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Post by frooperyfroop on Dec 20, 2017 9:26:29 GMT 9
If you ever find yourself teaching the future tense, I have a handy two-part lesson and worksheets I can share. Also this is how I taught the construction of "I will have done ~"
I'd like to take you up on that offer! :D Should I PM you my email address? |
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Nurkiras
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Post by Nurkiras on Dec 20, 2017 9:51:06 GMT 9
If you ever find yourself teaching the future tense, I have a handy two-part lesson and worksheets I can share. Also this is how I taught the construction of "I will have done ~"
I'd like to take you up on that offer!  Should I PM you my email address? Sure! |
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Post by frooperyfroop on Mar 6, 2018 11:13:29 GMT 9
Found a really great resource that has tons of phrases in both Japanese and English for ordering/taking orders at a restaurant. Two of my Eikaiwa students are a husband and wife pair that run a small restaurant together, and they were telling me the other day that they had a bit of a struggle when an English-speaking customer came to their restaurant, so I think I'll give them this link since it seems pretty useful! |
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Post by Dee on Mar 6, 2018 13:29:42 GMT 9
Someone else posted this last year, but I'm going to post it again because I think it's an awesome resource! learning.sankei.co.jp/curriculum/daily-conversationThere are various levels of difficulty and it covers everyday conversation, business situations, and more. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2019 15:23:07 GMT 9
Is an elementary school eikaiwa even possible? I just got a request to do one of those, but so far I have only found games that require children to get crazy. How can one have an english conversation when they know no english?
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Post by Dee on Jan 8, 2019 15:43:20 GMT 9
Is an elementary school eikaiwa even possible? I just got a request to do one of those, but so far I have only found games that require children to get crazy. How can one have an english conversation when they know no english? Why yes.. yes you can! My town has a Kids Club EIKAIWA that is geared towards kindergarten and elementary school ages kids. It's not so much English conversation as it's more learning vocab and phrases/short sentences thru games, songs, crafts, etc. |
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Post by 🍅™️ on Jan 8, 2019 16:42:40 GMT 9
Hi everyone I'm currently 考えているing themes for the regular Eikawa I'll be starting this year, and idk if anyone has shared this site but I found a pretty nice site that has a bunch of themes and related questions. www.eslconversationquestions.com/english-conversation-questions/topics/The themes range from pretty general and easy topics to some pretty intense ones I mean who wouldn't want to talk about "Conspiracies and Cover Ups"  ? ANYWAY. I hope this might be helpful for others too  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2019 8:39:02 GMT 9
thanks guys
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Post by Dee on Jan 9, 2019 13:37:11 GMT 9
@kinbenkun here is a link to another post with some great resources for kindergarten/elementary level ESL learning LINK |
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Post by Leilo on Jan 24, 2019 13:13:55 GMT 9
Do any of you have advice for making inbound tourism themed eikaiwa? I need to make one for normal people and another for business/shop owners RAINENDO. I'm thinking for the regular people class we could focus on thinking of things that we could guide or show tourists if they come here, as well as practice phrases and roleplays. My boss wants it to make people more proud of our city, because many people don't even think there are things worth showcasing here to tourists. These are also random thoughts that I don't know if they would work out, but it'd be nice if I could also get the participants to do some online English PR as practice, or maybe get the participants to volunteer to help English speaking tourists when cruise ships come to my city etc. As for the Eikaiwa directed at businesses I'm thinking we could focus on service/guiding in English, making English translations for products/menus etc. and doing English PR for your business. small rant below
I have next to no experience teaching and I now need to make and manage 3 eikaiwa's at once on top of other work duties (1 more for lunch eikaiwa for coworkers). It feels slightly overwhelming and I'm not sure where to start. I'm also trying to be positive and GAMBALU since I have a lot of nice things in my position etc. but I really didn't want a position with mostly or even half English teaching, I didn't apply to be considered as an ALT either. I feel if my position turns into mostly eikaiwa it could discourage me for going for a third year. It will also probably end up being on the weekends and I don't want to give up like half of my weekends, since then it'll be hard to go places with or meet hulemdos. I need more YALUKI orz
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Post by Dee on Jan 24, 2019 14:03:13 GMT 9
Leilo I haven't done any tourism focused lessons, but I do help out with our town's eikaiwa. I like your ideas though. You could work on giving directions, giving shopping/restaurant/hotel recommendations, and giving info and facts about tourist spots in your area. Roleplays are always good to do. I think your ideas for eikaiwa for businesses is spot on too.
