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)

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!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - final interview preparation

Hello Michelle and Tomoyo,
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How are you? I'm very sorry for getting this post up later than what I planned. If you had been checking and didn't see it, my apologies - I had four other posts to write before it!
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Above is a shot of the board notes from Tuesday (11/27).  On the left of the board are the kinds of questions most likely to be asked by interviewers. On the right are a few language points interviewees could use. 
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Here are some more types of questions that interviewers could use: 
Can you tell me (more) about...
How would you describe your strong points?
What would you say were your weak points?
Tell me more about (your experience/internship/coursework at KIFL/university)...
What would you say is your ideal working environment? (In your own words, can you say...?)
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IMPORTANT NOTE!
I show you these interviewers' types of questions because they may help you to make good responses to them.
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Now here is another board note from Wednesday (11/28) for interviewees: 
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And here are some more response language for interviewees to use: 
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For talking about things in general 
I believe...
It's my belief that...
I would say...
It's my feeling that...
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For talking about your KIFL & internship experience
In my internship, I...
In my vocational college/At KIFL, I...
During my time at the Intercontinental (Hotel), I...
Over the time of my coursework, I...
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For talking about situations & change
There are many challenges that come...
When things happen, I try to...
In that situation, I would try to...
I try (hard) to respond to things when they happen...
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For responding to any point (not a question) that the interviewer makes
That's a (positive adjective) point. 
(例：That's a good point)
(例：That'ssss   an interesting point)
I'd like to say more on that...
I'm glad you've said that, because...
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Think hard about what's on your resumes, and follow along the ideas on the kinds of questions interviewers ask so you can respond to them. 
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Next week (12/4-5), let's practice with this language. See you then!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - 11/7 lesson review & video about dealing with angry customers

Hello Michelle and Tomoyo,

How are you? Let me first refresh your memories with the other part of the board work from 11/6:

Here's the video I talked about in class. It strictly isn't about the hotel industry - it's about customer service - but the things in it are also true for the hotel industry. Watch this video as many times as you like - and answer the questions I have below the video.

In the video, there are two main characters - Mrs. Decker, an angry customer, and Paul, a sales clerk. Watch the video and answer these questions.

1. What is Mrs. Decker's problem?
2. When Mrs. Decker first talks, what does Paul first do?
3. How does Paul focus her anger?
4. Once Paul has a dialog going with Mrs. Decker, what does he say?
5. Why does Paul summarize the facts of Mrs. Decker's complaint?
6. When Paul gets to dealing directly with Mrs. Decker's problem, what is the first step he takes?
7. When Paul says that he cannot do what Mrs. Decker wants him to do, what does he do instead?
8. What are the alternatives Paul suggests to Mrs. Decker?
9. How does Mrs. Decker feel by the end of the situation?

Do this as homework for next week (11/13). 

See you then!

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 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!

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 English for the Hospitality Industry - some grammar/TOEIC-related videos & links

Hello to all my EH2 students,

Hope you're doing okay today. As a follow-up to the TOEIC practice we were doing this week, I have some grammar and TOEIC-related things for you. Take a look at them.

First, here are two videos about two functions of an important grammar point - the passive voice. We'll study it a little later, in the next unit in the textbook. It also might help you in your TOEIC studies.

You might also want to check out this link here. It's a test practice website with lots of exercises you can do anytime - including TOEIC practices.

See you in class on Tuesday!

KIFL Senka & English for Hospitality Industry students - some new interesting sites (Part 2)

Hello to all my Senka & EH2 students,

How are you? Hope you are looking forward to the weekend!

I have been busy updating the blog. Hope you like the changes to it. If you look at the long red sidebar on the right side of the blog, you'll see some more websites and blogs for students that I have found. I don't want to explain too much - so click on them and take a quick look at each one!

I hope you can find something here that will be useful or enjoyable for you. I will keep searching for new things to upload, so keep checking.

Senka students - did you see the animal experiments video posting? What did you think of it?
EH2 students - I'll remind you about this next week - but check out the "unprofessional front desk clerk" video. It's funny - but serious too!

See you next week!

KIFL - Senka & English for Hospitality Industry students special posting - some new interesting sites

Hello to all my Senka and EH2 students,

I would like to introduce to you three new interesting sites I have found.

