesting. The
GE games are just the same thing with a touch of adrenaline.
Then when we came back to review the phrases, instead of saying something
to me to elicit the response they wanted to check e.g. saying something
like "I live in New York" where I could have said the phrase
I'd just learnt "really?", they just pointed to the word on the
page and asked me to say what it is.
Writing things down almost guarantees you'll pronounce them wrong.
When I was hesitant about recalling a phrase, instead of giving me time
to think or a little encouragement, they just jumped in and said the answer!
I also want some type of immediate answer from my students, but once they've
acknowledge the question with an "I" or the first part of a phrase
I want them to have time to think of the rest of the answer. Like a fine
wine, thinking time is important.
Then when I truly had forgotten something, instead of a gentle review
I got a "we've just done that!" stern sounding comment. I'm sure
it wasn't meant that way, but that's how it felt! The golden rule here
is "It's not what they've done, it's what they can do" that counts. Nobody is expected to learn everything on the first
go, it takes a few times for different things to sink in, so let the students
forget and take the responsibility to add another gentle reminder in a
few minutes time.
It was good though that they were asking me what I wanted to say, and one
teacher got up and started walking round the classroom pointing things
out which makes a big difference. Mind you the first phrases they taught
me were "You're beautiful" and "You look sexy!"
Then I had two more evening GE classes...
Class 2- Communication
This one was supposed to be a little higher, but they were still lacking
in the basics of being able to communicate. So this time after the warm up I asked some questions and decided to go with Left & Right. For adults this is mainly used for giving taxi drivers instructions.
But the game here is one that they use on thousands of dollars per day corporate training
days to develop communication and trust skills, and the skill of being
able to pick out the voice you need amongst a sea of other voices. Again
it's fluency we are going for here, they may "know" the words,
but it's not till you do the song and game that they really become second nature and come out naturally. They loved
it.
Then I tried the Baby Monkey Family Lesson, which was sort of OK ish but a little too easy, and I messed it up by
not preparing the main point of the lesson: photos of my family! Showing
people your photos from back home is the most popular time people use family
words in foreign countries and it's the reason I chose "Who's this?"
as the question to go along with this theme. But without this little bit
of realism it did feel a little "artificial". So, photos for
the next time I do this with adults.
Then we finished off with Can you speak...? to get them all genki at the end. The best thing was seeing them all walking
home singing the songs!
Class 3- Total Beginners.
For this class I was told they were brand new and it was right from zero.
So I started with the Disco Warm Up then used Power Teaching to get them practise in pairs. They were really
enjoying themselves. So I figured we'd go with the flow and add some more
verbs with Eat! Drink! Dance! this then very naturally lead into What do you want to do? which we did with Sticky Fingers They were still loving it! One advantage to adult classes is that you
can put them in groups and get them to do games like this without needing
extra supervision. It is so good seeing people who were previously scared
to talk suddenly jumping up and down and shouting things out. Then this
lead into What do you want to be? For adults coming to night school for English after work it's very often
to get a better job and seeing yourself in the future is just as important
for adults as kids. The Superhero job was the most popular.
Again like yesterday they loved doing the songs with the animations and the games. I really should have videod the classes as the students were so good.
When I went to look at their normal classes, I could see why, they were
sat down in a classroom with desks and textbooks that had English way above
their level with the teacher lecturing from the front whilst writing on
a board. Make no wonder they enjoyed the Genki classes so much.
Where to put GE?
So now we've seen the students want Genki English, and come back for more
in the case of some students today, then we have to figure out where to
put it in their curriculum. Some of the teachers were asking to incorporate
it into the textbook to liven it up. But really I don't want the textbook
anywhere near Genki English! There's just too much in it. Lots of input
is good, but it's got to be comprehensible.
So we're thinking that Genki English will be the introduction 70 hour course that everyone takes, then they'll
move on to the textbook they've been using which has much more English
in. The risk is that they'll then dislike the textbook because it's so
boring, but I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
I don't want to totally throw the textbook away because it has some good
stuff in it and for exams and analytical learners it still has a use.
At least if they have done all the Genki English first they'll be confident communicators able to say lots and lots of
useful stuff, which is a solid foundation for any course to build on.
May 5th 2009 - Genki English Adults Course
Over in China we're promoting the Genki English lessons to English schools as a course for adults, because it basically addresses
all the confidence and language issues that most adults have here. Everyone
is raving about how good it is and the download pack is extremely affordable for a 70 to 100 hour course, but I haven't actually
taught it to adults myself yet!
So this week I've been given free rein on a private evening school to
make sure everything works OK, I guess more for my benefit than anything
else. There's no point me preaching about something if I don't practice
it myself!
Today I had two adults beginners level classes and the two things I wanted
to know were:
1) Is Genki English suitable for their level of English?
2) Do they enjoy the songs and games?
Obviously there's no point running through the download pack if they already know all the English. And there's no point learning through
songs and games if that doesn't make them smile.
Class One
The first class went perfectly, starting off with the Disco Warm Up to get them speaking loudly then the Eat! Drink! Dance! song to add more verbs.(They loved the "stop!" part!).
Then I used a bit of Power Teaching to get them to practice giving each other commands in pairs, taking it
in turns.
Here I told them they failed and asked them why. They quickly came up with,
"Because we weren't making eye contact with our partners" and
"we weren't speaking loud enough". For adults I also emphasize
things like posture and speaking from the stomach to create a more confident
persona. So I get them into new pairs with Mingle and the second time they tried it they were great, very confident and
very professional. And once you have that everything else becomes easy.
They also really enjoyed the two songs, it really got them smiling, which
was very good to hear. It really brings the energy levels up, like switching
on a lightbulb. Next we tried the Lines Game for me to see what types of English they knew. Unlike Japan or Europe
where a lot of people are "false beginners" i.e. they know quite
a bit but don't have the confidence to use it, here they now had the confidence
part thanks to the Genki rules, but they really didn't have that much language.
Which is perfect because it means all the GE themes still need to be kept in there. (In other countries you might want to
rush through any themes they already know as a quick review.)
Finally we ended with Can you speak English? to get them all going home with "Yes, yes I can!" running around
in their heads!
Group Two
The second group were at the same level i.e. not even being able to use
"thank you" correctly, so I should have done the exact same lesson
above. And in a real situation I would have. But this week I want to try
as many different activities to see which styles of activities they enjoy.
Even more so with adults they have to enjoy the lessons otherwise they
won't keep coming back!
So I tried the Koala Game for "please" and "thank you". I didn't teach anything,
I just let them figure out what to say. None of them picked up on needing
to say "Thank you." This is one part of Chinese culture that
I haven't picked up yet either, I still say "Thank you" far too
much! Of course in English we use it a lot more. But anyway they did pick
up on it eventually.
I then went into Lines Game and Hammer Game to see what English they knew. One girl shouted out at the top of her
voice "shirt" but she forgot the "r" which knocked
me off balance for a second! Pronunciation from the software is something we need to look at here!
You could tell the difference though from not doing a song at the beginning.
Without it it feels like we were using up the energy in the class, going
down and down rather than refilling it with the music and getting brighter
and brighter. It's really is the core activity and when you think about
it the songs are the reason Genki English is so popular. It was good to
really get to see that in class today.
Then I wanted to see how far I could push things so after the What's your name? song, to see if they would like songs or not, they did, I jumped into
I have a question. This is one key theme for any students, but particularly adults as it
allows you to express many more things without needing too much vocab.
This was a bit of a risk as normally you'd do it after many other themes.
Today they did sort of get it, but didn't get the idea of making questions
with "Is it...?" (they were always saying "It is....")
and they didn't know any of the vocab from the game. Ah, so I really messed up there, bad teacher me! I should have stuck
to the curriculum and made sure they had done everything before jumping too far ahead. And
I should have allowed a full lesson for this one theme, rather than trying
to squeeze it into the final 20 minutes.
I quickly tried to end on somewhat of a high note so I just played them
the Do you like animals? and Do you have any pets?song animations (those were the words in the game that they didn't know). I didn't teach
the lesson, I just played the song. And to my surprise they all started
leaning forward, doing gestures on their own, singing along and trying
their hardest to learn the new words!
So it goes to show that you don't need to push all the time, sometimes
just playing the songs on their own is enough for adults to learn. Then of course you can play
the games to get them using the new English. And I guess that's actually what happens
with the other genki languages, people just learn themselves by watching
the songs without a teacher.
So I think that's the method I'll recommend for the teachers who can't
teach too well yet, I'll let the students learn themselves with the computer and then jump in to do the classroom game once they've got it all.
For higher levels?
The next question is how high a level can we use Genki English with? For
beginners who know little or zero English, are shy and have little confidence
it's perfect as an introductory 70 to 100 hour course. The Download Pack is incredibly cheap for schools or teachers to buy, and if you can speak
everything that's in there you'd be very happy, I know I would if I knew all the Genki English themes
in Chinese!
The next thing is to see if it would be useful or not to any higher level
students. If they can use everything that's in the textbooks they use then
they probably don't need it. But I have a feeling there will be a big gap
between what they've "studied" and what they can actually use.
In which case GE would be useful. I'll find out tomorrow and let you know!
I’ve also taken a slightly different approach with the Snakes & Ladders game. This time you can use it as a mega review of several of the themes. And it’s also in full colour!
More to come soon so keep checking back!
May 1st 2009 - Why "Swine Flu" proves schools fi
If you watch CNN, the BBC or any other media outlet, they've suddenly switched
from saying the world has ended from the "economic crisis" to
now we're all doomed by "swine flu". Those people not living
on planet Earth, or those who believe what they read in the news, would
think it's the end of the world. But so far all it is is a complete failure
of how the world is educated, on so many levels.