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Post by Leilo on Feb 13, 2019 11:38:06 GMT 9
So I am doing something like a mini trial eikaiwa right now related to tourism, in prep for making a real eikaiwa RAINENDO. The participating members are 3 women in their 70s. There's one of them, who doesn't speak much English or have much motivation or interest in tourism/showcasing things from our city. She is nice and genki though, but is probably just coming because her 2 hulemdos are doing this too. Today after our eikaiwa we did a little uchiawase and she was saying
私何にも興味がないんだよ。こっちの人なのに何も言えなくて紹介したくなくて、すぐ自己嫌悪に落ちていくよ。これも誘われてるだけで来てるよ。私は人生に流されてるだけだ。
etc. ....  |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2019 12:56:07 GMT 9
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Post by Leilo on Jun 3, 2019 12:03:23 GMT 9
Hmm what do... I asked if any ALTs can volunteer at my eikaiwa thing next week. And I need to know who says they can come or not because I'm planning roles for the volunteers and also need to know how many chairs to have, how many people per table etc. etc. The thing is it feels wrong to be demanding or anything like that of volunteers, but some people are replying like "oh I'll come if I can" and when I said it'd help to let me know beforehand I got "ok I will, at latest the morning the day of :)" like uh.... I need to plan around the number of volunteers so it won't work if they don't tell me at least a few days prior. How can I say "I need you to tell me a few days prior or I'll take it as a no" without sounding ungrateful to them lending their time? halp
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Post by frooperyfroop on Jun 3, 2019 15:34:04 GMT 9
Hmm what do... I asked if any ALTs can volunteer at my eikaiwa thing next week. And I need to know who says they can come or not because I'm planning roles for the volunteers and also need to know how many chairs to have, how many people per table etc. etc. The thing is it feels wrong to be demanding or anything like that of volunteers, but some people are replying like "oh I'll come if I can" and when I said it'd help to let me know beforehand I got "ok I will, at latest the morning the day of " like uh.... I need to plan around the number of volunteers so it won't work if they don't tell me at least a few days prior. How can I say "I need you to tell me a few days prior or I'll take it as a no" without sounding ungrateful to them lending their time? halp Maybe something like, "Thanks so much for offering your help! Unfortunately, for Eternal Overlord purposes, I need to confirm the exact number of volunteers with my CO at least x days before the lesson. Could you please confirm by x date if you can definitely make it for the lesson? No worries if you're not able to confirm that far in advance; I will just take it that you are unable to make it for the lesson if that's the case." |
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Post by Ham on Apr 7, 2020 15:52:51 GMT 9
Wow amazing how eikaiwa always consistently manages to make me feel like a terrible CIR. I just. I can't do it. I suck at teaching English. Every class, with a dozen students at different levels, I don't know how to handle it. I try to prep a lesson and then it turns out oops some of the students can't even read the English. They never tell me if they need me to slow down until class is over. When I try to get students to speak they clam up, and then tell me it's because I was using complicated English (even for questions like 'what do you do when you're sick?'). I hate this. It sucked deskwarming for a month but at least I was using that time to study and read and try to improve myself. Eikaiwa just makes me feel like crap. I don't want advanced students to be bored, I don't want beginners to feel left behind. I literally hate this part of my job so much, it makes me miserable. And there's nothing else going on right now, no translation or interpreting, that could make me feel like a decently accomplished person. I'm so tired of feeling like the least capable CIR in the prefecture. Everyone else seems to have a good grasp on their job. I just feel lost, underutilized, and unappreciated. I want to go home but instead I'll just go cry in the bathroom Hey, so, I had a similar problem and it took me a good year to settle on a system that I've since stuck with, but unfortunately that means that all the interested newcomers came during the period