The first is called Elllo (English Listening Lesson Library Online). This is a teacher-created website with natural conversations and listening practice, and some videos. Feel free to check this out anytime.

Another is Language Japan, which is a student-created blog. On it, students explain young people's life in Japan, and points of Japanese culture and lifestyle, in English, with some Japanese content. If you would like to know how you might be able to explain Japan better with any foreign friends, either in person, on Facebook, or on blogs, this is a really good site.

The last for today is ManyThings - a good, general website with lots of things on it about pronunciation, slang, listening, among many other points of English.

Check any of these out anytime you like. From here, I will search out new sites I hope will be to your interest and bookmark them. So there will be more to come! 

Special thanks to my friends and colleagues Scott Bohart and Michael Stout for bookmarking and explaining these links online!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry 2A 9/12 - the unprofessional front desk clerk

Hello to all EH2 students,

Welcome back to KIFL! I have been glad to see all of you again.

As a refresher for Unit 7, here's a video about a front desk clerk. But he's not professional. In fact, he's really unprofessional! How many unprofessional points can you find in this video?

Write down everything he does that is unprofessional. Try to find as many things as you can. Tell me next week what you found!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry 2A June 26 final presentation themes

Hello to all my EH2 students,

This is a short post - simply your final presentation themes.

They are all good ideas - but I would like to see you commit to these!

See you tomorrow!

KIFL Senka & English for the Hospitality Industry 2A ・ special link about final presentations

Hello to all my Senka and EH2 students,

I'm very sorry for posting so late - I've had an especially busy week. Because of the typhoon on Wednesday, I thought it was better to be flexible and ad-lib what we did. I also wasn't feeling well on Friday, so I am only now able to post.

Basically, this is short. I want to direct all of you to a link. Click here to check it out. It's from last year and has three videos on it about presenting. For all of you in the Senka classes - you've already shown me that you are great presenters, but look at these - you may get some other ideas about how to present yourself while talking, about what to use on PowerPoint slides, and so on.

For the EH2 students - you've seen this before in EH1 but take a look at it again. It's a good refresher about presenting.

Hope this helps all of you. Watch the videos on the link as many times as you like. See you in class!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry 2A June 13 lesson plan & final presentation theme ideas

Hello to all the EH2 students,

Otsukaresamadeshita to all of you again for all your hard work this semester.

Here's the lesson plan for 6/13:

Good job on the service lies activity! It was very entertaining.

Here are some ideas for you to think about for your final presentations in July:

The first ryokan in Japan
A history of a selected hotel or resort in Japan
The first Western-style hotel in Japan
How to get a job in the hospitality industry
A history of a selected hotel chain and when it first came to Japan
Changes in hotel staff uniforms over the last 100 years

You don't have to choose one of these ideas. But please have a different idea from each other! 

See you in class next week!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry 2A June 5-6 mid-term short presentations, general comments & board notes on presenting

Hello to all EH2 students,

Thank you for your hard work yesterday and today in class on your mid-term short presentations. You tried hard on them and prepared well. You did a good job overall and all of you are getting better and better, step-by-step, on your presenting skills.

Here are a few more general comments on your presentations:

Michelle - you're getting better and better, more and more natural at this. I think you're getting better at organizing your visual information as well. Check a few more facts  - but good work!

Ryoichi - Same here. You need to do more fact-checking but you are getting better at this too. You can be really natural with people in public - they will like you!

Tomoyo - You really do your homework well. Good research here. You're getting more confident in front of people as well, and I think with time you'll be really good at this. Good job.

Chichan - I think you can do this - but you need to tell yourself you can do it. I thought you got bettter and better as your talk went on today. I was very impressed. Choosing Osaka was very natural for you and you can be a really good guide for your city with time and more practice. Good job too!

Here are the board notes I showed you today in class after your talks. Look at these - they will also be really important for you with the final presentation handouts I gave you on Tuesday.

This was the first point. REALLY important!

This last point I wrote after you left the classroom. Also REALLY important!

But overall - GREAT JOB! I'll see you in class next week! 

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry 2A 5/22-23 lesson plans & review of present perfect verb tense

Hello to the EH2 class,

Here's the lesson plan for yesterday (5/22):

For 5/23, we continued with this plan by adding the page 36 CD listening, and the page 35 reading about the complaint email.

