芝浦工業大学英語総合1B - final presentations about love & marriage in other countries & cultures for 1/15 (Part 2)

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students (again!),

How are you? I decided to make one more quick post for all of you today before we go on our holiday. Look at the picture above. It has the schedule of what we have left for this semester, both today and after the holiday.

REMEMBER: Shibaura starts again on January 7th, so you will have to make your posters with your group members outside of class and have them ready for the final poster presentations on January 15th!

Now look at this next picture about what kind of paper you should get and how big it should be:

Now look at this next picture. It shows how you should lay out your poster:

You should have the title in large dark letters on the top, with the names of your group members below it, in smaller letters.

Click to see the Part 1 post I showed you this morning here.

ANOTHER NOTE: As I said before, I will repost the Part 1 post on January 7th, plus upload a new post then. I will also repost this post on January 7th. I will give you as much support as you need outside of class!

Check this blogpost as many times as you want or need!

I will make no new blogposts between today and January 7th, so have a happy holiday and a great New Year!

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B - final presentations about love & marriage in other countries & cultures for 1/15 (Part 1)

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students,

Image "Presentation Word" courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know you are looking forward to a holiday break from Shibaura and I do not expect you to work on these projects over the holiday. But here I will post for you some more guidelines about presenting, plus some important information for you. This is important - so please read the whole post. 

Take a look at this post as many times as you want or need, whenever you have a chance, over the holiday. I'll remind you of all this when Shibaura starts again in the first week of January. 

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT CLASSES IN JANUARY
Some of you showed me that in January, there would be Tuesday classes on January 5th (Saturday). I checked on that - there will be no Eigo Sogo classes on January 5th, or even on January 8th (Tuesday). January 8th is a day off at Shibaura. So - the next time we will meet will be the final poster presentations day - January 15th. 

Now let me show you some more guidelines. 

SOME MORE GUIDELINES
Here are some board notes from another class I taught at a college this year. In that class, the students also did final poster presentations. These notes are some important points for you to remember.

1. Look at the picture above. Putting key words and phrases on index or note cards, in order, can help you to remember the most important points of your talk. 

2. Now look at this picture above. It's not only important to know words, but how to say them. 

2. It's not only important to know words, but how to say them. 

*You also have to fact-check information. You don't have to know everything - but you have to show responsibility for what you know, and what you don't know! 

3. In this picture above, this last point is really important. It's hard to research in Japanese and then present in English - and research in English and present in Japanese. So - research in the language you will present in. For this class, since you'll present in English...which language do you think it would be better to research in?

*Now - refresh yourselves about some more important points on preparing presentations at this link from the blogpost on December 11th.

ONE MORE IMPORTANT NOTE AND REMINDER!
When Shibaura starts again on January 7th (Monday), we will not have Eigo Sogo classes on January 8th (Tuesday). So - all of you in your groups must be self-directed and finish these posters on your own. You must have them finished, and be ready to present, on January 15th!

I will re-post today's blogpost, plus make a new post with some more information, when Shibaura starts back in the first week of January. Please check for both posts and take a look at them as many times as you want or need. 

Have a great holiday and a refreshing break from Shibaura. See you on final poster presentations day - January 15th!

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 12/21 – expressing an opinion & writing a proposal final essay: outlines and supporting reasons

Hello all Writing 1B students,

Image "Notes" courtesy of healingdream/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here, I'll show you a step-by-step guide as to how you can develop your final essay.

STEPS
1. Make an outline (あらすじ). Here's a good example:

ToTopic sentence: Vending machines at Shibaura should serve fruit and other healthy snacks.

RcReasons: Fruit and healthy snacks give students and teachers more energy.
RcReasons: They make people feel less tired.
RcReasons: They are often low in fat and calories.
RcReasons: They are often cheaper than chocolate or soda.

2. Develop your reasons by adding more information, with signal words. For example:

To begin with, fruit and healthy snacks give students and teachers more energy because they are made of natural sugars that the body can take in more easily.

