“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!

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!

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 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…

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!