KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - 10/30 & 31 resume writing review - job, internship & skills description writing

Hello Tomoyo and Michelle,

How are you? Here's a review of what we have done with our continuing resume writing review.

One of the hardest things about resumes in English is how to write about our job and internship experience, plus our skills, in a way that communicates the most about these things in the shortest way possible.

Look at the board work in the picture above. Here we have four short sentences. You can see how we can bring these sentences together to make one statement about experience at a part-time job - for example, a restaurant job.

We'll continue with more next week. See you then!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 10/31 & previous week's lesson review

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you? My apologies for no blog post last week - for the reason that I did not have my Smartphone with me to take pictures of the BCS board work - and for some other special work I had to do at one of my other jobs that kept me quite busy last week.

Global Studies 
Some interesting talk last week in our second session about the declining birthrate and the cultural impact this has had. Good job!

Here's the review for our lesson today (10/31):

Business Communication Skills

As you can see from the picture above, we started a theme last week on marketing and presenting information - focusing on marketing, especially with regard to advertising. Here was the review of our lesson last week (10/24):

1. Warmer - what might be the target market for these companies and their services? (Reve 21, Avex, Boss Coffee, Takasu Clinic, & Kizakura)
2. Unit 12
    a. pg. 56 Part 1 - what kind of advertising would the companies/services above aim for?
    b. pg. 57 Part 3 a & b
3. Activity (Part 1) - think of a product or service - think of a famous person (actor, actress, athlete, etc.)  you would want to promote the product
4. Homework - none for now - but Part 2 of activity to follow on 10/31!

Now here's our review from today (10/31):

Remember the open class for next week in BCS! Prepare a topic, or talk of your interest, connected with some area of business - such as a company, product, service, or issue in business.

See you next week!

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B 10/30 - Assignment 1 mini-presentations & design shots

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students,

How are you? Today I was proud and happy to hear your mini-presentations and see your solar water heater designs. I want now to show a small sample of your wonderful work, for people to see your energy and creativity.

Above, I have posted one design. Here now are some more. Enjoy these!

See you next time! Enjoy the Shibaura festival break!

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 10/26 - organizing information by time & importance + the worst experience of my life

Hello to all my Writing 1B students,

Photo courtesy of Fotosearch

Here is a re-posting of the activity planned for last week, but that we will do today.

ACTIVITY - THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE
Get together in groups of 3 or 4 classmates. All classmates go to your email accounts. One student write this sentence in an email:

The worst experience of my life happened about 5 years ago. 

The student sends this sentence to one of his team's classmates. The classmate has to think of another sentence to add to this sentence, to start a story. Then he sends it to another classmate.

In a chain, all the team members keep doing this until the team has a story! Let's call it The Worst Experience of My Life. Each team member has to write 2 or 3 sentences each.

When you're finished with your sentences, all the team members get together and add signal words to the story. Then one student copy & paste the story onto a Word document and send it to me!

LESSON
1. Textbook - page 41. Read the paragraph and do Parts 1&2.
2. Page 42 Activities 1 & 2
3. Page 43 Parts a, b, & c

HOMEWORK
Write one paragraph about 50-60 words. You have a choice of topics:
iiiiiiii
Important Things When Choosing a Job.
Why I Decided to Come to Shibaura.
iiiiiiiii
This will be due next class (11/9). REMEMBER - no class 11/2 because of the Shibaura festival!

See you next time! Have a great time at the festival!

聖学院大学ECA (Speaking) I (J) 10/25 - violence in movies, anime & TV shows「暴力的な映画・アニメ・テレビ番組」

Hello to all my Nichibun Speaking I students,

Image "Police Line" courtesy of Simon Howden/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today, let's look at violence (暴力) in movies & TV shows.

Watch this short anime clip below. It's the opening to Speed Racer - the American name for マッハ Go Go Go. This was an old Japanese anime from the 1960s - maybe your parents watched it on TV when they were children. Do you think there's much violence in it? 

Take a look at this next clip. It's from the movie Gangs of New York, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. What do you think of the violence in this clip?

How about this next clip? I'm sure you know this! It's a scene from ウルトラマン (Ultraman). What do you think of the violence in this clip?

See you in class!

