Recently in Step 4 Category

Well, I hoped that Risa could make it for our last class, but I know that teachers are very busy this time of year. Today Paul joined us because he is going to be taking over this class from April. We talked a lot about different topics. A topic from the textbook about morning routines got us talking about Japanese style breakfasts which lead to talk about natto. . The discussion gave me the idea to make a natto omelette for the pot luck dinner next Friday. Come and give it a taste.

Well, Emi has finished high school and she came to class with curlier and lighter colored hair today. She is getting the university look ready. We talked about a few things and Yumiko mentioned that she had bought the newspaper log maker. I am looking forward to hearing how it works.

We went over the restaurant conversation and it took a little longer than I thought it would, but I think people have a better feel for the type of English required for this situation. After that the pairs shared their restaurant anecdotes. Sadly, to say most of them were too short. Only Yumiko came close to speaking for three minutes. The key to her success was including a lot of details. While listening to her story you could easily picture the the setting and how she felt. Maybe she will write it up and I can share it with everyone.

There is no homework for next week and we will jump up to Unit 14.

We started the semester with two people and we ended it with two. Naoko had good news about her cell phone. She was able to get the data off of it and on to her new phone. The old phone as now died, so she was lucky. She still hasn't made a backup of the photos on her phone, though. This is a link to the online backup site I mentioned in class.

The homework was to talk about an incident in a restaurant and the ones that Sayuri and Naoko had were interesting. After sharing the information we started talking about different types of stereotypes. We talked about how the images of Japanese women have changed. Finally, at the end we talked about where people would like to visit in the future.

I won't be teaching this class next term, but I am sure you will enjoy the class with Trish. Keep studying hard and of course, when we meet next time I will still speak to you in English.

Almost back to the regular class because both Emi and Yumiko were here tonight. We went over the homework and people had a lot of good questions about the countable and uncountable. After that we moved on to the restaurant situation. The homework is to rewrite the conversation in more polite English. Also think about a restaurant anecdote to share with the class. Try to make it 3 minutes long and you can use the questions in the book to help you organize your thoughts.

I mentioned this site and here is a link to a good exercise related to this lesson.

Back to the old style class, only two people. Naoko told me about how she ended up washing her cell phone in her work clothes. Of course, it doesn't work anymore and she had to get a new one. Sayuri mentioned that she has stiff shoulders and it is something that happens every spring. She said that it lasts until about Golden Week.

We went over the homework and there were no big problems, but it was a good review. We looked at the restaurant conversations and corrected the very rude version. We talked about how many questions you have to answer when ordering a typical restaurant meal. I found this listening exercise for a fast food restaurant. Give it a listen and we can talk about it next week.

The homework is to think of a restaurant anecdote to share with the class. Use the questions in the book to help you organize your thoughts.

Last night when Miki showed up for a class I thought there was the chance that it would only be the other Miki and I tonight. I guess I worried for nothing because we ended up with five people.

There was no homework to check and besides Emi's big news about graduating on Saturday and getting her driver's permit there wasn't much else to talk about in the warm up.

We started Unit 12 because we don't have that many classes left and I want to cover some other important points. In this unit there is a section on countable and uncountable and the quantifiers that they use. People often make mistakes with these even though they know the rules. I think it is a good idea to go over them again.

No one in this class could remember their first date, either. The date we listened to on the CD was kind of funny, so I typed first date horror stories and was surprised how many sites came up. It seems that newspapers like to run columns about his sort of thing. Try it yourself and see what you come up with.

The homework for next week is to do 1-7 on page 101.

Emi was absent this morning, so I guess she will be coming to the Wednesday night class. I wonder how her driving lessons are going? It was a quiet weekend for everyone, so there wasn't much to talk about at the beginning of class.

There was no homework to check so we jumped right in to the next unit. In this unit we will be focusing on countable and uncountable nouns. We started off with a listening exercise about a first date and as a warm up I asked people if they remembered their first date with their husbands. Nobody remembered anything! I think you were embarrassed to say what you did on your first date. Try to remember this week and you can share it with us. I will double check with Noriko to see if I remembered correctly.

The homework for this week is to do 1-7 on page 101. It should be pretty easy and will generally be review I think.

Even though there was a lot of homework this week most everyone did it. It was fun to listen to everyone's dream weekend. They were all similar in many ways, people wanted peace and quiet.

When I asked what people would do if they had a million yen the answers were pretty different. The listening exercise talked about Greece and the dish moussaka. It was one of the dishes I had in mind the other one was this. It is really sweet.

There is no homework for next week.

Update:
Yumiko made a delicious dish of moussaka tonight. Hopefully, she will make it again for the pot luck dinner at the end of the term, so that everyone can taste it.

Shogo was back for the first time in a long time. He said he has been busy and he will be extra busy tomorrow because of Valentine's Day. We went over the homework and then jumped to Unit 11 and talked about travel. You did a pretty good job guessing about the pictures, but were surprised by the skiing in Patagonia, Argentina

There is no homework for next week which will probably make the morning class angry because I gave them a lot!

The term smart clothes was in the reading and said that in America people would probably think you were talking about something like this.

This was a class of good news. Sayuri told us again that her husband was okay and Emi told us that she passed the entrance exam to the college she wants to go to. She was in her school uniform today because she was going to school to get permission to take driving lessons. Speaking of tests Naoko's daughter's high school entrance exams are coming soon. I am sure things are getting a little tense at her house.

We listened to everyones descriptions of the location of Obihiro and there some very good examples. This site gives some good examples of prepositions of location. We then moved on to the listening exercise and talked about modal auxiliary + infnitive used in speculating and deducing.

The homework for next week is to do #1-3 and 5 on page 95. Everyone said that seemed like a lot of homework, but when I asked what people were going to do on the weekend nobody was that busy. Naoko did say she was going to set up her doll collection for Girl's Day, but that will only take 30 minutes!

Yumiko are you looking for your slippers?

Miki was afraid she might be the only person again tonight, but Risa was able to make it. No one did anything special last week, so we jumped into checking the homework from two weeks ago. After that we talked about the reading. Miki is a list maker, but Risa isn't. I would have thought that Risa was one. They both guessed that Yumiko was, but there weren't sure about Emi.

The homework for next week is to do the collocations on page 87 and then 1-4 on page 88.

People didn't have much special news today. Sayuri did say she learned two new words because of all of the coverage of the tainted food from China. She learned that gyoza are also called "dumplings" and that they were contaminated with "pesticide".

We talked about family rules and things that were prohibited, and permitted and things there were obligated or not obligated to do. There were a wide range of things people talked about.

After that we did the listening exercise about the different offices and the guesses were only correct for one of the offices. The office cultures for all three were quite different. Speaking of offices, one of the most popular TV shows in the States and Britain has been a show called The Office . I have never seen it, but people seem to love it.

The homework for next week is to do #4 on page 92,

Miki was a lucky again this week because she got a private lesson for a group lesson price. Several people did substitution classes earlier in the week and some will probably do one on Thursday. Again this time we talked about several different topics, but this time we talked mainly about the way universities and colleges are structured. We were trying to understand the way that Chikudai is set up and how it compares to the U.S. model. I explained a little bit about land-grant colleges and other aspects of the U.S. system.

The homework was to do the reading about list making and I tried to guess who the list makers in the class were. I was correct and Sayuri was the non-list maker. She does make lists, but it is a simple one, but Naoka has a three part system.

We looked at noun collocations and you can practice more here. The homework for next week is to read the Language Reference on page 90 and then do #4 on page 88. We will start the class next week with a listening exercise and then start a new unit.

We had a full class for the first time in a long time, but it sounds like we will be lucky if we have more than two students next week!

Emi feels confident about the tests she took on Saturday and Sunday. She said she wasn't nervous at all. Shogo said he hasn't had a day off in over ten days, but he is hoping get two in a row next week. Miki has been working outside recently and she has to work outside tomorrow, too. The weather forecast isn't good, so I don't envy her.

In the lesson tonight both Yumiko and Emi had done the listening exercise, so I used information from my life to create a similar exercise. I was surprised how well you did.

Yumiko joined us again today and Sayuri was back from her trip. Yumiko said that she will probably be coming to this class until March.

I'm sorry that my instructions for the homework weren't clearer. Everyone wasn't quite sure what to do, but you still did a good job. The time section was kind of interesting and it got me thinking about how we say things in English. Of the examples in the book I only use a few.

The homework for next week is pp 86-87 Things to do... 1& 2. Do worry about the collocation exercise because we will do it in class.

At first I thought we might have a repeat of last week, but with the other Miki, but Risa, Shogo and Yukari came. We started Unit 9 and talked about time and different time proverbs. After hearing everyone's answers to the the questionnaire I think I am the only punctual person in the class.

The listening was difficult, so read the tapescript and we will listen to it again next week. Also think of three things that you think are a waste of time and why you think so.

Naoko was worried for nothing. We ended up with four people today and one of them was Take, her husband. Emi and Yumiko, both from the 4E class, were here which means I will have a small class on Wednesday night again.

We went over the homework, which was to think of three things that are a waste of time. There were several interesting answers. I mentioned that getting the works at the barber (it takes about an hour), washing my car by hand and waiting in line to eat at a restaurant.

We also talked about important dates in our lives and did the listening exercise. After that we looked a prepositions of time and you can go here for some more practice.

The homework for next week is to make questions of the a-o sentences.

Thank you Miki! If you hadn't shown up, I would have been skunked and it has been years since that happened. We just talked and we covered a variety of subjects. She had a lot of questions about Alaska, so that gave us a lot to talk about.

The homework for next week is the same and we will start Unit 10.

A nice surprise today because Emi from the Wednesday night 4E class came for a make up class and she will be here again next week, too. At the beginning of class we talked about everyone's New Year's holiday and it was a quite time for everyone. Naoko said she read a lot of books.

There was no homework to check so we started a new unit. We skipped Unit 9 because it doesn't look so interesting and started Unit 10 which is about time. We looked at some some sayings related to time and many of the typical ones were on the list. If you want to read some more go here.

In this group three of us are punctual people and only one is so-so punctual. We did the questionnaire about time and then listened to the radio interview. The homework for next week is to read over the tapescript and see if you agree with the time management consultant or not. Also do #3 on page 83 and think about three activities that you think are a waste of time. Of course, you have to explain why you think so.

Today we just went over the homework, but didn't start the new unit. We will wait to do that after the new year. It was the last class for Harumi, so we had coffee in front of the fireplace and talked about many different things. Now that we are back to two people I hope Mariko can rejoin us in January and it would be great to have Sophia come back, too. Harumi did say that she will be back in Obihiro in March and will try to come to that last few lessons.

It was nice to have Miki back tonight. We were able to hear about hear trip to Las Vegas and Zion National Park. It sounds like she really liked Zion the best. She did a little gambling with the slot machines, but when she lost 20 dollars she quit.