Failure in maths
The reason the flu or any other pandemic is dangerous is because it has
the potential to become huge. But we're no where near there yet. From the
reactions of news readers you'd think that millions of people had already
died. But so far it's "only" a few hundred. I say "only"
here because obviously the death of someone close is unbelievably painful.
But we have to look at the big picture, to understand what that number
really signifies. Yesterday several thousand, that's more than ten times more, people died in car accidents. But nobody
understands what that means. That's much more horrific, but why aren't
the media reporting it as such? It's because people wouldn't listen, because
they don't understand the math. They can't see the difference between four
hundred and four thousand.
Many people still incredibly believe that air travel is more dangerous
than travelling by car. It's a total failure that people can believe such
things simply because they can't balance the emotional impact with what
the numbers really mean.
You think it's not important? What happens if this thing became big and
millions of people got infected. Or billions. Would you know what that
means? Would you know when it was safe to go outside or go to the store
for food?
Failure in biology
The first things that some people started saying were things like "should
we start taking antibiotics?" Why, it's a virus not a bacterial infection.
But many people don't know the difference. Again some people think science
isn't important, but last week how many would have known whether to take
an antiviral or antibiotic?
Government's have to put out warnings telling people to wash their hands.
Yes, wash their hands! It's unbelievable that people don't already do that
in a supposedly educated society such as the United States. How can they
not know about this simple method of disease control? "They know,
but they just don't do it" is what some people say. But that's where
the failure is. The teacher has failed if someone merely knows about something
but doesn't put it into practice. That's lecturing, not educating.
Some people believe that because the media label it as "Swine Flu",
presumably because Mexico's embassies don't want it called "Mexican
Flu", that eating pork is bad. Again it's a total failure that so
many people don't know such basic biology.
Failure in geography
The latest headlines are always "another new country infected",
"dozens of countries reporting cases". Countries are an artificial,
and totally out of balance way of measuring this planet. I admit I'm guilty
of it when I say "used in over 200 countries" but it doesn't
really mean anything. The world is one these days. Just ask any kid, they
don't see lines on a map, they see continents on Google Earth. But most
adults just don't understand where on the world they live and where other
people live. How can we not know where our neighbours are?
Failure in thinking
The worst thing I've seen so far is so called experts from the WHO using
the phrase "worrying." In any success course the first thing
you learn is that "worry" is one of the biggest wastes of energy
and dangerous things you can do. It's the proverbial fear of fear itself.
If there's something you can do to stop something, then do it. If there's
nothing you can do then use your energies elsewhere. But worrying serves
no purpose at all. It's not an emotion or even a word that professionals
should ever use.
Where's the positive side?
Those people who know me will be wondering why on Earth I've written such
a negative sounding post, isn't my job to genkify people? Well yes, but
I've never seen anything like this before where so many different areas
of education have failed so much. And it's by acknowledging these basic
failures that we can improve things for the future.
It doesn't matter yet if not everyone on the planet speaks perfect English
or can do advanced algebra. But everyone on the planet must, has to, should
understand some of the very basics of human existence such as simple biology
or the understanding of basic probabilities if we are to survive any major
upsets to our lifestyle.
Swine Flu may turn into a pandemic and we're bound to face even bigger
threats on the future, but without the skills to see what is really happening
then panic and worse will ensue.
Education is always the way we will fight these things. Education in the
form of science and communications has already revolutionised how experts
fight disease. But now we need everyone, not just the experts, to be up
to speed on the key points of human life so that we don't have to tell
them what a virus is or to wash their hands several times a day.
If this thing does become pandemic people need to know the difference between
5% and 40%, between a virus and bacteria, where infections are located,
they need to evaluate the risks of travelling, buying bread or going outdoors.
So let's make sure we understand the world that's around us, rather than
relying on gossip, distortion and fear mongering that the media provides
today. Emotions are fun, exciting and make life interesting. But let's
make sure basic skills to overcome emotion when needed are a fundamental
part of what we teach. Knowledge and skills, education, is the light that
lets us understand the problems we face and helps us find the solutions.
School isn't about exams, it's the instruction book for life. How to be
happy, successful, caring and, if this thing does become big, stay healthy.
If you ever see on my schedule that I'm planning on spending just 24 hours in a country again and aim
to get some work done then please email me and tell me I'm mad! Especially
if it's Korea, the only country I've ever known highway traffic jams to
last past midnight!
I spent this morning rushing round Seoul like crazy trying to get everything
done before catching the plane back to Beijing. I didn't even get chance
to update YouTube on the free Incheon WiFi, eventhough it's been the first
time I've been able to get on there in a month. But hopefully there should
be some exciting new Korea projects coming soon so stayed tuned!
Last night was much more civilised out with a group of primary school teachers.
(Apologies for sending the meeting place info out to everyone else so late,
I'll try and be more organised next time.)
Korean Primary Schools
Judging from my previous workshops in Korea and the emails I get, I always
thought in Korea that Genki English was most popular in "Hagwons"
(private evening schools) so it was great to hear about it being used in
Korean public elementary school. The teachers were taking the Korean national
curriculum, but substituting in Genki English themes, where they fitted,
to jazz the lessons up. If you teach in a similar situation and find topics
that aren't yet covered by Genki English themes, then let me know and I'll see if I can maybe make some more themes for you to fill the
holes and bring a little more excitement to those lessons too.
I was also asked about 6th graders (see also Harry Potter Effect) and kindergarten as well as what to do with unresponsive kids: 1)Comfort 2) Interesting
3) Understanding). Plus loads of other education stuff which was very cool
and might also lead to some very interesting sounding workshops in Korea
in the future! Very exciting.
Into the future...
Being here though is very different from China, it's a whole other world.
For the past four weeks I've been eating, sleeping, breathing the Chinese
way of doing things and it's amazing to pop along to another country and
get hit with "Well yeah, there are other ways to do things!"
We really need to make sure our kids experience more countries!
In China the watchword is always "potential". China certainly
has that and is very exciting. But in Korea it's like jumping 20 years
into the future. Everyone is so ordered, has brilliant white teeth and
is so well mannered, the streets are clean and well kept, everyone has
a super powered mobile phone, and the killer app it turns out is watching
TV on the subway, or paying for your morning coffee with your cell phone
instead of money.
This is what China will be like in 20 years time. Although of course the
best thing about Korea is the gorgeous food!
Fingers crossed I'll be back in Korea later in the year, so get in touch if you'd be interested in a workshop. I'll also get working on more Genki Korean stuff, we deliver 1,000 pages a day on that site already so I guess people
like it.
And would anyone be interested in having the Lesson Plans book in Korean to help lesson planning with Korean teachers?
April 29th 2009 - Thinking Bigger and Why We Need YOU To Do It
The big buzz around the blogosphere this week is for Michael Port's "Think Big Manifesto". It's not a new concept, it just says that thinking big is just
as easy as thinking small, so you might as well think as big as you can!
The idea of the book is that it applies to anything, from being happy and
relationships, to jobs and finance, or anything else.
I think it applies especially to teaching, and especially to teaching English. Because far too many people, especially schools,
think too small. How many times have you heard teachers say that kids can't
do something? Or teachers moaning that parents want their kids fluent in
6 months? Or kids saying they have too much boring homework?
Don't be "realistic"!
It's all because too many people are aiming too low. Schools plan English
lessons without a set end, "just come and take lessons every week".
But for how long and for what aim? A goal without a time limit means you'll
never get there. Some schools only do things for exams. Simply for the
tests? A goal of passing a test means that's all you'll be able to do.
Why follow the status quo? Why give the kids so much ineffective cramming
style homework? Just because it's always been done? Parents often want
kids to be "fluent" really quickly, but teachers often urge them
to be "realistic" Why? What's so wrong about that goal?
We know how to learn a language, and we know that millions of people already
do it. We even know how to teach it with just one classroom hour a week
in a foreign land. Stopping Swine Flu from becoming pandemic is tough.
Rebuilding the world's financial system so that it empowers more of the
world's poorest is tough. But we'll do it.
In comparison, teaching one English theme a week is too easy, too small.
Now it's your turn!
I'd say "think bigger". What if your kids had to learn fluent
English in 6 months, or 3 months, or even 1 month. How would you teach
it? The old expression goes that if someone put a gun to your head you'd
certainly find a way. So why not do it now without the gun?
From a business point of view you'd have hundreds of students, because
everyone would want to learn from you. From a karma point of view you'd
be helping millions of people learn things more quickly than they ever
thought possible. And from a personal point of view you'd have tremendous
satisfaction at having done something amazing. Your fortune and fame beckons!
So what goals would you set? How many lessons? How long for? What targets?
What wasted class time would you cut? What materials would you use? Plan
it out now, in your head if you like, or better still on paper or even
in the comments here. What English would you teach first? What English
would you teach last? What excuses do you have not to do this? School won't
listen? Can't be bothered? Boss won't play ball? It's not possible? Even
more reason to do it and prove everyone wrong, including yourself! How
would you best use the resources you and your students have? What extra
materials would you make? How would you design the perfect system to make
kids fluent in months or weeks?
As I say, thinking big is just as easy as thinking small. You think everyday,
so you might as well make it as big as you can!
April 28th 2009 - Funky new printables
Gaz has sent in some great new printables.
First we have question cards, for example featuring all the GE themes with "what" and answer cards to match.
Gaz has also sent in some really great phonics game cards. I'll get them
on the site just as soon as we figure out how to merge the many pdf files
into one single pdf file. None of you you happen to know how to do that
do you?
And using Wordle Gaz has also created this great picture of the words used in the Genki English songs. It's cool to see which words are focussed on. It's a shame "can"
gets discounted along with "the", "is" etc. otherwise
I'm sure it would be the biggest
OK, check back soon for the next phonics cards!
