Craig wrote in a little while back ….
I finished my class for the summer last week and had a parent approach me and say that her daughter had never had so much fun learning English.Β She talked with the other parents, and every one of my 13 kids wanted to know if I taught private so they could all enroll in my school.
This Genki English thing…a modern day miracle for kids English instruction!
So I wrote back to him and asked him if I could quote him on this.
This was his reply!
You bet you can! π You can also mention about how my kids come to class really early and don’t want to go home when mom comes to pick them up because they are having so much fun with Genki English. The parents are noticing that there’s something different about my classes from the single English school in town. The kids are having so much fun learning English!
πMy lesson prep is so much faster and easier now that I have GE. The lessons almost teach themselves…haha
You know, somedays making all this stuff is really hard.
But it’s certainly messages like this that make all the hard work worthwhile and keep me going!
Thanks Craig! And well done!
Be genki,
Richard
I think you have done a really awesome job with Genki English. It has always been one of my go-to-sites for teaching ideas when I couldn’t think of ideas. I remember using your site way back when you could even download all of the flash cards for free!!! And best of all, I think the Genki English style works great for my lessons!!!
Over the years I have bought, and tried, and experimented with all sorts of different methods of teaching English. I have signed up with various sites some of which are good. But very honestly, I have to say that Genki English takes top marks. I work with kids ages 2 to 7. That’s an age group that needs much energy and constant stimulation. Genki English gives it all: structure and form, vocab and grammaire (without the boring and unnecessary explicit ‘rule teaching’), interaction. It allows the kids to be in movement or to concentrate on a single activity such as the fun games. My kids LOVE it when Mr Monkey get the banana from the tree! I run an English immersion workshop and the other teachers who didn’t know GE at all can’t stop singing the songs. Parents continually ask me “what’s the song with the crocodile?” That’s the gingerbread man. “She/he sings that song all the time!” They say. I have fun singing the songs outside of GE. I’ll take the kids to the tap to wash up before lunch for example and I’ll start singing ‘I’m a superhero’ They immediately join in. So I add other words “I can wash…I can rinse…I can wipe…etc”. To end this loooong note: my kids have learnt the alphabet through song. We also did the phonics song from another site and flashcards that I made. Amazingly, much quicker than I thought, some of them have started reading short words phonetically. Then, wonders, yesterday I discovered that Genki had a whole phonics section that I could download! It’s so easy and the sequencing is so well planned. I’m excited. Can’t wait for next workshop day so I can try this out!
Thanks Richard for the hard work you have put into Genki English. I don’t think any of the teachers who have purchased this pack regret it!
*Note: the older kids 5 to 7 who have started reading and writing at school in their native language have a special session called “Step into Reading” in addition to all our other activities in the general program (sports, cooking, science, theatre etc). Younger kids do the general programme only. Genki English is excellent for introducing a new theme. For example, during the month of October we worked with fruits. I used GE to introduce the lesson (lesson + song + discussion ‘do you like…?’ + a drawing and guessing game, a sort of fruit pictionary). The following week I had each child bring a fruit and in their different groups the kids spoke about the fruits they had brought: colour, smell, touch etc. Then we cut them up and made a giant fruit salad that we had for a morning snack. This week each group of kids made an apple crumble. And next week we’ll be doing art and craft using fruits. GE is an excellent opening and/or ending to revise everything!
Well Richard, your method is really great and it work! Children love it and parents adores as their children are so motivated to come to the English lesson. Please keep on going with your terrific ideas and we keep on supporting you,
Carla
I started my own English school in October and places are quickly filling because the kids are playing your games in the school playground….in English! Rock, paper, scissors and the how are you monster game! Real proof that the kids love it. I agree with all the other comments, GE is great! Keep up the hard work.
Hi Katherine, great to hear you opened up your own school! I hope everything goes well with your school! Good luck!
Thanks Stephen!
Hi Richard,
Great to hear that. Keep on the good work. God bless you.
Richard, THANK YOU for all of your hard work! I have often listened to your funny voices on the DVD while I am teaching and have wondered what it was like for you to make the lessons and sing the songs. The kids do absolutely love them, and I do, too! I love to act like a kid myself! My first year teaching English was in Korea where we followed their text books. Booring! My next year teaching was at a very small private school in Japan. The school was unique in that it went from pre-school through high school and yet there were only 44 kids, all at disparate levels. And I was the only English teacher. NIGHTMARE!! Plus, I had to teach after school classes. That was when I discovered your phonics and I taught several kids how to read. It was so rewarding! The next year I started teaching at a Japanese public elementary school…without any materials for grades 1-4. So I bought Genki English. It has made my life so easy! The first time I had to teach in front of other English teachers, I had the kids do Super Hero. The other teachers were so impressed that I was able to get 5th graders so interested and excited! HA! I did nothing! Richard did it all! This is my second year here, and it is even better because I know what works best. In the future I hope to teach somewhere in South America…and of course I will use my Genki English. So thank you, thank you, thank you, a million times thank you. I wish you could hear my kids laugh EVERY time when they watch Doctor Doctor! And I wish you could hear them scream when they watch some of the Halloween lessons, or when they see cockroach pizza! Or how they try so hard not to talk during the count down of Eat, Drink, Dance! It has made my teaching such a joy and all the kids can say is “Fun!” Again, thank you. π
Thank you Kathryn, you just made my day today! π
Here’s a quote from the e-mail I sent a while ago, about the You Tube teacher-training session and how it helped me with the voluntary teaching I was doing once a week:
‘When I saw the words and actions game (play tennis/jump to 10 etc.) I was inspired to try it out and Iβve used that game every week. The response was great! The children keep saying they want English lessons more often (I thought β blimey! I never had that response with my other students! ).’
They also really loved singing and doing actions to ‘How are you?’ and ‘Eat, Drink, Dance.’ Their pronunciation didn’t sound ‘foreign’ at all as they had learnt the words before seeing them written down. They also learnt the words very quickly!
Not only were the parents pleased, but the teacher was glad for my support as it made her job easier!
Thank you Richard for using your talents to make our job easier as well as improving the standard of English teaching in general.
How to deal with parents who say they want a lot of homework, no games, no music, and just reading? So many parents I keep meeting seem like they have no idea what they want and are moving targets.
Hi Jacob,
Two choices here:
1) Bend to the parents’ will and give them whatever they say they want
2.) Find the parents who love and want what you teach.
Don’t make spaghetti if you want to sell ice cream:
https://www.facebook.com/GenkiEnglish/videos/vl.140886196488428/1556953517709171/?type=1
Hi Richard! THANK YOU for Genki English. I am teaching adults at a training centre where I have to follow an awful curriculum, but at least I can make it come alive with the GE songs, as I fit these into the “boring” stuff we have to cover. They love it and tell me the 2 hour lesson flies by! Thank you for the phonics worksheets, the songs and flashcards – all tremendously useful! Buying your program has been one of the best purchases I have ever made! Thanks so much for helping us to have fun!