We went over the homework and the one part gave people some trouble. After that we did the exercise on word stress and if you want to do more go here.

There is no class next week because we are having the Christmas party, so the winter vacation homework is to do page 71. Of course, keep checking the site during the break because I will be posting occasionally and you can always post a comment to let your classmates know what you are up to.

I heard from Yuri that she won't be able to make to the morning class anymore, so we are back down to three and Harumi's last class is next week. After the break we will be back to just Naoko and Sayuri, but hopefully, we will get someone after the break.

We went over the homework and then did the exercise on word stress and this link has some interesting information. After that we worked with passive sentences and then relative clauses. We did a quiz show with the questions in the People and Places section.

At the end of class Sayuri had a question from her husband about the status of Guam. This page might help, but it is in English.

It was nice to have one of the Mikis back tonight and also Take from Joe's class here. With four people it was easier to do a couple of activities. In the adverbs of frequency there was the phrase once in a blue moon, but many people didn't know what it meant. You can read more about it here.

The homework for next week is to do future forms #1 on page 68 and then Keep in Touch 1 and 2 on page 69. Remember that next week is the last class before the winter break because the 19th is the JOY Christmas party.

Only three people today because Sayuri is in Gaum. She picked a pretty good time to be gone because it has been cold the last few days. We talked about a few things in the news before we went over the homework and Naoko talked about this item.

In the homework about adverbs of frequency there was the phrase once in a blue moon. If you want to learn more about that a blue moon go here.

The homework for next week is Keep in Touch on page 69.

It was just like the old days before we moved this class to Wednesday. It was only Emi and Yumiko today. I was hoping more people would come, so that we would have more help with decorating the Christmas tree. Yumiko brought popcorn and Shinobu helped her string it. You can see how it looks next week when you come to class.

We went over the homework, but Emi had forgotten what parts she needed to do. Yumiko had also missed a few places, so we did them together in class. It was probably good that we did because we were able to clear up a few misunderstandings. In one of the invitations there was the phrase come down for the weekend, so we talked about the come down, come up, come over and come in and come out.

There is a lot of homework for next week. First is #4, which was part of the homework last week. Then in Unit 8 you need to correct the grammar in the questions and then find the answers in Units 1-7. Finally, write the questions for the adverbs of frequency and think of your answers.

We talked about the price increases planned for kerosene, plastic wrap, tires and instant coffee. We tried to find some good points in what most people consider bad news. Of course, there is the possibility that higher prices will encourage people to use the resources more wisely.

We went over the homework and there was a misunderstanding about the first part. We ended up going over them together, but it gave us a chance to talk over a few points. After the homework we started the review unit. With spending more time on checking the homework we didn't get as far as I thought we would. The homework for next week is the adverbs of frequency exercise on the bottom of page 67.

Oops! I just noticed that I haven't posted anything for this class. Sorry, I guess Tomoyasu really will have a legitimate excuse for not knowing about the homework.

The snow was kind of surprise this morning and then there was the thunder on top of that. I hope everyone got home okay. I heard sirens off and on all afternoon. I don't know if it was because there were car accidents or people having heart attacks while shoveling the heavy snow.

We went over the homework and Harumi was the only party animal. The rest of us were in the middle. Everyone had a least one party anecdote. They were very interesting and you did a good job in telling them. After that we listened to the song It's my Party and I'll Cry if I want to by Lesley Gore. We also took a look at the different cards and matched the message to the appropriate card. Of course, there are many online card sites now and one of the most famous is BlueMountain.com.

There is a lot of homework for the next class. Do #1 on page 65 and numbers2, 3, and 4 on page 66.

There were some pretty interesting conversations in the role play. After that we talked about parties. Your lists of important ingredients were very similar to the ones in the listening exercise.

There is a lot of homework for next week. Do the questionnaire and the exercise that follows it. Also think of the best and worst parties you have attended and be prepared to tell you partner about them.

Next week Miki is going to be absent because she is going to Las Vegas on vacation. I am sure she will have a good time and send a postcard.

I should have recorded the dialogues that you did for the homework. They were very good and you included all the information that the activity required. After that we talked about parties and the difference between the types of parties in the U.S. and Japan. After that we did the listening exercise about what the three British young people thought were important ingredients for a party. When you put party plannning in a search engine you get a lot of hits, with most of them being company sites. This site has a lot of good links that you might find interesting.

The homework for next week is to do the questionnaire and the following exercise. Also prepare an anecdote about the best party and worst parties that you have ever attended.

Tonight was the first time this semester that we have had everyone here. Hopefully, this will become a regular occurrence. Tomoyasu did say he has a business trip to Osaka next week.

We went over the homework and then started to work on the future tense . There was a little misunderstanding about the usage and it will take some more practice. This site is has some interesting examples.

The homework for next week is to make a conversation based on the scenario in the book. Be creative, but follow the instructions.

It is nice to have four people in the class now. We will be able to do many more pair work type of activities.

Sayuri had a good time on her trip, but she said there were several people who didn't enjoy the spicy Thai food. She also couldn't see the night view in Hong Kong because of the fog.

We did some work with the phrasal verbs at the beginning and then looked at using the future tense. The listening exercise was a little difficult, so we listened to it several times. We also did the exercise to practice the three types of future tense.

The homework for next week is to make conversation using the information from the textbook.

Tomoyasu was back from his business trip to Osaka. It was colder than he expected and he wasn't dressed warmly enough.

We went over the homework and then moved on to the new unit about parties. Shogo wasn't here tonight and he seems like a guy who might like parties. The reading was about Las Fallas and there were several phrasal verbs. There were several exercises that we did using them and the homework is to do #3 a & b on page 59.

With Sayuri on a trip to Thailand that left only Naoko and Harumi. Naoko brought an interesting news article about a very dangerous national treasure. I think this is the place she was talking about.

In today's lesson there was a reading about the Las Fallas. In it there were a lot of phrasal verbs. We did two exercises with them and next week's homework is to do #3 on page 59.

Several people did make up classes and Risa was back from her trip. She told us a little more about how she sprained her ankle. The homework production was a on the weak side this week. Yukari did a pretty good news story about the Hollywood divorce.

We did the listening exercise and talked about ways of responding to personal news. Be careful and try not to sound sarcastic.

The homework for next week is p. 57. Do numbers 1,3 and 4. If you didn't do last week's homework, feel free to do it, too.

Yuri joined us as an observer and Harumi, after observing last week, decided to join the class. Having four people today made it much easier to do some of the activities. Hopefully, Yuri will join the class.

Everyone did the homework and the news stories that they created were very good. Sayuri's was probably the funniest. I wonder how well the Wednesday night Step 4 class will do.

After listening to the homework we practiced responding to good news and bad news. There were some good examples in the book and at the end you needed to think up some of your own dialogues.

The homework for next week is do the exercises on page 57. You can skip #2, but make sure to do 1, 3 and 4.

I am sure the postcard from Risa will be arriving soon. :) Next week we should have a chance to learn more about her trip to Canada. Shogo said he didn't have to translate last week because the people from the JICA Center brought someone with them.

We went over the homework that covered the passive voice. I found this interesting article about it.

After we finished checking the homework we moved on to the listening exercise and looked at the headlines. This link will take you to some news summaries. They might give you an idea on how to do next week's homework, which is to pick one of the headlines on page 55 and write a news summary.

Harumi took part in the class and decided to join us. She will be in the class until the end of December. Maybe by that time Maiko will be able to return to the class.

We looked over the headlines and listened to the radio news headlines. We talked about the types of news that people usually looked at first and sources where they mainly get their news. Sayuri doesn't have a TV, so she gets most of her news from the internet and radio. I seldom listen to the radio anymore. I used to listen to the radio when I commuted back and forth to JOY and when I worked in the garage. I now use my iPod to listen to many different podcasts and music.

The homework for next week is to write a short news story for one of the headlines in the book on page 55.

Tonight a totally different group of students came, so we went over some of the same material that we looked at last week. People thought some of the activities were difficult. I think the homework on the passive voice will be really fun. :)

Naoko enjoyed her Chikudai class reunion and Sayuri went to lunch at a restaurant near the Ecology Park. She bought several kinds of vegetables and was surprised to see garlic. I couldn't think of what we called garlic, but it is a bulb of garlic.

We talked about the different points related to the media and then we checked the homework. I had hoped to get to one a listening exercise today, but we didn't make it.

Only Miki (a new student) and Risa were here tonight. We took some time at the beginning so they could get to know each other and then we started the book. We did the reading about paparazzi and then looked at some of the important phrases. The homework for next week is to use the phrases from #1 to complete the sentences in #2.

Risa will be gone next week because she will be going to Canada with her students for two weeks. I hope everyone who was absent tonight can make it next week.

Well, we have a small class now, but Maiko may join us again later. Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will get some new people.

We talked about paparazzi and their run ins with some celebrities. There were a lot of good phrases in the reading and there was a short exercise to practice using some of them.

The homework for next week is to do exercises 1, 2, 4 and 5 on page 53.

We got to hear about Tomoyasu's trip to Detroit and it sounded like he had a really good time even though he was their on business. During his stay he did have to make some presentations in English, but other times he didn't speak too much.

We continued using used to and would. People had a lot of questions and I hope I was able to answer them in a way that helped you understand how to use the words.

The last thing we did tonight was listen to the story. It was really long and when listening to long stories like that it is hard to keep track of what is happening. If you would like more practice, try going to the Gutenberg Project because they have books and audio files that you can download for free.

I hope to see you next week at the events.

Today was our last class everyone was able to make it. We went over the homework and there was a little misunderstanding. I wanted you to prepare a story about one of the items, but you thought you needed to think of the answers to the questions. We got things straightened out in the end.

We next listened to the end of the story and it was pretty long. Everyone was able to catch the main points. If you would like to do more listening practice like that you can go to the Gutenberg Project.

I hope you can make it to one of the events next week and if not I will see you in October.

A small class tonight. We haven't seen Hiroyuki for awhile, but I am sure he is busy getting ready to go to the States next month. Emi was gone also this evening, but I think she has tests this week.

We ended up with a lot of comments on last week's post because Tomoyasu posted two. He is planning to be here next week, so we can ask him about his trip. The homework for next week is to do 1-4 on page 49. We will find out why the boys didn't like the sweet-shop owner.

At the beginning of class we talked a little bit about what is happening in the news. Sayuri mentioned the new camera from Sony that can recognize when someone is smiling. Naoko mentioned the Japanese rocket launch that is coming up. Maiko mentioned that she went to the new bagel shop, but they were all sold out. She is going to try again this weekend and give us a report next week.

The four-line rhyme was a little more difficult than I thought. Maiko misunderstood the homework assignment and will bring her rhyme next week. We did the reading about Roald Dahl's childhood and looked at his use of descriptive language.

