My cousin's wedding

I'm going to talk about when I attended my cousin's wedding. 

The wedding was held in the city of Tokyo on a sunny day. The place was a very spacious and beautiful building. From there, I could see the bay and the morning sun was very beautiful. At the ceremony, my cousin and my cousin’s wife were wearing very beautiful dresses and tuxedos, and they were very bright.
I ate a lot of food at the wedding. I ate seafood salad, cold corn soup, beef steak, foie gras, stewed seafood, sorbet, cake, and so on . I also drank Sudachi's non-alcoholic cocktail. The colour was blue and it was very refreshing.

There were two entertainments for the wedding. The first is to guess the colour of the dress that the bride will change. We choose which dress the bride will wear with a penlight. The dress, which was originally white, has become a very beautiful blue dress. The result,l could not collect,but the dress looked very good on the bride and was beautiful. The second is dancing. My cousin's classmate danced in costume. It was very fun and exciting. Everyone in the audience was laughing.

It was a very fun wedding with a lot of food and everyone laughing.

Posted for Ayumi

Sherlock Holmes - The Sign of Three (a year later...)

One year later, things have changed a bit for the characters. John and Mary are very busy taking care of their baby. John still works as a doctor, but he spends more time with his family now. Mary has become a good mother. They felt worried before having the baby, but they are happier.

Sherlock is still solving many crimes. He has changed a little because he understands friendship more deeply now and cares more about other people’s feelings. For Sherlock, John and Mary are still his best friends and very important people to him.

Janine didn’t start dating the man in the white jacket and blue shirt at the end, but she is more confident now. She enjoys meeting new people.

Sholto survived the crime and now lives more carefully. He will continue to feel guilty about the deaths of young men in Afghanistan for the rest of his life. But after the wedding incident, he felt a little better and started to trust other people more.

Jonathan Small is in prison to atone for his crimes. But he never forgave Sholto and doesn’t regret trying to kill him.

Posted for Nene

Boss - Reiko's favourite Japanese detective TV show

The Japanese TV series, Boss is my favorite detective stories.

They are 2 seasons as below:
1st season is started from 2009 April to June, 11 stories in total
2nd season is started from 2011 April to June, 11 stories in total

There are 5 team members and 1 boss, and 1 upper management reported from the boss. (in 2nd season, it would be increased to 7 members)

The leading character is called “Boss” who is a woman bureaucrat in Japanese police but relegated to USA in the name of studying profiling for 5 years. When she came back to Japan, upper managements of police made new team for her, which is for special criminals because there is no department they wanted her to go back.

Although the team is made under no expectation, they resolve many important cases every time through special characters of every member, strong leadership and help by the upper management without being seen.

The upper management entered police at the same time of the boss and he got promoted smoothly but she could not be promoted because she tend not to follow the instruction of upper managements.

The inserted song is also good. It is sung by “Superfly” who is one of Japanese pop artist. The strong voice of the song matches with the strong character of the boss very much. Superfly provide their song for the both of series.

Posted for Reiko

Meet some of our authors!

Only fair to share with you some of this blog’s regular contributors - “inspired” by their extensive reading hobby. 

We have recently chosen OUP Bookworms as well as Scholastic titles for this term. Students chose the titles themselves, and avoided murder & ghost stories! I hope they will enjoy reading for fun - they have been ploughing through graded readers for a couple of years now (we’re auditing their total word count at the moment) and are very good at sticking to their goals. 

The written work you read from them here is prompted by considered ‘after reading’ tasks that are intended to reflect Cambridge Assessment English writing paper exam tasks (ie chose from a variety of  different writing tasks - an essay, a memo or a letter etc) with a suggested word limit, intended audience (such as a teen magazine readership, work colleagues or persons unknown to require consideration of tone & formality, as well as format & style). 

As students are in-work, time demands are obviously pressing & they’re often unable to proofread each other’s first drafts - so what you see is what you get! 

We try to read a book a month; we provide students with Google Forms to encourage pre-reading (looking through the pictures, reading the blurb on the back cover & maybe checking out the cast of characters...and crucially, getting their teeth into the glossary using dedicated Quizlet sets for each book, lovingly created by our teachers in preparation). Without this getting ready stage, we know the actual reading phase can be slowed, stalled, or even derailed. 

