Last week being New Years, I decided to take a break from my life and just veg my ENTIRE winter break. Save for a day of snowboarding on New Year's Eve, and movie night at a friend's on New Year's, I don't think I left the comfort of my kotatsu for more than a 3 or 4 times. And that was just to get food.
No new developments on my car accident to write about, so I'm going to be the "good worker" and introduce my place of employment.
Hop Step Jump is a language school in Gifu City, owned by Earth Plan, Co., that specializes in teaching English to children. We do advertize having 20 different languages available if you want to learn something other than English. Basically, we have teachers of 20 languages on call if there is someone who would like to learn a language other than English. Our most popular languages other than English are (in no particular order) Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, German, French and Italian. However, French is starting to lose it's place as we lost our beloved teacher from Senegal. He's off building a bridge between his home country and Mali as a part of a joint-venture between several Japanese engineering companies, Mali and Senegal. We miss him so. The new French teacher is trying his hardest to fill the spot left behind, so we'll see how that turns out.
We offer classes for infants through adults, and these are split into several groups:
- Mommy and Me: English for infants through 3-year-olds with Mom or Dad (mainly Mom)
- Kanai: Large group English classes done in kindergartens on kindergarten time
- Kagai: Small group English classes of 3-year-olds through high school, grouped by age/English level done after school
- Adult Beginner English
- Adult Intermediate English
- All other languages
Mommy and Me classes are my specialty. I am currently the only teacher who teaches Mommy and Me classes, and have a complete blast at it. These are twice a month for an hour, but the hour is split into 45-50 minutes of games and songs to teach the kids English, and 10-15 to teach phrases the mothers can use at home everyday. I luckily teach these with a Japanese teacher to translate things that are too difficult for the kids, which helps so very much.
Kanai classes are also taught by a native teacher and a Japanese teacher. For kanai classes we go to a kindergarten during school hours and teach each class for 15-45 minutes. Japanese kindergartens usually have between 20 and 40 kids per class depending on age. Much like Mommy and Me on a larger scale, there's a lot of singing and games used to teach the kids English phrases and vocabulary. It's kind of like being on a kids show without the TV cameras.
Kagai are our usual kids English classes. These are done at kindergartens, community centers, and sports centers after school hours, and usually start around 3pm. Groups are usually 2-10 kids, and are grouped by age or level. We have these levels:
- 3-year-olds
- 4-year-olds
- 5-year-olds
- Elementary A (grades 1-2)
- Elementary B (grades 3-4)
- Elementary Special (grades 5-6)
- Middle school (grades 7-9)
- High school (grades 10-12)
Classes for 3, 4 and 5-year-olds are pretty much the same, with vocab increasing with age (eg. 3yrs learn "mouth" "nose" "eyes" "mouth", 4yrs learn those plus "head" "shoulders" "knees" "toes", 5yrs learn all of those plus "hair" "chin" "foot" "hand"). Also, lots of songs are sung to make the class fun for the kids.
Starting in the elementary classes, we quit most songs although the textbooks routinely have chants. I skip those usually. Occasionally certain classes may use a different textbook if the teacher deems the class needing more basic work before moving on to the next level. There's also a textbook for between Elementary S and Middle school classes if a group gets through the textbooks fast enough.
Middle school and high school classes mainly work out of their school textbooks, and are more concentrated on reading, writing, grammar, and cramming enough English knowledge into their heads to pass their school exams. These are the longest classes at 90 minutes per class, and the students and I both dread going to them.
All kagai classes meet once a week, time depending on their level. At least one of their classes in a month will be taught by myself or one of the other native teachers, but all others are taught by a Japanese teacher who can explain the grammar and mistakes in Japanese. We native teachers are in charge of practicing the key phrases for that month with the kids via games and flash cards so the kids can here proper pronuncation and such.
Adult English classes are taught entirely by non-Japanese teachers. Typically one of the three native teachers will teach it, but in the event that none of us are available, there are several teachers of other languages who will take of the class.
Hop Step Jump is unique in Gifu in that for 10,000yen (roughly US$100) you can come as many times a month as you want, given that there's a seat open. We have beginner classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at night, and Saturday mornings. These classes you can "reserve" a seat, meaning your name is always on the list for that particular time every week. We also occasionally have "optional" classes on Tuesdays, Thursday or Monday nights where there are no reserved seats. There is almost always open spaces for those who are not reserved to come in, but on Wednesdays there's only one free space open. At most, you can come to 18 classes, if there are no optional classes. As long as you don't take two hours in a row (we offer two one-hour-long classes on Wednesdays and sometimes Mondays), you can come whenever there's a free spot. Intermediate classes work the same, but we only offer an hour on Tuesday and Friday nights, and an hour on Saturday morning.
All other languages are by reservation only, and are usually set up personally between the teacher and the student. Usually these are private classes, but sometimes if there is a group of friends who all want to take private classes, we will create a private group lesson for them. Usually these have a set day and time each week. We offer both private lessons and private group lessons for English as well, but try to get people to come to the all-you-want group lessons.
I think, that's about it.
This entry is just way too long, but I really don't want to come in tomorrow for that long if I can help it. Office wants me to crank out another entry tomorrow. Most likely will be about Earth Plan's other venture, Learn Japan.