The homework for next week is to do the Close Up section and do numbers 1-4.

On the postcard front, nothing has arrived from Tomoyasu yet. I wonder how he is enjoying Detroit? Hiroyuki was absent, but I am sure he is busy because the camp is having its annual festival. They might be unlucky this year because the tail end of the typhoon might be hitting Hokkaido this weekend.

We went over the homework and looked at the defining relative clauses. After that we listened to the children's ryhymes. The homework is to write your own using the words in the box at the bottom of the page.

Maiko was back from Yokohama and she said it was really hot and muggy there. Sayuri and Naoko both had busy weekends. We talked a little bit about the news and the mistake at the track and field meet in Osaka.

After that we continued talking about defining relative clauses and went over the homework. In going over the homework there was a question why British private schools are called "public schools" but I haven't been able to track down an answer yet. See what you can find out.

The homework for next week is to write a four-line rhyme using the words in #5 on page 46. If you want some inspiration, read the ones here.

Hiroyuki was back and Atsuko was here for a make up class. Hiroyuki mentioned that he will be going to San Francisco for work next month and Risa is going to Canada in October. With Tomoyasu in Detroit I am going to be getting a lot of post cards the next few months.

We started the unit on kids and looked at relative clauses and at the end of class we looked at children's jokes. I mentioned knock knock jokes and I read some riddles from the magazine. Some of them weren't very funny.

The homework for next week is to do page 44.

Only Sayuri and Naoko again this week. I didn't get an e-mail from Maiko, so I am not sure if she is still in Yokohama or not. I am not sure what is up with Ai, but I imagine she is really busy now. Sayuri said she was downtown on the weekend and walked by Ai's isakaiya and the place looked packed. If she has the time I hope she can make it back before the semester is over.

There was no homework to check, so we spent a little more time talking about the news. We started the new unit and we will be looking at relative clauses and the theme of the unit is kids. We talked about some interesting points from the book and did the listening exercise. The homework for next week is to do #3 & 4 and #1 & 2 on page 44.

Hiroyuki couldn't make it tonight, but I don't know the reason. Miki is going to join this class, so we are continuing to grow. We will lose Tomoyasu for a few weeks because he has a business trip to Detroit for three weeks. I suggested that he try to make it to a Detroit Tigers game or out to Ann Arbor. I am sure he will be able to find time to send us a postcard.

Risa went to Hawaii for a week during the break and she had a wonderful time. She said she didn't speak much English though.

Just Naoko and Sayuri today. I got an e-mail from Maiko just before class saying she couldn't come because she had to go to Yokoyama because her father is sick. At first I didn't recognize who it was from because she used her maiden name in the message.

We talked about the break and what people did, but neither Naoko or Sayuri did anything special. Sayuri's husband wasn't feeling well and Naoko's daughters were very busy. She said she only got to sleep in one day during the break.

We went over the homework and the stories that you told were very good. Naoko's had a lot of detail. After that we listened to the song by Ike and Tina Turner and we all had trouble catching the lyrics. I am really not that familiar with their music.

There is no homework for next week, but we can hear about Maiko's summer vacation and hopefully, Ai can also come.

Tomoyasu (business trip to China) and Risa (did a make up on Tuesday) were absent and Yumiko (new hairstyle) came a little late. We went over the homework and then looked at the different things people had or hadn't done. In the listening exercise there were some interesting situations. Shogo had some interesting answers.

The homework for next week is to prepare a story. If you answer the questions on the page and follow the steps in the language toolbox you should be okay. Also look over the Language Reference box. Finally, I will be posting things (I hope) throughout the break, so stop by and take a look, but also post comments telling me what you are doing.

Maiko didn't look waterlogged even after gong to a hot spring every day while her father was here. It sounds like she had a good time. Naoko is extra busy because her daughters are on summer vacation. Sayuri said her husband really enjoyed the horse riding he did.

We looked over the homework and people were able to catch a few of the unusual grammar points. We then looked over the sentences and talked about some of the things people had done. The homework for the break is to write a story about something that you have done. Follow the five stages in the book and remember give as much detail as you can.

A few weeks ago Ai said that she would be singing downtown at the weekend festival, but I don't remember when or the name of her band. I hope she will read this and post the information for us.

Everyone was here tonight for the first time in a long time. It is nice to have larger class because if gives you a chance to talk to different people. I got a little bit behind schedule, so I had go faster than usual at the end of class.

In talking about sports I asked people if there was any such thing as women's rugby, but no one seemed to know, but from this link it seems there is. We did the listening exercise about Jane Couch and to read more about her go here.

The homework is to read over the tapescript and mark the places where you think the grammar may not be correct.

Maiko let me know this morning that her father was in town, so they would be going to a hot spring. She said she will try to be here next week. Sayuri said she also had a guest, but her husband was taking her horse-riding. Naoko's husband is feeling better, but he still isn't 100%.

We went over the homework and then talked about all the different sports and activities. We then did the listening about the woman boxer, Jane Couch. It was a difficult listening activity. For homework look over the tapescript on page 149 and underline the points that you think might not be standard grammar.

Only Yumiko and Tomoyasu tonight. We didn't make it to the textbook tonight because we ended up talking about a wide variety of topics. We talked about the earthquake in Niigata and the dangers to the nuclear power plant . We then talked about housing and building houses which covered solar energy, remodeling, paper vs paint and so on. Then we moved to teaching children English and international schools. Finally, we talked about Tokachi and how to make it a more energetic place. We did talk a little bit about last week's homework at the end of class and we will check it next week.

Tonight's conversation moved very naturally from subject to subject. I was impressed by the was Yumiko and Tomoyasu handled themselves.

Naoko couldn't make and neither could Ai, so it was just Maiko and Sayuri. We talked about a variety of things at the beginning of class, but of course, the earthquake was the first thing. After talking about the weekend and Sayuri's battle with flies we started the textbook. We talked about things that scare, excite and anger us. Surprisingly, there weren't too many things that make people angry. Maybe we can find out about Ai and Naoko next week.

We did a few exercises with the reading and then looked at graded adjectives. The homework for next week is to look at number 3 on page 33 and to put the adjectives in the correct group on page 34.

A small class tonight, only Yumiko, Emi, and Tomoyasu. Tonight was also Emi's last class because she will switch to Urashima-san's class from next week.

We talked about different emotions and what makes us feel that way. We also looked at gradable and absolute adjectives. Next week for homework you need to put the adjectives on page 34 in the correct group. Also do #3 on page 33.

Sayuri talked a little bit about her trip on the other side of the mountains and recommended a new restaurant. I will have to give it a try for lunch sometime. Maiko mentioned that she read how Apple Computer got its name. This link will give you some more information on Apple's early history.

We went over the ways to be a little less direct and focused on the nuance of some of the combinations. After that we went over the homework and Naoko and Maiko both thought that the boyfriend's jealousy would force his girlfriend to break up with him. It turns out that he had nothing to be jealous about after all.

Ai showed up at the end of class to drop off some snacks that she brought back from her trip. She had a good time, but she said she had a difficult time at first understanding Thai-English. Ai says she will definitely be here on time next week.

Emi was gone tonight because she is busy with her school festival and Shogo was also absent tonight. It's too bad he wasn't here because one student wanted to buy an eel bowl ticket.

Tonight no one did the homework which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With no one having done the homework it was easy just to incorporate the material into the class. It is much more difficult when one or two people have done the homework, but the rest of the class hasn't. There is no homework for next week, so you won't have to worry.

It was just Naoko and Maiko today, but we knew that was going to be the case from last week. There wasn't a whole lot of news to talk about so we jumped right into checking the homework. There were a couple of spots where people had trouble, but we got them worked out. Naoko has a friend who met her husband like the women in example two. Besides that there were no other examples of romantic first meetings.

We looked at the chat-up or pick up lines and like the Wednesday night class there was some difficulty in understanding exactly what chat-up lines are. I tried to give many different examples of when and where they are used, so I think people finally go the idea. The next time you watch an American movie or TV show listen for these kinds of lines, especially if the scene is taking place in a bar.

The homework for next week is the reading on page 31. Do exercises 1-4.

For a long time tonight it was only Hiroyuki. We talked about the 100K race he did on the weekend. It took him over 10 hours to complete the run and at the end his ankles really hurt.

We were in the middle of checking the homework when Risa arrived and later Shogo arrived. He had very special reason for being late and I will let him tell the story next week. If he reads this, he may decide to put something in the comments.

We did the exercises related to the "dream date" and the "chat-up" lines. People had a hard time of coming up with any Japanese ones.

The homework for next week is to do the reading on page 31. Answer questions 1-4.

This is just a note for Hiroyuki because the e-mail that I sent came back. This is the link that you want.

We had interesting start to the class today. There were two different stories about whether Ai had gone to Thailand or was coming to class. Naoko and Sayuri thought she was coming, but Maiko and I thought she had gone on her trip. Naoko and Sayuri were correct. Ai is going to Thailand this coming weekend.

The other interesting topic was started by Sayuri. She wanted to know how people referred to their friend's husbands (in Japanese). She felt using some of the traditional ways make it sound like the wife is in a subservient role. There were several different answers.

After that we continued working with present perfect and used since and for.

The homework for next is page 27, but it seems like it will only be Naoko and Maiko next class.

We started off with three people, but then Risa and Shogo showed up a little bit late. We talked about what people did over the weekend. We went over the homework and everyone talked about the first time they did something. Tomoyasu's story about his first dance was funny. I want to hear more about his bike trip in Sakhalin .

We did the listening exercise and learned about the two couples we read about last week. We also did some exercises using since and for. There were some interesting sentences and some people didn't do a good job guessing the lie that their partners told. My sentences were a little too easy.

The homework for next week is to do the exercise on page 27.

Ai was back today and she has quite the suntan. She said that it is in preparation for a trip to Thailand this weekend, but she admits she overdid it. She said her concert went well on Sunday and she will be doing another one in August.

We talked about a variety of things at the beginning of class and talked a little longer than I had planned. In the talk the Atkins Diet came up. There is a lot of controversy surrounding it, but my father was on it for awhile and he lost quite a bit of weight. As with most diets he wasn't able to keep it off.

Next we talked about the homework and we got to hear how Sayuri's husband got the travel bug. Naoko talked about her first home, Ai shared with us about her first hero and Maiko talked about her husband's first overseas trip. We looked at the answers for the fill-in-the-blank exercise. The interesting thing was the discussion about whether you agreed or disagreed with the different statements.

We didn't get to the listening exercise like I had hoped, so the homework for next week is to read the dating stories on pages 139 and 140. The listening exercise is related to them, so it is important to review them before class.

There was quite a selection of movie reviews that people did for homework tonight. We had everything from Anpan Man to a horror movie. After talking about the movies we moved on to the new unit and talked about different "firsts" in people's lives. Tomoyasu wanted to hear about everyone's first kiss, but suddenly couldn't remember when asked about his.