April 26th 2009 - Go Green! CD9 Download is On Sale Now!
I usually wait till the physical CD is back from the factory before launching
a new CD, but seeing as the Download Packs have no packing, nor C02 from shipping then I figured I'd launch the new
one as soon as it's ready i.e. right now!
I think most people still use Genki English with a CD player and picture cards, which works great of course. But now instead of having to carry loads
of flashcards, if you can take your laptop into class, or even better get
a projector or digital whiteboard, you just hit the number 1 on the keyboard
and the flashcard pops up on screen.
Talking Words Page. Simply click the words or press the numbers 1 to 8 and hear each word pronounced. Each word is recorded with different people and different intonations to give the kids lots of English exposure.
Or if you want all the words from the song on screen at once you can use
the "Words 2" button, which is great for showing all the words
during classroom games.
Talking Picture Cards: Here you have all 8 of the vocab words on screen at once. You can still move over them to hear them pronounced, and it is a life saver for classroom games. Plus if you use a projector in class, you won't have to carry around all the heavy picture cards!
Plus the songs are now illustrated, which gets the kids more involved and
gives you a break from being the focus of the lesson!
Then the song complete with lyrics and illustrations! A fantastic way to
liven up the lesson and get the words stuck in your head. And a great way
for kids to practice even when you're not there.
If you're not musically inclined, or aren't too hot on singing, each lesson
also has an illustrated "mini lesson" which basically teaches
the kids how to sing the song if you don't want to. It's also great to
give your voice a rest!
Learn the song with the illustrated "Mini Lesson", the teacher
becomes the "director", the kids become the center stage stars!
Perfect if you're no good at singing yourself.
Plus there are computer games you can play in class and a karaoke version
of each song.
All the themes also have a funky game. You could even use the games to
"pre-teach" the new language to save more time for real practice
with each other. And to finish off you have the Karaoke Versions.
You can see it really bridges the difference between a "chalk and
talk" lesson and what kids would be doing at home which is playing
computer games or watching TV, it really brings the lessons to life. You
still do the same lesson plan but it takes a lot of the work off your shoulders so you can spend more
time listening to the kids, preparing the next things or even taking a
little rest!
Are you in Korea? I’m going to be
briefly in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday. I don’t have any public
workshops, but if you wanted to meet up for a beer on Tuesday night or
maybe squeeze in a coffee Wednesday morning, it would be cool to meet
up for a chat! Get in touch and let me know.
Then I’m heading back to Beijing for another month. There are some
crazy exciting things going on here, so if you’re in Beijing as well get in touch it would be cool to meet up!
April 24th 2009 - A couple of Games
I just put a shout out over on the forum for some “zero preparation” games for our Chinese schools. Within a few minutes I had some fantastic responses! Here’s the full list, and here are a few examples:
1. Teacher makes a number with their fingers behind their back.
2. The teacher says “How many fingers?”
3. The kids all shout out English answers.
4. The teacher shows the fingers
5. See who got it correct!
Do it a few times, then the kids split into pairs.
1. One child makes a number with their fingers behind their back.
2. He/ she says “How many fingers?”
3. The other child guesses.
4. If they guess correct they swap roles.
Continue for 10 minutes or so, then the tournament!
1. The teacher chooses one pair of students.
2. One child has their back to the wall.
3. The other child has their back to the class.
4. This child makes a number with their fingers behind their back. All
the other children can see except for the child with his/her back to
the wall.
5. Everyone in the class shouts out “How many fingers?”
6. The child with their back to the wall guesses a number.
7. If he/she is correct this pair gets one point and get another go.
8. When they get it wrong, the next pair comes to the front and repeat from step 2.
9. See who has the most points at the end!
I can do it Game
1. Everyone stands up.
2. Teacher chooses one instrument.
3. The teacher says “I can play the …” plus this instrument and does the gesture. E.g. I can play the guitar.
4. The kids repeat.
5. But… if the teacher does the wrong gesture e.g. they say “I can play
the guitar” but pretend to play the piano the kids have to be silent!
6. If anyone repeats when they should be silent they are out and have to sit down!
7. Keep going till only one person is left. Then try the game again,
but this time the teacher says “Can you play the….?” and the kids have
to answer with “Yes, I can play the….?”
I can do it Game 2.
1. Teacher faces away from the kids.
2. The kids all choose one instrument and mime it silently.
3. Everyone shouts out “Can you do it?”
4. The teacher says “Yes, I can play the …” then spins round, shouting out one instrument and doing the
gesture.
5. If anyone has the same instrument as the teacher they win!
Thanks everyone, you just saved me a lot of time and let our translators work on them today rather than on their day off!
P.S. These games are now in the updated Lesson Plans Book: http://www.genkienglish.net/clipart/lessonplansbook.pdf
April 22nd 2009 - How to make an ESL curriculum
After workshops next door to the Google and Microsoft offices in the city
centre this week, today I was back into our slum area schools (although
I don't like calling them that because on a day like today they are as
beautiful as anywhere else and of course they are the main reason I am
in China!) to have a chat with the teachers about the next set of lessons
plans for their curriculum. As usual they were very motivated and great!
Where to start?
For beginner teachers I usually give them a set of 20 basic lessons to
work through, and they're pretty much the same as the first 20 lessons
on the curriculum page here. These have been proven to be popular with the kids, have lots of
useful English and importantly are especially easy to teach.
And then?
But from then on flexible is the key. Ideally you want to cover all the
GE themes, but not all kids will want to do things in the same order or
at the same time. And of course this applies to teachers as well. Plus
because different schools start at different times of the year, you don't
want to be doing Winter Clothes in June or Ice Cream Flavours in December. Unless you're in the south of course!
You choose & it's your baby!
So instead of dictating the order to do things I usually ask the teachers
to choose which themes they'd like to do, which gives them a lot more investment in the curriculum
and makes it their own. I do this by covering a huge table with the printed lesson plans so they can see everything at once. They also start acting like kids in
a sweet shop choosing which ones to do! Then I go through with them and
tweak things to make it easier to flow from one section to the other, and
that the activities build on the language as you go along.
You could of course go even further with this idea and get the kids to make their own curriculum at the start of term!
Plurals before singular
One thing the teachers did last time was to teach the Animal Voices theme before doing the Do you like animals? theme. Their rationing was that traditionally singulars should be taught
before plurals. But of course in Genki English we do things the other way
around, because if you teach "Do you like" with plural animals from the start it's very easy to switch to "Do you like" + food. Then instead of worrying whether to put an "s" on the end of
things or not, if you start with plurals the rule to make a singular is
simple "If there's an s, chop it off. If not leave it as it is."
This saves a lot of confusion for the kids! This also explains why they
thought there were too many words in one lesson, because if you do the
Animal Voices song first you actually have 20 pieces of vocab in one lesson! Doing Do you like animals? splits the vocab up.
Think of other subjects as well
The teachers today were also wanting to do the What time is it? theme. This is in first grade. In private settings I have no problem with
this. But in primary school it's always best to try and co-ordinate English
with the other subjects. In most countries telling the time is only taught
in 2nd grade. So it seems illogical to include time in English class before
that. But today they said their kids could already tell the time and it
would impress the parents if they could tell the time in English before
other classes could do it in Chinese! So fair enough.
Balancing easy and challenging
One very good thing was that the teachers were wanting to include the very,
very important Is it...? theme. This is one of the key skills in being able to describe something
using other English you know, e.g. it's a big animal, it's yellow and black,
it comes from Africa, it's not a lion etc. Many teachers miss this out
as they say it's too difficult for their kids and in first grade in sometimes
can be, but it was great to see the teachers wanting to teach this today!
I always try and do it as soon as I can. One really good way the teachers
in Japan did it last year was to do the game first in Japanese. This gets over the difficult part of developing the
describing skill without any extra difficult of using English. Once the
kids get good enough to do the game in their own language they really,
really enjoy it! So then you can say, OK how about an extra challenge,
let's try doing in English! The kids are usually really up for it then!
It's also important to think of where in the term you put tougher themes,
I usually put them near, but not at, the beginning or in the middle so
that you enter the school holidays on a high note with an easier or more
motivating theme. Today we went with Can you speak...? to go into the Summer holidays!
It's fun!
Making a curriculum is fun, it's like picking out skills you'd like to
have. Oh, I'd like to be able to say that, and that, and that! Plus playing
through the songs and games for each theme as you make the curriculum really
makes you want to teach them right now because they are so fun. All the
themes were chosen from language the kids like to say, but that's usually also
fun language for teachers to learn as well. You really look forward to
them. And as you teach each year you learn more, see different problems
and find new techniques to get over them, which is also pretty fun as well,
as you never know what exciting new things you'll find this year! I know
I'm loving CD9 at the moment and I really wish I had made it 10 years earlier!
Curriculum Yoga
But make sure you keep the flexibility. Even the most perfectly planned
curriculum will fail at some point because the kids' interests will be
different on different days. They'll be tired or genki, into sports or
the news, or the latest movie or freak weather. These are things a strict
curriculum can't cope with and it's one reason why textbooks fail children,
they just can't respond to situations like a good teacher with a flexible
set of materials can. So always have a back up lesson in mind, and always
have back up activities in mind. Don't worry if the kids suddenly whiz
through 3 themes perfectly in an hour (they've probably been playing the
computer games!) or that one theme won't stick no matter how many times you cover it.
Genki English is designed to be like this, like lego blocks thrown out
there to play with and build things, eventually you will cover everything,
but the route you take through the jungle is up to you and your kids!
I've basically done them out of desperation at not finding any fun materials
to learn Chinese myself! Even the hallowed Michel Thomas course has been sending me to sleep with the advanced Mandarin.