Now, to go buy bacon, lettuce, a tomato and bread.
Guess what I'm having for dinner.
No new developments on my car accident to write about, so I'm going to be the "good worker" and introduce my place of employment.
Hop Step Jump is a language school in Gifu City, owned by Earth Plan, Co., that specializes in teaching English to children. We do advertize having 20 different languages available if you want to learn something other than English. Basically, we have teachers of 20 languages on call if there is someone who would like to learn a language other than English. Our most popular languages other than English are (in no particular order) Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, German, French and Italian. However, French is starting to lose it's place as we lost our beloved teacher from Senegal. He's off building a bridge between his home country and Mali as a part of a joint-venture between several Japanese engineering companies, Mali and Senegal. We miss him so. The new French teacher is trying his hardest to fill the spot left behind, so we'll see how that turns out.
We offer classes for infants through adults, and these are split into several groups:
- Mommy and Me: English for infants through 3-year-olds with Mom or Dad (mainly Mom)
- Kanai: Large group English classes done in kindergartens on kindergarten time
- Kagai: Small group English classes of 3-year-olds through high school, grouped by age/English level done after school
- Adult Beginner English
- Adult Intermediate English
- All other languages
Mommy and Me classes are my specialty. I am currently the only teacher who teaches Mommy and Me classes, and have a complete blast at it. These are twice a month for an hour, but the hour is split into 45-50 minutes of games and songs to teach the kids English, and 10-15 to teach phrases the mothers can use at home everyday. I luckily teach these with a Japanese teacher to translate things that are too difficult for the kids, which helps so very much.
Kanai classes are also taught by a native teacher and a Japanese teacher. For kanai classes we go to a kindergarten during school hours and teach each class for 15-45 minutes. Japanese kindergartens usually have between 20 and 40 kids per class depending on age. Much like Mommy and Me on a larger scale, there's a lot of singing and games used to teach the kids English phrases and vocabulary. It's kind of like being on a kids show without the TV cameras.
Kagai are our usual kids English classes. These are done at kindergartens, community centers, and sports centers after school hours, and usually start around 3pm. Groups are usually 2-10 kids, and are grouped by age or level. We have these levels:
- 3-year-olds
- 4-year-olds
- 5-year-olds
- Elementary A (grades 1-2)
- Elementary B (grades 3-4)
- Elementary Special (grades 5-6)
- Middle school (grades 7-9)
- High school (grades 10-12)
Classes for 3, 4 and 5-year-olds are pretty much the same, with vocab increasing with age (eg. 3yrs learn "mouth" "nose" "eyes" "mouth", 4yrs learn those plus "head" "shoulders" "knees" "toes", 5yrs learn all of those plus "hair" "chin" "foot" "hand"). Also, lots of songs are sung to make the class fun for the kids.
Starting in the elementary classes, we quit most songs although the textbooks routinely have chants. I skip those usually. Occasionally certain classes may use a different textbook if the teacher deems the class needing more basic work before moving on to the next level. There's also a textbook for between Elementary S and Middle school classes if a group gets through the textbooks fast enough.
Middle school and high school classes mainly work out of their school textbooks, and are more concentrated on reading, writing, grammar, and cramming enough English knowledge into their heads to pass their school exams. These are the longest classes at 90 minutes per class, and the students and I both dread going to them.
All kagai classes meet once a week, time depending on their level. At least one of their classes in a month will be taught by myself or one of the other native teachers, but all others are taught by a Japanese teacher who can explain the grammar and mistakes in Japanese. We native teachers are in charge of practicing the key phrases for that month with the kids via games and flash cards so the kids can here proper pronuncation and such.
Adult English classes are taught entirely by non-Japanese teachers. Typically one of the three native teachers will teach it, but in the event that none of us are available, there are several teachers of other languages who will take of the class.
Hop Step Jump is unique in Gifu in that for 10,000yen (roughly US$100) you can come as many times a month as you want, given that there's a seat open. We have beginner classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at night, and Saturday mornings. These classes you can "reserve" a seat, meaning your name is always on the list for that particular time every week. We also occasionally have "optional" classes on Tuesdays, Thursday or Monday nights where there are no reserved seats. There is almost always open spaces for those who are not reserved to come in, but on Wednesdays there's only one free space open. At most, you can come to 18 classes, if there are no optional classes. As long as you don't take two hours in a row (we offer two one-hour-long classes on Wednesdays and sometimes Mondays), you can come whenever there's a free spot. Intermediate classes work the same, but we only offer an hour on Tuesday and Friday nights, and an hour on Saturday morning.
All other languages are by reservation only, and are usually set up personally between the teacher and the student. Usually these are private classes, but sometimes if there is a group of friends who all want to take private classes, we will create a private group lesson for them. Usually these have a set day and time each week. We offer both private lessons and private group lessons for English as well, but try to get people to come to the all-you-want group lessons.
I think, that's about it.
This entry is just way too long, but I really don't want to come in tomorrow for that long if I can help it. Office wants me to crank out another entry tomorrow. Most likely will be about Earth Plan's other venture, Learn Japan.
Now, to go buy bacon, lettuce, a tomato and bread.
Guess what I'm having for dinner.
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