We did a reading exercise about two different couples and their unique dating situations. We used some of the key vocabulary from the readings in the next exercise.

The homework for next is to pick another first from your life and write out the details so you can share it with a partner next week.

At the beginning of class we talked a lot about internet related things because both Maiko and Naoko had trouble with Quicktime. Maiko couldn't get it to install at first and for Naoko it kept crashing her machine. Not being a windows user I can't really help them out. This then lead to talk about Mixi and then we ended up on Second Life, which I have only read about.

All of this was actually a good intro for today's lesson because there was a short reading about online dating. We read two short descriptions about how two couples met and then you had to give a summary of the reading you did. One part of the homework for next week is to fill in the blanks in Lexis (p. 25) using the words from the two readings. Try to do it without looking at the text if possible. The second part of the homework is to pick one of the "first" on the first page of the unit and prepare what you would like to share with your classmates.

At the end of class I mentioned that Ai would be singing this Sunday at the street festival in front of the Fuji Maru. I don't know many more details so I hope she will post a comment with more information.

Yumiko couldn't make it tonight because she had to go to a funeral. Tomoyasu was back and we talked a little bit about his trip to Shanghai. Emi was also back after a two week break. I was surprised she came because I know she has tests soon. As a matter of fact, her tests start tomorrow.

We went over the adjectives with the "ed" or "ing" endings. If you want to practice you can go here. I also mentioned at the end of class two good places to go to find out about movies. One is here and the other here. The homework for next week is to write a movie review and you need to include the information for the example in the book.

We talked a little bit about the rakugo because Naoko came to see it and other things people have been doing. Maiko will be having some guests from Tokyo next week. Sayuri and some interesting news, too.

We practiced using adjectives with ed or ing. You can do more practice here.

We went over the homework and people talked about a book or movie. You had three minutes to give as much information as you could. I wonder what movie or book Ai would have talked about today.

At the end of class I showed you the Internet Movie Database site because there is a lot of good movie information there. We also looked at the English trailers site. The homework for next week is to pick one of the trailers and do the activities. Next week in class I would like you share your opinion of the site with the class.

Shogo decided to join this class, so we are growing slowly, but surely. Emi was absent tonight, but did a make up class in the later Step 4 class. We went over the homework and guessing who was writing the descriptions was a little difficult. People had trouble with the new father and fashion model. Several people in both classes were unfamiliar with the saying about cats having "nine lives". Here is one theory about the origins.

After that we started talking about movies, books and music. Related to that we did a listening exercise and tried to catch what they were talking about. People had a little bit more trouble than I thought they would. Look over the tapescript and looked at the keywords.

The homework for next week is to look at the anecdote exercise. You will need to talk 3 to 4 minutes about a movie, book or a piece of music.

Naoko had to leave earlier today because she had to go to her daughter's sports day. Just after she left Ai arrived. It was almost as if they had planned it.

This article is a little bit about what we talked about at the beginning of class today.

After checking the homework we talked about books, movies and music. There were a lot of interesting points and it was fun to hear people's opinions about books and movies. We spent a little bit of time talking about Haruki Murakami and everyone had read a least a few of his books.

The homework for next week is to do the anecdote exercise on page 21.

Tomoyasu is in Shanghai this week, so we should be getting a postcard soon.

In going over the homework tonight we got to practice some conversation strategies and by the end people were getting the hang of it. After that we did the timed reading and answered the questions. There was a lot of new and useful vocabulary. If you can, try to use some of them next week.

The homework for next week is to do the Close up exercises 1, 2, and 3. Also I hope Hiroyuki will post a comment telling us how does in the race in a full kit.

Maiko was back from her trip to Canada and the States. It sounds like things went well, but she get separated from her bags in Portland. She had to changes planes a lot so it isn't too surprising.

Again this week we had some interesting topics to discuss. One was the outbreak of measles at some of the universities in Honshu. I mentioned that there have been similar cases in America. There as been a fear that MMR shots may be the cause of the increase in autism. I also mentioned the outbreak of whooping cough in some parts of the States.

The homework for next week is to do the Close up 1, 2, 3 (pp.18-19).

Hiroyuki was back after taking part in maneuvers and Emi was back also. She sounded like she had a slight cold. We also had an observer tonight. We checked the homework by listening to the song again. Did you go home and listen to the Hirai Ken version?

After that we started Unit 2 and looked at The Little Book of Calm. As I mentioned in class I had never heard of this book before reading about it in the textbook. I really don't think it sounds very practical, but I guess I would have to read the whole thing. The main focus of the lesson today was adverbs of frequency and there wasn't a lot of new information, but it was a good review I think. It did introduce a few new ones. There was the idiom once in a blue moon that was new for some people. This link will take you to an explanation of this phenomena.

The homework for next week is to think about the answers to #8 on page 16.

Maiko is on her trip to the States and Canada and Ai called just before class to say she couldn't make it today. I really wanted to talk to Ai because I had a question for her. I believe that Ai as taken voice training lessons and I need some advice on helping a student speak in a larger voice that will carry farther. Ai if you read this let me know if you have any tips that I can give the person.

We talked about relaxing today and The Little Book of Calm. I had never heard of it before. One of the first things we did was talk about how much time we spent studying, working and relaxing yesterday. I wish Ai and Maiko had been here to share their information with us.

After that we did a listening exercise and reviewed adverbs of frequency. The homework for next week is to look at the list of suggestions from The Little Book of Calm and think about how often you do them. We will interview each other next week.

We welcomed a new student tonight. Risa has only been in Tokachi since April, so we can help her out by teaching her about the area. Both Emi and Hiroyuki were absent tonight, but should be back next week.

We listened to the song You've Got a Friend, but like the morning class no one had heard it before. It was made famous by Carole King, but no one had heard of her either. I am surprised sometimes by which singers or musicians become popular in Japan. I was really surprised about how popular the Ventures were, but I don't think many Americans know who they are.

The homework for next week is to unscramble the lyrics to the song and we will check by listening to the song again. Don't look up the lyrics on the net!

People had such quiet Golden Weeks that I almost felt guilty about the fun I had in Hakodate. At the beginning of class instead of talking about the holiday we talked about the environment because Sayuri had seen An Inconvenient Truth. I warned people to check because there are other opinions out there.

After that we went over the homework. Everyone had to talk about a friend for three minutes, but their partner couldn't ask a question until the end. You had a chance to talk to everyone and by the third person I hope you were able to add more information than you gave to the first person. I would be interested to hear if any of you try the idea I suggested.

We finished the class by listening to the song You've got a Friend by Carole King. No one had heard of her, but of course you knew The Carpenters, but not James Taylor. We will listen to the song again next week to check the homework. Don't look up the lyrics on the internet.

It was nice to have Ai back for a make up class. Emi was sick today and couldn't make it, so we will see her after Golden Week. We talked about the G8 summit and the local elections, but that was about it for the news.

There was no homework to check, so we started straightaway on the textbook. We did the reading on friendship and also did the listening exercise. I forgot to ask in class if any of you had experienced something like Tina and Will. Is there someone you were really close to, but then you drifted apart for some reason?

The homework it write about one of your close friends. Also try to remember what you do during Golden Week.

Ai was absent today and will do a make up class on Wednesday night. I am sure she will post a comment letting us know what happened. Maiko was also absent today, and I vaguely remember her saying something about going to Yokohama. I can't remember if that was going to be before Golden Week or after.

We went over the reading and looked at the very useful phrases. For homework next time do Anecdote #3. We will share the information with a classmate next time. Also try to remember what you do during the holiday.

I know the homework was hard this week and it took a lot of time to complete, but I think you did a pretty good job. If there were parts where you had the wrong answer then you should take some time to make sure you understand the mistake that you made. We probably won't have a class like this again, but we will continue to look at the grammar sections of the textbook.

There is no homework for next week because I want to give you a break before the big Golden Week project!

I hope Maiko didn't have to wait too long for the gas people to finish the work on her apartment. Last week Carlos had to wait around for two hours for them to finish the work at his place.

We went over the homework and it is good that you did it at home before class. There were so many things to do that it would have taken two classes to finish it if we had done it in class. I hope you felt it was useful, but don't worry in the next units the Close Up exercises aren't so long.

At the beginning of class we talked a little bit about the news and this topic came up. Also Sayuri found the words she was looking for last week--abdominal respiration. When I did a google search of the words the most common sites were medical dictionaries. When I put in deep breathing I got sites like this.

After class I was showing Ai some links to the word lists and I thought I had linked to them last week. It turns out that I hadn't if you are interested in the site go here.

No homework for next week, but there will be things for Golden Week.

We are slowly getting to know each other, but I was a little surprised that you didn't remember Tomoyasu's name! But he didn't remember your names either, so I guess that makes you even.

You did a pretty good job of guessing the questions that the interviewer used. Some of the questions you came up with would have probably generated the same answer. Of course, the technique for an interview and a regular conversation are different.

The homework for next week is a little long, but I think it is better to cover that material at home. It would take too much time in class and I would rather spend the time giving you a chance to speak. There are some important points in the material, so I don't want to skip it completely.

Welocme Ai! With four people in this class I think we will be able to have some interesting discussions. The homework was to write the questions for the interview and people were pretty close to the ones asked on the CD. We listened to the interview with Jaed Jagger and to learn more about her go here.

We spent some time at the end of the lesson sharing information and asking questions. It turns out that Maiko and Naoko have several things in common. For Sayuri and Ai it seems they both have an interest in the arts. Ai mentioned she likes the blues, so she should check out the Roadhouse and the Raven 'n' the Blues podcasts.

Class got off to a fun start. We ended up with more people than I thought we would have because there were two people already doing a make up class. We have 5 people on the list, but hopefully we will get one or two more.

We talked about friends, relatives and famous people. There were many interesting comments. The homework for next week is to write the questions for the interview answers on page 5.

We had everyone here but Ai and when I thought about it later I think she may have said she would be absent today. I hope that we can add a few more people to the class in the coming months.

We talked about everyone's goals for the year and what they would like to do in the class. After looking over the textbook we jumped right in to the first unit. We talked about friends, relatives and a famous people. Some of the people that came up were Nakamura Usagi, Keanu Reeves, Yuki Kudo and Steve Jobs.

In talking about Jobs, YouTube came up. Jobs had nothing to do with it, but it has been one of the fasting growing sites on the net in the last year or so. It doesn't seem to be very big in Japan yet.

Mayumi joined us for the last class. She is normally in the Thursday late Step 4. This was her first time to join this class.

We talked about travel and vacations tonight and in this class everyone likes to travel. I mentioned that I now prefer to go to one place and not to move to a different place everyday. Many people felt the same way, but because they have such short vacations they can't really do that.