when I had no idea what I was doing and were incredibly bored and never came back :/ If you don't mind, let me tell you what worked for me: I have a class of about 6-7 regulars, also of various levels of proficiency. Lucky for me, the proficient ones don't mind and they're all hulemdoly with each other. First thing is that I realized the same thing that you have: it's essentially impossible to plan a lesson for a group of students of widely differing skill levels. So I didn't even try. In my case, I was told to "just do whatever you feel is good", so I decided that since it's EI KAIWA, we're going to ditch doing lessons and chat instead. Every time, I distribute a printout and it's more or less the same flow every time (example in the spoiler below). This allows the students to relax a bit because they know what's coming. Every time, we start with the same prompt (What's new?) At first, it was really hard to get people to talk, so maybe if I had to do it over again, I'd switch that with the game. I just go around the table and ask the question, then do a follow-up or two. When it goes well, the students ask each other questions and we get a genuine conversation going... usually part in Japanese but ey, I'll take it. These days, we spend most of the session just on this section alone, and I often don't even get to the talk topics. The game was always some sort of vocab game, like wheel of fortune or hangman or charades. I'd rotate them each time, and it was good because everyone has fun and you don't need a high language level to play. The game was really my solution to the problem that everyone seemed too nervous to talk, and after a few months, I eventually ditched the game to make more time for conversation. Next we move on to the talk topics, which I change depending on the season/recent events/whatever. When we get down to less than 10 minutes remaining, I'll go to the phrase, (read english/japanese a few times, let them guess, then give the answer) and then close out with questions. It's worked out so far, although honestly I think my students are more just there to chat and hang out on a Wednesday night than really learn, so ymmv. Oh, also, one thing that I try to do when someone is speaking but doesn't know/remember how to say something in English, I try to get them to describe it to get them in the habit of talking around missing vocab. So, like, I'll ask, "is it a plant or animal?" "what color is it?" "about how big", etc... Example handout: |
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Post by korokke on Jun 6, 2022 14:15:43 GMT 9
I've been reading through this thread for ideas of how to manage level gaps in a class. But i fear that maybe the gap is too wide in my class. I worry about the one student in particular who can't really speak much (they can say 'my name is...,' hello, good morning, nice to meet you) and that's about it. The other students are largely in the same range where they can read easier news stories and ask questions in English about things they don't understand.
I don't want the more advanced students to be bored, but i don't know if activity-based teaching could help the woman who's pretty much starting from zero.
But also, one of the students didn't show up last week, and another person signed up today, so maybe they're be enough people to split them off into groups? and then have slightly different activities for the groups (it's also only my second class this week, so i know logically i don't have to figure out all the answers now, but i want to do well cause this seems to be the part of my job that people care the most about)
edit: it also seems like my pred did a test in the past (although couldn't find a scoring sheet or anything), but might try persuading them to maybe allow short oral interviews for the next nendo; then it's also less of a surprise for me hue)
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Post by korokke on Jul 28, 2022 13:53:11 GMT 9
My plan for eikaiwa today is playing taboo. I thought about doing a proper lesson but the last game I did seemed to do well and I don't want to worry about pushing through awkward silence.
During lunch one of my coworkers asked me what kind of benkyou I had planned for today and they kinda had a weird expression when I started trying to explain the game. not sure if it was because I'm playing a game instead of "serious" benkyou or if the explanation for the game just didn't come across.
