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Post by むちゃRABU❤ on Jan 18, 2016 15:59:16 GMT 9
I am creating a general thread, but for my question, I would like everyone if you can answer a simple survey.
I am going to teach 中級 english but for TAXI DRIVERS.
Part of my lesson will include an introduction to taxi cultures all over the world.
If you would be so kind, please tell me what has surprised you about taxi culture in Japan/what your taxi culture is like back home?
I would like to know and include it in my presentation so they will be more aware/it will be useful for them.
e.g. In Singapore, taxis never wait for passengers. They drive all over LOOKING for passengers. This is because the more passengers you pick up, the more money you get, but I don't think that's a mentality in Japan? Hence, waiting for a Singaporean to approach your cab is not natural. You should be approaching the Singaporean instead.
others: the automatic doors in Japanese taxis.
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Post by Caic on Jan 18, 2016 16:08:14 GMT 9
I had a funny taxi moment a few weeks ago.
I was by myself and when the taxi came I just without thinking got in the front seat of the taxi and nearly sat down until i noticed the drivers horrified reaction and then i was like... oh yeah we're in japan I should sit in the back.... so i got into the back.
And then when i was home in ireland i was getting a taxi home after a night out and talking to the taxi driver there about it. And we surmised that irish people at least will often get in the front seat of a taxi even if there is space in the back cos it is more soical. you can have a chat and it is less like the taxi driver is your chauffer and more just like someone to have a chat with. Like in my memory, most of the time i have gotten in the front when by myself or when two of us, one has gotten in the front and one in the back.... But like i feel like that is weird in japan for sure..
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Post by jitenshaa on Jan 18, 2016 16:08:35 GMT 9
I am creating a general thread, but for my question, I would like everyone if you can answer a simple survey. I am going to teach 中級 english but for TAXI DRIVERS. Part of my lesson will include an introduction to taxi cultures all over the world. If you would be so kind, please tell me what has surprised you about taxi culture in Japan/what your taxi culture is like back home? I would like to know and include it in my presentation so they will be more aware/it will be useful for them. e.g. In Singapore, taxis never wait for passengers. They drive all over LOOKING for passengers. This is because the more passengers you pick up, the more money you get, but I don't think that's a mentality in Japan? Hence, waiting for a Singaporean to approach your cab is not natural. You should be approaching the Singaporean instead. others: the automatic doors in Japanese taxis. except at the airport, because dat airport surcharge |
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Post by Caic on Jan 18, 2016 16:11:34 GMT 9
also we have taxi ranks where taxis wait around and also taxis that drive around.. Also uber is becoming a big thing now so you could mention that.. Also taxi drivers with there gloves and uniform and stuff are funny. Also they are always old men it seems and i feel really bad when they lift my luggage
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Post by CaptainSeery on Jan 18, 2016 17:12:01 GMT 9
I almost never used taxis in the states because they're so expensive, but I feel like taxis here are more affordable? That might be a hallucination because I never used them at home, though.
Definitely the automatic door thing - probably most foreigners won't expect it so I hope that the drivers aren't offended by it or anything.
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Post by marudate on Jan 19, 2016 11:37:27 GMT 9
I think this is good for taxi cultural differences. For English trainings I've done here (no taxis yet but hopefully soon!), I've added "accurate" katakana to any difficult words I have in the training as I find people have an easier time with it than romaji. It's not correct katakana, as I want it to sound like English.
For example:
close=クロｓ
seat=ｃィｔ
(ヒント a, b, cのc)
Right ゥライト
Until アンテｨｌ
Next to ネクスト トｩ
If anyone wants materials, PM me and I can see what I have that might be of use. I've mainly done hotels and cafes to date.
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Post by shanshan310 on Oct 6, 2016 9:31:42 GMT 9
I think this is good for taxi cultural differences. For English trainings I've done here (no taxis yet but hopefully soon!), I've added "accurate" katakana to any difficult words I have in the training as I find people have an easier time with it than romaji. It's not correct katakana, as I want it to sound like English. For example: close=クロｓ seat=ｃィｔ (ヒント a, b, cのc) Right ゥライト Until アンテｨｌ Next to ネクスト トｩ If anyone wants materials, PM me and I can see what I have that might be of use. I've mainly done hotels and cafes to date. oooh thanks this looks pretty handy. I've just started doing a fair few specialised eikaiwas for ペンション runners, and from soon I'll be starting one for ambulance drivers. They really want to focus on pronunciation. I'm not really sure how to go about it but this seems like a good place to start! |
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Post by marudate on Oct 6, 2016 9:39:11 GMT 9
That sounds great! With emergency workers here we also had cards with pictures of parts of the body, etc. written on them.