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B 10/23 - Assignment 1 - how to make your own solar water heater

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students!

Image "Fresh Spring Leaves" courtesy of jannoon028/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here is your first assignment (Assignment 1).

1. Watch this video about how to make your own solar water heater:

Video courtesy of YouTube Voice of America Special English Technology Report/http://voaspecialenglish.com

*Watch this video as many times as you want or need, then answer these questions:

a. Where was this design developed?
b. How many liters of water can it hold, and what temperature can it be heated to?
c. Between what times of day can it be heated, and what average air temperature is best?
    There are two parts to the water heater. Describe both parts.
e. Why is one part of the water heater painted black?
    What kind of metal is recommended for this part of the water heater, and why?
f.  Once the water is heated, what is used to keep the water hot?
h. Around how many liters can the second part of the water heater hold?
i.  Describe how the water heater works correctly.
j.  About how long will the water heater last?

I will check on these answers next class! Please be ready to answer them.

2. Based on what you heard in the video, can you make a design of the water heater? You can do this design any way you like - on computer, or even drawing by hand on paper.

3. In class, can you describe, in your own words, how your design works?

Good luck! This assignment will be due next class.  See you then!

聖学院大学の10月22日休講のスピーキングAllと日文のクラスの皆様へ

Speaking IとII (All)と(J)の皆様へ

Image "Young Ethnic Doctor Looking at Medical Report Deeply" courtesy of photostock/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

いつも熱心に私の講義に出席してくれありがとう。

今週の月、木曜日のクラスについて、申し訳ありませんが休講させていただきます。実は東京都練馬区の健康診断の日が重なってしまい、区の方に変更の願いをしたのですがどうしてもできませんでした。

代わりのクラスは2月に16週間いたしますが詳しい日程については後日お知らせします。突然の休講のお知らせ心よりおわびいたします。

尚、予定された宿題の提出は来週におねがいします。

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 10/19 - 10/5 homework 1 check & organizing information by time

Hello all my Writing 1B students,

Image "Teenager Guy Working on Laptop" courtesy of imagerymajestic/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? I'm glad to be back with you in class. Today, I'll ask you to send me your first homework about your student life at Shibaura. I'll also ask you to send me your homework with your edited sentences. I'll give you my email address.

Now let's go to a new lesson: organizing information by time in our writing.

WARMUP
Look at these sentences in this story called A Boy and a Girl:

      Unfortunately, the boy is sent off to defend his country in a war.
___They lost contact with each other after the war is over.
___And then they decided to get married.
___Then, a few years later, they met by chance.
___A boy and a girl became childhood sweethearts.
___They renewed their friendship.
___After they got marrried, they moved to Hawaii.

Image "Plastic Building Blocks" courtesy of nenovbrothers/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The sentence in bold is the first one. Which is the next sentence? Talk about these sentences with your classmates and decide the correct order (正しい順番)! Then open up a new Word document and write the sentences in correct order.

LESSON
1. Look at the signal words on page 30, and do Activity 2.
2. Now - go to your Word document and put signal words in the A Boy and a Girl story.

ACTIVITY - THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE
Get together in groups of 3 or 4 classmates. All classmates go to your email accounts. One student write this sentence in an email:

The worst experience of my life happened about 5 years ago. 

The student sends this sentence to one of his team's classmates. The classmate has to think of another sentence to add to this sentence, to start a story. Then he sends it to another classmate.

In a chain, all the team members keep doing this until the team has a story! Let's call it The Worst Experience of My Life. Each team member has to write 2 or 3 sentences each.

When you're finished with your sentences, all the team members get together and add signal words to the story. Then one student copy & paste the story onto a Word document and send it to me!

HOMEWORK
Textbook - pages 31-32 Activity 2 and page 33 Part B (for 10/26)

See you next week!

芝浦工業大学Listening 1B 10/19 homework - listening to people talking about their countries

Hello all Listening 1B students,

Video courtesy of freeenglishlessons channel (You Tube)/FreeEnglishLessons.com

How are you? I'm glad to be back in class with all of you.

HOMEWORK
I have a long video (around 9 minutes) for all of you this week as your 10/19 homework - but one I hope you'll enjoy! It's an English class where students talk about their countries - and ideas and images they have about each other's countries.