My family doesn't do much together but Taboo was always a hit so I have fond memories of it hue
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Post by Say itaintChristmasyet Jay on Jul 28, 2022 14:28:30 GMT 9
My plan for eikaiwa today is playing taboo. I thought about doing a proper lesson but the last game I did seemed to do well and I don't want to worry about pushing through awkward silence. During lunch one of my coworkers asked me what kind of benkyou I had planned for today and they kinda had a weird expression when I started trying to explain the game. not sure if it was because I'm playing a game instead of "serious" benkyou or if the explanation for the game just didn't come across. My family doesn't do much together but Taboo was always a hit so I have fond memories of it hue one of my adult groups (of like very much older adults) enjoys when we play taboo too :3 always a solid choice IMO |
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Post by notsosuperalicat on Jul 28, 2022 15:10:35 GMT 9
My plan for eikaiwa today is playing taboo. I thought about doing a proper lesson but the last game I did seemed to do well and I don't want to worry about pushing through awkward silence. During lunch one of my coworkers asked me what kind of benkyou I had planned for today and they kinda had a weird expression when I started trying to explain the game. not sure if it was because I'm playing a game instead of "serious" benkyou or if the explanation for the game just didn't come across. My family doesn't do much together but Taboo was always a hit so I have fond memories of it hue yesssss i got this game going as a suggestion from my pred and it always goes well, i did it last week w new ppl and they had a blast! we even got through all the cards |
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Post by notsosuperalicat on Jul 28, 2022 15:11:48 GMT 9
apples to apples (i made my own cards) is also a great one that my mom used for her ESL class (where you use adjective cards to describe a noun or vice versa). pls trying
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Post by chiew on Jul 29, 2022 9:41:31 GMT 9
apples to apples (i made my own cards) is also a great one that my mom used for her ESL class (where you use adjective cards to describe a noun or vice versa). pls trying we have a japanese set of apples to apples! it's pretty nice because i learn some new japanese vocab too when we're playing hue |
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Post by korokke on Aug 5, 2022 8:50:01 GMT 9
last night my main activity was a listening game using minimal pairs. Each handout had a word tree (2 ->4-> 8->16 branches) and at the end of each branch was a city (I did half Japan tokai and half Mikan Land cities).
For the first one, we went right into it and I read each word out 3 times. Then when we got to the end, we'd go around saying where everyone ended up. Then students asked me to read over particular words again or to enunciate the differences between the pairs (right vs. light etc). For the second sheet, I did do like a practice round where I read all the words beforehand and then went into the real deal. On the third one, the students wanted to get straight to it hue.
I think it worked out well cause everyone seemed pretty engaged. Was also nice that it was one of those classes where everything worked out well timing wise
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Post by notsosuperalicat on Aug 24, 2022 10:25:27 GMT 9
back on my eikaiwa planning time i usually include articles from this website called newsinlevels where you can pick easily-worded articles to have students read/shadow and in a couple weeks im doing this one talking about why people say "bless you" when you sneeze bc i try to make sure my articles include something cultural or an english perspective on japan pls using! |
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Post by chiew on Aug 24, 2022 13:12:50 GMT 9
I honestly don’t know where to put this, but I did an ice breaker game for our event. It was an eikaiwa game so I guess it should go in this thread???? It went really well, so I’m gonna put it on the forums in case someone would like to sanko.
It was a game of human scavenger hunt. I made a list of ~40 common facts of people with a few mezurashii stuff ie. someone who was born in winter, someone with a pet other than dog/cat, someone who’s been to all 47 prefectures, someone who is an only child, etc (with Japanese too). Then handed it out as people introduced themselves. Participants had to find someone who fit the description and then come back to me with the name of the person; I’d mark the card and give them a new one. At the end of the game, the one with the most cards won.
I had two copies of the questions, so it took 20 people about 15minutes to get thru ~80 questions/cards. It was a good way for everyone to learn names and get comfortable around each other cause it wasn’t too conversation heavy. I originally planned for it to be a topic starter, but it worked well as just a quick ice breaker too!
