Welcome Party in the English Lounge at Togaku

Today a fantastic event was held in the English Lounge at Toyo Gakuen University. It was a Welcome Party. It was organised by Harumi, Megumi, and Asami. Asami drew the beautiful poster above. Harumi made the posters below.


Harumi was the MC and she did a great job. She spoke very clear and easy to understand English. Megumi and Asami helped out with the MC duties too. The also did a fabulous job.

The party started with a tour around the campus. At various checkpoints along the way we had to carefully observe the areas and be prepared to answer a quiz. It was a great way to see the campus. Then, many students and teachers sang and performed songs by The Police, The Beatles, Radiohead, Van Morrison, and The Troggs. There were a few songs from the Sound of Music performed too.

The last two weeks were a great time to be on campus because the students were practicing their songs every day. So, we could hear music around campus every day. It brightened our spirits on these rainy days. I hope we have another event like this soon.

Introducing France

This is a slideshow about France made by David Deubelbeiss, a great teacher in Korea.
I have been to Paris. I visited Notre Dame Cathedral, The Louvre, and Centre Georges Pomipdou. Centre George Pompipou was my favourite place.

Watch the slideshow.
Do the tasks below.



Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Tasks:
Tell me 3 places that you want to visit in Paris. Why do you want to visit these places?
Your talk must be at least 50 words.
E-mail your recording to me.

21st Century Learners

This is a great video by a teacher in the United States called Nathan Lowell. Are you a 21st Century Learner?

Shibaura Institute of Technology Listening Comprehension 2008 Assignment 1

The topic of your first assignment is music.

You will hear three interviews. Listen to the interviewers and do the tasks on the worksheet. Follow these steps:

First download your worksheet. Click this link:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4489121-fa6

Task 1
Click this link: http://www.elllo.org/august/alex/aradio.htm

Task 2
Click this link: http://www.elllo.org/Pages0301/303-Adrienne-Violin.htm

Task3
Click this link: http://www.elllo.org/english/0801/Q817-Eoin-After.html



These interviews come from a great website called ELLLO. ELLLO means English language Listening On-line. The interviewer is my friend Todd Beuckens. You can hear more of Todd's interviews by clicking here.

This is Brazil: A voicethread presentation by students in Brazil

This is a terrific slideshow presentation about Brazil done by students in Brazil. Their teacher is Ronaldo Lima. Mr. Lima must be a great teacher because his students speak English very well.
I hope this presentation inspires you. It inspired me!

Toyo Gakuen Students Talk About Music Genres

A model language learner

We all need role models (模範的な人, 手本). Language learning role models are especially important. My friend Sanae is one of my language learning role models. I think she is a great role model. She studied English in Junior High School and Senior High School but she didn't learn English. She wasn't happy that she didn't learn English, so she made an effort to really learn English. Now her English is excellent. She has written books about learning English and she is an English teacher. Please visit her website to read her story. Her website is called Sanae's Place.

The First Day of School: Introductions

I teach my first classes of the 2008 academic year beginning tomorrow. I teach many first year students so I made this slide show in order to introduce myself. I made it using a website called voicethread. You can make your own slideshow with voicethread or you can comment on other people's slide shows.




Enjoy!

Back to School - The Toyo Gakuen University Barbeque

Today was the annual barbeque at Toyo Gakuen University. This is the first big event of the year. Unfortunately the weather wasn't good. So the barbeque was held in the gym.

The food and conversation were good. I enjoyed meeting my new students and I enjoyed seeing the students that I taught last year too.
Classes start tomorrow. Hurray!!

Back to School - Shibaura Institute of Technology

The new academic year (学年) in Japan has begun. The academic year in Japan begins in April. Yesterday students at Shibaura Institute of Technology held an event in order to recruit new members to their various clubs. There are many clubs at Shibaura Institute of Technology. Some clubs are traditional Japanese clubs and some are international.

This picture is a picture of the kyuudou club (弓道). Kyuudou is Japanese archery.

Shibaura Institute of Technology has a baseball club too. Baseball is very popular in Japan.

Shibaura Institute of Technology also has an American football club.