Your task is simple - write down in your notes as much as you can about:

1. What the student from Italy says about her country.
    * What other country(s) does she talk about?
2. What other students think about Italy and the other country(s) she talks about. 
3. What the teacher says about the U.S. 
    *What other country(s) does he talk about?
 
Watch this video as many times as you want or need! So bring your notes and talk about this next week (10/26)!

See you then!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 10/17 open class & resume writing review

Hello to all my Senka students!

Global Studies
How are you? Today in our open class in Global Studies, Ken's comments about the declining birthrate in Japan and what it means for the future was very thought-provoking.

Here's a chart that shows a lot about what he talked about today:

Chart courtesy of Mail Online (the Daily Mail online version (UK))

Read a medium-length article at this link. It's from the UK earlier this year - and says a lot about how the declining birthrate in Japan is seen in other countries.

Business Communications Skills

Intense work today from all of you on your resumes! 

It was a lot for you to do and I know it was tiring. We'll take a break from it  - but remember about your resume pictures (head shot, from between shoulder and collar up, in business recruiting suit, looking directly at the camera ideally against a light-medium blue background). 

We'll then work more on our resumes as we go along. 

Good job! See you next week!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - 10/16 &17 lessons review

Hello Michelle and Tomoyo,

How are you? Here's the review of what we did yesterday (10/16) & today (10/17).

In case it's not clear to you - for 10/17 homework (for next week) - get a picture for your resume (JPEG or GIF) and remember to do page 69 Part 17 (2nd half) in the textbook for 10/23.

Good job today with your active-passives recipe writing!

See you next week!

聖学院大学ECA (Speaking) II (All) 10/15 & 18 - many, much & a lot of

Hello all my Speaking II (All) students,

How are you? Let's review how to use many, much and a lot of. 

MANY

Many is only used with countable nouns (可算名詞). For example:

__I have a book (= I have one book) - more than one book - so - I have many books.
__So...
   He has many CDs.
__There are many trees in the park.
__She has many students in her class. 

MUCH

Much is only used with uncountable nouns (不可算名詞). For example:

__I don't have much money today. (注意！NOT I don't have much moneys だよ！)
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(注意！NOT I don't have many money も！)
   So...
__She can't drink very much alcohol.
__There isn't much butter in the fridge.
__We don't have much sugar in the kitchen.  

 *Much and many can be used as too much and too many:

__Our teacher gives us too much homework.
__Don't eat too many snacks.
__He drank too much beer last night. 
__There are too many cars on the road.

Image "Palloni Nel Cielo" courtesy of Idea go/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A LOT OF
A lot of is used with countable and uncountable nouns (どちでも可算、不加算名詞を使う). It sometimes means "very many" or "very much." 

__I drink a lot of water every day.
__She saw a lot of balloons in the park.
__He will buy a lot of furniture for his new apartment. 
__Hiroko reads a lot of comic books on the train to school every week. 
__Steve Jobs made a lot of money at Apple. 

VIDEO REVIEW
Here's a short video about many, much and a lot of:

See you next class!

聖学院大学ECA (Speaking) I (J) 10/15 - talking about movies with adjectives

Hello all Speaking I (J) students,

How are you? Today, let's look at some short clips of four movies. 

This is the first one, from the film Casablanca (1942). It's old, isn't it? 

Now look at this second one, from The Hunt for Red October (1990): 

The third one, from Phantom of the Opera (2004): 

The last one, from Tootsie (1982): 

What adjectives (形容詞) would you use to talk about these movie clips? 

See you next class!

10月12日休講のListening 1BとWriting 1Bのクラスの皆様へ

Listening 1BとWriting 1Bの皆様へ

Image "Young Ethnic Doctor Looking at Medical Report Deeply" courtesy of photostock/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

いつも熱心に私の講義に出席してくれありがとう。

今週の金曜日のクラスについて、申し訳ありませんが休講させていただきます。実は東京都練馬区の健康診断の日が重なってしまい、区の方に変更の願いをしたのですがどうしてもできませんでした。

代わりのクラスは12月の土曜日にいたしますが詳しい日程については後日お知らせします。突然の休講のお知らせ心よりおわびいたします。

尚、予定された宿題の提出は来週の金曜日におねがいします。

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - 10/9 & 10 lessons review & passives sentence making

Hello to all my EH2 students,

How are you? Here are the lesson plans for 10/9:

And 10/10:

We will study more the passive form next week. What is the passive form? I will show you here:

The passive voice is used when we want to talk about an action. It is not important, or even known who or what is performing the action.

