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 Printable Lesson Plans Genki English CDs:  Volume 1  Volume 2  Volume 3  Volume 4  Volume 5  Volume 6   New CD Vol. 7   MP3 Songs |
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!
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Previous Entries are here
As you know, confidence is something I’m very big on. Here’s the English version of my “Kodomo Eigo” article this month.
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“Good” is a good word. When you hear it you feel good. You think to yourself “that was good”. It’s not bad. It’s good. But it could be better…
For example the movie might be called “Spiderman”, but the comic book is called “The Amazing Spiderman”. Superman isn’t just a hero, he’s a super hero. The Incredibles aren’t just good, they are incredible. And last year the Silver Surfer didn’t just fight any four astronauts, he fought “The Fantastic Four”. And because your students have you as their teacher, I’m sure they’re not just good. I bet they are excellent. Or brilliant. So let them know. Instead of just writing “good!” on their homework, let them know that they, just like you, are really…
Normal English: Good! -> Genki English: Amazing! Super! Incredible and Fantastic!
In yesterday’s newsletter I introduced the new Genki English “One Left” Card Games. Just like the famous game Uno, they are based on the traditional Crazy Eights game and work great in mid to high level classes.
Here’s another one for you today, for teaching weather and countries. Simply teach the two lessons as usual then use the card game in the next class to show the kids how to link sentences together.
I wasn’t too sure which way to write the sentence on these cards e.g. “In Canada, it’s sunny” or “It’s sunny in Canada”, but went for the former as it seems to be more popular in textbooks. But if enough of you want it the other way I could do another version, just let me know!
I’ve also got a couple of other versions coming soon, and as usual any requests are much appreciated!
Enjoy!
With Grand Theft Auto IV coming out last week lots of people are thinking about buying a Playstation 3 (PS3) or Xbox. I’d definitely say “Buy the PS3!”. It is more money than the Xbox, but it has built in WiFi and a web browser. That means that not only are mutliplayer games free, you can also watch YouTube videos on it and you can play all the free online games that are around, including all the Genki English Online Games and picture books. Genki English on your Playstation, that’s something the Xbox can’t manage!
However the Xbox does have one advantage, it’s the perfect illustration for the letter “X” when you are teaching the alphabet.
(P.S. full disclosure, I bought an Xbox on Friday and now wish I had bought the PS3!)
The British Council have set up a new competition for Japanese schools doing exchanges with schools in the UK. The prize? A trip to the school you are doing the exchange with! Looks very interesting, details on the British Council site. Or have a look through some GE projects you could do.
There’s no doubt that speakers of English in Sweden are much, much more advanced than in many other countries. The question is why?
The answer most people give is TV. It does seem that unlike the FIGS countries (France, Italy, Germany and Spain) and larger Asian countries that there is less localisation of programmes and also, admittedly just from a quick glance, less banal quiz show type programmes. From the brief time I flicked on the TV, all I saw were subtitled English programmes and movies. And of course if you are a kid you are simply going to learn the English rather then read the subtitles.
This is similar to the reasoning behind “extensive reading” in Asian countries, just give the kids lots and lots of input. Although from my experience TV seems much more effective.
Travel and study abroad are also often mentioned. Especially as Swedes tend to mix more easily and tend not to cling together to fellow nationals as many other peoples do.
Plus there are things like the similarity of the alphabet and common words in both languages. But this is also the case for the FIGS countries where the level of English is generally much lower.
I also think there are a couple of other things in play.
One is how even the advanced speakers in Sweden are always learning. We all know that fear of making mistakes is a big problem with many adult learners. But here people would just guess a word then ask if it was right. It usually was of course, but they weren’t afraid to just try and risk getting it wrong. Every time they do make a mistake they do learn a new word. Even the most fluent speakers were doing this all the time.
Plus of course there’s also the fact that just about everything is advanced in Sweden. Design, social thinking, parenting, everything points to it being one of the most advanced societies on Earth so speaking English is maybe just a small part of that!
One of the main things I feel is the self fulfilling prophesy that as so many people do speak English, everyone just sees it as something normal.
Before Roger Bannister ran the 4 minute mile everyone thought it was impossible, immediately afterwards it seemed everyone was doing it. The same applies here, the kids learn English because it’s just something you do. Whereas in many other countries, especially Asia, non-English speaking experts fill the screens with tales of how impossible English is to learn. Here one Grandfather told me “yeah, kids just listen a lot then one day start speaking”.
President Kennedy got America to the moon not because they knew how to do it, but because they didn’t know it couldn’t be done.
Any thoughts? Please share them on the forum…
So that was my first visit to Sweden. Well, unless you count the time I was invited by a Swedish Princess to the Swedish island on the Switzerland/German border. But that’s a different story…
For most of today I was actually held up in my hotel trying to catch up on my emails, they don’t half build up after a week.
Now I’m just about to catch my $10 flight to Liverpool, which I guess sounds just as cool as Stockholm and don’t you just love the prices of Europe’s cheap air tickets. Then I’m heading off to see my Mum and hopefully getting my vaccinations and visa for India’s workshops next month!
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