Online language learning

It's difficult to start, as well as continue learning a language as an adult.  You must carefully manage your time along with all your other daily responsibilities and activities.  I've been writing English lessons for an online language learning company called Dailyling, which is produced by Looten International.  One grammar point is used for each lesson and the content is designed to be fun.  The great thing about Dailyling is that you can learn from a smartphone application, as well as your computer.  If you spend a lot of time commuting by train, you can use this time to improve your English, or your Italian! 

I love to watch movies from all over the world.  The problem with watching say, a Chinese film in Japan, is that there are no English subtitles.  I'm a member of a cinema group and I go to as many films as possible, regardless of the language.  Even though I'm doing something fun, I'm tricking myself into studying Japanese (by reading the subtitles) when I watch a foreign language movie.  If I only understand 60% of the Japanese characters, I only understand 60% of the film.  So I have great motivation to study vocabulary, grammar and Kanji characters more. 

You have to find something enjoyable about learning a language.  That's why Looten International, and I (!), focus on what is fun when producing language learning material.

Website material

Apart from teaching, I'm also working on English lesson material for my boss' language learning website.  I'm now up towards the end of the highest level.  Native speakers tend not to use formal grammar structures on a daily basis, so sometimes I have to teach myself the particular grammar point before using it in a lesson!  Today I'll continue with a lesson about cleft sentences.  What's a cleft sentence, you ask.  Well, you'll have to do my lesson to find out!

Confirmation!

It took four weeks but I received a postcard from Immigration last week!  This means my new visa and Residence Card is ready to be picked up.  I don't know how many years I've been granted yet but I'm relieved nonetheless. 

It's raining today and I must say I enjoy this weather.  I never just carry an umbrella on a day like today.  I'm always prepared with head-to-toe waterproof gear!

A waiting game

Two weeks ago my boss and I went to immigration to lodge the paperwork for my next visa.  It's always an exhausting process and we had to wait there for three hours.  You are given a receipt after handing over your documents and then you'll be contacted by mail within a month.  So now it's a matter of waiting...

Subtitled movies

I admire any non-native speaker who watches an English movie without subtitles, or with English subtitles.  Even in your own language, the diction in movies is very bad and it can be hard to catch what people are saying. 

Last week I watched a Belgian movie, in Dutch with Japanese subtitles.  It was called The Broken Circle Breakdown.  It was a poignant movie which featured wonderful bluegrass music.  Since bluegrass music is from America, the songs were in English.  All of the dialogue was in Dutch.  Luckily Dutch sounds a little like English, and luckily my Japanese is good enough to read basic subtitles.  However, I got a bit lost when there were discussions using medical and theological terms.  Needless to say, the Kanji characters were quite difficult to read!  As a teacher and language enthusiastic, I give my encouragement to those of you who try to improve your listening skills through movies.

Students' grades

I have to calculate my students' grades by this Friday.  Luckily I finished it yesterday after my classes were over.  I really dislike this kind of work!  Anything to do with numbers and Excel files really gives me a headache...  It's a relief that it's all over.  The nice thing is that all of my students passed.

Lessons for Vietnam

I'm writing English lessons for the Vietnamese version of my boss' website.  I teach some Vietnamese students in my English classes in Tokyo and they are very enthusiastic learners.  Vietnam is one of the countries I most want to visit.  Hopefully I'll be able to go there next year?!  I can't wait to eat authentic Vietnamese food such as my favourite beef noodle dish, Bún bò xào.

Summer term

Summer term has started at my school.  I will do more conversation and 'practical' English classes during the summer term.   Unfortunately I don't teach my Thursday classes throughout summer.  These are optional conversation classes and my students are very motivated.  I will try to motivate my compulsory class students on Tuesdays with fun and practical English classes throughout summer!

Exams are over!

This week was exam week at my school.  Administering exams is a surprisingly tiring job and I prefer normal teaching any day.  Yesterday was the English conversation exam.  Students answered prepared questions one-on-one or in groups.  I was really happy with the group format because even the weak ability students interacted well with each other.

Thankfully the weekend is almost here.  You know what they say, work hard, play hard : )

Recording

Here we are hard at work doing voice recording.  It's a fun part of my job, and in this photo I look like I'm really having fun ^ ^  As I wrote a lot of the content, it's also slightly embarrassing to hear my stories and articles read aloud ; )

Alison @work

今日教室でビデオ撮影を行いました。みなさんと私の仕事場の雰囲気を共有したいと思いました。

６月と言えば。。

６月と言えば。。梅雨でしょう？それと試験の準備です。 It seems like the school year started only recently. There is great disorder for weeks into the semester while class numbers and levels are finalised. Textbooks suitable for each level need to be ordered and then they take time to arrive. Only in the past few weeks have things settled down but I started thinking about exams last month and now I'm busy writing them. I consider myself to be fairly computer literate, though my exam writing skills are challenged by how well I can align text to the right or underline the question number. Another non-teaching task that challenges me is taking attendance. I have large numbers of students from various countries around the world. My Chinese students have 'two' names – their Pinyin (romanised Chinese) pronunciation and the Japanese pronunciation of their name. It is a great struggle to get my tongue around the Japanese pronunciation. While I cannot pronounce Chinese tones well, it would be much easier for me to use the Pinyin or 'real' pronunciation. As most classes are large I then have to double-check the marks on my attendance roll by counting the students. I am extremely MATHEMATICALLY CHALLENGED, so having to count 30-odd students is a 'simple' task I often have to do two or three times! Apart from these problems I love teaching all my students. I get great joy from being able to motivate unmotivated or weak ability level students. Just as well I feel positive about my job because I'm back at school tomorrow!

Starting a new life

初めまして皆さん！私の名前はアリソンです！
オーストラリアの出身です。
初めての投稿です。

I came to Tokyo in June 2012 to begin my working holiday.  My goal was to improve my Japanese through this time and live like a 'freeter.'  I have been an English teacher for nine years and I wanted a break from full-time teaching.  So, I took a part-time waitressing job where I had to use Japanese all the time.  I continued to teach part-time as Tokyo is a very expensive city to live in! 

I really enjoyed by 'freeter' experience but when my Working Holiday visa came to an end, I was happy to get a full-time teaching job when my teaching visa was granted.  I know that teaching is the best job for me as I love to see my students achieve their language-learning goals.  Feel free to follow my blog posts about my teaching life in Japan!