We really enjoy reading our students’ original and thoughtful contributions - I thought you, gentle reader, would like to know a little bit more about how the blog sausage is made. Your encouragement motivates them to be brave & push “publish”!

And yes, we love graded readers :) 

Thanks for reading. 

Current Magazine - Nujeen Mustafa

Inspired by reading a snippet of Nujeen Mustafas's 'Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair' in Mary Glasgow's Current magazine, some students wrote about the toughest journeys they've experienced in their lives.


When I was a university student, I sometimes had a part-time job. The university was in Kyoto, so there were some special part-time jobs.

One day, I found the notice of the job with my friend at the student affairs office. It was an extra of a period play. It looked fun and payment was not so bad. We were willing to apply that job. On the day, it was really heavy rain early in the morning. I wonder whether I go there or not. I decided to go there.

The bus was waiting for us at school. After leaving there, it stopped raining. Because of the heavy rain, my friend hadn't come. I went to Uzumasa film studio to wear a peasant costume. I was unhappy.

Everyone got on a bus again for an hour, and arrive at Ado river ibn Shiga prefecture. Around the river was lonely place. There were just only a field and a river. It was a good place to shoot peasants riot. Some professional extras involved in our group. s making a sign, everyone began to run. We did it again and again. Lunch box was served on the bus.

Then we ran in the different field. In the evening another scene was shot. This time we ran with torches. There is no place to go to the restroom. So I gave up to go there. After shooting, they gave dinner box. When I got to my sharehouse, it was nine. It was a unique experience, but I didn;t want to do it again. It was the toughest day trip.

Posted for Hiroko

Current Magazine - Nujeen Mustafa

Inspired by reading a snippet of Nujeen Mustafas's 'Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair' in Mary Glasgow's Current magazine, some students wrote about the toughest journeys they've experienced in their lives.


As a matter of fact, I've never had so tough journey in my life. I was born in a peaceful country and
raised up with a nice family in a middle class, and had never desired to have a tough journey.

When I go travel, it was always well planned getting rid of risks. but in 2004, when I went to Europe alone was an exception. My daughter was already in Rome, so I had to go to Rome by myself. It was the first time for me to go to Europe. I couldn't understand Italian at all, so I learned Italian a little.

In the airplane I chose the seat near the aisle. Next to me were two big young Korean guys. They drank alcohol so often, so they went to the toilet frequently. It bothered me. The cabin attendant recognized the situation. At the end of the flight, she gave me a small present of JAL with an apology.

From the airport to Telmine station, I took a train. It was already night, the train was crowded. I could see many kinds of people, looked like from Africa, the Middle East, Asia or America, talking their own language.

At Telmine station, I didn;t know the direction when I saw the policemen. I wanted to ask them the way to my hotel, but they were so big I just hesitated to do it. I checked the name of the road, and began to walk/ But the area where my hotel looked very dangerous. On the dirty road, people were sitting with blank looks.

Finally, I got to the hotel. When I was checking in, there was a phone call from my daughter. She sad she wanted to be with her friend one more day. So, I had to be at the hotel alone. I couldn't sleep all night because of the noise and the neon light from outside.

Posted for Yasumi

Current Magazine - Nujeen Mustafa

Inspired by reading a snippet of Nujeen Mustafas's 'Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair' in Mary Glasgow's Current magazine, some students wrote about the toughest journeys they've experienced in their lives.

It was the first time I had been to Hawaii. I was sixteen years old. I went to Hawaii with my brother
and my high-school friends. That journey was hard before leaving Japan.

Before summer vacation, we made a plan to go to Hawaii. I decided saving money to go to Hawaii. I worked in my uncle's factory from Monday to Friday at the beginning of the summer vacation. First my job was very easy. But some old women complained about it. They thought it wasn;t fair so my uncle changed my job. My job was getting harder and harder. Every weekend I worked at swimming school. I liked teaching swimming. I was very tired but finally I saved enough money to go to Hawaii.

We arrived at Hawaii early morning. We wanted to go to Hanauma Bay. It was a fine day. We decided to go there by bicycle. Hanauma bay wasn't so far from Waikiki  but our bicycles were gear-less, so it was very hard to pedal. The road wasn;t flat, it was a slope. If you slipped and fell into the car road you'd have been killed by cars. Finally we arrived at Hanauma Bay. We were all very tired but we were very excited.

