週5 - ECA (Survival English): 海外のホテル

Hello Survival English students,

Image "Hotel Room" courtesy of Evgeni Diner/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Let's talk about hotels! 

Activity
What kind of hotel would you like to stay in? Let's look at some pictures of different hotels.

1. This is the first one - the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore:

1. 

What do you think of this hotel? 

2. This one is very different - an English village house made into a country hotel: 

2.

What do you think of it? 

3. How about this one - a motel on the beach:

3. 

What do you think of this place? 

4. What about this one? It's a tropical resort in Thailand:

4. 

Would you like to stay here? 

Activity
Talk about all these different hotels and places! Which ones would you like to stay in? Which one(s) do you recommend to your classmates? 

Homework
Find 2-3 pictures of a hotel in another part of Japan or in another country. Bring the pictures to the next class and show them. Talk about why you would like to stay at this hotel. Find out how much a room costs per night, what kinds of things there are at this hotel (swimming pool(s), restaurants, gym and so on), and what sightseeing (観光)   spots there are in the area of the hotel.

Have fun!
Photo credits: 1. "Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore" courtesy of posterize/2. "Typical English Village House" courtesy of Stuart Miles/3. "Motel 

Other photo credits: 1. "Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore" (courtesy of posterize)/2. "Typical English Village House" (courtesy of Stuart Miles)/3. "Motel on the Beach" (courtesy of Aleksandr Kutsayev)/4. Image "Tropical Resort in Thailand" (courtesy of nuchylee)/All images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

特別ポスト: 中間プレゼンテーションについて

Hello to all my students, 

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

How are you? This post is about your mid-term presentations (中間プレゼンテーション). I will show you some examples of poster presentations.

Guidelines (指導基準)
特別: We'll do our presentations in class in our 7th week, so this will be like an exam - so it's important to work with classmates you like! Your group can do a Power Point presentation, but if you want to do a poster presentation, this is what you need.

1) Your group will need one (1) A1-size sheet of poster paper. You can get this paper from a store that sells pens, paper and notebooks. One sheet costs 150 yen.　

2) Make the pictures big, to A4 size. Have 2-3 of these pictures on your posters.

Here are some examples of presentation posters. They come from a friend of mine who's a professor at Chuo University, in the law faculty (中央大学法学部). 

Their topic was immigration (移住)- people from other countries moving to Japan, or Japanese moving to other countries. Look at these:



Here is some more. They come from an early childhood education (児童英語コミュニケーション) class I had here at Seigakuin:

  

Look at these. Make the pictures of the posters bigger. You can get ideas about how you can design your presentation posters. I have some other examples of poster presentations I can show you too.

準備しましょう！Have fun!

週3・4 - ECA (Speaking) I & II (D, J & A): 過去

Hello to my speaking students,

Image "Vegemite Sandwich" courtesy of Jabiru/Dreamstime.com

How are you? Let's look at talking about the past (過去). The picture above shows my favorite breakfast food as a child in Australia - Vegemite on toast. 

How you have changed over time? Look at this picture below. This was me when I was 21 years old. 

Now look at this picture below. This was me when I was 2 years old!

This is where I lived from 3 years old, until I was almost 12 years old - Perth, Australia.lia

Image "Perth Cityscape" courtesy of Sumnersgraphicsinc/Dreamstime.com

How you have changed over time from the past? This is a useful grammar point for talking about the past - used to + 動詞. 例えば:

I used to eat Vegemite on toast (= but not for breakfast in Japan now). 
I used to drink Coca-Cola (= but not anymore because it's not healthy for me).
I used to live in Australia (= I lived in Australia as a child, but not now as an adult).
I used to watch TV after school (= I watched TV after school as a child, but not now because I'm busy). 

Homework/Activity
What kind of food or drink, TV shows or games did you used to like, watch or do when you were a child? 

Write 4-5 sentences with used to + 動詞 in your notebooks about your past (過去)!

