Category Archives: Japanese

August Podcast

In my August podcast, I talk about the cafe in the park near to my old workplace. Luckily, I live nearby so can still visit occasionally. The podcast also has a listening comprehension quiz if you want to practise your English listening skills

Learning a Different Language-Part 2

I found when learning other languages, I started to learn more about my own language. Certainly when you start to train for teaching a language, the constant analysing opens your eyes about the structure of your own. In my school English language lessons, we learnt about the main parts of speech such as nouns, verbs,Continue reading “Learning a Different Language-Part 2”

Learning a Different Language-Part 1

I first started learning a different language in the last year of primary school. I was quite excited by the promise of these lessons whereas some of my classmates probably groaned. I took to French quite quickly and became very good at recognising the vocabulary and being able to translate from one language to another.Continue reading “Learning a Different Language-Part 1”

Twenty Years in EFL-Part 5

In August 2015, I secured a part-time teaching job in a Japanese school in a local Jacobean manor house. For years I’d seen Japanese students on my way home and wondered where they studied as it would be good to work nearer home. After nearly forty years of commuting by train in and out ofContinue reading “Twenty Years in EFL-Part 5”

Use of Puppets

When demonstrating the ‘Silent Way’ to my Japanese TEYL trainees, I often use a glove puppet to make the session a little more interesting. I’m not that fond of this methodology and think it’s better off as part of a lesson rather than a base for a whole lesson. However, it does give me theContinue reading “Use of Puppets”

Kakizome

One of my main teaching aims is to train Japanese students to teach English to young Japanese learners. At the start of January young Japanese learners have calligraphy lessons for practising kanji characters. The adults in my school also participated. It was called ‘Kakizome’. I’m left-handed, so I found it quite difficult sometimes. I stillContinue reading “Kakizome”