Jim's weekend on the job - Tokyo

Delighted to report that I was involved with another training session for Cambridge Assessment English last weekend, as Team Leader for Kawaijuku JP026. On this occasion I was looking after A2:Key & B1:Preliminary levels

Speaking Examiner training team, July 2025 

I was annoyed that a couple of applicants didn't bother turning up (nor contacting us with an excuse/apology) as that robbed other people of the chance to join this otherwise fully booked event.

As it was, we had a very mixed group of English language teaching professonals join the team. Language school teachers,high school teachers, dispatch/ALTs, freelancers & directors of studies. Some people very new to the country, and other old-hands; some dedicated Tokyo-dwellers and others more transient - one participant actually living in Osaka made the trip especially. And six nationalities; more folks from Singapore & Atlanta Georgia than Yorkshire!

As ever, the various experiences of such a group only adds to the eventual outcome, with voices considering how to assess speaking tests vs standardised criteria; noticing different aspects of candidate output, removing personal bias/preferences; gaining exposure to other approaches & ideas...and also picking up best practice off each other in the interlocutor role, learning off each other & giving/recieving feedback.

It is never possible to cover everything an examiner needs to learn in the limited time available to us - a weekend seems like a long time, right? It isn't...Hence the very real need for all Speaking Examiners, globally, to recertify annually in order to build up layers or professional ability, fine tune perfomances and focus in more detail on certain aspects of interlocutor & assessor roles.

My next training session for Kanto area teachers will be Sept 20th, at B1:Preliminary & B2:First, which I'm really looking forward to!

Cambridge Speaking Examiners - high maintenance!

Unfortunately, with the upturn of 'you know what' cases in Japan lately, I'm looking at having to provide certification for our nationwide network of Cambridge Assessment English Speaking Examiners online again this spring.


Really grateful that our Preparation Centre in Akasaka, Tokyo (King's Road School of English) provided me with the chance to video record more than 50 candidates back in early January. This was a massive undertaking, arranged during the Christmas holidays.

Over a dozen experienced Speaking Examiners offered up their free time for this crucial project on the day - demostrating for the first time how to properly, fully, deliver all levels of speaking examinations with covid-precautions/altered scripts & procedures in play, including groups of three candidates.

All of which means that we can now show recently trained/not examined yet/less experienced/'not examined since covid started' SEs copper-bottomed examples of how to deliver (interlocute)...properly.

I exhausted my go-to box of online certification tricks over the last two years. I'm quite sure Japan's Speaking Examiner team will be delighted with the quality of refreshing, relevant, and recent procedural examples they will be able to discuss & learn from as we certify this year.

When? All times JST = GMT +9. For SEs in Japan (as well as our disapora denied the opportunity elsewhere):

Feb 26 9:00am - A2:Key + B1:Preliminary
Feb 26 1:30pm - A2:Key + B1:Preliminary
Feb 27 9:00am - A2:Key + B1:Preliminary
Feb 27 1:30pm - Young Learners
Mar 13 9:00am - A2:Key + B1:Preliminary
Mar 13 1:30pm - A2:Key + B1:Preliminary
Mar 20 9:00am - A2:Key + B1:Preliminary

Contact Jim George oyajim@gmail.com if you would like information on attending future Cambridge Assessment English SE training - across Japan.

New Young Learners - Certification workshop

Quick announcement for any Cambridge YLE speaking examiners who need to re-certify with 2018 materials - certification workshop being held in Matsumoto Jan 28th

See link for details

NB Only available to SEs who have already trained for YLE and examined within the last 2 years

Contact Jim to register (free to JP004 SEs)

So what does Jim do at the weekends when he isn't teaching?

BYOD solution to get SEs talking!

Last weekend I was looking after the Certification of speaking examiners for one of our fellow Cambridge Centres in Tokyo. This is a part of my job I really enjoy a lot, as I am working with professional teachers who are dedicated to the role they have chosen to pursue in their spare time - doing more teachery stuff! Speaking Examiners do not grow on trees; they need looking after, nurturing, and occasionally patting on the back! They need to know when they are doing a good job, and every year they need to freshen up their skills in delivering the speaking tests and to show that their assessment is in tune...matching Cambridge's worldwide benchmark.

We were fortunate last weekend to have half a dozen young CEFR B2 (FCE) level kids studying in the school, who were keen to have a couple of free practice 'goes'. One of the teachers was surprised one of the boys didn't start crying - so well done my team for not being scary & insensitive! Yes, it's a test, but you can still smile and be 'normal'. One thing I really do not want 'my' cadre to do is get all serious and high & mighty. Our job is to provide the candidates with the opportunity to display all that they can do....

This year I have been throwing my examiners into Quizlet Live games, competing with & against each other to tackle tricky topics like feedback commentaries. Rather than me stand there & bemoan this or that, the examiners themselves have to come to some sort of agreement as to how certain behaviour or outcomes should be considered. That in itself generates a lot of discussion - and consensus - and reinforces the message that regardless of location or circumstances, each & every candidate must have the same opportunity to be successful.

Ayako, Jim & Hiroshi - champions!

So I was delighted to be able to introduce the team later to Ayako & Hiroshi Nishizawa, both former Luna students now running a fabulous restaurant in Naka-Meguro ("Yakitori Champion"). Ayako took YLE while at Luna & has since home-stayed & studied in Warwick; Hiroshi was cool throughout our first 10-day farm-stay to Whangarei in New Zealand, 15 years ago. The food? Fabulous lamb, lots of lamb, and then more lamb. Excellent value, if a bit smoky!

For me, this was a 10 out of ten weekend. What do you think?

Postcard from...Yamagata, Japan

It was a pleasure to spend an afternoon with Ryan Hagglund's experienced staff at MY English School in Yamagata on Tuesday. It IS a long journey from Matsumoto, whichever way you slice it, but being able to hit the ground running makes the day easy to prepare for. Throw in a couple of pizzas and the odd donut...

SEs using Quizlet Live

Using Quizlet Live has proved to be a really enjoyable tool to get teachers working together quickly, and discussing aspects of eg performance feedback that might ordinarily not strike much of a cord. Getting examiners to argue the toss on courtesy or security for example, usually takes quite a lot of doing.

Grateful that even a teacher on paternity leave would give up some of that time to keep his credentials current, and for everyone's time in a week obviously crammed with interesting PD. Kudos to Ryan on pointing his school & staff in a very professional direction. Delighted we can continue to contribute to that bench-marked success with Cambridge Young Learners.