For example: I lost my Suica card. 

The focus is on the fact that my Suica card is lost. But - I don't know how it happened.
So I can say - My Suica card was lost.

Sometimes saying something in passive is more polite than in the active voice.

For example: A mistake was made.

In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not say that someone else did it (as in, "you have made a mistake").

So here is your homework to help you for next week (10/17). Change these sentences from the active voice to the passive:

ACTIVE                                                                    PASSIVE 

He left his keys on the table.His keys were left on      His keys were left on the table. 

She couldn't find her wallet. 

I forgot my bad feelings over time. 
They delivered the books to the room.
Someone uploaded software on some computers.
Some people protested the decision of the judge. 

Examples of passive sentences taken and modified from http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive

I hope these exercises help you. See you next week!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 10/10 lessons review, GS homework & 10/17 GS open class

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you? Here's the GS lesson plan review for 10/10:

For GS homework - have fun with this! And don't forget our roundtable discussion next week (10/17) on themes of birthrates & cultural gaps! Bring in topics, questions, & talking points on anything relating to these themes.

And here's the BCS lesson plan review & board notes for 10/10:

We'll continue this theme next week (10/17), with formal emailing.

See you then!

芝浦工業大学英語総合1B 10/9 - review of much, many, a lot of

Hello to all my Eigo Sogo students,

How are you today? Here's a review on how to use much, many and a lot of. 

MUCH

Much is used only with uncountable nouns. For example:

__I don't have much money today. 
__I can't remember how much alcohol I drank last night.
__There isn't much bread left for dinner.
__How much sugar do we have? 

MANY

Many is used only with countable nouns. For example:

__I have many books at home.
__I don't know how many CDs I have in my room.
__There are many trees in the park near the school.
__How many girls are there in this class?

 *Much and many can be used as too much and too many:

__Our teacher gives us too much homework.
__I ate too many sweets this afternoon, and now I'm not hungry for dinner.
__He drank too much beer last night, and this morning he woke up feeling sick. 
__There are too many cars on the roads these days.

A LOT OF

Image "Palloni Nel Cielo" courtesy of Idea go/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A lot of is used with both uncountable and countable nouns. We sometimes use it to mean "very many" or "very much." 

__I drank a lot of water yesterday.
__She saw a lot of balloons at the festival.
__We bought a lot of furniture for our new apartment last week. 
__They carried a lot of books to class in their backpacks yesterday. 
__Steve Jobs made a lot of money from Apple, didn't he?

*When we talk about something more than "very many" or "very much," we could also use lots of, and for even more than that - lots and lots of:

__I have lots of books at home.
__She has lots of software she's uploaded to her computer.
__He was so popular in high school that he had lots of girlfriends.
__Bill Gates has made lots and lots of money in his career. 
__There are lots and lots of young people in Shibuya on the weekends.

VIDEO REVIEW
If you would like another review, here's a great short video for you:

I hope this helps you to understand and use much, many and a lot of better. 

See you next class!

芝浦工業大学Writing 1B 10/5 - paragraph writing & homework 1

Hello to all my Writing 1B students,

How are you? Today we will learn about paragraph writing. We will also start our first homework project.

Image "Line Sheet With Pen" courtesy of adamr/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

WARMUP

Make some teams. One member will be a reader - the other members will be writers. The reader can keep his computer on - but the writers can't use their computers - only pencil and paper! The reader has to read these sentences: 

1. Tokyo is the biggest city in Japan.
2. English is important for engineering.
3. October is a beautiful month in the Kanto.
4. Shibaura has campuses in Saitama and Tokyo.

The reader has to remember the sentences without looking at the computer screen again! He will dictate the sentences (文章 を書き取り) to the writers.

Which team's reader remembered the most sentences correctly? And which team writers wrote the sentences correctly? The team that gets the most sentences right wins!

