To receive your own FREE monthly email newsletter, enter your email address below!
January 2004
Hello and welcome to 2004, the year of the Monkey!! I hope you all enjoyed
the holidays. One cool thing I saw over Christmas was the Guinness Book
of Records which had the curious story of a budgie who could speak over
1,700 words in English! That should be a great boost if any of your students
think English is difficult, if a budgie can do it, I'm sure they can! Just
keep trying, and be genki of course!
"The Last Samurai" star and Genki English in TV Drama
The female lead of "The Last Samurai", popular actress, Koyuki is starring in a new Fuji TV series as a private English tutor. The producers wanted some fun materials for her to teach with. So what did they choose? Genki English of course! Last Tuesday's episode showed her teaching the "How are you?" song ( http://genkienglish.net/howRU.htm?n ), and if you look at the show's website you can see the Genki English
picture cards!
From Tom Cruise to Genki English, whatever next? The series goes out at 10PM Tuesdays on Fuji TV.
"Where's the...?" Tig Game
This is a great little game for getting the kids running around on these
cold winter mornings!
In the playground mark out several large areas representing different shops
(e.g. shoe shop, bank, post office etc.). One kid is "it" (or
"oni" in Japanese). All the other kids shout "Can I help
you?". The "it" kid says "Yes, where's the...."
plus one of the place names. The kids have to rush to that place, once
they are there they are safe. However if the "it" kid tigs them
before they get safe they join "it"s team for the next round!
Keep going till there is just one kid left!
If you'd like the Japanese description of this game, it'll be in this Friday's
"Asahi Shougakusei" Newspaper.
If you'd like your school to buy a copy tell them to ring the freedial
number (0120)-415843 (Japanese only!)
What about picture books?
Picture books are hugely popular at the moment. Along with songs and games
they provide another great source of English input for the kids. Some teachers
even go so far as to have regular "Picture Book Time" as part
of every lesson. Ways of teaching include reading through the story as
it is, or simplifying the English to the children's current level. In any
case the mixture of vibrant pictures with an English story is a powerful
teaching aid. Try it out someday soon!
There are many books available and choosing which ones to use can be quite
tricky. It often helps if the kids already know the story, so are still
able to follow things even if it is all in English. So if you live in Japan,
this month we've teamed up with RIC publications to bring you some of their
special new picture books. What makes these books special is that they
are English translations of some of the best selling Japanese stories.
Your kids (and adults!) probably love them already, so they help bring
a lot of excitement to the classroom. Check out the website for more details
including "Elephee's Walk" and "Groompa's Kindergarten".... http://genkienglish.net/ricpicturebooks.htm?n
Live outside of Japan?
Whilst we can't offer the picture books to our loyal viewers outside of
Japan, I have just redone the International Shopping section of the site.
So wherever you are in the World you'll be able to order most of our Genki
English goods, including the songs used by The Last Samurai star Koyuki
san! There's also a really cool special offer on now, so check it out! http://genkienglish.net/creditcard.htm?newsletter
And Finally,
2004 is shaping up to be a pretty cool year. I wish you all the best, and
I'm sure you will have an amazing time! Keep in touch and if there's ever
anything I can help you with, please get in touch!
If you know of anyone who might be interested in this newsletter, then
please feel free to send it on!
Oh, and there's also a Japanese version, you can sign up for it from the
main Japanese menu!
To receive your own FREE monthly email newsletter, enter your email address below!