Update: I just figured out that because I bought the ebook version of Michel
Thomas from audible, you can actually play it faster on an ipod, which
makes it far less sleep inducing. And content wise it still is the best
course!
I've also done these games in a "full screen" style like the
Genki English Software. What do you think?
Fun please!
Most of the other Chinese material online is also just really boring. Before You Know It looked good with a great free demo. But I just bought the full version
and it's just too fiddly and just not fun enough to make me want to spend
anytime with it. Mind you their iPhone app does look good and I wonder why I just paid $50 for the PC version when
the phone one is only $8!
I also bought their Kidspeak Chinese which was very good, but far too small on screen and I finished it in
a couple of hours. It also cost $29.99, which when you compare how much
content it has with the GE Download Pack, I'm selling the Download Pack far too cheap. Plus i want my software big, filling up the whole screen!
Everything else in the bookstores as well as online that is made for adults,
as I say, puts you to sleep. It's all grammar and far too lengthy explanations.
Make no wonder most adults don't bother to learn a foreign language.
I did find one that was very good, called "Easy and Fun Chinese" which I picked up in the airport. Amazon have it on at $467.20!
Again it's a kids series so it keeps you awake with bright colours and
animations but it doesn't work on my computer! : ( If it did work I think
would be worth the money though.
So I guess it's back to work on Genki Chinese. The games are very addictive, almost procrastinately so, and hopefully
soon I'll have some very funky songs to learn Chinese as well.
Plus of course that magic elixir of language learning: beer! I speak way
more Mandarin in the bars on an evening than I do all day relying on translators.
Anyway do you have any recommendations for fun products for learning Chinese? Or for any other language for that matter?
April 21st 2009 - Phonics Crash Course
Today I had an intro workshop for a chain with 600 branches and now quite
a few genkified teachers.
Afterwards we were chatting and one of the teachers asked "Why doesn't
Genki English have any reading or writing?" My simple answer to that
is "Because there are already lots of really good reading and writing
courses out there." Most students in most countries can read and write
quite well so there's no point re-inventing the wheel.
I want to speak English!
But it's the speaking ability that is lacking in just about every country.
It's what employers want, and it's what most learners want, after all you
don't say "I want to learn to write English" what you say is
"I want to learn to speak English." So that's what I focus on
and why Genki English is so popular.
Our phonics doesn't work!
But of course traditional reading courses aren't perfect. So this then
led on to talking about phonics. The teacher was saying that although they
do teach "phonics" it doesn't seem to be working. I asked how
they were doing it. They said, "well we show the kids a word like
"cat" and have them sound it out "See, c, c, Ay, a, a, Tee,
t, t" but the kids don't get it."
That must confuse the kids like crazy! I see this misunderstanding of what
"phonics" actually is quite a lot and if you do it wrong then
yes, it doesn't work. Starting with the letter names is one mistake, and
I guess I also confuse people in my courses when I tell them not to do
"phonics" at all at the beginning. So let's try a quick crash
course!
Don't start with phonics, start with "Phonemic Awareness"
"Phonemic awareness" is one of those terms that academics invented
to try and make everyone feel inferior, but it's really quite simple, it
just means "hear the sounds." When you see good teachers introducing
new words, along with gestures and visuals, they also vary how they say
the word. Sometimes it might be a straight "jump", the next time
it may be "jjjjjump" or "jummmmmmmp" This is not only
fun for the kids (all kids love silly voices!) but it helps them listen
to not only the word but the component sounds of the word.
Depending on the country you're in you'll need more time on some sounds
than others. This is also one important reason to study the local language,
so that you know which sounds or "phonemes" to concentrate on.
For example last year we were letting the teachers in China get away with
a "jjj" sound for "r" thinking it was just a one off,
until we realised it is a recurring error!
It's also important to remember that unlike say Chinese or Japanese, there
are no set vowel sounds in English. Almost every city in the English speaking
world uses different vowel sounds. Even if you say "I want to teach
US or UK sounds" then there still isn't a set standard, a word like
"octopus" is pronounced very differently in Georgia compared
with upstate New York, LA or Utah. So don't overly worry about vowels.
Obviously you will have a bias for your own sounds, but make sure the kids
also experience the vowel sounds of other native speakers (e.g. guest teachers,
GE CDs etc.) so then don't suddenly become lost when talking to different people.
The good news is that for quite a few non native speakers it's the consonant
sounds that are the main barrier to communication so you can concentrate
on those.
When to start this?
If you're doing a serious English course (i.e. actually gaining the ability
to communicate in English, not just to pass exams) then you can of course
start this right from the beginning. Keep it fun, and keep the conversation
as the main aim of the lesson, but stress the sounds in the words where
you can.
Some teachers take this one step further by then linking this with letter
symbols or "graphemes." For example stressing one sound in a
word and getting kids to point to the letter on the wall or run and grab
a foam letter.
I personally don't introduce graphemes at this stage, but if you want to
you can, again just keep it light and fun. The important point is that
the sound comes first, then the letter symbol.
Unmissable
Obviously with native speakers this stage isn't necessary because they've
had several hundred hours of listening practice already. But in non-native
speaking situations this isn't a stage you can miss. And if you want to
move on to reading, then we also have to remember that this stage isn't
actually "phonics" yet.
(I guess I'm also guilty of more confusion here as my phonics pages are really more phonemic awareness activities.)
What age to start phonics?
Before staring real "phonics" we assume the children have already
had considerable phonemic awareness, either in class, from a speaking course
such as Genki English, or from "extended listening" (not extended
reading, extended listening where they listen to dozens of hours of English
material) and they can speak the language to some level already. This last
bit is important. This can take anything from 50 to 200 hours of class
time before you even start real "phonics".
So what is "phonics" then?
"Phonics" is a pretty broad term, but the generally accepted
meaning is the next stage of teaching reading. You can think of it in two
parts and I'd run it in parallel to the continuing speaking course.
First, in a very structured manner, you re-introduce the sounds of English
and the most common letter that represents this sound e.g. for the "j"
sound introduce "j" before the soft "g". It's usual
to only do one (or maybe two) graphemes per lesson. There are many activities
to do this and I'll try and share some soon. Again this on its own isn't
phonics, you need the next step...
Blending
The second key component is "blending". As soon as you have taught
a handful of graphemes the kids should start learning how to go from seeing
"c" and hearing the c sound, seeing the "a" and hearing
the a sound, seeing the "t" and hearing the t sound, to gradually
move them closer and closer together to eventually come up with c - a -
t = cat. Although simple to those of us who learnt it in school, this is
a difficult skill and takes time, even with kids in the UK or US. Being
able to blend lots of examples is why many phonics courses don't use the
normal alphabetic order.
This is where it's very important that the kids can already speak some
English. The whole motivation for phonics is that children can the read
words they already know. If they have never heard the word "superhero"
before, then even if they can say it out it has no meaning for them. Whilst
some nonsense words can be good for building the blending skill, the motivation
of phonics comes from seeing a word you don't know how to read, sounding
it out, blending it and eventually getting the eureka moment of "Wow,
that says my hobby!!!!!!" Of course if they haven't learnt the word
in a song or by listening before hand then all they read is the equivalent
of "hjdshfjkdshfdlhs" which has zero motivation for them.
The trap!
The trap here is that if the kids only know a few words e.g. a few animals
or colours, then they may just be remembering the shape of the words from
flashcards. This again isn't blending and isn't reading. Here you could
use more nonsense words, but that is really just a sign that you have started
phonics too soon. It's another reason why they have to have a lot of listening
and speaking beforehand, so that you can introduce longer words that they
couldn't have remembered.
( Side note: This is one problem with using Genki English only. As the GE
language is taken from the language kids use most often it is the most
phonetically irregular and whilst being great for communication it doesn't
give the best examples to use in a phonics course. I'm looking at ways
round this problem at the moment, extended listening as I mentioned above
is maybe one way)
How long to spend on phonics?
Real phonics does take time to teach, I think we're looking at around 30
classroom hours at the moment for the basic set. There are many good courses
out there such as the UK's Letters & Sounds or Jolly Phonics programme
to help you which I can recommend.
Once you've done this stage and have added in some of the non-phonetic
high use words such as "the" or "I", kids can read
about 80% of English. Which is pretty cool.
Then you can, if you wish, introduce the names of the letters e.g. ay,
bee, see etc.
From then on it's a case of teaching the other ways of writing the English
sounds, such as "igh" or "dge" to slowly crawl up to
nearer 100%. This is a bit of a struggle but I'm sure there will be more
fun ways of doing this last stretch coming along soon.
So to sum it up:
1. Learn to listen & speak + phonemic awareness
2. Keep learning to listen & speak, plus learn to read with phonics
3. Keep learning to listen & speak, keep practicing reading, plus a
traditional writing course.
Or if you have limited classroom time my recommendation is to just do stage
one in primary school and leave the others as a new challenge for (junior)
high school!
April 16th 2009 - Kindergarten Classes
Today I had a demo workshop for a company who put teachers into kindergartens
in Beijing. It was a bit of an experiment to see how the teachers react
to Genki English before hopefully introducing the Teachers' Packs (and maybe even workshops) into the schools.
We started off with 21 teachers (as shown here), but ended up with almost
double that when everyone arrived. Cool.
What level?
The first thing with doing a demo for a kindergarten to is to find out
the expectations they have. You can get some pretty funky extremes from
"My kid's been studying for 2 weeks and still isn't fluent!"
to "Hmmm, I think that two colours in one lesson is maybe too difficult
for our students". Luckily today they seemed quite cool with high,
but achievable, aims.
What we did...
I started off again with the basic Genki Disco Warm Up to show the GE rules. Today was I think the first group I've ever had
where everyone agreed that making mistakes is good right from the start.
