...beautiful ( Read more... )

Starting in April, students in Japan will no longer have to pay ￥10,000 (about $100) a month to attend a public high school. Until this year, the annual fees have been ￥118,800 (about $1200), but under a manifesto of the Hatoyama Government, these fees will now be borne by the country and each area's local governing bodies. Furthermore, private ( Read more... )

One of my pet peeves with testing in Japanese schools is the use of scrambled sentences in workbooks and tests. I haven't liked them since I was in primary (elementary) school, where I vaguely remember them being an important part of Chinese language tests. Whilst learning more Japanese over this last year, I've come to think that constructing ( Read more... )

Departing from previous years, where the focus was always just on vocabulary, my Christmas game this year combines running dictation with rearranging lyrics and a brief look at cultural differences between Japan and America. Based around the classic "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus"... Some students in each class were bright enough to understand ( Read more... )

...is (probably) fewer people with differing opinions about it.

On a more serious note, I spotted this blog post quite a while back and just never got round to finishing my thoughts on it.

The poster had three main points, and I quote...

What we need for language learning is the following ( Read more... )

At the start of this month, a notice was sent to all public offices regarding the use of the internet - both computer and keitai - at work by public employees. Two employees were recently disciplined for the following.

(1) browsing inappropriate materials, producing inconveniences on shared computers, installing unauthorised and potential dangerous ( Read more... )

...according to the New York Times online, anyway. ( another link on japan_now )

What caught my attention are the final paragraphs, which address the "dire straits of political communication in Japan". Despite the popularity of CHANGE last year, Kimura Takuya's character definitely doesn't resemble any Japanese politicians, particularly when addressing the ( Read more... )

I think I really upset one of my students today ( Read more... )

Caught up with a couple of ex-students today. Both are studying to be nurses, one in Ehime prefecture and the other here in Okinawa. Along with several other teachers, we chatted about their fellow students, who have now scattered as far as the USA. They were quite shocked however, to find that many of the teachers they knew had left - in fact, in ( Read more... )

This past week has been interesting. Volunteered to help lead a High School English camp last week, since I'd done it with a couple of friends last year...and we even had a meeting last week to try and get it together. Then...the typhoon came ( Read more... )