In addition, they make people less tired and this helps them to keep going longer through the day.

They are also often low in fat and calories, because doctors often recommend fruit, for example, to people who are trying to lose weight.

Finally, they are often cheaper than chocolate and soda and easier to throw away in the garbage because they are often not in wrappers or containers.

3. Put these reasons with supporting information into paragraph form. For example:

To begin with, fruit and healthy snacks give students and teachers more energy because they are made of natural sugars that the body can take in more easily. In addition, they make people less tired and this helps them to keep going longer through the day. They are also often low in fat and calories, because doctors often recommend fruit, for example, to people who are trying to lose weight. Finally, they are often cheaper than chocolate and soda and easier to throw away in the garbage because they are often not in wrappers or containers.

From here, you can now start developing your proposals (企画書) in January!

Check this blogpost out as many times as you want or need to refresh yourselves on this writing! See you in 2013! Have a great holiday!

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 12/21 – expressing an opinion & writing a proposal (Part 2)

Hello to all my Writing 1B students!

Image "Business People In Discussion" courtesy of Ambro/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

SPECIAL NOTE: Thank you to anyone who came to the makeup lesson (補講) last Saturday (12/15). I know many of you were busy and could not come, but for those who did - thank you so much!

Today, I will repost what part of the lesson from last Friday (12/14). I know we did not get so far last week, so let's do this in today's class. For this lesson, we don't really need our textbooks.

LESSON
Expressing your own opinion about something - look at this topic idea:

Expressing your own opinion about something - look at this topic idea:

Something that could be improved at this campus of Shibaura.  

Something that could be improved at this campus of Shibaura. 

Now what do you think of things at Shibaura - such as the student activities and clubs, classes, professors, food and drink services, or other things you can think of? Could anything be better here? What would you do or suggest to change things?

Begin writing some ideas, because we will now start a short paper about them. In the paper, you will make a proposal to change what you think should be changed on campus.
here.ere. Share your ideas with others in the class.
ACTIVITY
Share your ideas with others in the class! Write an email to a classmate - cc me - and share your ideas with him. He can do the same - he can share his ideas with you too.

Make an outline (あらすじ) about what you think could be made better here at this campus. Type them up on the Word document you've saved. We'll go over them in January - and I will show you how to develop your ideas into a small, short paper.
January - and I will show you how to develop your ideas into a small, short paper.

See you in 2013! Happy New Year - and I hope you have a safe and relaxing holiday!

聖学院大学ECA (Speaking) I (All) - talking about clothes

Hello to my Speaking I (All) students,

Image "Business Suit" courtesy of Suat Eman/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Look at the picture of the suit above. What do you think of it? 

Now look at these different clothes and styles. What do you think of them? Let's talk about these!

1. 

2. 

3.

4. 

5.

6.

Photo credits: 1. "Handsome Young Businessman" (courtesy of imagerymajestic) 2. "Beautiful Young Woman" (courtesy of posterize) 3. "Woman In Black Shirt And Jeans Skirt" (courtesy of marin) 4. "Young Handsome Man" (courtesy of marin) 5. "Fashion Model In Spring" (courtesy of posterize) 6. "Enjoy On Sunny Day In Park" (courtesy of Photokanok)

All pictures from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B - final presentation preparation about love & marriage in other countries & cultures

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students, 

Image "Blessed Water At Thai Wedding" courtesy of bigjom/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? My apologies once again on getting the dates wrong on the schedule! We will meet next week (12/25) - and then not again until January 15th (1/15)!!

We have done homework on this topic of love and marriage, and have begun researching it. Now we'll go to the final part - turning our research into final presentations about marriage customs in the countries and cultures you have researched.

These presentations will be different for two reasons: 
1) As I've mentioned before, each group will make a poster presentation about the countrys' or cultures' marriage customs they chose. 
2) The presentations will be like our final exam, so there will be no final paper test in this class. We'll present these in class on our final exam day of January 15th (1/15), so this will be like our final exam.

