 Photo by chez-sugi |
Update: Thanks to everyone who came to the workshop! To see where I’ll be next, click here.
Today we had a CD9 Launch Party and CD signing at the huge Maruzen bookstore in Tokyo – right between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace!
I used to do these presentations slap bang in the middle of the store and we had a massive vibe as everyone was crowding round and joining in. We also sold a ton of CDs this way. Unfortunately for an hour none of the surrounding departments sold anything!
Luckily today we got a room in the store itself although I also got strict instructions to not be not too loud. The rule for sales presentations, or lessons even, is “the louder the music, the more CDs people buy” or in your case “the louder the music, the more English the kids walk away with!”
But anyway, we had a good bunch of people, we tried our best and everyone who didn’t already have a Teachers’ Set (or rather the Japanese Superpack) ended buying one, so that was cool.
Success Education
One of the frameworks I used today was focussing on Genki English as a “Success Education” product rather than just an English programme. That’s really the core of things, but making it explicit seemed to strike a chord. Mind you this was only after I’d properly introduced all the other Genki English projects, before that they were just treating it like your average English course!
Why the same?
But this is the reason that, for example, things like How are you? has 4 words which are essentially the same, it’s to get the kids walking out saying “I’m happy, I’m great, I’m good, I’m OK!” and getting a very positive vibe for next time. Or the same with the weather song, whereas most courses focus on each weather equally which means you end up with more “bad” weather terms and walk out of class with images of rain and snow, with Genki English there are purposely 4 similar “positive” words at the end so you end up going home with an image of English as “It’s sunny, It’s fine, It’s hot, It’s a beautiful day!” It makes such a big difference when you have this positive mental image.
Mind you I will admit I wrote that song considering “hot” as a positive weather word, which isn’t always the case in some countries!
Anyway, I hope to see you at the next one in Okayama on June 13th!
Hi Richard,
Congratulations! You really have the guts to control your own environment. That’s the spirit of foreigners resisding here in Japan. Count me one. I hope to inherit your bussiness power of bolness.
Welcome and success to the ” LAnd Of Sunshine.