週12・13 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II (Super A) & (Survival English) II: 観光

Hello students,

Image "Travel The World, Concept" courtesy of potowizard/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Let's look at sightseeing (観光). Where would you like to go and what would you like to see? 

Activity
Look at these pictures. What are these places and what countries are they in? Take some guesses!

1. 

2. 

3. 

4.

5. 

6. 

7. 

Homework

Find 1-3 pictures of a place you would like to go to and bring it to the next class. Talk about the place you would like to go to and why you want to go there. 

Have fun!

Photo credits: A. "Business Meeting" (courtesy of Ambro) B. "Adorable Couple Watching TV" (courtesy of imagerymajestic) C. "Woman Asleep" 

Photo credits: 1. "Vintage Eiffel Tower" (courtesy of chrisroll) 2. "Machu Picchu" (courtesy of Arvind Balaraman) 3. "New York Times" (courtesy of Antoine Henrich) 4. "Angkor Wat Sunrise" (courtesy of J Frasse) 5. "Sydney Opera House At Night" (courtesy of Susie B) 6. "Great Wall Of China" (courtesy of cescassawin) 7. "Ancient Ruins In Delphi" (courtesy of thephotoholic)/All pictures from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

週11 - ECA (Reading) II (Super A): January book report presentations

Hello reading students,

Image "Pile Of Books On A Black Background" courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? In this post I will give you some information about your book report presentations for January. 

Points to follow

I would like you to bring together the points of a book report with the points of a presentation. You will write about the book you are reading outside of class, but with a difference - you can show pictures about the story as part of your presentation. 

This is one basic example of a poster layout. It should be on A3 paper or larger, like poster paper you can get at a place like Loft. 

You should have 3-4 pictures on it showing different points about the book you read. At the top you should have the title of the book you have read. Each picture should show these points: 

Story outline (あらすじ)

Main characters (主人公）
Plot (プロット)
Plus - your own review of the story (what you thought of it, who your favorite character was, what the bigger theme of the story was)

You can write this by hand, or write it on a computer and cut and paste it out onto your poster paper. 

*Special note
If you want to do a Power Point presentation, that would be okay - but come and see me about it!

Prepare a talk for around 8-10 minutes or so. 

I will give you a bit more information about this in the Eigokisohyougen class.

See you next class!

週11・12 - ECA (Survival English): 方向「道を教える」

Hello to my Survival English students,

Image "New York Times" courtesy of Antoine Henrich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Let's talk about directions (方向)!    

Activity

Look at these pictures. They are the directions to Seigakuin from a train station, but the pictures are not in the right order (違う順番). With a group or a partner, can you put these pictures in the right order? 

When you are finished, can you talk about these directions? Here is some language you can use for the order (順番) of the directions: 

First...    go straight...    down this street...    turn right...    turn left...   

next to the...    between (the)...    across from (the)...    at (the corner)...    

on the left...    on the right...     

Try it! This is the first picture: 

A. #1

B. 

C. 

D. 

E. 

F. 

G. 

H. 

I. 

J. 

K. 

Homework

Take 4-5 pictures of the way from your train station to your home. Bring them to the next class and show your classmates. Talk about your directions from your station to your home.

Have fun!

週11 - ECA (Cinema) II (All): アバウト・ア・ボイの歌

Hello Cinema students,

Image photographed from DVD cover for purposes of subject illustration. No copyright infringement intended. 

I do not own the rights to this image.

How are you? Today I have two videos for you of songs from the movie. What do you think of them? 

Here is the first one. This is what Marcus was singing in his math class. You might know this song. This is by the Carpenters - "Rainy Days and Mondays," with English and Japanese lyrics.

カーペンターズのことについて：ここにクリックしてください。

Here's another one. This is Fiona's favorite song - Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song." This is long - but it is the one video I could find with Japanese lyrics. 

ロバータ・フラックのことについて：ここにクリックしてください。

How do these songs fit with Marcus and Fiona's feelings? 

See you next time!

週10・11 - ECA (Speaking) I & II (D, J & A): 過程「話と行うこと」

Hello to all my speaking students,

Image "Take Off At Sunset" courtesy of Time Beach/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Let's look at telling stories with action (話と行うことを言う) for our speaking practice! 

Homework
Look at these pictures. Make a story with these pictures (イメージに話を作り). (You can use the picture of the airplane at the top of this blogpost!) You can put them in any order you like (イメージの順番がなんでもいい). 

Rules (ルール) 
1. You can use all the pictures - but you can also leave out up to 2 of these pictures.
2. You have to tell your story (話すを言う) using words like then, next, after that, and finally in your story!

Try it!

Have fun!

Photo credits: Top photo - "Sunset Holiday" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/Roofs - "Hiyama Tatsuno Hyogo Prefecture" (courtesy of 663highland)/ 

Photo credits: Sunset - "Beautiful Sunset" (courtesy of Photokanok)/Man in suit - "Handsome Young Businessman" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/Poker chips - "Pocket Aces In The Hand" (courtesy of Grant Cochrane)/Young man - "Young Handsome Man" (courtesy of marin)/Wedding - "The Exit" (courtesy of Elwood W. McKay III)/Sports car - "Classic Porsche 959" (courtesy of M-Pics)/Woman - "Asian Model Woman" (courtesy of posterize)/Drink - "Singapore Sling" (courtesy of Antoine Henrich)/SUV - "Mercedes ML" (courtesy of M-Pics)/All photos from FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

週10・11 - ECA (Speaking) I & II (D, J & A): 過程「話をする」

Hello to all my speaking students,

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

How are you? Let's talk about how to explain a process (過程を説明する) in an interesting way - by telling a story (話をする)! 
LLLLLLL
Activity
Look at this beginning of a very short story: 
llllllllllllll
When I When I went into my bedroom, the first thing I saw was ______ .Then,  
thing I iI saw a(n)______, (and) next, it was a(n)______. After that...and finally,
           ...(!)
LLLLLLLLLLL
Now - work with a partner and think of words to put into these spaces, then finish the story. Any words are okay! 