Well, I will see some of you in this class, but on Wednesdays from April. Atsuko will have to move to the late class on Thursday, but I am sure she will come back for a make up class occasionally.

I did the same activity this evening that I did in the morning class, but I knew Ken was coming for a make up class, so I had to come up with something special for him. I gave him a quiz about Japan. It was a very difficult one and everyone else in the class had difficulty with it, too.

We went over the homework and talked about relative clauses. Next week we will start Unit 10. There is no homework because you like teachers who don't give homework!

Sayuri wasn't here today, so I guess she got the tickets to Malaysia. I was hoping to hear about Sophia's hot water heater troubles today.

We did a special warm up exercise at the beginning of class to test your knowledge of "new Japanese". It was kind of difficult, but interesting. We then talked about Unit 12 and disaster preparedness. None of us are that well prepared and I will definitely put getting better prepared on my list of things to do this spring. I mentioned the Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska. If I can remember I will bring a DVD that I have and show it next week.

Next week we will look at the unit on vacations and travel.

None of the classes this week have been able come up with much news. Nobody thinks what is happening with Sapporo beer is very important.

We started the unit on families and talked about care for the elderly. The homework for next week is to do pages 104-105. These links might help you out: relative clauses, defining and non-defining ones. This site is also good.

Hopefully, Sophia's hot water heater problem has been solved. I mentioned that in the States now people are installing more CO2 detectors, but I was wrong that should be carbon monoxide detectors. You can read about some safety tips here.

We listened to the exercise again and this time you had the tapescript, even though it took me some time to get things straightened out. We also went over the homework that had to do with subject relative clauses and defining and non-defining ones. This site has some useful tips.

Mami is becoming a regular. This is the second week in row that she came for a make up class. Hiroyuki was back this week.

We started off with the vocabulary quiz and people thought it was difficult. I hope studying for it will help you to remember a few more of the words from the units that we have been doing.

We are skipping around in the book now and today we looked at the unit on emergencies. There was a lot of good vocabulary and you will see most of them when reading about natural disasters. For example, you can see some of the information we read about in the book here.

Next week we will look at part of the unit on family matters.

Maiko was interested in learning what SSS meant. I wonder if she will sit in a different seat next week. Also next week we can hear from Sophia about her trip to see the ice floes in Abashiri.

I gave you the vocabulary quiz at the beginning of class. I will look them over and hand them back next class. We only have a few classes left, so we will jump around in the book a little. Today we looked at the unit on family matters. We talked a little bit about gay couples and the rights that partners have or don't have. This link will give you some information on what is happening in the U.S. now.

For homework next week do the exercises on pages 104 and 105.

Take was here for a make up class. He said he had a day off today, so he went skiing and decided to do a make up lesson, too.

We did the listening exercise of Valentine's Day. People did a pretty good job picking out the information they needed to answer the questions I had put on the board. After that we continued talking about immigration, and I brought up the issue of dual citizenship because they mentioned it in the book and there was an article in the Kachimai recently. This is a link to the article I read in class. Next week we will have a vocabulary quiz and start the unit on emergencies.

I moved people around today because this class as a bad case of SSS. Today you had a chance to talk to different people a little.

We started out with a listening exercise that I think people found challenging. If you want to do more, you can practice at home. It would be a good daily exercise. You can got to ABC. com and find the links.

We talked about immigration and the impact of people working around the world. We talked about dual citizenship and here is an article about the situation now. I couldn't find an English version of the Japanese article I mentioned.

Hiroyuki joined the class tonight so the class now officially has 3 students. Mami was here for a make up class. We started Part B of Unit 8 and talked about emigration and immigration. I mentioned I have never felt like an immigrant, but more of an expatriate. This is from Wikipiedia:

The difference between an expatriate and an immigrant is that immigrants (for the most part) commit themselves to becoming a part of their country of residence, whereas expatriates are usually only temporarily placed in the host country and most of the time plan on returning to their home country, so they never adopt the culture in the host country - though some may end up never actually returning, with the distinction then becoming more a matter of their own viewpoint.

The homework for next week is to 2C & D and to find some numbers for Japanese emigration and immigration.

We got side-tracked again this week, but we did talk about a lot of interesting things. I forgot to stress that you should scan the article when doing the homework. Read the questions and then see how quickly you can find the answers. Also double check the words from the reading on page 95.

Only Yumiko tonight. We spent a long time talking about the differences between OS 10 and Windows. I can really say too much because I have never been a Windows user. The best person to talk to about this is someone who uses both of them regularly. I really don't know anyone like that.

Next week I am sure Atsuko will be back and we will continue to talk about spending and savings.

Today Sophia was absent and I received an e-mail later saying a friend of hers stopped by who was visiting Hokkaido. I am not sure if the friend was from Taiwan or Tokyo.

Today we spent a lot of time talking about identify theft. It is a subject you don't hear too much about in Japan. Many people thought it was the same a credit card fraud, but it is a much more complex problem. Maiko made a good point that it might not be as big a problem in Japan because getting credit is more difficult here.

At the end of class we talked about saving and spending and I mentioned compound interest. Here is a calculator to help you figure out some examples.
There is no homework for next week.

We haven't seen Miki in a long time. I hope she can make it next week. We did the listening exercise again, but his time you had the tapescript to look at. We went over some more of the vocabulary. The homework was to do the reading on identity theft and we did a listening related to it. If you want to listen again at home this is a link to the podcast and tapescript. If you have questions, we can talk about them next week.

Here is a short listening about credit card debt. It is fast, but short. See how much you can understand.

I am really getting forgetful! I didn't post anything for this class week, either. Remember to send me an e-mail if I haven't posted anything by the end of the day on Wednesday. At the beginning of class we talked about the upcoming Ice Festival and Maiko asked if there any events like that in Alaska. The biggest one in Alaska is the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous. As I mentioned in class they have been having trouble the last few years, but it looks like corporate sponsors are coming to the rescue.

We did the listening exercise and talked about revolving credit cards. If you look around on the net you will find all kinds of advice about getting out from under heavy credit card debt. It is a big problem in the States and Sophia mentioned that it is getting to be one in Taiwan, too.

I thought we would have time check the 2nd part of the homework and do another listening exercise, but it didn't work out. The podcast that I was going to play a part of is here and you can also find a link to the tapescript. It is difficult, but don't get discouraged. Focus on the words that are related to identity theft. We will talk about this next week.

Here is a short listening about credit card debt. It is fast, but short. See how much you can understand.

It is always nice to have people here for make up classes. Today Mami, Takuma and Tomoko came. We continued with the unit on spending and talked about people's monthly spending habits and where they thought they could cut back. We also listened to the talk between the couple and the financial advisor. I mentioned the site Motley Fool. It has a lot of good information, but to get to some of it you have to pay and become a member. They do have a free trial if you want to look around.

The homework for next week is the vocabulary builder and #3A,B,C on pages 92-93.

I hadn't seen Atsuko come in, so I thought it might be just Yumiko and I tonight. I can't remember if Miki said she would be absent tonight or not.

The first part of class we talked about the holidays and what has been in the news. The last half of the class we started the new unit about spending. The homework for next week is to make a pie chart of your household monthly spending and do the vocabulary building exercise (no dictionary).

Only Sayuri today. When I got back to my desk I noticed I had an e-mail from Maiko. She has a cold and couldn't come today. I think Tomoko and Sophia are both still gone, but hopefully they will be back next week.

Sayuri and I talked about a lot of different topics. The one we spent the most time on was her husband's trip. He will be coming back in one month. It would be interesting to see his photos and hear his stories. Maybe we can convince him to give a talk at JOY. What do you think Sayuri?

No homework for next week. We will start the new unit.

There was no homework to check so we talked about the news and different things going on around Obihiro. Miki said her flower arrangement class will be having an exhibition this weekend. Stop by and take a look if you have time.

We did the Christmas quiz, but people, like in most of the classes, didn't do very well. To become an expert on Christmas you should go here. Miki mentioned the connection between Santa Claus and Cocca Cola, but to read more about it go here.

We did the exercise with A Visit From St. Nicholas. There is also and audio version here. This link will take you to some trivia about the names of Santa's reindeer.

I showed you the children's version of The Christmas Carol and you can download a copy here. I started listening to an audio version and the reader is speaks fairly slowly, but isn't very dramatic. You might want to give it a listen.

Masuyo and Tomoko couldn't make it, but Takuma from Joe's class joined us. We talked about a whole range of topics and enjoyed the snacks that everyone brought. I had planned to do a Christmas quiz if the conversation began to lag, but the never happened.

Sophia and Maiko took a lot of pictures and they may send me some and when they do I will post a few here. I forgot to give you some winter vacation homework! If I think of something I will post it here on the blog, so keep checking back during the holidays

Update: Photos from Sophia.

Update 2. These are the pictures from Maiko.

It seems everyone forgot that we were going to have a quiz tonight. I will take a look over them and give them back to you next week. I mentioned in class this site, but I misunderstood what it said. They only post new items on Sunday.

There is no homework for next week and we won't be using the textbook.

It looks like everyone studied for the quiz this time. I will look them over and give them back to you next week.

We went over the homework and talked about the four dilemmas. Tomoko and Sayuri seemed to agree on all of them and Sophia and Maiko split 50-50 on them. We went over the review pages which was really good vocabulary practice.

There is no homework for next week. Remember that we will be having a pot luck next week.

We were back to our regular members tonight. We went over the homework, and there were a few misunderstandings about what needed to be done. There was still some trouble with the past perfect. and this page might help you understand it better and take a look here also.

After the homework we read about the three crimes and talked about some of the vocabulary. I mentioned that there are a lot of stories about dumb robbers on the internet. This is one example and here is another one.

The homework for next week is to do #4 on page 87 and pages 88 and 89. We will also have a vocabulary quiz.

I was hoping that Sophia would be here today, so we could hear how the test went. Maybe next week. Chiaki joined us again this week. We went over the homework and the readings. Two of them were about some dumb criminals and I mentioned this video, but if you put dumb robber into Google you will get all kinds of interesting sites.

The homework for next week is to think about what you would do in the four situations on page 87. Also do the expansion pages (88 & 89). We will also have a vocabulary quiz next week.

Miki didn't think she would be able to make it today, but she got here for most of the class. We had Mami from Joe's class and Take from Carlos' class doing make up classes tonight. Mami said she went to see the Japan Cup last Sunday. It sounds like it was very exciting, but jammed packed. There was good news from Atsuko because she passed the interview section of the Eiken test. Last week said she felt she had failed the interview. Congratulations and good luck on the next level!

We went over the homework, but people are still having trouble with the past perfect. In the quiz I gave there were a few questions and exhausted was part of the problem. Keeping going over them and working on drills you find on the net.

Next week's homework is #3 on page 86.

Sophia and Masayo were absent today, but Chiaki from Joe's class was here for a make up. We went over the homework and people had some pretty bad travel stories. It is hard to say who had the worst one.