I think it's better to keep these trainings as far away from their (bad) memories of school as possible and actively move around, use their body (worried about the pronunciation of heart? Well say it and point to the heart at the same time!), and practice simple phrases multiple times.
Beware of repeating things in unison (well, more than once or twice) and passively listening- nobody learns unless they actually have to use it.
Good luck, and if you share any materials you create other might benefit from them too. I'd like to do more with first responders.
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Post by shanshan310 on Oct 6, 2016 10:34:01 GMT 9
That sounds great! With emergency workers here we also had cards with pictures of parts of the body, etc. written on them. I think it's better to keep these trainings as far away from their (bad) memories of school as possible and actively move around, use their body (worried about the pronunciation of heart? Well say it and point to the heart at the same time!), and practice simple phrases multiple times. Beware of repeating things in unison (well, more than once or twice) and passively listening- nobody learns unless they actually have to use it. Good luck, and if you share any materials you create other might benefit from them too. I'd like to do more with first responders. oh thanks! That's a good idea. To be honest I made up a lesson plan with a skit and a role play for them to practice and they got back to me saying they thought it might be too difficult, so I've been trying to come up with some other, more simple ideas about how to keep it interesting. (They sent me about six pages of phrases they want to memorise with good pronunciation in an hour and a half @_@ ) I know I never remembered anything from rote repeating expressions, so I really wanna avoid that. |
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Post by marudate on Oct 6, 2016 10:41:38 GMT 9
Okay, good luck. I would still include roleplays or a simple skit- maybe just a couple of key parts they will definitely use.
I'd also push back if the volume of content is unrealistic and encourage them to divide it into multiple sessions.
You don't need to do things exactly the way they want if it helps them achieve their goals. Otherwise if they know exactly what they want and how to do it, they can hold their own training and don't need you!
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Post by momo black on Oct 6, 2016 13:19:29 GMT 9
Automatic doors, frilly seat covers, the fact that taxi drivers wear driving gloves all surprised me. The little sign on top of the car indicating whether there is or is not a passenger inside didn't surprise me but it isn't something that I see much back home, and it struck me as very useful.
One thing that surprised me in China is that taxi drivers won't pick you up if they don't want to drive in the direction you're going/if it's too out of the way/if the traffic seems like it'll be bad/inconvenient.
(ETA mentioning China because you said you're talking about taxi culture around the world right?)
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2016 12:55:46 GMT 9
Maybe it's just my city but I have had multiple cab drivers say they don't know where my apartment area is, and even if they have a navigation system they'll be like "welp. shit outta luck." So I have to give them directions, but I can only do that because I live here and walk that area a lot (and I can speak Japanese).
In the US the drivers either knew how to get there by heart or used the navigation system.
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Post by horse girl extraordinaire on Jul 25, 2018 17:11:25 GMT 9
resurrecting this old post to ask if anyone has ever given an english lesson to police? i've been asked to give a role-play lesson to a police academy to teach them helpful things in dealing with foreigners/tourists. i'm sure they'll give me more info than that eventually but if anyone has ideas or materials that'd be helpful!
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Post by Honey on Jul 26, 2018 7:52:43 GMT 9
I did and I mostly focused on simple English as well as non-verbal communication. The guy is now doing security at the Japanese Embassy in Nairobi haha.
I explained directions, greetings, how to start conversations, and simple phone/email etiquette.
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Post by Aya Raincoat on Jul 26, 2018 8:53:56 GMT 9
Not police, but we give an simple Japanese/English/Portuguese lesson at our fire SMACKDOWNer school.
