2006 November 8 Wednesday.
No classes until 16:00 today, so I used my extra time to fine tune my new creation, Snow Radio. It is not a difficult project to execute, but it does take time. As I make more audio files of these blogs, and put them into a special user interface page, I am beginning to develop a more efficient way of producing these results. Learning by doing. Hands on. It's the best method, and the least expensive to pursue. DIY. Do it yourself. At 16:00, the two sisters who live in Tomisawa came for their English lesson. The older sister will be starting junior high school in April of next year, and she will quit my classroom so that she can begin attending a JUKU 塾 also known as a CRAM SCHOOL. These crams schools are something that many kids in Japan attend, in hopes of improving their test scores, and increasing their chances of getting into the high school and/or the university of their choice. In other words, these cram schools are basically in the business of teaching these kids how to take high school and university entrance exams. A very important function in this vertical society. My classroom has a completely different purpose. My classroom trains kids, and adults as well, how to communicate with a wide variety of people, using spoken English as a tool for communication. That's all. Of course the kids also get lessons in reading and writing as well, but I never give long-winded explanations of grammar rules. I teach them grammar intuitively by having them memorize pattern sentences, and then substituting vocabulary items in and out of the sentence patterns, so that they will begin to THINK IN ENGLISH while they are speaking it. My method works well. I have many successful graduates from this classroom. The lesson that started at 19:00 today, had the two young ladies that attend every week, and also a young gentleman who just started taking lesson at my classroom only about 2 weeks ago. One of the two ladies has lived in London England for two and one half years, and the other young lady majored in English Literature during her two years at a junior college in Sapporo. As a result, the two ladies have a very good grasp on spoken English and can use it freely. The gentleman on the other hand, has far less experience with the English language, and was struggling during the entire class, trying to understand our conversations, and reading the lines from the textbook we have been using. He did his best, but like he said himself 変な汗 "I feel a strange sweat." He was under a lot of stress during our 50 minute lesson. I understand how you feel, but please Don't give up! Maybe a different group or even a private lesson is just the ticket for you. I can train you in how to speak useful English, but we need to work at your current level, and move ahead, step by step. Let's keep on trying, together.
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