At first I just thought they weren't understanding my question, but even
when translated they were all saying "yep, we agree, mistakes help
us learn". Excellent.
Then after a brief self intro, which they didn't seem too interested in(!),
I demoed an example structure of a GE class i.e. the song to learn the English, then the game to practice
it. Obviously in kindergarten this pattern gets stretched and changed and
mangled almost every lesson, but it's still a good basic template to keep
in mind.
I did Superhero with the Clap, clap game, which worked very well. I got the CD mastered version of the audio files
the other day and it sounded really good. Then it was How are you? with the How are you? monster game, just to give a feel of what GE is like.
Everyone was really into it, the Chinese teachers were on board and the
foreign teachers were cool with everything as well. Afterwards teachers
were coming up and saying how they'd love to use Genki English instead
of their current textbooks and others were saying they already use the
games from the website so would love to use the full package. Nice.
They also invited me to join their staff trip to the Great Wall on Saturday
which should be cool.
The best bit was at the end. I was having a chat with the organisers to
see what they thought and two guests walked in from a province miles away.
They saw my t-shirt and said "We use Genki English!" and came
to shake hands, which I guess was the icing on the cake for getting these
kindergartens to start using GE!
Great ideas for 4 and 5 year olds
There's also a great thread on the forum at the moment: Need help with 4-5 year olds It starts off with "I'm at my wits end " and ends with "If every lesson was like today, it will be a blast .... ", thanks to everyone who contributed their great ideas!
Friday
Today I was in meetings again with other school chains.
Saturday - the Great Wall
I've only taken 1 day off since I've been in Beijing this time, so it was
great to be invited along with 50 of the teachers from Thursday's company
for a trip to another section of the Great Wall. That was a lot of fun!
It was strange that some teachers who weren't there on Thursday knew who
I was from the website videos, I never knew GE was so popular over here!
Compared with December the air quality was pretty bad, and it was a serious
hike up there. But we made it!
... then we zip lined down!
Then dinner and some beers on the Beijing waterfront. What a cool day,
thank you very much to everyone for making me so welcome and for being
such good sports on Thursday. Good luck with your schools, the kids are
very lucky to have you and email me if there's anything I can help with!
April 15th 2009 - Beijing British Council & Solving World Poverty(!)
This morning I popped in to see the British Council in Beijing. As usual
their offices were beautifully designed, if I was a student I'd want to
study in the UK after visiting them! I've done workshops for the BC before
(including a keynote speech), there's actually a British Council branded
version of the Teacher's Pack out there and they license Genki English in quite a few of their language
centers, the latest one I heard of was Casablanca, which sounded very cool!
Anyway today was just to see if their was anything I could help with in
Beijing. I tell you, the more I hear about China the more excited I get.
There might be some very interesting things in the future!
Afterwards I popped into the local bookstores to try and get some learning
Chinese materials. As usual most of it was just really boring, it would
just put me to sleep! I did buy one book called "Hip Hop Mandarin",
which I thought would be like the Genki Hip Hop songs, but err, no it was a bunch of school kids singing along to a metronome.
Just a little bit different!
Solving World Poverty (!)
Then after a few hours computer work I was watching a programme on French
satellite TV about parents in South America who had to leave their children
in order to go and work in Europe. There was a similar thing on the BBC
the other day about workers from South Asia in Dubai. Plus here in China
many of our parents have moved from rural areas to try and get work in
the cities.
This idea of a location free lifestyle, "making money online - live
in paradise" maybe shouldn't be about rich countries, couldn't it
in fact be the way out of poverty for many of the poorest people? For many
people the "live in paradise" would be to live at home with their
families. And if you make dollars but spend rupees you're very quickly
going to get out of poverty. With the infrastructures coming in place,
and the amazing entrepreneurial talent we see in many places, I think this
could be something huge. I'm probably just super late in realising this,
but if you're interested in reading more, I wrote a full post about it:
Why Making Money Online is Solution to World Poverty
"The Beautiful Tree"
It was getting late by now, but I wanted to watch Professor James' Tooley's
excellent live presentation of his new book "The Beautiful Tree" about our private schools for the poor. (I'll link up to the video
once it's back online!)
One of the questions from the audience was from a gentleman from www.openworld.com I haven't seen his website yet, because it appears to be banned in China,
but he was asking that if entrepreneurship can solve the education problem
in many developing countries, couldn't the model also work for selling
digital products online to bring people out of poverty. Wow, that's exactly
what I had written 30 minutes earlier!
As you can tell I am very excited about this as well. I always thought
of the Location Free Lifestyle site as something not too serious, certainly I don't put all the blood,
sweat and tears into it that I do with Genki English. But could that site,
that idea, be really used to bring millions of people out of poverty?
I have a feeling that it could! Wow.
April 13th 2009 - Genki Business English
It seems that every day this and last week I've been meeting with school
chains asking about putting Genki English in their classes. Judging by
how classes are taught here (holding up flashcards, getting bored, falling
asleep!) and how different Genki English is, I think it could be really
huge here.
Most of the places have been talking about using GE with kids classes,
but some are also wanting GE in business & adults classes. So today
I had a consult and then a mini-workshop for a group of teachers of adults.
Err...ummm...
When you look at many adult classes, in China or anywhere else in the world,
the students might "know" a lot of English but just can't use
it when called upon. They get shy, frustrated, lose confidence and just
can't get the English out there. This is very much the same problem that
the kids' Genki English materials were designed to combat. If you think
what the adults need, it's confidence training, it's real practice using
the English (ideally with native speakers, but with classmates is fine
for the moment) and an easy way to remember to words i.e. the adult course
is almost identical to the kids lesson plan!
The only thing is to be a little careful so that the teachers, and students,
don' t think "I'm not doing kids stuff!" The trick is to let
them think it's high powered "business English", but then slip
in the songs and games when they start to find the English a bit tough.
It is a lot easier to let something sink in when relaxed compared with
being super stressed and pressured. Plus with the learn Japanese materials I think we've proved that adults like the songs just as much, if not more,
than the kids!
For a first adult class...
In the presentation we started off with the Disco Warm Up to teach that making mistakes has to be compulsory in class, that only
loud confident voices will be tolerated and questions should be answered,
not just looked away from. And that smiles are cool, of course. The great
thing about doing a business English course is that unlike other English
courses where some people might say "well, err, yeah, but I don't
like that", with business people they already know these things are
non-negotiable in their daily lives but once they realise it also applies
to English it's like a lightbulb, or rather a "wow English works like
this too?" switch goes off in their heads. Which is cool to see.
Then it was on to What's your name? to show how the games and songs work. As with the kids, the aim of the
game is just to practice speaking the English with other people, but with
a little added "fun" pressure to get the adrenaline going. I
purposely started off with easy themes as a few of the people there were
office staff, not teachers, and this really is the sort of material they
need. I did ask the teachers if they thought this was too easy for their
students and they said "yes", but when we did the Stopwatch Game, some of the office staff got lost as soon as we introduced "Nice
to meet you!" But that's no problem, we just move back a touch.
Once again it's not if you "know it", it's if you can use it or not. There's no point having the knowledge of Einstein if you can't get your
ideas out there. Hence why these days everything is focussed on communication.
So to get them used to speaking out loud, and to get the English stuck
in their heads, that meant it was time for the song. By this time they'd had enough of sitting down and just got so much into
the singing! The improvement in their English was fantastic and it was
so good to see everyone smiling and enjoying themselves so much. So then
we did the game again and everyone could do it really well and really quickly.
Then we finished off with I like everything (a game which I found on a business training course myself) and Best of the Best to show how GE does indeed go up to higher English levels, but with the
exact same ways of thinking and learning.
It was great to see the teachers enjoying themselves, it seemed like it
was "wow, we're allowed to teach like this?" and the office staff
looked very happy that they had made the right choice in GE. It was certainly
very different from any other adults class out there!
How to get to proficiency...
I'm also very happy that I'll get to work with them to find out what needs
changing for adults, as well as helping finding out what other topics adults
in China are looking to learn. As with any age group communication from
day 1 should be a given, then you just build up lesson by lesson by finding
out what the students want to be able to say and then just use some fun
activities to teach them how to say it. As most adults only use a very
small amount of language on a daily basis, it's very easy to build up to
a level where you can do most of your daily communication in English and
luckily a lot of this coincides with the GE curriculum. From then on it's more specific uses and situations you need to look
at, but of course you can still do it in a fun way!
So more meetings, but a great workshop, I think I'm going to have to do
more of these.
Do you do Business English?
Let me know if you run a Business English course, I'd love to come and do a Business
English Confidence Training Workshop for your staff. They'll love you for
it!
Do you have any tips on using GE for adult classes?
April 13th 2009 - Get a free digital whiteboard and training
The government in Japan have just decided to give a brand new
digital whiteboard (although they call them 電子黒板 electronic
blackboards) to every elementary and junior high school for free. Well,
with our tax money anyway!
There’s a fair chance that when they arrive they’ll just get put in
store cupboards and never used. So tell your teachers now that you
want to use it for English class. There’s a fair chance they’ll be
loving you for wanting to make use of it! The kids love it so much
seeing the GE songs on screen, but also being able to play the computer
games on a touch screen. So stake a claim to yours today.
Plus there’s also going to be a ton of money available for training
teachers to teach English. Again there’s a fair chance this money will
be wasted as the teachers won’t know where to spend it. So please tell
them about the Genki English workshops,
I’m sure you’ll love the training and the teachers’ attitudes to
English changes completely, especially if they get the training for
free!
If you're wanting help to get your head around all the Genki English themes
then it will certainly help to print it out and have a look through.
I was hoping to spend a touch more time on it, a couple of the CD9 themes
don't have games yet and there's always a possibility of a few mistakes,
but I figured it'd be better to get it out there today so you can use it
for planning on the first day of term. And also I need to use it for a
big meeting tomorrow!