Have fun!

週3 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II & (Reading) II (Super A): ヴォキャブラーリの覚える

Hello to all my Super A students,

Image "A Lot Of Pink Brown And Orange Dry Leaves Lying On The Ground" courtesy of sritangphoto/FreeDigitalImages.com

How are you? On Monday I showed all of you in the reading class about collocations (コロケーション). Today I have a video for you about some other basic ideas on how to learn new words. Watch this as many times as you want or need. It has a lot of useful ideas about learning words. It's a long video - but a very good one.

Video from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. It has been uploaded strictly for educational use.

Also start trying some of these ideas out in your notebook with words from your textbook! 

In another blogpost soon, I will show you another new technique you can also try out.

See you next time!

週3 - ECA (Reading) II & (英語基礎表現) II (Super A)：コロケーション

Hello to my Super A reading and Eigokisohyougen students,

Image "Buy Tickets Words with fireworks" courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here is a word learning technique for you. I posted this last semester, but I am reposting it again.

Look at the picture above - buy tickets. "Buy" and "tickets" come together so often that we can think of them as a unit. This kind of unit is called a collocation (コロケーション) - a word combination where one word comes with another word in a natural pattern.

Some word combinations you have seen so far in your textbooks - for example, amazing person, sensitive person, young people, difficult life - are examples of collocations. These cases are examples of adjective (形容詞) + noun (名詞) combinations. 

Let's look at the example in the picture at the top. Ticket is a noun (名詞). So let's look at some more examples with ticket:

Verb (動詞) + a ticket 

sell a ticket

lose a ticket

punch a ticket

give away a ticket

purchase a ticket

(purchase = 購入する)

Adjective (形容詞) + ticket(s) 

cheap ticket(s)

expensive ticket(s)

affordable ticket(s)

discounted ticket(s)

reasonably-priced ticket(s)
hard-to-get ticket(s)

Other noun used as an adjective + ticket(s)

Movie ticket(s)

Concert ticket(s)

Parking ticket(s)

Train ticket(s)
Subway ticket(s)

Dry cleaning ticket(s)

Ticket used as an adjective + other noun
Ticket price

Ticket gate

Ticket sales

Ticket taker

Ticket collection

Homework
Look at the unit you have read (Unit 10). On page 82 & 83, there is a section called "Looking at Words that Go Together." Do this section in your textbook, then try to think of other words that go with these words. You can use a dictionary if you have to. Write them in your notebooks. Make a list of these word combinations. 

This is something you can use in both your reading and writing. 

See you next time!

週1・2 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II (Super A): 節のフォーマット、名前のルール

Hello to my Eigokisohyougen students,

Image "Hand Holding Pen" courtesy of iprostocks/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? I made this blogpost last week, but posted it when you weren't ready to read it. I'm very sorry about that! So this is another re-post of some basic notes about formatting paragraphs (節をフォーマット), plus some rules about writing names of places, singers, bands, songs, album titles and video games in English.

NOTES
These notes are things to do in your writing. 

1. Remember that you are not writing sentences. You are writing paragraphs (節). For example:

My life at Shibaura            My life at university 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. 

Please format like this: 
My life at university is good. I have made many friends here. The classes are hard. So far I enjoy this school. 

2. Connect your sentences to make longer ones. For example:

My life at university is good and I have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy this school. 

Finally, remember to put capital letters for days of the week and months. For example:

   wednesday Wednesday       october 10th   October 10th

Also - names of places are not in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, or with "quotes" around the names. For example: 

I went to "Kurihama beach" in August. 

I went to Kurihama beach in August.

I really love going to HAKONE.  

I really love going to Hakone. 

3. Names of singers and bands are natural, not in CAPITAL LETTERS or in "quotes." For example:

EXILE are my favorite group. 

Exile are my favorite group. 

I went to the "Lady Gaga" concert last year.  

I went to the Lady Gaga concert last year.  

