Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
I was looking through some of my old things and found a postcard from the first school I taught at in Japan. When a potential customer had taken a trial lesson, the teacher was supposed to fill in this postcard and it would be sent to that student. I had to shrink the picture a bit for the web, but if you look closely you’ll see a classic mistake. Â […]
I’m starting to get really fed up with email. I get over 200 messages a week and usually only a handful of them are not spam. Cleaning out the spam has become a daily part of my routine, much like brushing my teeth, taking a shower and washing the dishes. If I don’t do it every day, my inbox will just grow ugly stuff. So I was surprised to read Nate Anderson’s article called “Teens: E-mail […]
According to an NHK report in 2000, Japan has the largest commercial English language education market in the world, valued at $20 billion. So, you would expect most Japanese to be fairly proficient in English, right? Wrong! Official TOEIC figures for 1997-1998 showed Japan to have the lowest average score among the 17 countries in which TOEIC test taking is most popular. As an ESL teacher in Japan, I should consider myself fortunate that people […]
I always ask my students what they plan to do at the weekend and they often say they are going to go for a drive. I agree that if you can get out into the mountains you might enjoy the scenery, just as we do driving through the countryside in England, but that’s if you can get out into the mountains! When the weekend rolls around, everybody, and I mean everybody, […]
While most of my free time is spent sitting in front of the computer, watching movies or playing video games, I have tried to find some other hobbies to keep things interesting. I tried juggling, and succeeded in keeping four balls in the air for a good five seconds. I mastered the Rubik’s cube, being able to complete it within three minutes, and I even tried something a bit more Japanese – […]
I didn’t come to Japan for the money. No, really! I’d love to say I came to experience the culture, learn the language and teach English, but if truth be told, I came for a girl… but that’s another story. So, although I wasn’t here for the money at first, it has become a big reason for me to stay. Contrary to popular belief, I find the cost of living […]
In the cabbage fields of Tsumagoi in Gunma prefecture, about 20 loving hubbies gathered to scream out messages of love to their wives. It was an event called “Kyabetsu Batake no Chushin de Ai O Sakebu” (“Shouting love in the center of a cabbage field.”), a pun on Kyoichi Katayama’s best-selling novel, “Sekai no Chushin de Ai O Sakebu” (“Shouting love in the center of the world”). From the Mainichi […]
There’s a TV commercial in Japan by a house-building company called ‘Daiwa House’ in which an English teacher is reading sentences for his class of high school students to repeat. I can’t remember exactly but he says something like “My father is a doctor”, and all the students diligently repeat him. Then, following the same rules of grammar, he says “My mother is a teacher”, and once again they all repeat. Finally, […]