Here are some ideas for you to work with:

例えば：...the first thing I saw was a beautiful young woman. (...)

See you next week!

Image credits: Woman - "Beautiful Young Woman" (courtesy of posterize)/Child - "Seated African Child" (courtesy of africa)/Drink - "Singapore Sling" (courtesy of Antoine Henrich)/Cow - unattributed Apple stock photo/Man - "Portrait Of Pointing Man" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/Mask - "Statue The Face" (courtesy of sritangphoto)/All images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

週11 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II (Super A): 節のフォーマット、主題文など

Hello to my Eigokisohyougen students,

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

How are you? Thank you for your hard work in class!

NOTES
These notes are things to do in your writing. First, remember that you are not writing sentences. You are writing paragraphs. For example:

My life at Shibaura            My life at Seigakuin is good.
My life at Shibaura            I have made many friends here. 
My life at Shibaura            The classes are hard.
My life at Shibaura            So far I enjoy this school. 

My life at Seigakuin is good. I have made many friends here. The classes are hard. So far I enjoy this school. 

Second, make sure you have a topic sentence at the beginning! The topic sentence gives hints about what comes next in the supporting sentences. For example: 

I will tell you about my life at Seigakuin. (topic sentence) - so - 

I will tell you about my life at Seigakuin. My life here is good. I have made many friends here. The classes are hard. So far I enjoy this school. 

Second, make sure you have the right spacing between one sentence and another. For example:

I will tell you about my life at Seigakuin. My life here is good.I have made many friends here.The classes are hard.So far I enjoy this school. 

I will tell you about my life at Seigakuin. My life here is good. I have made many friends here. The classes are hard. So far I enjoy this school. (Look at the spaces between each sentence!)                                         

Third, connect your sentences to make longer ones. For example:

I will tell you about my life at Seigakuin. My life here is good and I have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy this school. 

Finally, have more supporting sentences to make your writing stronger, including examples. For example: 

I will tell you about my life at Seigakuin. My life here is good and I have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy this school. I feel I am challenged every day in the classes. 

For example, in my basic communicative English writing class, I have to do some kind of writing I have never done before, like writing paragraphs. It is not easy for me, but...

I hope this helps you.

See you next week!

週10・11 - ECA (Survival English): 食べ物と頼みこと

Hello Survival English students,

 Image "Green Curry" courtesy of tiverylucky/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today we'll look at food, ordering, and tipping. 

Homework #1
Look at this video below. It's from an English class in the U.S. about ordering in a restaurant. Let's watch it! You can watch it more than once. 

Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. It is uploaded strictly for classroom use. 

Take notes on what is happening to answer these questions:

1. What kinds of things does the waitress say before she takes the customer's order?
2. What drink does the customer order?
3. Why does the waitress ask to see the customer's ID card?
4. What appetizer does the customer order?
5. What kind of steak does the customer order?
6. How does the customer want the steak cooked?
7. What kind of dressing does the customer want on her salad?
8. What kind of sauce does she want on her baked potato?

In the next class, we will do a restaurant scenario with a waiter and customer! 

Homework #2
In the U.S., a restaurant tip is usually about 15% of the total bill. In your notebooks, work out what 15% of the total bill is for these restaurant bills:

例えば：$18.00 (x 0.15)

$27.50

$29.75

$44.87

$68.62

Write these tips in your notes and bring them to class next time.

Have fun!

週10 - ECA (Reading) II (Super A): ヴォキャブラーリ、文法のゲームズ、レビュー

Hello to all my reading students,

How are you? Today I'd like to show you a useful website I found with links to vocabulary and grammar games and review. You can use these to gather more word-learning techniques, and review grammar too!

First, click on this link here to go to the front page of these games and review. 

Then, click on these links here, here, and here to try them out! 

Try these and tell me what you think of them. 

See you next class!

週10・11 - ECA (Survival English): 外貨

Hello Survival English students,

Image "Money Pile $100 Dollar Bills" courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? The picture you see above is American money - the dollar. 

Activity
Which countries do these different kinds of money come from? Talk about your ideas.

1.

例えば：1. I think this money is the ruble. It's used in Russia.

Now try these!

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

Homework 

Let's find out more about money from different countries! On the Internet, find one (1) example of money from another country, with 2-3 pictures of the money. Find out how much the money is in yen. Print out the pictures and bring them to the next class. 

外国のお金について！ネットで写真を探し、印刷して持って来てください。日本円でおよそいくらになるかも調べてください。

Have fun!

Other currencies photo credits: 1. "New Brazilian Currency - Real" (courtesy of David Castillo Dominici) 2. "100 Euro" (courtesy of Ambro) 3. "Uk 

Other currencies photo credits: 1. "Russian Roubles Currency Background" (courtesy of David Castillo Dominici) 2. "New Brazilian Currency - Real" (courtesy of David Castillo Dominici) 3. "100 Euro" (courtesy of Ambro) 4. "Uk Sterling Money Notes And Coins" (courtesy of -Marcus-) 5. "Hundred Thai Baht" (courtesy of foto76) 6. "Australian Cash" (courtesy of zirconicusso)/These currencies pictures from FreeDigitalPhotos.net