Genki English Newsletter

June 2000

Wow, what a busy month!! We've been up and down the country again! So this month's update has news of the new updates, news about our travels and a really groovy lesson idea from Hutch in Iwate!

"Free" CDs!!

We've had more and more teachers in Japan asking their schools and Boards of Educations to pay for the Genki English CDs - and they have been doing so! So first check that it's OK with your supervisor, then when you make your order tell us that you'd like a "seikyusho" (type of invoice). Either you or your school will pay the Cash On Delivery and can claim the money back later!! Or if they are a bit stricter, we can arrange for them to pay direct into the Genki English account, just let us know when ordering! Great, eh?! If your BOE pays, it effectively means you get the CDs for free!!

The order form is here, http://genkienglish.net/order.htm, or if you are in Japan you can simply reply to this email and tell us your name, address, telephone number and how many copies of CD vol. 1, and how many copies of CD vol. 2 you'd like! Order Both CDs for 9130 yen and you also get a FREE set of worksheets!

FREE Genki English Show in Matsuyama!

On July 14th we'll be having our first Genki English Show that will be open to the general public - and it's free!! If you live anywhere near Matsuyama in Ehime, then tell your Primary School age students, and their parents, to come along! The place is Matsuyama Sougou Fukushi Center, at 9:30 AM, Saturday July 14th. Email us to reserve your place!
showm@genkienglish.net

NEW: Joel's Guide to Elementary Schools & New Curriculum

On the website you'll find a full report of everything that Joel Bacha covered in his Kobe workshops. There's also an excellent passage written by the Japanese Education Ministry concerning the new Primary School curriculum that will be introduced next year. A good read!
http://genkienglish.net/joelskobe.htm

NEW: Hoops game!

I haven't actually uploaded any new games for a while! So here is a very simple game that's great to play in the class, or outside if it's not raining (Japan is in the middle of the rainy season at the moment!).

http://genkienglish.net/hoops.htm

Go! En Project!

For teaching "international understanding" in your schools, the "Go! En" project is a great way to teach your kids about other countries, and help underprivileged kids in these countries by collecting 5 yen coins. Have a look at the website and see if you can help! http://www.geocities.com/ajetvsig/GoEnMainpage.html

NEW: Genki English at home!

Lots of parents are really interested in teaching their kids at home, so I've put up this page that explains how to use the Genki English games and songs at home! Tell your students' parents about it, it's a great way for the kids to learn!
http://genkienglish.net/parents.htm

Kobe Re-contracting JETs conference

We were very proud to be asked by the amazing girls and guys at AJET to present at the Kobe conference for people on the Japan Exchange and Teaching programme! It was a bit different to our normal type of presentation, but we did a mix of some fun teaching stuff and of course the "Genki Speech" - you guys rocked!!! Thank you very much to all the people who attended. Tuesday night was good, but Thursday was packed solid - you were mega GENKI!!

With the idea that you should always keep the interests of your students in mind when planning lessons, the free beer coupons went down very well - thanks to the staff at Dubliners in Kobe for providing those!!!

So remember what I said, being a JET is one of the best jobs in the world. You get to teach a few hours a day, and have lots of free, structured time that you can do anything in!! It's not "every situation is different", it's "Every situation is what you make it!". Hopefully I proved that even with a terrible school or Board of Education , you can still make a huge impact! Even though you might not realise it, the influence you have on your kids is enormous, the things you teach them now will stay with them forever.

We saw it when we went round Japan, it's not the Japanese teachers who are changing the country (they're too busy!), it's YOU! Let's see if we really can get the 2010 edition of the Lonely Planet to say "Up until 10 years ago English wasn't widely understood, but now thanks to the teachers of 2001, every school kid in Japan speaks fluent English!!".

Back to basics ..........

Just before Kobe I was teaching a group of around 40 total beginner Primary School teachers in a city where they'll have to start English next year. That was eye opening! After months of teaching people groovy games, motivation techniques and ways of curing accents, it was back down to basics by giving answers such as "Well actually, it is possible for Japanese people to learn to speak English"or "No, if they learn English it wont make their kanji writing worse", and "No English isn't difficult, it's not Quantum Mechanics or Genetic Engineering. In our countries there are very many people who aren't as clever as you, but speak fluent English!!".

Confidence is the key!!! So for all of us who do speak English, motivating the non-English speaking teachers as well as the kids is just as important! Sometimes people have very stereotyped misconceptions of learning languages. So it's our job to make sure that everyone has the right frame of mind, the confidence to speak, isn't afraid to make mistakes and thinks "Yeah, this is easy and it's fun!! I want to do more!!!"

Genki Poetry???

Jamie "Hutch" Hutchison sent us this great idea for older Primary School kids who want to try something different. First of all teach some adjectives (see my vocab list page for some suitable ones http://genkienglish.net/vocablist.htm ). From these, the kids each choose one. They then choose a noun to go with it e.g.

"Japan is big"

Then you introduce the "er" version, and choose another word.

"Earth is bigger"

Then introduce the "est" version, and choose another noun

"Space is biggest"

This is great way to get the kids to think about things. If you do teach writing, then it's cool practice (and a great decoration for the wall), if not, they can simply use picture cards to help them remember!

So there you go, a cool little poem.
"Japan is big.
Earth is bigger.
Space is biggest."

And finally...

Since getting back to Japan we're having a huge surge of interest in our shows and seminars. Some of the dates we have confirmed are: June23rd (Kyoto), July 7th (Yamaguchi), August 21st-24th (Edogawa, Tokorozawa, Yokohama, Shizuoka), August 26th (Tokyo), September 8th (Tokyo), Sep 9th (Nagoya), Sep 15th (Fukuoka), Sep 16th (Osaka). Plus we're still discussing many others!! Want us to come to your area? Get in touch!

Sorry for the newsletter being so Japan specific this time, I'll try and make it more "Worldly Wise" next month!!

Thanks again to everyone for your support!! And of course, please send this email to anyone you think may be interested in teaching languages to kids!

Be genki,

Richard

======================
Richard J. Graham B.Sc. AMInstP
Primary School English Games, Songs and Activities
Email: richard@genkienglish.net
Tel: 090-1328-6924
http://www.genkienglish.com

Previous Newsletters:

May 2001 Newsletter Part Two!
May 2001 Newsletter Part One
April 2001 Newsletter
March 2001 Newsletter
February 2001 Newsletter
January 2001 Newsletter
December 2000 Newsletter!
November 2000 Newsletter
September/October 2000 Newsletter
August/September 2000 Newsletter
July/August 2000 Newsletter
June/July 2000 Newsletter
May/June 2000 Newsletter
April/May 2000 Newsletter
March/April 2000 Newsletter
February/March 2000 Newsletter
January/February 2000 Newsletter

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