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Post by Aya Raincoat on Aug 24, 2022 16:26:21 GMT 9
I honestly don’t know where to put this, but I did an ice breaker game for our event. It was an eikaiwa game so I guess it should go in this thread???? It went really well, so I’m gonna put it on the forums in case someone would like to sanko. It was a game of human scavenger hunt. I made a list of ~40 common facts of people with a few mezurashii stuff ie. someone who was born in winter, someone with a pet other than dog/cat, someone who’s been to all 47 prefectures, someone who is an only child, etc (with Japanese too). Then handed it out as people introduced themselves. Participants had to find someone who fit the description and then come back to me with the name of the person; I’d mark the card and give them a new one. At the end of the game, the one with the most cards won. I had two copies of the questions, so it took 20 people about 15minutes to get thru ~80 questions/cards. It was a good way for everyone to learn names and get comfortable around each other cause it wasn’t too conversation heavy. I originally planned for it to be a topic starter, but it worked well as just a quick ice breaker too! Oh, I remember playing a similar game at a school even, but instead of cards, we had to fill a bingo sheet with all different names, and the person who filled it first won |
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Post by korokke on Aug 25, 2022 9:11:53 GMT 9
Apparently my kakari wants to space the eikaiwa students further away from each other as covid taisak (though they already feel pretty far even now, and it's pretty much the same 5-6 people), so i probably can't do small group discussions. I'm thinking of doing an activity where you're on a deserted island: if you could have any five items what would they be and how would you rank them, going and discussing what people chose and why.
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Post by chiew on Aug 25, 2022 9:17:04 GMT 9
I honestly don’t know where to put this, but I did an ice breaker game for our event. It was an eikaiwa game so I guess it should go in this thread???? It went really well, so I’m gonna put it on the forums in case someone would like to sanko. It was a game of human scavenger hunt. I made a list of ~40 common facts of people with a few mezurashii stuff ie. someone who was born in winter, someone with a pet other than dog/cat, someone who’s been to all 47 prefectures, someone who is an only child, etc (with Japanese too). Then handed it out as people introduced themselves. Participants had to find someone who fit the description and then come back to me with the name of the person; I’d mark the card and give them a new one. At the end of the game, the one with the most cards won. I had two copies of the questions, so it took 20 people about 15minutes to get thru ~80 questions/cards. It was a good way for everyone to learn names and get comfortable around each other cause it wasn’t too conversation heavy. I originally planned for it to be a topic starter, but it worked well as just a quick ice breaker too! Oh, I remember playing a similar game at a school even, but instead of cards, we had to fill a bingo sheet with all different names, and the person who filled it first won bingo ver sounds fun! imma try that next |
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Post by notsosuperalicat on Aug 25, 2022 9:32:06 GMT 9
Apparently my kakari wants to space the eikaiwa students further away from each other as covid taisak (though they already feel pretty far even now, and it's pretty much the same 5-6 people), so i probably can't do small group discussions. I'm thinking of doing an activity where you're on a deserted island: if you could have any five items what would they be and how would you rank them, going and discussing what people chose and why. i've done that activity before and it's prety nice! one variation i do is have people create a list of three or so on their own, then join with a partner and see which ones they picked, then narrow their list down to the top five items |
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Post by korokke on Aug 25, 2022 9:36:05 GMT 9
Apparently my kakari wants to space the eikaiwa students further away from each other as covid taisak (though they already feel pretty far even now, and it's pretty much the same 5-6 people), so i probably can't do small group discussions. I'm thinking of doing an activity where you're on a deserted island: if you could have any five items what would they be and how would you rank them, going and discussing what people chose and why. i've done that activity before and it's prety nice! one variation i do is have people create a list of three or so on their own, then join with a partner and see which ones they picked, then narrow their list down to the top five items naruhodo! sankou ni suru ～ |
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Should I PM you my email address?
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