Celebrating New Year in Japan

Praying at our local shrine, New Year's

In Japan, New Year's festival started a very long time ago. We celebrate it on the first of January. It's a
public holiday. We celebrate with family in my grandparents' house, because we want to enjoy the start of the year together.

People eat 'osechi' on New Year's Day too. It's a special meal with different foods, and each dish has a meaning. For example, black beans mean good health, and sweetened fish cake means a long life.

New Year's festival is important in Japan because it brings families together to share special wished for health & happiness.

Posted for Ceilidh

I hate it when you leave

Jim, with an absolute
"worldy" of a student
 in 2018

This time of year is heartbreaking for language school owners like myself...

The inevitable scribbled note from a mum that your favourite student, who has made such awesome progress since her first lesson, which started & ended in a flood of tears/hiding behind mummy's leg/crayon throwing tantrum/hands in pockets refusal to enjoy a song & dance etc...now quitting to focus on 'juku' (cram school) or 'club activities' (only Despina Deguchi will ever win an Olympic Gold Medal from around here!) from next month.

Of course, all our departing students are welcome back with open arms - by which time 'romaji damage' has been permanently inflicted (you learnt how to read and spell phonetically accurately with me, but then want to end every word with a 'u' on the end...); you'll rely on an electronic dictionary to translate your every thought into incoherent word salads; you'll use AI to write any creative writing ideas you might have; you'll want to translate everything back & forwards through L1 and not even be able to say big numbers properly. You will have lost any idea of reading for fun; your fun intonation will have been flattened like a rib-eye before a BBQ, and you will be wondering why EIKEN is not recognised in the school you want to go to in Canada or Australia...and not be able to get an IELTS score good enough to get you a visa. Can we catch up for the years in juku/club activities? Methinks not.

I hate this time of year...am I young enough to wait for you to come back & rescue your English language learning any more? I'm afraid I don't think so...nor do I want to start another generation of learners from the floor (I'm old enough to be your mother's grandad - and my knees hurt). "I hate it when you leave" 

I hate it when you leave....

Tundra Biome project - taking a text book project home

 

Check out this original work from three of our junior high school students, as a project extension to our class studies in Everybody Up 5. Class one = collecting ideas & googling for images, making notes, with my initial visualisation being a copy & paste job. However, as everyone was already using the PC in my classroom, I decided to let go of the mouse & keyboard & assist from the back of the room, leaving them with a Jamboard canves to populate instead. Two lads in class, sharing typing duties with a third collaborator online chirping in with editing ideas etc. I'm not 100% sure about their animal identification skills!

Biome research - googling!

There is not as much English content as I would have liked, but the task got the boys working together & thinking creatively, adding sticky notes & checking spelling, and learning how to collaborate with this online whiteboard tool. Class two: learning PC skills never did anyone any harm - it always dismays me how little Japanese students can do with tech. Regardless, this output was a personal mission for them & I am sure will settle the 'biome' concept into their memories.

Well done lads!

Expanded horizons - biome take away

A treasure map - Kaito (JH1)

My Junior High School boys class can be a bit of a handful at times, can it can be tough keeping them motivated and engaged especially last thing on a Friday evening!

English Time 3 offers an opportunity to use CLIL, which these boys lapped up at the end of U9. The project - making a treasure map, with a dexcription using language we had studied in previous units. A chance to let the creative juices flow and be a bit crazy and bizarre.

Look out for the other treasure mpas coming up on the blog in the coming week!