SOME GUIDELINES
Each group will need one (1) A1-size sheet of plotter paper (プロッター用紙). As you may know, you can get this paper from the campus co-op - one sheet costs 150 yen.　

While I know many of you have been researching already, and have gathered some interesting pictures, make the pictures big - make them A4 size - or print them out again at A4 size. Have 2-3 of these pictures on your plotter paper sheets.

Here are some examples of posters for presentation. They come from a friend of mine who's a professor at Chuo University, in the law faculty. Take a look at these:



These posters come from a series of poster presentations my Chuo friend's students did in his global issues class. Their theme was immigration - both of people from other countries moving to Japan or Japanese moving to other countries. Here's another:

  

Take a look at these in detail. Make the pictures of the posters larger.
Take a look at these in detail. Make the pictures of the posters larger. This may give all of you ideas about how you can design your final presentation posters. I have a few other examples of poster presentations I can show you too.

See you in class on final presentation day - January 15th! 

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B 授業日付の間違いました

Hello all my Eigo Sogo students,

How are you? My apologies to all of you - I'm very sorry. Next week (12/15) we will be having classes!!

I made a mistake in the schedule. So here's our real schedule - 12/25 is our final class. 1/15 is our final poster presentation day.

I'm very sorry about this mistake. So - see you next week!

____m (_  _) m____

Thank you!

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B 12/18 - love & marriage focus: Cretan mantinades

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students,

Image "Ancient Ruins In Delphi" courtesy of thephotoholic/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you today? The picture above is of an ancient Greek ruin. Today we'll look more at the wedding customs of one of the Greek islands, Crete, and their tradition of the mantinades - the love songs of Crete.

Check out this video below of a modern mantinade. It's a little long, so listen to it for only around two minutes or so:

What do you think? Let's do a quiz about the mantinades in class - but it'll be a different kind of quiz. It'll be in the form of a board game. Let's play it and generate answers to the questions on it!

KIFL Senka & Dual Hotel course students final thank-you post

Hello to all my KIFL Senka & Dual Hotel course students,

This is a simple post to say what the picture above says - thank you for being such great students this year! You went through a lot and I'm proud of the effort and growth you showed this year. I'm very happy for those of you who have found jobs and am with those of you who are still looking for work. 

I truly hope you will find happiness, further growth, creativity and satisfaction in your life after KIFL. 

You did a great job - and are great people. 

がんばってます！

from sekaijin

(Picture - Girl Showing Thank You Board - courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 12/15 補講 4限時間の間違いました

Hello to all my Writing 1B students,

How are you? I made a mistake today in class. The time for the makeup class (補講) tomorrow (Saturday) is from 2:40-4:10.

I'm very sorry about this! It's my mistake. Hope to see you then!

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 12/14 – expressing an opinion & writing a proposal

Hello to all my Writing 1B students,

Image "Business People In Discussion" courtesy of Ambro/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today let's look at two things - expressing an opinion, and writing a proposal based on it.

WARMUP

Look at your descriptions of people from last week (12/7). Now let's read some out loud and the class guesses who the person is! (Write the description on the Word document you've saved if you haven't already!)

HOMEWORK CHECK

Textbook pg. 111 #5-8 (& any of #1-4 you didn't finish last week)

LESSON

1. Textbook pg. 127-128 expressing an opinion #1 & 2

2. pg. 129-130 topic sentences that express an opinion #1-3

ACTIVITY

Expressing your own opinion about something - look at this topic idea:

Something that could be improved at this campus of Shibaura.  

Now what do you think of things at Shibaura - such as the student activities and clubs, classes, professors, food and drink services, or other things you can think of? Could anything be better here? What would you do or suggest to change things?

Begin writing some ideas, because we will now start a short paper about them. In the paper, you will make a proposal to change what you think should be changed on campus here. Share your ideas with others in the class.