We also went over the other part of the homework and talked about different types of crime. The homework for next week is to do #3 on page 86.

At the end of class Sayuri told us about the experiment she tried last weekend. She tried to spend the whole weekend indoors. She didn't watch TV, listen to music, use the internet, or answer the door. She didn't want to answer the phone, but she did. All she did was knit and read. Her goal was to recreate the feeling of being in an isolated cabin in the mountains. She said she plans on doing it on a regular basis. What do you say? Want to give it a try?

Welcome to Step 4C Miki! Tonight we also had Tomoko and Emi here doing make up classes. It is always nice to have a larger class.

We talked a little bit about D.B. Cooper and listened to the CD again. We talked about the idea of him being a "hero" to some people. It didn't seem that there were any cases like that in Japan. Miki did bring up the animation character Lupen.

We worked with the past perfect pattern and if you want more practice go here (There are several pages.) In the textbook the exercise about the past perfect talked about the Dinnertime Gang. I found this site if you want to learn more about them.

The homework for next week is to #3C & D (when you do this exercise you will see why I said it was similar to what happened to Emi) on p. 81 and #1 A, B & C on page 83.

We talked a little bit about D.B. Cooper and listened to the CD again. We talked about the idea of him being a "hero" to some people. It didn't seem that there were any cases like that in Japan.

We worked with the past perfect pattern and if you want more practice go here (There are several pages.) In the textbook the exercise about the past perfect talked about the Dinnertime Gang. I found this site if you want to learn more about them.

The homework for next week is to #3D on p. 81 and #1 A, B & C on page 83.

Atsuko had some big news tonight. She said she will be starting a new job in December. It will be a real change from being stay-at-home mom. I forgot to ask her how long it has been since she had worked outside the home. Yumiko is looking forward to getting her wood stove installed, but she needs to wait until her husband has some time.

I think you found today's listening exercise difficult, but if you want to read more about the crime you can go here. We will listen to the exercise again next week.

Today's listening exercise was difficult, but if you want to read more about the crime you can go here. I was trying to remember what I was doing when this crime occurred. I think we were living in Alaska and we would have been having our first Thanksgiving by ourselves and not at my grandparents' houses. I am sure I saw something about it on TV, but in those days Seward had only one channel, so I am sure there wasn't a lot of news. People are usually more interested in the football games that are on Thanksgiving weekend.

Update: I just noticed that I forgot to put a link to the site about urban legends. The site you want to go to is Snopes. There are a lot of interesting things to read.

This class was a little less stressed about the vocabulary test then the morning class. It was a little unlucky for Ken and Mami who were doing make up classes. I met Emi at the counter and gave her the quiz to do at home. I think I forgot to tell her to only use 15 minutes.

In talking about the new unit on crime was interesting. There were some good points about the victimless crimes. We did the reading about the hacker who did the phone phreaking. If you follow this link you can see the whistle that they talk about in the article.

For homework next week do the Vocabulary Builder exercise and also look up information on the words yellow, green, blue, gold.

Everyone was very stressed out about the idea of having a vocabulary quiz. Was it as difficult as you thought it was going to be? I think it would be a good idea to do one of these after every unit. You might want to use the vocabulary card I gave you or make your own. You should try to include the information that I have on mine if you make your own. This is a link to the site with the vocabulary learning tips.

For homework for next week I would like you to look over the Vocabulary Builder section and in addition to the words listed see what you can find for yellow, green, blue and gold.

Today after class I went to Rancho for lunch with my wife and her parents. If you haven't been to Rancho recently you should check it out. The downstairs dining area is now "no smoking" (yea!) at lunch time and they also have a new lunch menu that isn't so heavy. I recommend it.

Mami and Take joined us tonight, but Emi was gone. I thought she had left on her school trip, but I bumped into her at the front door after class. She could get here for the early class, so she took Joe's late class instead.

We finished up talking about our true calling and we talked about Halloween and national holidays in Japan. I am still surprised about how few traditions there are related to Japanese national holidays. I did mention that many national holidays in the States are created by demands from citizens. For example Martin King Luther Day.

I hope that Sayuri is enjoying her stay in Yokohama. I look forward to hearing about her trip when she gets back.

Today at the beginning of class we talked about Halloween, but that took us to many other holidays in the States. When we talked about Culture Day in Japan no one could come up with any special foods or activities. Maybe we should create some Culture Day traditions. Anyone have any good ideas?

There is no homework for next week, but you might want to look at the expansion and review activities in the book. Next week I will be giving you a vocabulary quiz, but I am not sure how I am going to do it yet.

We have been lucky lately and have had people doing make up classes. Tonight Ken joined us from the 4D class. Everyone thought the homework was difficult and there were a few mistakes. Like the morning class the "in three months" gave people some trouble. There was also the problem with "so to speak". Follow this link to the sermon I mentioned at the end of class. It is long and difficult, but I think you will find it interesting. This article is also good and it is short!

For homework read over the quiz I gave you and we will talk about it next week. We will finish up this unit next week and talk about Halloween a little.

We went over the homework and talked about the reading. There were some vocabulary words that were new to people . One phrase, so to speak, was one that people had questions about. I found this discussion about it.

This link is to a church sermon (long), but is about finding your true calling. As I mentioned I think he has an interesting take on the subject. This is another article about finding your true calling.

Next week we will look at the exercise on page 73 and talk about Halloween.

Tomoko was doing a make up for the class she missed this morning and Atsuko was back. It is always nice to have four people because we can then do pair work.

We went over the homework and people were still having some trouble with the phrasal verbs. Keep looking them over and think about how you can use them. We will have some more chances to practice them next week.

There were some interesting ideas for ice cream flavors and Emi and Atsuko did a good job using the phrasal verbs. They used over 10 different ones. The homework for next wee is to do 2 A and B on page 70, but you will need to read the article on page 71 first. We will do C, D, and E in class next week.

Sophia couldn't make it today because she had her Japanese lesson. Her Japanese test should be coming soon. I am sure she will do okay.

We went over the homework and talked about ideas for the new ice cream flavor. There were some very good ideas. Maiko's idea sounded very similar to Steve's Ice Cream (the company has a complicated history).

The homework for next week is to do 2A & B on page 70. We will do C, D, and E in class.

Sayuri did a double header today. We talked about some of the same things as we did in the morning class, but there were some different ideas that came out. I introduced these two sayings:

Live to work or work to live.

If you have a job you love you, will never work a day in your life.

This essay is related to the second saying and has to do with what we will talk about next week. (Warning: It's long!)

The homework for next week is 3 A, B, C. and we will talk about D at the beginning of class.

I was wrong about Sayuri's schedule. She is going to be in Tokyo next month. She had good news about her deck; it is finished. She has been able to enjoy the nice autumn weather in her garden and has already had a BBQ.

Sophia was also back and she is feeling a little better. It sounds like she had a good time in Kyoto, but was very busy.

Maiko and Tomoko had to give a summary of the listening exercise to Sayuri and Sophia. They did a pretty good job. We then listened to the exercise again. We also looked at more of the phrasal verbs.

Just for kicks I decided to google the name of the book in the listening exercise and it is a real book. You can read about it here.

The homework for next week is is 3 C & d.

Sorry about posting this so late. It is still really busy this week. I am back teaching at Chikudai, so I have had to get a lot of things ready. Next week should be a little slower.

We started the unit on workplace trends and we looked over the vocabulary related to this topic. The grammar point of this unit is phrasal verbs. There are quite a few I am sure you have never used before. We will practice them more next week.

Tomoko got to meet Maiko and Masayo today and hopefully, she will get to meet the rest of the class next week. We talked a little bit about the events we had last week and about Expo that is coming up at the end of the month. I mentioned that I was thinking of having a vocabulary text once a month, but that idea didn't get a very warm reception.

We started the new unit about workplace trends. We talked about some of the special vocabulary. I added a few more to the list. The homework for next week is to Vocabulary Builder exercise. We will also do the listening a couple of more times. You might want to read this article because it will have some of the vocabulary we talked about.

We talked about some burglaries that have happened in Obihiro and Yumiko mentioned that there is a company in Makubetsu that is experimenting with biodiesel. I had heard that, so I would be interested in learning more. I mention once before I was thinking about making my own.

We talked about the reading and no one had heard of "The Devil's Sea" off the coast of Japan and the missing ships in 1955. This is a link for some information I found.

We had class in Bucky Hall today because we had coffee and cinnamon rolls. Originally, I had planned to have them at the end of class, but Maiko needed to take her father to airport and had to leave early. We talked a lot about cooking and many other topics and never got around to using the textbook. Today was the last class and we won't meet again until October 3. I hope that some of you can come to the end of term events.

We spent a lot of time on modals of speculation tonight and I think it was time well spent. By the end of class I think you were getting a better feel for how to use them. The homework for next week is to do 4B (use your imaginations) and read pages 58 and 59.

I mentioned some of the things we talked about in my Step 5 class, so take a look when you have a chance.

It was nice to have Masayo back. She said she has been busy because her children have been home on vacation. We went over the homework and there were some very imaginative answers.

Next week is our last class and we will be talking about different types of unexplained phenomena. Please do pages 58 and 59. We will talk about them at the beginning of class. If you aren't doing anything this weekend watch the movie Phenomenon. I also mentioned Big Foot.

We started the new unit and began working on modals of speculation. We went over the news article in the book. Did you find some similar articles on the net? Were there a lot of the same words?

We also went over the listening exercise and talked a little bit about adoption. We talked about it in Step 5 a month or so ago, so if you look there you can find some links to a few interesting articles.

The homework for next week is to do the reading on page 54.

Yuki joined us tonight from the TOEIC class. She said she has been very busy at work and needs to do a few make up classes. She may join us again next week.

We did the listening exercise and then went over the reading about Jim Thompson Only a couple of people had heard of him. I mentioned that there was another Jim Thompson and you can read about him here.

We worked on using modals of speculation and the homework for next week is to look at 3E on page 55.

We had a long talk about Alaska tonight. Both Atsuko and Yumiko had a lot of good questions. There are a lot good sites to go to if you are thinking about planing a trip to Alaska. One of the best is this one.

The homework for next week is to do 1A and B on page 52.

Kind of a small class today. We did have one observer and he may join us, but wanted to think about it a little bit more. As I have done in other classes I talked about my summer vacation. In this class no one did anything special, but Sayuri said she is still waiting for the carpenters to complete her deck. She hopes they will be done before winter.

We did start the new unit because there was no homework to check. We read the news article and there was a lot of useful vocabulary related to crime reports. Look around on the web and read some different crime stories and you will be surprised on many times you see the words we looked at today.

The homework for next week is to read the article on page 54 and 55. Read over the different exercises and think about how you would answer the questions.

