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Get ESL Tips from Chris’ English School

January 16th, 2008 by Nick Ramsay

One of the more recent blogs I’ve subscribed to is that of ESL teacher, Chris Ballard. Born in Hawaii, but now residing in Yanai city in Yamaguchi, Chris runs his own English school out of his own home.
Another disgruntled English teacher? NO!
What makes this blog so unique is that instead of criticising the ESL [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Teach English Online

October 20th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I’ve been teaching English in Japan for over ten years, but I haven’t ventured into online English teaching. However, the internet is now part of our everyday lives, and email is no longer the only common means of communication. People everywhere, young and old, are using webcams, headsets, and software such as Skype to communicate with friends and [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 5 Comments »

English teacher murdered

April 7th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

In my post Misleading Media, I talked about how I don’t watch the news anymore, but there was one story late last month that got my attention. It was the tragic death of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year old British girl who was an English teacher at NOVA.
It was huge news in both Japan and [...]

Posted in Japan | 1 Comment »

Kancho - A Japanese pastime

February 6th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

“Kancho is the ancient art of clasping your hands together, and playfully poking your friend or enemy,…in the rear. It is also called “The Friendly Enema”, and is practiced by children in schoolyards and classrooms around the world. Kancho.org is dedicated to spreading the good news about Kancho.” Source: www.kancho.org
When Japanese kids first started shoving [...]

Posted in Japan | 1 Comment »

Think you can teach Japanese kindy?

January 19th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I’ve been teaching at Japanese kindergartens for years now, and I always have a lot of fun. The key to success in teaching these classes is to be fun and energetic. While some “proper” teachers complain that they came to Japan to “teach”, and not dance around like clowns, I believe that if your style [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

Is ESL in Japan a big joke?

October 3rd, 2006 by Nick Ramsay

According to an NHK report in 2000, Japan has the largest commercial English language education market in the world, valued at $20 billion. So, you would expect most Japanese to be fairly proficient in English, right? Wrong! Official TOEIC figures for 1997-1998 showed Japan to have the lowest average score among the 17 countries in which TOEIC test taking is [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 8 Comments »