HOMEWORK

Make an outline (あらすじ) about what you think could be made better here at this campus. Type them up on the Word document you've saved. We'll go over them next time - and I will show you how to develop your ideas into a small, short paper.

*SPECIAL REMINDER- we will have a makeup class (補講) tomorrow (12/15) in the 4th period from 2:40-4:10. See you then!

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B 12/11 - homework about love & marriage (Part 2)

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students,

Image "The Exit" courtesy of Elwood W. McKay III/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Hope you had a good weekend! From here we'll go to the next part (Part 2) of our homework - research about marriage customs in other countries and cultures. Here are some things for you to remember and know.


Important notes about research
1. While you can use Japanese websites or blogs for your research, you are responsible for presenting what you have found in English. So - it will be better to do your research in English. It will really be easier, and a good use of your English.

2. Find 2-3 pictures about points of marriage for the countries or cultures you selected and print them out. They don't all have to be in color, but at least one of them should be in color.

3. Double- and triple-check important vocabulary. Check everything about your most important key words - spelling, pronunciation, and how to use these words.

4. Divide points of the research tasks with the other member(s) of your pairs or groups. Who will check on the key vocabulary? Who will find the pictures? Who will take the vocabulary and put it into notes? How will you coordinate with each other about where you are and what progress you are making? All of you decide these things!

5. Finally, take a look at this video about presentations. Watch it as many times as you like. It has a lot of good hints about preparing good presentations.

See you in class! 

KIFL Business Communications Skills - final interview preparation reminders, points & tips for interviewers

Hello to all my Senka students,

Image "Business Coaching Concept" courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? I've made a separate post for the interviewers for our second round of final interviews on Wednesday (12/12) to look at, about the kinds of questions you should ask the interviewees. 

Click on this link here for a reminder about the language, tasks and roles of the interview process; click on this link to review the job postings.

While it's necessary to ask interviewees some easy, straightforward questions, I will ask you to deliberately try to make at least 1-2 questions difficult for the interviewee to easily answer; be a little vague, both for general questions, and even in questions that are focused. 

You want to see how well the interviewee can handle the kind of thinking required to respond to any hard-to-answer questions. Here are some examples of the difference between some easy questions, and hard ones:

Easy or straightforward questions:

• What was your major in university?
• What did you do in your internship?
• How long did you work at ________?

Harder and more vague questions:

• What is your impression of your coursework in your major?
• How do you feel your internship prepared you to enter this company (organization)?
• In what way did your time at ________ give you any insight as to how this business (field) operates?

IMPORTANT NOTE: Try to make your questions like these - open-ended, of a kind that doesn't leave room for yes or no, right-or-wrong answers. 

Asking questions such as these often is the real test of how well interviewees handle the interview process, and how well they present themselves. See you at the interview!

KIFL Business Communications Skills - final interview preparation reminders, points & tips for interviewees

Hello to my Senka students,

I am making a separate post for the interviewees on final interview preparation in the second round of the final interviews for Wednesday (12/12). Above is a shot of the board notes from last week's (12/5) first round of interviews.

Click on this link here for a reminder about the language, tasks and roles of the interview process; click on this link to review the job postings.

There is one point for interviewees to remember going into any interview about the kinds of questions you'll get asked. While interviewers will ask some easy and straightforward questions, they will often ask more hard and vague, difficult-to-answer questions. I chose this point because it might be the most difficult part of any interview. 

You can handle hard and vague general questions by trying to bring a focus to the questions as a way to be clear on what the content is, so you can respond to them.  Here are some examples from another class I have been teaching this year: 

Here, it's okay to admit that even what seems to be a general question is hard - but then focus it in a way that will help you - even force you - to give an extended, thinking response to it. Now take a look at this: 

Sometimes more focused questions can be hard to answer too. You can also admit that this kind of question is hard - but then offer or propose to respond to it in a thinking way, or give an example that illustrates a point or demonstrates a situation that touches on something you believe the question is asking about. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: It's better to give a response that shows thought and depth - even if it may not be the response the interviewer is looking for - rather than hesitating or going silent. 