We finished up Unit 4 and we talked about a variety of things. One of the things I mentioned was about the Swedish laws governing TV advertising and children. This article has some information about it. We also talked about viral marketing and guerrilla marketing. Some of the examples I gave of guerrilla marketing are often called stealth marketing and is connected to viral marketing.

Even though there is no homework these links should keep you busy for awhile.

It was nice to have a little larger crowd today. Atsuko was doing a make up class and several people showed up who I thought would be absent. We continued talking about the Adbusters and in pairs you had to come up with some of your own ideas.

We also talked about mottos and people talked about theirs. This link is for some famous ones used by companies or groups.

There is no homework, but you might want to stop by and take a look to see if I post anything while I am on vacation. As I said I might be able to post some pictures of bears, eagles, and other wildlife.

It turned out to be a private lesson for Yumiko tonight. We talked about a wide variety of topics from computers, iPods, podcasts, her cabin, and parenting. It seems that Yumiko has found some good podcasts for English learning. I mentioned one that I listen to that is about Japanese politics. The presenter speaks relatively slowly, but the vocabulary might be a little tough. The topic is Japanese politics, so the subjects will be familiar. If you want to listen to it, go here.

There is no homework for next week. We will talk about last week's homework at the beginning of class.

Today was a unique class. At the beginning of the class there was only one person and she was an observer. Sayuri came later and it turned out she had something in common with the guest. You can hear more about it next week.

We talked about a variety of things and then looked at the homework. We also did the activities on page 49. For homework next think about what your personal motto might be. Remember next week will be our last class before summer vacation.

In the second activity on the page we listened to a public service announcement. It was about building your child's self-esteem. I mentioned that building self-esteem has become an important part of education and parenting and you might find this article interesting. This article is about the backlash that has started.

It is always nice to have Takeshi join us. He said it spent Saturday playing in the Satsunai River. I asked him if he was skinny-dipping, but he didn't know the meaning of the word. After I explained it he said he hadn't been.

We looked ads from the group Adbusters and the homework for next week is to read about them. We will talk a little bit more about them next week. The textbook mentioned bumper stickers and this site has a lot of examples. They are meant to be used on the internet, but some of them you would probably also see on cars. This link will take you to some more information. I thought of one more bit of homework for this class. Look around in newspapers and magazines to see if you can find ads similar to the ones in the book.

Sophia bumped into Maiko at the station this morning. Sophia was there to change buses and Maiko was showing her friends from Yokoyama around. Sayuri had some sad news from her garden deck project. One of the workers collapsed from the heat on the weekend and is still in the hospital.

We looked ads from the group Adbusters and the homework for next week is to read about them. We will talk a little bit more about them next week. The textbook mentioned bumper stickers and this site has a lot of examples. They are meant to be used on the internet, but some of them you would probably also see on cars. This link will take you to some more information.

We went over the homework and this class had trouble with the job interview question. It just didn't make sense to people. People couldn't understand why a interviewer would ask a question like that . We look at the job ad for the Peace Boat. Yumiko had it confused with another group at first, so she was interested in the job. After reading about it you might be much more interested.

The homework for next week is to look at the four situations and think about what advice you would give.

We went over the homework. It gave people a little trouble, but I think by the end you were getting the hang of it. The last part of the assignment was about the Peace Boat. No one thought that they could be an activities coordinator because it seems everyone in the this class gets seasick. In talking about the boat and other NPOs I mentioned that it is important to check up on the group before giving money. This article gives some tips on what to look for.

We talked a little bit about how to agree or disagree with someone. The homework for next week is to do 4D on page 44. You don't have to write things out, but look at the four situations and think about what you would say.

The topic in the lesson today was generations and it was good thing Takeshi came to do a make up class, so we could have someone from a different generation to to talk to. I think you will find this link interesting. Make sure to take a look at the right sidebar. We also did a part of the listening about the intern. I will try to find more about this topic later.
The homework for next week is to do 3A-D on pages 42-43.

We talked a little bit about what people have been doing. Maiko's parents are visiting and then she has a friend coming the week after next. Sophia's husband just got back from a research trip, but isn't feeling very well. Ken made a trip out to Ashoro to check on a park golf course where his tennis club is planning to have a tournament. Sayuri was a little late because she has carpenters at her house building a deck.

The topic in the lesson today was generations. I think you will find this link interesting. Make sure to take a look at the right sidebar. We also did the listening about the intern. I was going to link to something about internships, but there are so many sites I didn't know which one to pick.

The homework for next week is to do 3A-D on pages 42-43.

It was nice to have Yumiko back after a two week absence. She showed us pictures of her new cabin. It looks really nice. I look forward to hearing about her winter BBQs. We went over the homework from two weeks ago and looked at the article about the 5 elements. Next week the homework is to write about your favorite place.

A small class today, but we talked about a lot of different things. Hearing about people's favorite places was interesting. At the beginning of class I mentioned the BlackBerry but I forgot to mention that I have need actually seen one. I have only read about them on the internet.

One of the other topics we talked about at the end of class was the Fourth of July. I told you about the day in Seward, but to really understand it you need to experience it.

No homework for next week, but for the people who were absent today we would like to hear about your favorite place.

Only Atsuko tonight so we talked about a variety of topics, but the main focus seemed to be movies. We did talk a little bit about astrology and the homework, but we go over it completely next week.

Sophia had read the my quiz, but she didn't have any idea about the answer. We went over the homework and found if our 5 elements were perfectly balanced . There were several people lacking Fire. This site has a calculator to help you find your elements just by putting in your date and time of birth. According to it I am out of balance and need wood and fire. This page has a listening exercise about astrology. I haven't listened to it yet, so I am not sure how difficult it is.

The homework for next week is to do the writing exercise on page 34.

Emi joined us again tonight and Yumiko was back. We went over the homework from two weeks ago, and I think people learned some new things by doing it. Although Emi didn't have a chance to do it at home, she did a good job.

I want to apologize again for not posting something earlier in the week. I thought had posted something, but for some reason it didn't end up on the internet. One of the links I had made last week was for astrology. Nobody said they check their horoscope everyday, but if you have this online one you might. You can justify doing it by saying you are studying English.

I think you will find the homework interesting for next week.

We went over the homework and we did a role play in an airport setting. No one decided to be a hot head which would have been an easy one to do. If you go to an airport in the States you will see a lot of hot heads. When flights are delayed or canceled people get really hot. I don't think I could be a ticket agent.

We also looked over the vocabulary in part B of this lesson There were many useful words and you should check them in the dictionary if aren't sure of the meaning. Pay careful attention to see if they are negative or positive. The homework is a little long next week, but start with the reading on page 31. Then do the personality quiz in 2A. After that read the article on page 33. Now you should be able to score the personality quiz. Next week we will talk about balance of elements.

This link will take you to a site where you can take many kinds of tests, but you have to register. It would be a good idea to use an e-mail address that you don't mind getting junk mail at.

Update: Ken thank you for the information, but my wife had already had left. I had make a quick trip to the store, but I needed to buy some new ones anyway. A teaser for the people who were absent or for people from other classes who read this post. What information did Ken give me?

Oops! I forgot to post something last week. Last week it was just Atsuko and Emi, who was doing a make up class. We had a good talk about personality and blood types.

Almost everyone was here today. The only person missing was Maiko because she went back to Yokohama. I think she will be back next week. We talked a little bit about what people did on the weekend and the checked the homework. The homework assignment was really long this week, but several of the exercises needed some thinking time. At the end of class we tried to guess each other's blood type. I am not sure if anyone got them all correct or not. I will give two links (1 and 2) about this topic so that you can compare. Which one do you think is more correct.

The homework for next week is 4A,B and D.

Sayuri and Ken were back today, but Sophia had to take care of some immigration issues. That is something I have to do next Monday when I am in Sapporo. I have to get a new reentry permit. The one I have expires before I get back from my trip this summer. At least now you can get multiple ones that last 5 years. Before the multiples were only good for a year.

When did a quick check of the homework on moved on to the unit on personality. We talked about the personality traits that were important for a good worker. If you want to find out if you are a good worker you can take a test here. (They have a lot of other interesting tests at this site.) We also did the listening exercise about the guy who was having problems with his girlfriend.

Next week the homework is 3A-F.

We started the unit on personalities tonight and I think everyone was glad to leave technology behind. If you want to find out if you are a good employee, you should take this test. This site has a lot of other fun tests that you might want to take.

This is a radio interview that talks about personality traits you might want to challenge, but it is difficult. There will be many difficult technical terms, but try to see if you can get a general idea of what it is about.

We finished up the unit on technology and did a reading about RIFD and if you want to listen to more about it go here. I was surprised to learn that the basic technology isn't that new and has been around for about 50 years.

Next week we will move on to Unit 3.

It was nice to have Masami join us again. She was doing a make up class for Step 5. She was hoping to meet Sayuri and Ken, but they couldn't make it today.

We continued talking about technology, but from the point of view of shopping. Maiko and Masayo have similar shopping habits. The next things we did was look at the reading, but we focused on skimming. The article was about RIFD and if you want to listen to more about it you can go here, but it is a little dated. If you want to read about this technology in Japan you can visit this blog.

The homework for next week is to read the article again and do 2C on page 20.

We continued talking about technology and I mentioned Skype. I have only used it a few times, but it is a free way to talk with friends using your computer and there are ways to even call regular phones, but that costs money. I just noticed that there is a new version for the Mac that I need to download.

Another type of technology you might be interested in is podcasts. Yumiko uses them and she really likes this site. You don't need to have an MP3 player. You can listen from your computer.

We will talk a little more about technology next week and then move on to a new topic,

Maiko and Ikuyo were back today, but Ken (an interview in Sappro) and Sayuri (traveling in Kyushu) were absent. Sophia was gone too, but I don't know the reason. We went over the listening again and checked the homework. There was a little bit of trouble rewriting the sentences using the passive voice. We also looked over the ways to say we are able or not able to do something. If you were absent this week look at 4B on page 18. Also for homework do 3D on page 17.

Everyone did an excellent job with the homework. Yuki's story about her mistake in buying an iMac for me was a sad one because as a Mac user I think they are much easier to use than a Windows machine. She did learn a good lesson about being a more informed consumer though.

We moved on to the unit on technology and in this only Yumiko uses chat software (Yahoo messenger) occasionally. I have never really used it because there is no I know who uses it. I guess I should try to get some of my friends to give it a try.

The homework for next week is to do #3 a,b and c on page 16.

To start I have to apologize for not posting anything after the last class. I had planned to, but there were some server problems that slowed everything down. I had intended to come back and post something before I left the office for the holidays, but I forgot. If it happens in the future send me an e-mail and let me know that I haven't posted anything.