The other language versions I'll try and get updated as soon as I can,
but it might take a little while.
Any thoughts, comments or feedback, please write them below! (Or if you
find any mistakes!)
April 10th 2009 - Genki Homework
One of the things I’m looking at for our
private schools for the poor projects is homework. Parents want it and
it’s good for them to see what the kids are doing.
But printing is way too expensive.
Computers are non-existent in homes (as is electricity a lot of the time)
The kids having the Student CDs I always thought as the best solution.
This is still too expensive, but I’m looking at the day, not too far
away, when mp3 players are around $1 each. Then we could start handing
them out to every kid in our schools.
But … I haven’t done enough research into exactly how best to use such a tool and what logistics problems would occur.
We could do it in our schools, but it would be a huge training
investment and a large risk with teachers who are often unfamiliar (as
yet) with GE and computers.
So I was thinking if any of you would be interested in maybe doing a little research with some of your classes?
(Almost) Free songs!
You’d still have to buy the mp3 players for
every kid in your test class, but I’d be prepared to give you a (very)
cheap license to put the GE songs, mini lessons or whatever else you
needed onto the machines.
It would have to be an experiment that lasted at least 1 (school)
year with at least 1 regular class i.e. preferably doing GE once a week
or more. Either primary school large classes, or private small classes,
but all the children in the class would have to have the players and
they would become an integral part of the course you teach.
Things I’d want to look at are:
Do we give the kids all the material at the beginning?
Or release each song as we teach it?
Do we set specific listening goals as homework?
Or simply set “listen to one song that you like each day” type thing?
Do we add in listening test style homework?
What other things would be good to have recorded?
Do the kids enjoy them?
Do the kids improve compared with other classes that don’t have them?
Is the improvement worth the dollar and time investment?
What other innovative teaching ideas crop up during the experiment? etc.
Logistics problems would also be needed to be looked at:
Do we charge the (built in) battery for the kids at school each week (during the lesson)?
Or leave the charging to the kids?
How do we add the songs to the machines?
Do older siblings steal them and upload dodgy material?
Do they break?
What’s the replacement policy?
How many backup units do we need?
Is the sound quality good enough?
Are parents happy to have them?
Do other classes get jealous they don’t have them?
Is there a big problem of parents ripping the songs from the devices? etc.
From seeing the results teachers have been getting with the student packs
at home, my gut feeling is that having every kid with an mp3 player
will help enormously. I’m confident of improvements with your kids’
abilities and that with a good set of policies I’m sure the logistics
can all be overcome. I also have the feeling that it would be an
excellent sales point for your school (join us and you get an mp3
player loaded with top material!)
But I’d really like some more data to make sure I’m right and not just being optimistic!
What do you think? Would you be interested in trying this out? It would really help me out if you could!
Get in touch and let me know or please feel free to make any comments below,
Be genki,
Richard
April 3rd 2009 - Beijing Genki Marathon
This part two of my Beijing workshops. See yesterday for part 1!
High Level Phonics
This afternoon was going through the much more advanced parts of the phonics
course. They start off with individual sounds, then move on to alternative
ways of writing them e.g. ai, ay a...e etc. Then it moves onto some of
the more esoteric readings and onto full stories. It is a little "schooly"
but as long as the teachers do everything in order, and they've done lots
of vocab with Genki English beforehand then the magic of being able to
read such high level stuff still really gets the kids going.
Moving into much more grammar and punctuation meant there was a lot to
take in and I think my brain was hurting a little!
How GE works!
Dr Pauline Dixon showing how Genki English has improved the listening &
speaking abilities of the children.
The Dr from the University then ran through why we're doing this programme
again. With phonics for reading and Genki English for speaking and listening.
And why they chose these methods, because they are some of the best in
world developed by experts in the field.
She also showed the data and research results from India. It's great to
see a University Dr. saying such nice things and pointing to posh graphs
showing how much the kids improve with Genki English! Even if the analysis
was way above the heads of most of the teachers!
Back to being Genki
Then in the final hour I wanted to run through more of the GE stuff. First
of all I showed them Flossy's excellent video of the bonus printable materials. Once we get a budget sorted out we'll probably add in some of these and
the teachers looked very excited to see them, especially the Imagination Worksheets!
I also ran through "How do you say ... in English?" where they were the kids and asked me, the teacher, "How do
you say" plus the random word from the song animation, in Chinese,
plus "In English?" and I gave the name of the item in English.
(Have a try of it yourself, it's a lot easier to do than explain!)
The timing of this song still isn't too easy for most teachers, so I might
have to do something about that, but they managed it fine. Except that
they were pronouncing "say" as "see", I'm glad we have
the songs to correct that for the kids!
Then as we had two foreign guests we played a variation of the ...
How do you say ... game.
1. Put the students in two groups.
2. Each guest cheers on their group.
3. The group of kids say to the guest "How do you say" + a word in Chinese + "in English?"
4. If their guest can say the word in English i.e. they knew the Chinese,
you get a point!
They got so excited about this game! Usually kids try and think of words
that sound similar in the two languages, but here the teachers knew some
of the phrases I'd been teacher the other trainer so were asking her questions
like "How do you say 啤酒 in English?" - it's beer!
Genki Marathon
Yesterday the new teachers wouldn't have been able to do any of this, but
today they were on a such a Genki high, had got the rule of "I can
do it!" and just did it!
It's so good to hear GE working so, so well and the teachers who have to
teach it were getting so excited when they saw the new songs!
So then it was my speech about how they really are the rockstars.The job
they're doing in inspiring the next generation of kids to be whatever they
want to be, to trust and care for each other, and to know that whatever
they dream and work towards they can achieve, is a truly special vocation
to have. After an amazing "Welcome to Beijing" song they sang
for us, and all the photographs and tears, they left the room singing "I
want to be a superhero".
But they already are.
April 3rd 2009 - Teacher Feedback & Genki Marathon
Although I've been getting reports and feedback from the management, it's
the real, honest, feedback from the teachers I really need. Both to find
out what needs changing in the current materials and how to best present
the future materials and to select which future activities to give them
for each theme.
As we, the trainers, had had about 2 hours sleep from working on the project
I also decided to start a little slower. So I showed them Flossy's Imagination video and they were so impressed with the work the kids had done!
Then straight into the evaluation exercise.
1. Put the teachers into groups.
2. Made sure there was at least one teacher who's been doing GE every day
in each group.
3. Set a time limit of 30 minutes
4. The teachers who've taught the curriculum go through each lesson in
turn saying what was good and what was bad.
5. Everyone discusses and the teachers who haven't done GE yet write these
comments down.
6. After the time limit one person from each group gives me the feedback
on the first theme.
7. The next person in the group gives me the next theme's feedback etc.
There is a risk with this in that the new teachers, who've only had one
day training so far, could latch onto the bad points and rule out using
GE altogether in their heads (familiar grammar and rote learning are much
more comforting for some teachers!) So keeping the good points in there
is very important, as is taking turns to report to me, so that everyone
listens intently! It was also strange for me as usually I can walk around
and understand what the teachers are saying to each other, but today it
was all in Chinese!
Anyway, the evaluation came back very different from what I thought!
The main good points, as expected, where that the kids loved the lessons
(everyone of the them!) and really enjoyed all the gestures, songs and
moving about. Great!
The main bad point, as latched onto by the new teachers, was that there
were "too many words in each lesson". A touch of deja vu from
yesterday there! But the first example they gave of this was the Disco Warm Up! So I asked how many words they would teach in a traditional English lesson.
The answer they said was five. So I asked them to count how many were in
the Disco Warm Up, oh, it's five! "But OK then", they said "But
the other themes have 8 which is way too many, the kids can't learn them
all in one lesson" They gave some examples of which lessons and we
were like "But those were the things the kids were asking us in the
playground the other day and they seemed so fluent." To which the
teachers replied "Now they can use them fluently, but they couldn't do it in the first class".
And the teachers were genuinely worried by this! It's exactly the same
problem as yesterday.
Now I'm hoping I'm correct here in thinking that this is quite normal.
Judging from your feedback on the blog and all my experience I think students
shouldn't "get" everything in the first lesson. If they did,
doesn't this just mean the lesson was too easy? Students should understand
what all the words mean, but they shouldn't be expected to remember them
all after 45 minutes. It takes several listens of the song over several
days to fully make the language a part of your knowledge that you can't
forget. Well, in any case I'm the boss today so what I say goes! If we
find in the research that I'm wrong then fair enough I'll learn for the
future!
So I asked the teachers how many Chinese characters kids learn in one lesson.
The answer was 8! Aha, the magic number. Of course some kids are faster
and some are slower, but in general one sentence/question plus a good mix
of easy words, middle level words and challenging words which total around
8 is usually the best for an "average" student. I then asked
if the kids could do all the Chinese characters after the one lesson. "Of
course not" they said, "We have to keep doing them for several
weeks". Da dah! Light bulbs going off everywhere.... except for some
of the teachers they weren't! Luckily the ones who are actually doing GE
already seemed very happy with making this connection!
They said it takes around 3 to 5 lessons for the GE language to sink in,
which is cool and will improve as the teachers get more practice. This
doesn't mean 3 lesson per theme though, it's like:
Class1: Teach Lesson 1
Next class: Review lesson 1, teach lesson 2
Next class: Review lesson 1 & 2, teach lesson 3
Next class: Review lessons 1,2,3, teach lesson 4
Next class: Lesson 1 materials are now all remembered, so review lessons
2,3,4, teach lesson 5. etc.
Otherwise most of the themes were providing no other problems:
- What are you doing? and Harry Potter they said was great, which surprised me as many teachers have a problem
teaching that theme (hence the new Eat! Drink! Dance! theme) but here they said it was easy!