It usually goes like this: introduce statistics about foreigner population in Japan and in the prefecture > talking about our experience as foreigners and things that could be problems while dealing with us (e.g. we don't have earthquake drills in my country, but Brazil apparently doesn't even have fire drills!) > present a list of sentences that can be used when dealing with people on the phone and at the site of the emergency > they separate in teams and roleplay a scene.
The RP is really funny.
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Post by Dee on Jun 28, 2022 14:07:44 GMT 9
I need to start planning a lesson to teach basic English to a group of tour guides.
I want to start with English greetings and self-introductions. Some kind of role-play would probably be good too.
Has anyone done anything similar or have any suggestions?
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Post by marudate on Jun 28, 2022 17:04:34 GMT 9
I'd find out what they need- what's their current flow working with foreign visitors? Is there something they get stuck on you could create a series of lessons to address?
I helped create a guides handbook for my town which volunteer guides studied and then they did readings from the book at monthly meeting and actual practice with visitors every week for the guides that have time to volunteer.
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Post by Dee on Jun 29, 2022 15:00:05 GMT 9
I'd find out what they need- what's their current flow working with foreign visitors? Is there something they get stuck on you could create a series of lessons to address? I helped create a guides handbook for my town which volunteer guides studied and then they did readings from the book at monthly meeting and actual practice with visitors every week for the guides that have time to volunteer. Thanks for the suggestions! I also googled "ESL for Tour Guides" and found some good reference materials to potentially help make a handy phrase book. The issue is we really don't get foreign visitors out here, and even if we did I would be called in to interpret. I think only 1 of our guides can actually hold a short convo in English, and I'll be lucky if the others can even say "hello." Kacho is pushing to have the guides learn some English because it looks good when we have a UNESCO evaluation, haha. |
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Post by marudate on Jul 5, 2022 21:30:59 GMT 9
A phrase book is a great idea- a lot of what they do is likely wrote. If we could train elementary school students to give basic tours in English I think your adults could figure it out too : ) (Here's an example- the actual tours had a memorized script plus small talk that we drilled with them- they learned it all in a few weeks during summer vacation. During COVID it became a video but the kids also did all the video and audio production) Maybe you could also train your coworkers to be able to have small talk with the UNESCO people and introduce the town? |
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Post by Dee on Jul 6, 2022 15:34:11 GMT 9
A phrase book is a great idea- a lot of what they do is likely wrote. If we could train elementary school students to give basic tours in English I think your adults could figure it out too : ) (Here's an example- the actual tours had a memorized script plus small talk that we drilled with them- they learned it all in a few weeks during summer vacation. During COVID it became a video but the kids also did all the video and audio production) Maybe you could also train your coworkers to be able to have small talk with the UNESCO people and introduce the town?That is the ultimate end goal. I did have one of the guides suggest that I use the guiding scripts from the last UNESCO evaluation and record myself reading those in English (1 slow, 1 normal speed) for the guides to practice with too. I thought that was a really good idea. The main issue with attempting to train some of our guides is that some of the tours they do are not "simple" at all, and can get pretty deep into geology and scientific terms. Thanks for the video link though, I'll check it out! |
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Post by marudate on Jul 11, 2022 22:48:39 GMT 9
Using scripts is a great idea. For students to learn guiding we also did a virtual tour where we filmed the tour (just a phone on a gimbal) and did narration over it with subtitles and without. That way they could study at home but still have the feeling of a tour and connect the words and visuals. Then we broke it down by place in a classroom-like setting to practice.
I wonder if a tour with heavy use of specialized terms is appropriate for a general audience (including non-native English speakers?) We also dealt with making 1000 years of Japanese history, poetry and religion accessible, and while the training book for guides can get difficult, we really tried to keep actual guiding comprehensible and distinct from tours they would give to Japanese people. The children's version I linked to is of course simplified from what the adult guides do.
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tearight
Straight outta Narita
Posts: 10
CIR Experience: Incoming CIR
Location: Yamagata
Gender (Pronouns): she/her/hers
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Post by tearight on Oct 14, 2022 16:59:25 GMT 9
I had a class with police officers. I gave a brief presentation on policing in America and we did the English script from their textbook. As an extra activity to get them thinking in English, I made an "who you gonna call" worksheet to show which department comes to emergency scenes in the United States. Please reach out if you'd like the worksheet!
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