Although I’ve done lots of speeches and workshops sponsored by the Ministry of Education (MEXT) before, this was the first time that they had directly contacted me to help out. I also haven’t chatted to any of their new people this year yet and it was good over lunch, and in their speeches that preceded…

As the Ministry asked me to go to Tokyo tomorrow, it meant today I had a 3 hour workshop in the morning in one city then another 3 hour workshop in the next city with only an hour in between. But the teachers were all really cool and after doing 2 hour workshops last week…

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….

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…

OK, so the aim of today’s workshop was to get the teachers able to teach on their own. The plan was quite simple: 1) Put them in groups of three or four. 2) Give them a printed copy of the curriculum in Japanese and 45 minute lesson plan and let them choose a theme to…