4. Titles of songs are in "quotes," but titles of albums are in italics. For example: 

I love the GLAY song Winter Again.   

I love the Glay song "Winter, Again." 

The first CD I ever bought was the Beatles album "Rubber Soul."

The first CD I ever bought was the Beatles album Rubber Soul.

See you next week!

週3 - ECA (Cinema) II (All): イギリス英語とアメリカ英語の発音、イントネーションの違い

Hello to all my Cinema students,

Image "United Kingdom Flag" courtesy of franky242/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Welcome to the Cinema II (All) class. Here is a short video about some different points in pronunciation (発音) and intonation (イントネーション) between some important words in American English and British English. 

Watch this and listen. Watch this at home, on your Smartphone, or on a computer as many times as you want.

Let's start the movie after this!

Image "Colorado State Map Flag" courtesy of koratmember/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

週3・4 - ECA (Survival English) - パスポート・入国のヴォキャブラーリ

Hello Survival English students,

Image "Hand Showing Passport, Close-up Shot" courtesy of photostock/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Today we'll look at some things you will see at immigration control (出入管理) when you are at an airport in another country. 

Look at the first picture below. See the word "transit" - what does it mean? Who can guess the meaning the fastest? Make a guess – then check the word in your dictionary! 

1.

Now look at these passport stamps in the next picture below. What names of countries do you see? Hint - they're mostly in Africa! 

2. 

Activity/Homework 
1. Look at these passport pages below. In 5 minutes or less, look for these words on the pages. You can get a partner to help you if you want:

arrival

admitted

departed
employment
entry

immigration
permitted

arrival

2. When you're finished, find the names of countries, cities or places on the pages. 

3. After you finish - check any words in the dictionary you don't know! 

Homework
Write sentences using four (4) of these words in your notebooks. I will check them in our next class. 

Have fun!

Other photo credits: 1. "Passport Stamps" (courtesy of Arvind Balaraman) 2. "Travel Notes" (courtesy of africa)/Bottom images: "Passport Visa Stamps" (courtesy of Christineg)/Images 1 and 2 from FreeDigitalPhotos.net/Bottom images from Dreamstime.com

特別ポスト: be-動詞、一般動詞レビュー

Hello to my Super A reading students,

How are you? I'm happy to be your teacher and hope this will be a good class for you! 

Here is a link review for you from the ECA homepage about be-verbs (be-動詞). Look at this as many times as you want or need. It's very good for remembering how to use be-verbs. Check this link, and this one too, also from the ECA homepage about using the past and the future with be-verbs. 

Here is a video about using general verbs (一般動詞), with simple present verbs (例：I walk home, you study Japanese, he eats ice cream など). Watch it as many times as you want or need: 

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

In this class, I will upload more links and videos for all of you to watch anytime. 

See you next class! 

週1・2 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II (Super A): 節のフォーマット、ルール

Hello to all my students,

Image "Hand Holding Pen" courtesy of iprostocks/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? This is a re-post of notes, with a few changes, about formatting paragraphs (節をフォーマット) plus some rules about writing names of places in English.

NOTES
These notes are things to do in your writing. 

1. Remember that you are not writing sentences. You are writing paragraphs (節). For example:

My life at Shibaura            My life at university 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. 


Please format like this: 
My life at university is good. I have made many friends here. The classes are hard. So far I enjoy this school. 

2. Connect your sentences to make longer ones. For example:

My life at university is good and I have made many friends here. The classes are hard, but so far I enjoy this school. 

Finally, remember to put capital letters for days of the week and months. For example:

   wednesday Wednesday       october 3rd   October 3rd

Also - names of places are not in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, or with "quotes" around the names. For example: 

I went to "Kurihama beach" in August. I went to Kurihama beach in August.

I really love going to HAKONE.  I really love going to Hakone. 

I will show you more on formatting and rules for titles of songs, albums, books and stories soon. 

See you next week!