- The colour song they said the kids were wanting better gestures than just pointing at
colours. That's good to hear, although I don't have any ideas myself! Any
suggestions from the blog readers?
- Where are you from? a similar thing. I'd told them not to do gestures otherwise you get all
sorts of stereotypes coming out, but the kids were wanting to do some sort
of movement. Without minicards or picture cards I'm still working on this!
Any ideas? Although actually I was surprised that they were able to do
this theme at all. Our test group is first grade and in many countries
the concept of a "country" isn't something the kids understand
until much later. I was expecting this lesson to fail and take it out for
next year. But here they said the kids all know what a country is and knew
of many of them in the song! In first grade! Cool.
- How are you? - they were saying that however much they reviewed the kids still couldn't
say "tired" correctly. We had a listen and the kids were saying
it correctly, it was the teachers who were wrong! So we might need to do
some variance training for them in the future where they learn to distinguish
which mistakes are acceptable (e.g. especially ones native speakers make)
and which ones are not (i.e. mis-pronunciations that only another Chinese
speaker could understand)
- Left & Right. Surprisingly this lesson had the biggest problems, especially with the
Mr Bump game. The teachers were worried sick that the kids would hurt themselves and
were insisting that I let them take the chairs out of the class so the
kids wouldn't hit them. But they couldn't understand that this is in fact
one of the safest games ever! After lots of talking it came down to the
kids not trusting their partners to give them correct instructions. Also
they were worried some kids would purposely ram their friends into the
furniture!
I think most of you are probably laughing at this. But the aim of this
game isn't just the English, it's fostering trust and the caring of the
blindfolded person, very important class building skills. But it almost
seemed as if these qualities were missing from the kids here. Looking around
it also seemed they were missing from the teachers.
Although many of them were friends, there was a certain lack of teamship
about them. I asked them if they'd done the "fall over and let your
partner catch you exercise" before. They'd never even heard of it.
So naturally I got them to do it!
They were really, really hesitant and untrusting of each other! So I got
them to do it one at a time rather than en masse. There's a reason this
activity has become so popular, it's because it works. The rush you get
from doing it, and the automatic bond it creates between two people is
amazing to see. You really could feel a difference in the room.
And the Mr Bump game is chosen to bring out this in the kids. Everything is there for a reason!
- How do you say ... in English? They hadn't quite got the hang of this lesson, which is quite common.
Although one new teacher did say "Yes, when the random words appear
how can the kids read what it is, there are no words written down".
Oh dear, looks like we need to review what Genki English is - the speaking
and listening part of the course! The words are just there to help the
teachers, they mustn't be read, especially when they've only done half
the phonics course so far.
Anyway, after a couple of hours of this I felt a lot more relaxed because
the only real problem, of "too many words", isn't a problem at
all and they were fine with activities for all the themes now. So that
makes it a lot easier for me to make up the next set of lesson plans for
them!
Then before lunch we had one of the teachers demo one of the high level
phonics lessons. With the exception of the pronunciation, which we can
fix by using computers, she did a really excellent job, easily as good
as any teacher in the UK.
Part two coming tomorrow!
April 2nd 2009 - CD9 Games in Action
Today was the first of 2 days follow up teacher training from the week's
training we did in December. Half is me for the listening and speaking
and half is the phonics programme for reading and writing.
After another address to the school assembly (where the kids had just been
doing their morning exercises!) and setting up it was off we went....
Superhero
We had some new teachers so to review rule number 1 "I can do it!"
it was into the new Superhero song. That worked a treat! I stressed about using the software more to get the pronunciation right and they loved it.
But when I came to ask "Can you fly?" all the teachers said "no".
Ahhhh. So it was into a speech about thinking outside the box and about
how we're not just teaching English, it's the life skills that the future
leaders of China, who we are now educating, are going to need. With a very
Genki translator to help out they started getting all exciting again.
The line I always use is "Well I was in Singapore the other day, and
I know I didn't walk to Beijing....."
Imagination?
We've also had some problems with some teachers deciding on their own to
not do any games. It seems to be because they are either a)a bit traditional
or b) a little scared, and don't want kids running around too much as they
feel they would be out of control. Fighting the traditional "children
should be seen and not heard" and "the teacher is the only one
who should talk" is still a problem in many places.
So for the first game today I wanted to do something that doesn't have
the kids running around too much, so did the "design your own superhero,
draw a picture, pick a name and tell us what they can do" activity.
They did great with it with some cool stuff - "change into" was
a popular request. "I can change into an apple, a helicopter and
a computer!".
So I asked if they could do it with their classes and they all said "no!".
What?? OK, so I asked why and the first grade teachers, yes first grade,
said "our children don't have any imagination". Ah dear. Sometimes
kids' worst enemies are their teachers! It's not the kids who are suffering
from a lack of imagination, it's the adults! But luckily I have a secret
weapon in the form of Flossy's Imagination Sheets video which I'm going
to show them tomorrow, that is going to knock their socks off when they
see what kids can really do!
(I still can't get YouTube here so I hope this video came up OK!)
Can you speak?
Because they've only been teaching 20 Genki English themes so far, one
thing I need to do this week is to show them how future themes link up
and link in with each other so effectively we are teaching "grammar"
it's just that we don't call it grammar.
One of the things they do in the Chinese textbooks, which is quite cool,
is to use the Chinese flag to introduce colours (red and yellow), shapes
(stars!) and numbers (how many stars are there?). There's a lot of info
in the Can you speak...? picture cards, and usually I just use the rough quantity of the flags
to show how useful English is because you can use it in so many places.
But we realised today that it's also great to teach colours, shapes, numbers
etc. as some of the flags are pretty amazing.
Then I wanted to do a real genki active game. Luckily last night Sara sent
in some amazing games to use with this theme. (They're at the end of the
Can you speak...? page). We haven't put any budgets in for printing cards etc. in the classes
yet so for now, and just because they were teachers, I just got them to
write down one language each on a piece of paper.
Then...
1. Get in a circle.
2. Hold up your card.
3. The rule is you can't move your heads or eyes. You've got to be still!
(Cue lots of laughing!)
4. Teacher says "Can you speak German?"
5. Everyone says "3, 2, 1, Jump!"
6. You jump to face and point to where you think someone who has a German
card is.
7. You either say "German" or "I can speak German"
as you point.
8. The German person then picks another language and asks "Can you
speak....?"
9. Repeat from step 5.
As you can hopefully see from the video below it was a huge hit!
(I'm trying a new video service today, does this come up OK?)
Along with my rough camera footage, we've also had a professional TV guy
filming everything so I'll try and get as much video into the owners club as I can when I get time to edit it up.
Phonics -> Reading
Then for the final hour in the morning it was a review of the phonics lessons
they've been doing, just to get the new people on board. The programme
they've introduced is working really well, with a brilliantly designed
lesson plan that the teachers are really mastering. I'll see if I can get
more online for you because I can highly recommend it!
Then after lunch the Dr from the UK introduced the next phonics programme.
The lesson still looks good but the jump to reading means that there is
a heck of a lot of vocab the kids will need to pick up on.
The main thrill with phonics is when kids can look at a strange mash of
symbols which they don't understand, then sound it out and suddenly realise
"oh, that says .... !!!" That's what spurs them on so much. Of
course if they haven't heard the word before then it doesn't work.
Just looking at the amount of content in this new phonics course, which
was designed for kids in the UK, we're either going to have to ramp up
Genki English so they cover many, many more themes much more quickly or
introduce some type of extensive listening course. But anyway, that's what
we're researching so we'll see how things go.
Then it was time for me to do some more Genki stuff in the final hour.
Winter Clothes & Two Hour Lesson Plans
Tomorrow I've got lots of feedback and in depth reporting I need them to
do, so I kept things pretty light and fun for the last hour today. You
know I should market Genki English as an adult course because they get
so much enjoyment out of it when they become students learning English
with GE!
As they have two hours per Genki English theme then I wanted to introduce
the "2 hour lesson plan" It's very simple, you just do the one hour lesson plan as usual, then in lesson two you review the song and game for 15-20 minutes,
then introduce a follow up activity using the same English for example
the Picture Book or Imagination worksheet or even another game. As we are needing more listening and vocab exposure
then I went for the first option and they loved them.
Pronouns & Dinosaurs
Then I wanted to introduce the pronouns song. Many of these words are introduced in phonics courses as "tricky
words" or "sight words" or "irregular words" and
it's important that the kids have been exposed to them in aural form before
seeing the written word. Using the pronouns song we can also show how mixing two themes together can make the knowledge
of 8 sentences in one theme i.e. I'm hungry etc. suddenly multiply into 64 brand new sentences. In the future I'll also
be adding "was" and "will be" themes so you'll be
able to say things like "I was hungry, now I'm tired, later I'll be
thirsty" type constructions.
And we played the I am a dinosaur game, which they loved. Again this should be an adult course not just for kids!
Then we did the Superhero song again to finish on a high note.
So a very nice and very easy day. I was a bit worried about the lack of
imagination, and the few new teachers who were saying things like "oh,
that's too hard" (the difference between the teachers who'd been trained
before and had been teaching GE and those that hadn't is amazing in their
views of what can be achieved) but for most of the teachers we easily got
over that and they were great.
So then it was out for more gorgeous Chinese food, this time dumplings.
And we also heard that there's a new "learn English in 8 days"
programme out here, which will be great to implement if it's really true!
April 1st 2009 - What happens when you do GE everyday?
We were walked into the school today by another marching band procession,
they really do like these big welcomes!
