This blog serves several purposes: Communicating with my students outside of the classroom, publishing my students' work, and it serves as a resource for both students and teachers.
Hokkaido's favourite English teacher, Sarah, has gone to Canada and she's producing the Daily English Show from Canada until October. This is the first show from Canada. In this show Sarah talks to a man called Matt from Oakville. Oakville is near Toronto. I lived there for 5 years after university.
One of the interesting parts of this show is that you learn about Toronto slang and Canadian spelling. You also learn about WWOOFING and organic farming.
Toyo Gakuen University FE4-Speaking Level 2 A Video for Unit 3
This is another video by Paul Carr from ESLpodTV. As an introduction to the video Paul wrote:
Topic: Animated drama series (アニメ連続ドラマ)
Level: Beginner (初級)
Language: polite requests and invitations (丁寧語、招待)
This is the third lesson in the animated series about Edward Ulysses Cator - a teacher from Britain who moves to the USA to take up a new job. These stories are aimed at beginner level students and will relate Edward’s experiences adapting to his new life and job in America. As with other lessons on this site there will be a video, mp3 listening file and PDF lesson to download for each episode. Enjoy the show!
このビデオは初級生徒の為の新しい連続アニメドラマです。米国に来たばかりのEd. U. Catorと言うイギリス人教師の新生活の物語です。このレッスンはいつもと同じビデオ、mp3、とPDFテキストを使用します。
In part 3 of this series Ed invites Jenny to his housewarming party. Will she come? Watch the video and find out! You can see the transcript by clicking here. Spanish users can get a translation of the script by going to Rikai.com and following the instructions there. ( せりふの訳はそのページのURLをRikai.comへ)
There are some useful words and expressions to learn below.
guy - person, usually a man
anytime - whenever
nothing special - nothing different or unusual
accent - the way your voice sounds shaped by where you’re from
housewarming party - special event celebrating moving into new home
neighbors - the people living nearby
got nothing on - not doing anything at that time
few - a small number of something
funny - strange
I was wondering if… polite expression requesting somebody do something
If you’re free… - expression often used to ask for date or request favor
This week the music played in class has been related to Acid Jazz, Trip-Hop, Free Jazz, Nu Jazz and Fusion. Two of the artists have a connection to Japan, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Monday Michiru. Monday Michiru is the daughter of Jazz orchestra leader and award winning composer Toshiko Akiyoshi. I was able to attend a Toshiko Akiyoshi concert at the Tokyo Blue Note. It was fantastic.
Watch what happens when Ben and Yuki hear a strange noise in the middle of the night. Who’s there? A burglar or somebody else? Our brave couple go downstairs to find out. You can see the transcript by clicking here. ( せりふの訳はそのページのURLをRikai.comへ)
There are some useful words and expressions to learn below.
Wasamatter? - What’s the matter?
downstairs - On the floor(s) below
torch - a light you carry in your hand
stairs - steps
scared - afraid
granny - grandmother
gramps - granddad
dangerous - not safe
locked - closed or shut so it cannot be opened without a key
burglar - someone who steals from houses
freckles - brown spots on the face
bald - to have no hair on the head
scars - an old cut that leaves a mark on the skin
wrinkles - age lines on the face
Enjoy!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Smallest Restaurant in the World
At the moment, the topic in my speaking classes is restaurants. This is a video from RealEnglish.com about a restaurant. Enjoy!
Last week most of the music we heard was progressive rock. I was a big fan of progressive rock when I was a high school student. When I was a university student I hosted a progressive rock radio show called Gothic Rock on CJAM-fm radio in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Most of the records I played were by British and German bands. One of the bands played in classes this week, The Tea Party, was formed in Windsor. The Tea Party's first recordings were played on CJAM-fm. I had a chance to see the Tea Party's live concerts and meet the members.
I still like progressive rock.
This is another video from MadridTeacher.com. It's called, "A Typical Day in The Life of Victoria Fontana". This video relates to Unit 2. Watch, listen and learn about daily life for a teacher in Madrid. Enjoy
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Ball Hockey
This is a video of a coed ball hockey game in Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada. As you can see the game is a lot of fun. Starting this week, I will teach special ball hockey classes at Toyo Gakuen University. The classes will include the history and culture of hockey, in all it's forms, and of course, we will play the game.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Seventieth Anniversary of the Hindenburg Disaster
On 6 May 1937 one of the worst disasters in aviation history occured. The Hindenburg was the pride of Germany. You can learn more about the Hindenburg and the disaster by reading the wikipedia article in simple English. There are wikipedia articles in other languages too. This is a newsreel from Universal Studios. Newsreels were common before television. They were played before movies.
This is a self-introduction by Jim Smiley. Smiley is a perfect name for Jim. He has a lovely wide grin and he is always very fun to have around. Jim is very busy as a university teacher and a member of JALT but he still finds time for hobbies. Watch the video and listen to Jim. What do you think? Leave a comment.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Conversation: More about hobbies - what to say and what not to say
Conversation Strategies: Natural versus unnatural questions
This is a video from Action Language Academy, an Eikaiwa (English conversation school) in Japan. The video is called, 英会話 名古屋 Typical English Mistakes-1: Hobby. The video talks about a common mistake students in Japan make during an English conversation. The mistake that they make is asking the question "What is your hobby?" They make this mistake because the Japanese word 趣味 (shumi) is translated as "hobby". However, "shumi" can be translated as interest or favourite pastime.