Next day we borrowed an open car. It was a nice BMW. We were very excited. It was the first time I had ridden in an open car. In these days there wasn't navigation. We lost our way and wandered into a strange place. It was a beautiful residential area. There were many beautiful houses. When my brother (Lui) was driving slowly, suddenly one big dog appeared. The dog attacked us. Unfortunately our car was an open car! When I screamed, Lui drove at full speed. We were all safe.

Every day I swam in the sea without blocking sun, because in those days a tanned face and body were very attractive for me. So I wanted to get a suntan. But the place was Hawaii, ultraviolet rays were very strong. I got a terrible sunburn. My face grew bigger and I couldn't open my eye. I felt a stinging pain in my body. I was childish and immature, but sometimes I remember those sparkling young days.

Posted for Olga

Take-Away Japan

In Japan, many people think their own health is very important. So, quite healthy take-away restaurants like Hokka-ben and Hokka-motto are looked upon well.

However, many Japanese people do like fried food & hamburgers. There are McDonald's, Mos-Burger, KFC and we can even get take-away ramen. Japanese eating style has greatly changed since the end of the war. It is getting oilier & unhealthier.

Although it is unhealthy, we cannot help eating fried chicken, chips & nuggets, when we know how delicious they are!

By Takuro

Check out the vocab for this article in the magazine, for learners at CEFR B1/B2 https://quizlet.com/115775930/club-jan-feb-2016-take-away-britain-flash-cards/

Christmas in Japan

In class this week, my junior high school class was reading about Christmas for teens in the UK, in their Mary Glasgow magazine "Crown". We decided to compare our own answers, and this is what we found.

Do you like Christmas?

• Yuta: No, because Santa Claus doesn't come to my house. Maybe I'm a bad boy?
• Karen: No, because I don't get any Christmas presents.
• Jim: No, because I don't like working until the very last minute and not having time to buy nice presents or prepare my home.

Did you get what you wanted last Christmas?

• Yuta: No, I didn't. I wanted a Fender guitar.
• Karen: No, I didn't. I wanted money.
• Jim: No, I didn't. I got socks instead of books about cricket in Afghanistan & the West Indies.

What did you do last Christmas Day?

• Yuta: I went to school, as usual. My teacher gave me some chocolate.
• Karen: I went to school.
• Jim: I skyped my brother's family in Australia & talked to my mum. After that, I started cooking with a glass of wine.

What did you eat last Christmas?

• Yuta: I ate fried chicken (my mum cooked it) at home, with my parents. I didn't have Christmas pudding because I did not know what it is. I'd like to try it this year.
• Karen: I ate chicken & Christmas cake at home with my family.
• Jim: We ate a traditional Christmas dinner that I cooked - roast turkey & vegetables, gravy, as well as other things my wife's family brought (pizza, salad, cake...) and of course we drank champagne & wine. I ate too much!

How about this year?

• Yuta: I want a new basketball, to play with my friends at school - no holiday.
• Karen: I want a polaroid camera. School is off for Christmas this year. I don't know why!
• Jim: I don't want socks. I want a gadget to turn my old analog stereo amplifier & speakers into bluetooth receivers. I hope my children do not get toy guns/swords/anything noisy!

Only one of us has a tree in the house (we have a big one outside the school)!

We'd like to know about how you celebrate Christmas.

 If you don't, what do you do instead?

Big Books, little readers

Show YOU are interested!

Action shots of Jim in action in the classroom are few & far between; Yuki is always pestering me for them though for promotion materials etc. So, seeing as she was helping out in pre-school today (Naomi off studying in Tokyo), she snapped away happily while I was reading one of our lovely BIG Scholastic readers ("I like").

Be active

Obviously (as I think it is obvious!) readers need to be interactive and engaging; milk the book for all it's worth and personalise it for maximum impact! In this case picking out the fruit we do like - and the fruit we don't like. Which fruit did we eat already today? Which fruit is soft/hard, what colours are they etc.

Most importantly of all, know your story!

As you can see, our pre-schoolers thoroughly enjoy a good book, and it is a lot of fun getting so much back from the children. I would say they are producing more spoken English now, before their 3rd birthdays, than most of our pre-teens who can only come to class once a week.

Engage

All the language they are acquiring at this age is going 'in', and being reproduced extremely naturally, frequently, and in context - with no pressure to perform.