I hope these points and tips will help you as interviewees in our second round of interviews. See you at the interview!

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 12/7 – describing people & things

Hello to all my Writing 1B students,
Hello to all my Writing 1B students,

How are you? Today we'll look at how to describe people and things.

How are you? Today we'll look at how to describe people and things.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

WARMUP

Read this:

It's small  It's small but very complex. It fits in your hand and isn't very heavy,

It's small  but it has many small parts in it. Many people like to decorate it.

 It's small It's handy everywhere - on the train, at school, anywhere. 

What is it? Guess!    

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

*Homework check - pg. 103 Writing Exercise 1    

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

LESSON  

1. Textbook pg. 110 Activity a & b, then pg. 111 topic sentences #1-4

1. Textbook pg. 110 Activity a & b, then pg. 111 topic sentences #1-4

2. Activity - textbook pg. 112 Writing Exercise 1

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

HOMEWORK

Textbook - pg. 111 topic sentences #5-8
Textbook - pg. 115 #1-4

See you next week!

芝浦工業大学Listening 1B 12/7 – great & interesting inventions

Hello to all my Listening 1B students,

Image "Hand Holding Eco Gas Tank" courtesy of ponsulak/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

How are you? It's been some time since I last posted for you - my apologies. Today we'll look at inventions. Here is a warmup for you for this topic - it's mostly for fun, but take a look at this. It's a video from YouTube made up of very old film clips of crazy inventions from the 1920s:

But answer this question: Have any of these ideas actually been developed? Which ones do you think have been developed? 

Now look at this next video, and listen to it. It comes from the Voice of America Special English site on YouTube. Watch it as many times as you like or need. It's about a new and interesting invention called the s0ccket. 

Now answer these questions:
1. What does the term "ball of energy" mean? 
2. What exactly is the s0ccket?
3. What does one of the people who invented the s0ccket says how it works?
4. How does the s0ccket collect and store energy? 
5. How many minutes of play can the s0ccket give power?
6. How many hours can the s0ccket power an LED lamp? 
7. How many hours in total can the s0cket store power?
8. About how many people in the world have no access to electricity?
9. How did the two inventors of the s0ccket know about the problems of access to electricity in developing countries? 
10. What do people in developing countries often use for heating their homes? 

I'll "quiz" you on these next week. See you then!

KIFL Global Studies - 12/5 second round final presentations

Hello to all my Senka students,

おつかれさまでした！Hope you're able to relax more as the semester is coming to a close.
おつかれさまでした！Hope you're able to relax more as the semester is coming to a close.
The picture above is some of my notes. Overall, I was impressed with what I saw and I could feel the work you put into your presentations. Good job!

So all I have here are some shots of your fine work, and will show them as they are. I want to show anyone who sees this blog what you are capable of, and what you can take with you after leaving KIFL. I genuinely hope you can leave with skills that you can take with you in your careers. It is my wish for each one of you and my hope as well that you will find success with these presentation skills in particular.

だって！This is a tribute to each one of you and your hard work. See you next week!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - more on final interview preparation

Hello Michelle and Tomoyo,
Hello Michelle and Tomoyo,

How are you? Here are some more notes about preparing for our final interviews. Take a
How are you? Here are some more notes about preparing for our final interviews. Take a closer look at these notes:

How are you? Here are some more notes about preparing for our final interviews. Take a

These are important points I went over with Michelle in Tuesday's class. We'll look at these more in Wednesday's class.
these more in Wednesday's class.
Now look at this video again. I'm reposting it from the post I did this on before. Watch it as many times as you like - notice what the salesperson does. We'll watch it in Wednesday's class as well and talk about it.

See you then!