PRESENT PERFECT REVIEW: 

1. The present perfect is used for actions from the past that still have an impact in the present.

I have worked at KIFL since 2007.
You have been students at KIFL since last year.
They have started their new jobs from this morning.

2. It is also used for talking about life or working experiences without saying any time period or point.

I've (= I have) worked at a number of universities, colleges, and schools.
He's (= he has) traveled around many countries in Europe and Asia.
She's gone back and forth between the Philippines and Japan.

3. We can also use it in time expressions that connect the past to the present.

So far, I've worked every weekend this month.
Over the last few days, they've had a lot to do.

See you next week! 

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry 2A 5/16 lesson plan & tour guide area drawing notes from 5/8-9

Hello to my EH2 students!

Finally I'm posting for you! I will post here our lesson plan from 5/16. Before doing so, I will post the great tour guide area drawing notes from 5/8-9 that Michelle and Tomoyo gave me permission to do:

First, Michelle Kiyono's guide drawing to Manila:

Here is Tomoyo Kimura's work for Sawara city in Chiba:

This was very good work, with good spoken guiding from all of you! Now, here's the lesson plan from 5/16:

We will work more on the present perfect next week (5/22-23). See you then!

KIFL - all classes - videos on giving presentations

This is a special post to my KIFL students in Intermediate Business English, English for the Hospitality Industry, and Senka Business Communications Skills.

Here, I have posted some videos for you that I hope you find useful as you prepare for your final presentations. Watch them carefully, and watch them as often as you like or need. I have included examples of presentations both with PowerPoint, and without.

The first video, from the U.S., is a good introduction about what you should do when preparing for your final presentations.



The other two videos are examples from Korea - the first without PowerPoint, and the second with PowerPoint. They are both good examples of short student presentations, and I selected them for their good sound and video quality. The first one I posted last year for an EIC class, but I am posting it here again as I think it is a good one.





Notice in both presentations what the presenters do - introduce themselves, clearly show what their subject is, and so on.

While some of you in Intermediate Business English have given presentations before and may already be experienced with them, these videos might still be good for you to review and help remind you on what you need in your preparation. For all my KIFL students - I hope they help you!

KIFL English for Hospitality Industry 1 class Tues 13:40-15:15 & Fri 11:05-12:40 - more subject-verb agreement patterns

Hello all!

Here is my blog post for you about some more subject-verb agreement patterns. I hope these sentences will help you with your subject-verb agreements. See you in class next time!

1) BASIC REVIEW WITH EXAMPLES

I sing songs
You
We
They

He sings songs
She
It

I work hard
You
We
They

He works hard
She
It

2) REVIEW WITH TWO OF THE SAME PATTERNS

I work hard, and you work hard too.
We always work hard, and they usually work hard too.

He works hard, and she works hard too.

3) NEW: MIXING PATTERNS

Now when you know the patterns, you can mix different subject-verb agreement forms
in the same sentence:

They work hard, but he never works hard.

You do what you want, but she never does what she wants.

4) PATTERNS WITH NAMES OF PEOPLE, THINGS AND PLACES

The same patterns still follow with names of people, things and places

Ryoichi plays sports. (Ryoichi is a man, so = he)

Michelle comes to school early. (Michelle is a woman, so = she)

Now, the pattern changes back for two or more people or things, and for two or more groups or types of people or things:

Tomoyo and Rena leave KIFL at the same time. (Tomoyo and Rena = they)

Chisato's friends and Ryoichi's friends like the same kind of music. (Chisato's friends = one group of people = they; Ryoichi's friends = another group of people = they)

Cats and dogs fight sometimes. (Cats = one group of animals = they; dogs = another group of animals = they)

The patterns follow in the same way for places and areas too:

Shinjuku gets dangerous in some parts at night. (Shinjuku = it)

Kyoto looks like a nice place to visit in spring. (Kyoto = it)

The Amazon and Nile rivers run deep into many countries in their parts of the world. (Amazon and Nile rivers = they)

Many of the Yamanote line stations have interesting buildings around them. (Many of the Yamanote line stations = they)

The old parts of Nerima-ku take a long time to walk around in, but one part in
Arakawa-ku takes even longer to walk around in. (The old parts of Nerima-ku = they; one part in Arakawa-ku = it)