This is the fourth ( or it could actually be the fifth??) time I’ve presented at the Okayama city Summer workshops. Through all these years there have been hundreds and hundreds of teachers attending, but even today for the vast majority of the teachers it was the first time they had seen Genki English live….

There’s a strange sense of deja vu about my Summer schedule this year, it’s almost the same as last year! Today was a workshop for the Kagawa prefectural government. I was told to expect about half new people and half people from last year, but as it happens there were loads and loads of new…

I should take a few days off on the beach more often. After the obon holidays I got a load of work done today, and I’m just about caught up on my emails ( but not quite all of them yet!)

They say an overnight success takes ten years to make, and it certainly applies here. I’ve been working with schools here for over 6 years, and it’s only just now that the people in charge are beginning to recognise just what Genki English is. The city has been designated by the government as a city…

It was a second time school again today and although we only had 3 hours I figured we’d try the “getting the teachers to teach” workshop. OK, so that was a mistake! First up half of the teachers were new so didn’t have all the Genki English basics, and the other half of the teachers…

There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post today entitled “Schools Try Elementary Approach To Teaching Foreign Languages” ( You’ll need to register to see the article, but it’s free and easy). One of the first paragraphs is: Educators say that the youngest brains have the greatest aptitude for absorbing language and that someone who…