This certainly has been an exciting 12 months. In 2007 I was getting a little frustrated with government school bureaucracy and “boring is fine” status quo. But this year was totally different, I added more countries to the list, lived in Italy & produced a lot of new materials. The best thing for me has been getting involved with the schools for low income families in Asia, and hopefully next year, Africa. That really showed me how Genki English can work so well, and for all kids whatever their income level. That has really enthused me this year, and made all the hard work and late nights worthwhile. Anyway have a read of everything else that made up 2008…

January – Portugal

This month was mainly computer work so I hired an apartment on the Algarve, (the advantage of still being homeless!) and learned a bit of Portuguese.

The Algarve was nice. Not too hot, but sunny and really, really cheap. Materials wise you had the Islands Games worksheets, photo real flashcards, spaghetti worksheets, phonics posters & hiragana worksheets. There was also the new year Genki Diet.

February – Portugal, UK

The website talked, we had some dice, the first Baby Sign Language Song, how to teach … I want which lead into how to teach I want to be a … After the success of the songs on YouTube I uploaded some Genki English song videos. The new “Team Taught Pizza” came out and I uploaded video of the first 10 minutes of my demo class. This proved to be a wise move as a lot of people saw it and got in touch, including the lady in charge of the India and China projects.

March – UK, Italy
I was in the UK recording songs and I also went along to the Primary Languages Show and I mentioned about the free printable village and 100s of free menus. We also had some Junior High Worksheets and I brought out my Teacher Training DVD in Japanese.

Then it was off to Italy and a tip on speaking Italian. I had some things about writing stories and the low dollar meant the CD sets were incredibly cheap (they still are!) Flossy sent in some great games along with her review of CD7 And ALC press also extended my monthly magazine column for another month. We had the Alphabet in 20 words, the Indiana Jones game (shame the movie wasn’t so good!) & 20 tips to get motivated and genki + some nice words & the weather game.

April – Italy, Sweden

We had really famous celebrities singing the Genki English Greatest Hits and ideas for teaching Whose is it?. I also had a bit about why songs are much better than chants and the Japanese government released their new curriculum with the horrible Eigo Note (although at the time I seemed to give it the benefit of the doubt!) There was first lesson advice, subjects and days of the week and I made some new “how to ” videos and took a day off in Pompei. There were more free phonics worksheets.

Then the exciting parts all started with my trip from Rome to presentations in Swedish Lapland. There I had the busiest day of the whole year and got a day off in Stockholm. Why is Sweden so good at English? I asked.

May –

May I made the mistake of buying an Xbox 360 to play Grand Theft Auto, although it was only because I was waiting for my India visa to come through. Honest ; ) I did get CD8 finished, got some more card games for you and another Indiana Jones game I also popped along to the Big Sheep, Little Cows farm for some lessons on kid control and I explained why everything should be super! incredible! fantastic!

June – India, Japan

My visa came and it was off to do workshops in private schools for the poor in India with posts about Indian Schools, tough days and much better days and being honoured to have the chance to help teachers of some of the poorest kids you could imagine.

In complete contrast I then had an afternoon in Dubai whilst changing planes for a Ministry of Education sponsored series of workshops in Osaka, Japan. I also brought out the Gestures & Actions DVD whilst I was in Japan (for just a week!)

July – Summer Tour

July started out in the UK (it was my mum’s big birthday). The Genki CDs were in High Definition, the Mary had a Little Lamb became far too popular on YouTube and I was asked about doing a PhD.

Then it was the start of the now traditional Japan Summer Tour. I stared out in Seigakuin University with a ship called Japan and got invited by one of the big American cable companies to have a chat. We had some nice ideas from a prof in Hokkaido and I was living in Tokyo for a week. Then it was off to Mie (with Techno Toilets!) and a week’s workshops in Okinawa. CD Volume 8 came out, yeah, which is what I’d been recording in Portugal and Italy. I also introduced the Do flowers fly? video which made the teachers cry.

August – Japan

Gorgeous blue skies in Okinawa, then a trainer from Hong Kong came out to join the Japanese teachers in Ehime and a bit of sight seeing. Then Kagawa, Tokushima (with the famous dance) and Akita, where I travelled on on the Obon holidays, before a demo class for 600 kids and a workshop in Hokkaido. Where they also had a brilliant touch screen TV. Then back to Kagawa for another huge workshop. Then to Okayama, which was a total disaster then was really good.

September

No travelling, just computer work with new mini cards and your requests and my top 3 lessons and anyone can learn a language with the late great Michel Thomas. And you could now comment on the blog! I did a video FAQ series of all the questions that had come up in the Summer tour and I introduce the song that all kids in Japan were singing, the Ponyo Song. Todd wrote about the power of try again, we had Mr Rabbit Magic and Chinglish. We had games for grannies, I put my whole beginners workshop series on YouTube for free and did a video on how to get a job in Japan. There were more crosswords, dominoes and Wordsearches + days of the week, teaching tips for numbers, and the teaching 2& 3 year olds got a troll and some very kind words of support. I also did a Japanese version of the How much? song, David Nunan had some things to say about the critical period, Tim Ferris talked about why language classes don’t work and I introduced the pirate song.

October – India, Cambodia

Before I set off on the road again, and thanks to a suggestion by Rosebud and an inspirational trip to universal studios, Halloween was the order of the month with the Apple Bobbing song, Halloween Song video & Crosswords, and the new Trick or Treat song, plus the Phonics and Funk Vocab Builder and some ideas from Eric Kane.

Then I was back in India, checking how the teachers were going on with an interesting evening out, and some amazing teachers in India, poverty to success, why rote learning is appalling, why people are the key and the man with no feet.

Then I was off to Cambodia with a day off in Angkor Wat, and day 1 & 2 of workshops and using the XO $100 laptop.

We also had 1 billion students use Genki English.

November – Bangkok, France, China

Aquick trip to Bangkok, where the British Council had my video on their wall before the shock of just how bad things in Japan can be! Power Teaching proved to be popular, as did the dominoes, the 2 new songs and Fred Jones.

Then I was invited to the University of Newcastle in the UK to give a lecture on Education Policy and Entrepreneurship for Development. I was eating “Lapin” in France, before jetting off to more workshops in Beijing. Where we had teaching in China, day 1 highs, day 2 blues day 3 highs

December – China, England

We started December on the Great Wall of China (and birthday eggs) then went into Christmas overdrive with the Gingerbread House and Snowman songs, what colour is Christmas, where are the Christmas presents and finally our Christmas Card to You.

Wow, that has been a long year! But long in a good way that so much got done. Seeing the teachers in India, China and Cambodia really helped spur me on. It was so good to see the eyes light up on such grateful teachers. Finding out that not only is being an entrepreneur a practical way to do this, that it might be the best way of all was a real eye opener for me.

And I’m so impressed with the community of teachers here online and in the forum. You’ve really made logging in in the morning a pleasure for me. Sometimes I’ve put ideas up here that I never would have thought would work, but with your input & feedback I think we’ve made some really special things this year. The teachers in all the workshops certainly thought so. I’ve no idea what 2009 will bring, I certainly had no idea 2008 would be like that, so I thank you all and look forward to working with you all in the coming year! Let’s see what it brings…