The Shibaura Institute of Technology Jazz band is very good. I enjoyed listening to it play swing era Jazz.

The event also had a character walking around. Japanese people like characters very much.

Buddha Park

I visited an interesting place called Buddha Park. Buddha Park is about twenty-five kilometres southeast from Vientiane. I went to Buddha Park with two colleagues and a Laotian called Lee (pronounced /lei:/). Lee was our guide. Lee speaks English very well, and he knows a lot about Buddha Park.
We went to Buddha Park in a tuk tuk. The journey was bumpy because many of the roads were unpaved. Along the way we got to see the Mekong River.

We were very lucky to see a traditional Lao fisherman on the river.


The picture below is a picture of me standing in front of the first sculpture that you see when you enter Buddha Park. Inside this sculpture are three levels: Hell. Earth, and Heaven.


This is the entrance to Hell. The entrance is very small. It was difficult for me to enter.

The picture below is a picture of the inside of the sculpture. I took the picture on level two: Earth.
Here is the view from the top level: Heaven. You can see all the sculptures in Buddha Park.

The pictures below are close-ups of some of the interesting scultures in Buddha Park.




｛ぶっきょう｝Some of the sculptures are based on Buddhist mythology (仏教の神話学) and some of the sculptures are based on Hindu (ヒンドゥー教) mythology.

Sightseeing in Vientiane, Laos: Pha That Luang - The Great Stupa

I visited Pha That Luang. Pha That Luang is called the Great Stupa or the Golden Stupa in English. Pha That Luang is the national symbol of Laos.


I travelled to the Great Stupa in a tuk tuk. Tuk tuks are like a taxi. They are a great way to go from one place to another place in Vientiane.

This is the gate to the Great Stupa.

The picture below is a picture of a wat (temple) next to the Great Stupa.

This is another wat near the Great Stupa

Here's another wat near the Great Stupa. It looks very similar to a Thai wat.

The pictures below are guardian dragons.

These are buddhas

Next time I'll post some pictures of the Buddha Park.

Food in Vientiane, Laos

The food in Laos is very delicious and very cheap. It is possible to get a meal in Laos for as little as ¥20. I usually paid about ¥200 for my meals in Laos.

Barbeque is a traditional form of Lao cooking. I ate Lao barbeque at a restaurant near the Mekong River. The fish was the most delcious.

The picture above is of another traditional Lao dish called Lao laap. Lao laap is served with sticky rice. Sticky rice is similar to mochigome (餅米).

This is another dish made with fish. The fish was cooked with coconut milk and served in a banana leaf. It tastes like Thai food. It's very delicious.

Here's another fish dish. I like fish very much. Laos is not neat the sea. So, most of the fish that Laotians eat is river fish and lake fish.

This is a Lao salad.

There are some Vietnamese restaurants in Laos too. The picture above is of some spring rolls I ate. The spring rolls are served with noodles and greens. This very big meal cost only ¥200.

Laos used to be a French colony so there are many French restaurants in Laos. The picture above is a picture of the meal I ate at a French restaurant. It's buffalo (水牛肉) with a creme sauce.

Teachers Helping Teachers in Laos

I visited Laos. I stayed in Laos from the nineteenth of March to the twenty-sixth of March. I stayed in the capital city of Laos. The capital city of Laos is Vientiane.

This is a map of South East Asia. Click on the map to make it bigger. You can see that Laos is near Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and China.

Vientiane is on the Mekong River. Vientiane is close to the Lao-Thailand border. Click on the map to make it bigger.

I went to Laos with an organisation called Teachers Helping Teachers (THT). I went to Laos in order to teach teachers and students who want to become teachers. I did some sightseeing too.


Lao-American College is an amazing school. It has a kindergarten, primary school, high school, university and graduate school (大学院). So, it is possible for students to get all their education at Lao-American College.

I taught teachers and students in this building.

This is a picture of me with Michel, a teacher at Lao-American College.

Here's a slide show about the Teachers Helping Teachers Seminars at Lao-American College in 2007. The video was made by Brent Jones.




Next time I'll post some pictures of intertesting palces I visited and delicious food I ate.