Smith's School of English Soap Box

Welcome to New Students

Derek — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:14:49 +0000

I always have a great time teaching English conversation (英会話) in Japan to my wonderful students at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話塚口校). Teaching English in Japan may be my job but it often doesn’t feel that way because I’m having so much fun! (^.^) It is always great having people come in for a [...]

Communicative Confidence in English 英会話 in Japan

Derek — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:53:27 +0000

Teaching English conversation (英会話) in Japan to wonderful students at Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話塚口校) is lots of fun. I love helping students work towards achieving a level of English where they can communicate in English with confidence. English is so useful and important in today’s world. Whether it’s for work, travel, communication [...]

English Teaching Cicadas

moderator — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:32:45 +0000

What do Cicadas have to do with English teaching in Japan? Not much at all really but they do mean summer is here. Summer means many different things to many different people. To me at the top of the list summer means cicadas. Did you know that there are about 2,500 known species in the world. [...]

David Suzuki, Canadian Icon

Edward — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:46:31 +0000

I grew up watching a program called The Nature of Things, hosted by Japanese-Canadian eco-icon David Suzuki. As my hometown is near Suzuki’s hometown of Vancouver, BC, he was also considered a local and my family and friends were all fans of his. The Nature of Things was a program dedicated to educating the world [...]

Enjoying 英会話 English Teaching as a Life

moderator — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:58:20 +0000

I have been teaching English in Japan now for many, many years. In fact I taught my first lesson with Smith’s School of English back in 1996. In those days I was teaching in Higashi Osaka and these days I teach in Smith’s School of English Kyobashi and Fukushima. After all this time some people [...]

A Great Day

Derek — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:52:15 +0000

Today I handed out flyers for my English conversation school (英会話スクール), Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話　塚口校) in Tsukaguchi (塚口), Amagasaki (尼崎市), Hyogo Perfecture (兵庫県), Japan. Many people had “good morning” said to them! I hope that I brightened their day! (^.^) Later on in the day, after my last lesson teaching English conversation [...]

McCartney or Lennon?

Al Bartle — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:54 +0000

At Smith’s School English in Okamoto スミス英会話岡本校, in two weeks we will be exploring the question of which Beatle was the most prolific and best songwriter, McCartney or Lennon. There was a great post on Yahoo about it. ‘Was it John or Paul?’ As you may remember Paul won the third annual Gershwin award a [...]

What I Strive to Do in Tsukaguchi

Derek — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:34:30 +0000

At my English conversation school, Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話　塚口校), located in Tsukaguchi, Amagasaki (尼崎市), Hyogo Prefecture (兵庫県), I have such wonderful students. I am always happy to see them and they always seem happy to see me. I really have a great time teaching them English conversation (英会話). Outside of classroom time in Tsukaguchi, [...]

スミス英会話高円寺Two Major Tokyo Festivals

Ken — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:36:20 +0000

Today and tomorrow two of Tokyo’s most popular festivals will take place -the Samba festival in Asakusa and the Awa Odori festival here in Koenji -the second largest street dancing festival in Japan. Koenji yesterday had a feeling of expectation about it as the locals (me included) wandered around watching the final preparations being made [...]

Welcome to Otsu, 35 Degrees North

Edward — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:33:51 +0000

At the far end of the platform at JR Otsu station is a large globe, and I always wondered what it was. So the other day I walked out to the end of the platform and had a look. Apparently (this was unknown to me beforehand), Otsu is sitting right on the 35th parallel! The [...]