I must say that the demonstration schools these days are getting so much better. Even a few months ago they tended to leave me under impressed to say the least, but all the schools this week have been getting some great results with their kids. Today’s school was a huge open day with all 18…

A train at a very silly hour ( any train time that begins with 6 something can’t be normal), and finishing with a 30 minute taxi drive through the mountains ( don’t even imagine how much it cost!) , I eventually arrived at today’s school, right in the south of Oita prefecture. The school here…

Today was a big school today. One of the schools that I did a workshop for in Summer was having their parents’ day ( where parents come to watch lessons), and the theme was that all the teachers would be teaching English. Then afterwards I had a presentation for the parents, because their support is…

One thing that constantly crops up with Japanese teachers making their own lessons is the confusion over “I like apple/apples” etc. Last week this came up when a teacher was asking about a demo class. She came up with a great idea of using real Christmas ornaments of things like a bell, a snowman, a…

In workshops and things, one of the things I always mention is that Genki English is used in over 100 countries. That sounds rather good in the beginning, but it’s not until days like today that it really sinks in. In between sorting out workshops in Thailand, and following up on ones in Korea, I’ve…