LESSON
Let's do some practice exercises in the textbook from pages 10-15.

ACTIVITY 
Talk about your student life at Shibaura with your classmates. Do you like the campus life here? Make some notes about what you and your classmates think. Negative opinions are okay! 

HOMEWORK 
Write a paragraph titled My Student Life at Shibaura.  You need a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a conclusion - a finishing sentence - at the end. Do your paragraph outside of class - and save it in your file. I will check it in class next time!

Good luck! Thank you for your hard work and effort!

See you next class!

芝浦工業大学Listening 1B 10/5 - movie short listening mini-project & pronunciation practice link

Hello to all my new Listening 1B students,

How are you? This is my first post for all of you. I'm proud and happy to have you as my students, and to be your teacher.

This video is courtesy of ESL Lessons/www.learn-to-speak-english-esl.com

SHORT MOVIE MINI-PROJECT

Here's a mini-project for all of you - but one that I hope is fun! Watch this video above - it's the trailer for the classic movie Titanic.

At the end, there is a short quiz I'd like you to take, and that I'll check the answers for on October 19th, so you have 2 weeks to do this. 

PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE

I also have a link for you. This isn't homework, or a project - it's just for you and your listening practice. You can try this out anytime. I think it's pretty good. Try it - and tell me what you think of it. Check it out here. 

Thank you all for your hard work and effort. But don't forget your homework in the textbook for next class! 

See you next time! 

KIFL Business Communications Skills - 10/3 business topics open forum

Hello to all my Senka students,

Hope you're all okay and not wet! As promised, I decided to make a separate post about the BCS class for 10/3 - the open forum with your business topics & issues.

Image "Business Meeting" courtesy of luigi diamanti/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thank you today for your thoughtful and well-done talk and commentary in our first open forum today. It went very well and while I did not manage the time the way I should have, all of you who were there contributed greatly. I'm proud of all of you.

Saori - I was impressed by your Uniqlo business strategy talk.  It really is a dilemma for a company to expand overseas, especially with tough domestic competition, and you showed the dilemma very well.

Matsuken - I am still impressed with your Start Today talk. It seems like a really innovative company. All I can do here is to post the Zozotown video you showed in class. This says much more than what I can about it!

Once again - I'm impressed!

See you next week. Good job to each of you for your comments and insights today! 

KIFL Global Studies - 10/3 lesson review

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you in this rainy weather? Hope that you're indoors as I'm writing this now!

Here's the GS lesson plan review for 10/3:

I will make a separate post today about the business class, as it was special and different from what we normally do in it - and because it was exciting and impressive!

Don't for get your homework - and your notes for what you would do if you became the KIFL president activity!

See you next week!

芝浦工業大学英語総合 10/2 - homework about water use

Hello to all my new Eigo Sogo students,

I'm very happy and proud to be your teacher for this class, and for you to be my students this semester! I hope this blog post will help you in your studies and research here about water for this class.

Image "Pile of Water Bottles" courtesy of Keattikorn/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

When you think about water, what do you think about? Here's some homework for you to do about this topic.

HOMEWORK

Interview one person about how his or her water use. Here are your questions:

1. When you drink water, do you a) drink it directly from a tap (like from the kitchen) or b) buy bottled water? 

* If you answer a), do you have a water filter on your kitchen faucet? 

2. How much water do you drink each week? (If you're not sure, guess as best you can!)

* If you drink water from your kitchen, answer about how many glasses you drink a week. If you drink bottled water, answer about how many bottles you drink each week.

** If you drink bottled water, which brand of bottled water do you like the best? 

3. How often do you take showers?  

* When you take showers, do you leave the water on all the time? Or do you turn the water off sometimes?

4. How often do you take baths? 

* When you take a bath, do you save the water for the next time, or empty the bathtub and make fresh water for the next bath?

** Do you (or a family member) ever use the bath water to do your laundry? 

5. When you (or a family member) wash dishes after dinner, do you (or the family member) a) leave the water running while rinsing the soap off the dishes or b) turn the water off? 

Make your notes in your notebooks, and bring them to class next week. We will talk about them in class!

Good luck with this! See you next week!