Then we were doing evaluation sessions, watching and commenting on two
Genki English and two phonics lessons by two teachers who we'd trained
in December. As expected they were really, really good! As they were so
good we did think for a minute they might have cheated and might be "teaching"
a lesson they've already done (that's how demo classes work in Japan) but
checking the kids proved that were indeed doing it for the first time,
which was great.
As a teacher it's often difficult to evaluate your own classes, it takes
an outside view to see how things are going, schools should pay us to evaluate
lessons, because there were a couple of big things that needed picking
up on!
The first was that although the kids were copying the pronunciation from
the software perfectly, and could answer questions perfectly, when they
came to shout out things en masse they added a "aaaaa" to the
end of everything. So we had Yesaaaa, leftaaa, dogsaaaa, likeaaa, etc.
etc. The worst thing was that nobody had picked up on this, mainly because
the adults couldn't hear it themselves.
The other problem is that the teachers were spending far too long drilling
the words and sentences before moving on to the song. Their excuse was
that they didn't want to move on until the kids "knew" all the
words. It was a very bad remnant of the old rote ways of learning and the
kids were looking really bored! They did, of course, pick up when they
were doing the song. But the song isn't just an easy way to remember the
words or an easy way to review next time, it's also where the kids are
getting the repetition and beginning to memorise the language. If you really
feel you need to drill, drill the song, the kids will get it much quicker!
One teacher even missed out the game, saying it was too difficult with
40 kids. Photos of the 100+ kid classes in other countries, plus the next
teacher doing really well with the game, got her on board. The class suffered
at the end from the lack of adrenaline and speaking practice from having
no game though.
Apart from this they were world class lessons and the results were also
world class.
The proof of the pudding
In the playground of course all the kids crowded round us. So naturally
we starting chatting by saying hello and asking their names. The older
kids, who do the old English course, did the usual thing of looking at
their friends, turning away, being shy, giggling then running off. The
1st graders, the Genki English & Phonics kids, however were answering
us straight away. We didn't have to ask the questions twice, they could
answer straight off in perfect English accents. So then we asked their
ages, the older kids again just looked blank but the younger kids had the
spark of recognition in their eyes, started counting the numbers then as
calm as anything told us their ages. Then they started asking us questions
"Where are you from?" when I answered they couldn't hear, so
one girl cupped her hand to her ear, copying what we'd taught her teacher
to do and said "sorry?" Of course the real proof is with the
kids and the difference between the genki and non-genki kids was like night
and day. What a huge difference.
As I always say it's not the English as such, that's easy, but it's the
attitude that makes the difference. These kids weren't fussed by English,
they were just rounding up what they knew so as to say what they wanted
to say. After the lesson when we asked the teacher to ask the kids if they
enjoyed the class, instead of Chinese she just translated it into easy
English and asked "Do you like Genki English?". Some classes
would never make that kind of a jump from "Do you like carrots?"
etc.
Fresh veg for school lunch!
Anyway, here are my notes from Sunny's and Rain's (yes these are their
names!) lessons:
Sunny's Phonics:
- check "z" and "k" sounds
- Need to video her doing model storytelling lessons!
- Using the computer for phonics sounds was very good
- Very professional correction of kids' mistakes
- Very confident with computer, using it as a natural tool.
- Good that they had a mixture of kids getting things right and wrong (proves
it wasn't a set up class!)
- Kids at the front can't see the board
- Made herself tall and small, using different heights during the lesson
- Used Genki English phrases (asking names, "Can you do it?"
) kids code switched from Chinese effortless, only needed asking once.
- Students need something to rest on during writing practice (not their
knees!)
- Very good at keeping the kids' interest even with loud music and races
going on outside
- "He" and "She" not "hey" and "shey" Phonics "tricky words" from the tricky hat
- Need a gap in the middle of the kids so can check ones in the middle,
not just the kids on the edges.
- Mistakes the kids were making were "good" mistakes e.g. "chig"
instead of "chick" shows they were really listening even if they
hadn't quite mastered all the sounds yet.
Sunny's Genki Class
- Warm up - perfect. Kids answered quickly and with prefect pronunciation.
- Kids answered straight away, no hesitation
- No problem with understanding "How are you?" vs. "How
old are you?"
- When kids made mistakes other kids corrected them, (in a fun way.)
- Kids didn't just go for the "easy answer" e.g. answering "It's
a beautiful day!"
- Not all the kids could do everything (which showed they were learning
in this lesson, not just reviewing)
- Lines quiz - did it with 6 kids at the front (different kids each day)
and other kids checking the answers (to save time)
- Teacher needs to look at the lesson plan during lines quiz to make sure
all previous topics are covered.
- I need to write a praising words song because these kids were so good!
- Kids laughed (big smiles) and joked when introducing words, but sat up
straight and went quiet when teacher counted to 3!
- Do the kids laugh so much in normal lessons? They were loving it!
- Use the keyboard on the computer to activate each word, rather than the
(inaccurate) mouse.
- Perfect pronunciation when using the software
- Teacher asked the kids what gestures to do, good
- Asked the kids what meaning of new words was
- "Lizard" pronunciation not perfect, but OK for now
- Ah, she picked up on this and went back and spent more time on it, good.
- Kept good pace with loud parts, soft parts
- Corrects their mistakes very well and positively
- Code switching no problem
- Watch for "s" sound becoming "yesaaa"
- Don't point at the written words on the software, always point at the
pictures
- Kids get bored with too much repetition of the words, move into the song
much earlier
- Chinese kids seem to really like goldfish!
- Should concentrate on the harder words, words the kids have got can be
moved on from.
- Move on to the song already!
- First time through kids didn't get the mini lesson, so it was good that
she did it again
- Teacher sat down during mini lesson so kids were focussed on the screen
- Too much bass on the sound system
- Song first time wasn't too good.
- Much better second time
- Need applause at the end of songs!
- Used the computer software game (good) but at the expense of the classroom
game (bad)
- Should get kids to come and touch the screen rather than just shout out
the answers.
- Had a tendency to ask the same kids each time
- Finishing on more drilling left the lesson on a low note, should have
finished with the game!
Rain's Phonics Class (duplicated items removed)
- Leftaaa, rightaaaa, jumpaaaaa in warm up
- needs more blending
- missed the phonics story
- some kids can blend, but a few adding "a" to the end
- didn't use the computer for pronunciation
- Other than that very good.
Rain's Genki Class
- Jumpaaa, leftaa, rightaa etc. - bad!
- Did the gesture and got the kids to say the words, good
- With "how old" the kids were counting with Chinese hand gestures
(minor point)
- When asking a question kids should give just one answer, not recite all
the ones from the song!
- Be careful, the computer sound was "dogs" but the homemade
picture cards was "dog" - potential confusion
- Warm up song was perfect
- Pronunciation was very good when repeating after the computer, after
the teacher not so much
- Need more computer!
- Be careful of using grammar technical terms
- Need to move to the new song much more quickly, some kids were falling
asleep with all the drilling!
- Excitement came back with song then game, they are much more fun and
much more effective!
Overall they were really excellent, and better than 90% of the beginner
teachers I work with. Excellent teaching skills in general. Just need to
get rid of the rote learning completely and spend more time on songs and
games (this will impress the parents more as well). Kids don't need to
remember all the words in one lesson, that's what reviews in future lessons
are for.
We asked why they drilled so much and they said it was because if the kids
went home and couldn't remember all the words they had done that day the
parents complained. Parent education would be the best thing here, but
if they have to do it, then just use the songs to drill the words, it's
much quicker and much more fun! Then use the games in follow up lessons
to make sure the kids can really use the English.
Wow, that was a lot, but it was so, so good to see the kids doing so well.
They really were amazing and in only a few weeks of teaching. Just imagine
what they are going to be like in a couple of months' time! Yesterday's
April fool may have been about Japan making English an official language,
but in China they won't need to as the kids will all be fluent if they
go on at this rate!
Then it was out for the hottest Chinese food you could imagine!
April 1st 2009 - Japan to make English Official Language
Wow, this is very exciting news in today's Japanese press:
"After months of speculation, Tokyo this morning declared that English
would indeed become an official language of Japan. Prime Minister Taro
Aso gave reasons for the decision in a press conference late last night
"Due to the economic competition from India and China, as well as
the US and European Union, and to protect and promote a strong national
Japanese identity we have decided that we should proceed with this decision."
The news would mean law courts, official documents and examinations would
all be made available in English. Every Japanese citizen would also be
required to have a functional communicative ability in the language. Although
surprisingly this stipulation won't apply to foreign nationals resident
in Japan. Due to the Japanese language merely enjoying a de facto status
in Japanese law, English would in fact become the only official language
in the land.
Given Japan's past in English education, critics have been quick to dismiss
the new plan, even with huge pay rises promised for Japan's 250,000 foreign
and domestic English language teachers. Early this morning an unnamed government
official exclaimed that "this is something that we will achieve. Given
innovative new teaching methods such as Phonics and Genki English we believe
we can indeed have every citizen in Japan fluent in English in one year's
time, by April 1st 2010."
Take any problem in the World and it's invariably caused (or made worse)
by a lack of education. Too many kids hate school because it's too boring.
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Over on the 
Reason to learn English No. 157: To be a rock star!
Gaz has been causing quite a storm over on the 
If I had just done an English workshop they would have sat there and resented
it. 
To follow on from the raving success of Baby Monkey's 
a) Repetitive 
So a very big xie xie to everyone who attended a workshop, organised a
workshop, came to my class, met me in Starbucks, invited me to the 
I want to go to China.. 
or
I usually wait till the physical CD is back from the factory before launching
a new CD, but seeing as the 
Although many of them were friends, there was a certain lack of teamship
about them. I asked them if they'd done the "fall over and let your
partner catch you exercise" before. They'd never even heard of it.
So naturally I got them to do it! 
Wow, this is very exciting news in today's Japanese press: