I’m not starting a new term as we teach straight through the summer (albeit to skeletons of our classes and sometimes the kids never come back from summer it seems), but I would highly recommend using this in your classes! I use it as a supplement (fun songs, more vocabulary not included in the curriculum we have, different ways of reviewing and teaching material).

Six out of my seven classes started using it about a year and a half after I started teaching them, so it is kind of a jolt for them. They don’t know how to react to it. Too foreign a concept for them. Stand up, dance, sing out.

The real magic is in my NEWEST class of 3-6 year olds. From day one we have used the GENKI along with the normal curriculum. First lesson “Genki Warmup” and “What’s Your Name”. One kid, Eddy, went home singing the song over and over.

They all sing out at the top of their lungs. “Superhero” is a huge hit. And we just started doing “Days of the Week” last class, and they picked it up so quickly. My other six classes struggle with interest and ability with the songs. These little kids who know no other way for my class just really get into it…though I have to back them up from the TV as they all want to stick their eyes right on the screen it seems.

The result is that they can ask each other in turn all the questions we have learned (something my other classes really can’t do). They can ask questions and CHANGE the questions. One question in our curriculum is “How many fingers are there?” and we are supposed to hold up 1 – 5 fingers. Just a SIMPLE question to get the concept of How Many and numbers 1-5… Well I did the “How many Pens do you have?” lesson and now we ask each other various questions using how many. “How many fingers do you have?” “How many girls are there?” “How many blue chairs are there?”

Please note, if you are new to GENKI, it is designed to teach spoken vernacular English, so it is not always 100% ENGLISH GRAMMAR-NAZI correct. For example, in the DRINKS lesson the focus of the lesson is the vocabulary of different drinks. In the song, Richard says “I’d like A lemonade, A coffee, A water, etc., when those are TECHNICALLY NON-COUNTABLE NOUNS and thus you are really saying “I’d like A GLASS of Lemonade, etc”, but in spoken English people actually say they’d like A lemonade, A water, with the unspoken assumption of the GLASS, BOTTLE, CUP, BOWL, etc.

So note the difference. This is for vocabulary and learning to SPEAK English. YOU as the teacher will have to TEACH proper grammar if that is a major point of emphasis in your class. I just used “What would you like for Breakfast?” and the “Foods” songs to expand and teach vocabulary for our Countable vs. Non-Countable Nouns lessons. These songs offer no problems of spoken vs. perfect grammar sentences since they ALWAYS use SOME. I’d like SOME apples, I’d like SOME (uncountable) cheese.

Maybe that is an idea for a song/lesson for CD 14, Countables vs. Non-Countables, Measure Words, etc.

Okay, enough rambling.

I think more than 70% of my students enjoy the Genki Software (still trying to get something put together to get them and their parents to buy the software on USB sticks). Some of the kids come in early before their class to play with my computer and learn random songs, play the games.

The biggest random song hit right now for one of my classes is the “Gingerbread Man” song. They are fascinated by the Halloween and Christmas songs, though I’m trying to keep most of them under wraps until that time of year.

So get some GENKI in your classes!