Only three people today. Ken is in Sapporo for job interviews, Maiko is recovering from a cold she caught in Taiwan and Sayuri is in Kyushu. We talked about the homework and started the new unit which is on technology. There are no tech lovers in this class, so it might be a hard unit for everyone. The homework for next week is to do 3 a,b and c on page 16. For the people who were absent you should look over pages 14 and 15 before next week.

Just Yumiko tonight. Atsuko and Yuki were both absent and we didn't get anyone doing a make up class. Having only Yumiko here gave me a chance to test recording her telling the story she prepared as homework. She had a pretty surprising story and maybe she will share it with everyone again next week. I look forward to hearing everyones story next week.

It sounds like a lot of people went to Sayuri's exhibition and it was even written up in the Kachimai. I had wanted to go see it, but my computer troubles got in the way.

People told their stories and there were some very interesting ones. People did a pretty good job using the phrases from the textbook, but the ending and reflecting back was so-so. We moved on to Lesson B and read the excerpt from Amy Tan's book The Joy Luck Club. I was surprised no one had read the book or seen the movie.

In the second part of the lesson we had another story, The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs. If you want to listen to the story go here. See if you can see how the audio version is different from the original.

Emi from Erin's class did a make up class tonight. She has only been a student at JOY for a short time, but she is studying very hard. We practiced the interviews and people did a pretty good job. Emi had the hardest time because she didn't have much time to prepare.

We moved on to the important points of storytelling and looked at the different words and phrases that are important. This link will take you to some storytelling tips. It might help with your homework for next week.

We had a small class today. Ikuyo, Maiko and Midori were absent. We went over the homework and people did a good job with the interviews. People picked some interesting people to be. If you want to learn more about the people you can also google them.

At the end of class we talked about story telling and the homework for next week is to think of a story to tell. Try to make it something real that has happened to you. Remember to include the phrases we looked at. Also look up the words forget and remember to see how they are used.

Sayuri's exhibition at Flowmotion (near the downtown Nagasakiya) starts on Thursday and will run until the 24th. Stop by and take a look if you have a chance. She does some very beautiful work.

We still haven't met Midori yet, but I am sure she will be here next week. We took a little time to get to know each other a little better at the beginning of class and we will continue with this the next couple of weeks.

We talked about the To the Student section and I think people got some good ideas from the Language Learning Tips. Try to use them throughout the year. We did the listening exercise and talked a little bit about oral history and if you want to learn how to do it yourself you should go here. We also took a look at using simple past and present perfect. The homework for next week is to pick a famous person and jot down some important information about him or her. Then next week your partner will interview you. You might also try to think of some questions you might want to ask. Of course, the type of questions will depend a little on the person your partner picks.

Tonight we got to meet Yuki, a new student in the class and Erina who observed the class. Erina is thinking about what she is going to do. I hope that she will join us. It would nice to have four people.

We talked about the To the Student section and I think people got some good ideas from the Language Learning Tips. I would really like you to try reading aloud at home and recording yourselves. As I said in class, we may experiment with recording activities in class.

We did the listening exercise and talked a little bit about oral history and if you want to learn how to do it yourself you should go here. We also took a look at using simple past and present perfect. The homework for next week is to pick a famous person and jot down some important information about him or her. Then next week your partner will interview you. You might also try to think of some questions you might want to ask. Of course, the type of questions will depend a little on the person your partner picks.

This class is a small one, but I hope that we will get some new students in the coming months. Tonight we talked about the textbook and looked over the different sections. The first homework is to read the section To the Students that was written by the authors to give suggestions to the students on how to use the book.

We started the first unit and looked at the word "story". We listened to the CD once, but we will listen for more detail next time.

The flowers on the tables in Bucky Hall were a present from Yumiko. Thank you very much. They add a nice touch of spring.

There are several new members of this class, so we spent a little time at the beginning of class getting to know each other. I think it is going to be a fun class and we will have a chance to learn a lot from each other.

The first homework for this class is to go over the section To the Student on pages iv and v at the front of the book. We will talk a little bit about it next week. Also cover over the new vocabulary that you learned today.

Tonight was the last class and I wasn't in the best of shape. I started coming down with a cold last night (most likely a present from my son) and it really hit me today. Hopefully, it won't linger too long. I have was hoping to make it through the winter without catching one this year, but I didn't make it.

We got off to a slow start in the class this year, but slowly we got into a rhythm. Some of you will be in my class next time and some are moving to other days. Keep studying hard and I hope to see you move up to Step 5 someday soon.

Just Yumiko and Kyoko tonight. We had an interesting talk about the nuance of of several words and how some words are translated from Japanese. This will be something I will talk about in my workshop on the 30th. There are a lot of people signed up for the workshop and travel night. We need a few more people for the party, games night and bowling.

Everyone was back today, but neither Ken or Maki were in very good condition. They both had a cold. It sounds like Ken's has lasted a long time. We went over the section on how to show we understand or don't understand something. After that we moved on to Unit 10 and we looked at reported speech. This unit's theme is minding your manners

Everyone was back today, but neither Ken or Maki were in very good condition. They both had a cold. It sounds like Ken's has lasted a long time. We went over the section on how to show we understand or don't understand something. After that we moved on to Unit 10 and we looked at reported speech. This unit's theme is minding your manners. I was surprised to find in doing my search that many of the sites stressed the importance of manners in business.

It looked like it was only going to be Kyoko and Yumiko, but Atsuko came to do another make up this week. I heard after class that Ken would be absent. Remember if you want you can send me and e-mail to let me know when you are going to be absent.

We went over the homework and I was really impressed with the stories that you wrote. You did a superb job using the the strong adjectives that we had learned in the lesson last week. Your stories were also very interesting and entertaining. I will have to give more homework assignments like that.

We only have a couple of classes left so I will be jumping around a little in the textbook, but next week we will start Unit 10 and If you want the answers to the review unit just let me know. The only homework for next week is to read the tapescript for #11 on page 134.

Ken was absent tonight, but I didn't hear any reason. I am assuming that he is busy saying good bye to his friends who are graduating. Atsuko from the morning Step 4 class joined us so we still had four people.

At the beginning of class the topic of day trading came up and if you want to learn more Japanese day traders you can go here.

The homework for next week is #8 on page 76 and I would like you to make up a story about something frightening, surprising, or unusual. Try to use as many words as you can from a-h in #5 in your story.

To start the class we talked about what happened over the weekend. There were few questions about the word brunch. Here is a link to a champagne brunch. Maybe we will have to have one at JOY sometime.

We went over the homework and people had some very good example sentences. After that we moved on to the new unit. In the reading it mentioned Mesa Verde. It is a very interesting park and I would recommend it to anyone who is going to Colorado, but about the only place people want to see is the Grand Canyon.

The homework for next week is to do #3 on page 71 and #5 on page 72.

I gave you a chance to practice venting. We also went over the grammar point on page 65. Part 1 of the homework next week is to write sentences in 9c.

Next we did the listening exercise and people did a good job with that. The second part of the homework is to do #11 on page 66. If you want to you can also do the reading on page 67. If you have any questions we can talk about it at the beginning of class next week.

This site will give you more tips about writing complaint letters.

Only Maki tonight. Ken was at an job fair in Sapporo, Kyoko went on a trip and Yumiko had a sore throat. Maki and I talked about several different subjects. The one we talked the longest about was investing. Right now in Japan there is a boom in individual stock investing. If you want to learn more about this topic go to this site. We also talked about computers and software.

No homework for next week.

Tonight was the first time in a long time that we had everyone here. There weren't too many ideas for new services. The one point that came up was that there was noting that they really needed. That is true. Most good ideas for new products and services come from the creators desire to have that product or service.

We moved on to part about showing irritation. People did dod a very good job of getting the right tone in their voices or the right facial expression. Whenever Ken tried it he ended up smiling which took away from the impact of his words.

The homework is to the writing exercise. Do a, b and c, plus write your own letter of complaint. Also go through the vocabulary pages at the back of the book and mark all the words that you know.

It was nice to have Maki back tonight. We are still waiting for Ken to get back from winter vacation. Ahh, to be a university student again!

We caught up on some of the local news and then moved on to the new unit. The theme of the unit is services and advertising. We did the listening exercise where a personal assistant talked about what she did for people. In doing a search on the internet I found a few sites, but there were a lot of ones for software to help organize your life. The most common site for a true personal assistant was how to become one for a celebrity. Maki might be interested in this link which will tell you how to start your own business, if you buy the book.

I also mentioned the personal coach or life coach (after I searched on the net). There a lot of links, so do a quick search and see what you can find.

The homework for next week is 3c in the Focus on Grammar section and try to think of a unique service that you could offer.

It was just Yumiko and Kyoko today. Ken is still on winter vacation and may not be getting back until tomorrow. Maki must be very sad that she hasn't been able to review her textbook because I still have it. Hopefully, she can come next week.

We talked about many different topics and some how we started talking about dog sled racing and I mentioned the Iditarod Race. This is a long distance race, but Anchorage also has the Fur Rendezvous which as sprint sled dog races. If you want to watch a movie about sled dog racing there is Iron Will and Snow Dogs

Maki have you noticed that you left your book and other materials at JOY last week? Will you becoming to the party on Thursday? If you do come, I can give them to you then.

There was no homework last night to check and we didn't use the the textbook. You did a pretty good job making words and then thinking of words related to winter. Also your explanations of some of Japan's New Year's traditions were pretty good.

I hope to see all of you at the party, but if I don't I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I am not sure how much I will post during the holidays, but check now and then.

People did their homework and found out about the different cars that they were interested in. We also did the listening exercise which was the song Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys. As I said there a lot of songs with car themes in the States. The radio show Car Talk that I mentioned usually plays a small portion of these types of songs.

I hope you really did enjoy the Christmas pudding (suet). Noriko said you were just being polite. I did learn that I need to steam it and not use the microwave. I will try to remember to bring the recipe and pan next week.

Everyone talked about their favorite public space and why they liked it. After that we started talking about cars. There are no real car lovers in this class unless Maki is. If you are a car lover Maki leave a comment.

We looked over the names of the different parts of the cars. I mentioned how there are differences between American and British English. This link will take you to a list of auto terms and many others.

In our talk about cars we learned that Ken was interested in hybrids and Kyoko and Yumiko wanted to have a camper. The homework they are going to do for next week is research about the good points and bad points of those vehicles. I am sure Maki will be prepared to talk about her favorite car. Look at number 12 on page 59 for ideas about what to talk about.

Only three people tonight. Michiru is going to move to Urashima-san's News5 class on Wednesday and Kyoko had to help with a funeral. We continued to talk about famous landmarks and tried to think of examples in Japan of the types listed in the book. No one was able to think of a famous Japanese fountain and I can't really think of one in the States either. We talked about the buildings that people don't like in Obihiro and what other public buildings Obihiro might need. With the completion of the library we pretty much agreed that Obihiro really doesn't need any new public buildings. That will make the construction industry unhappy.

The homework for next week is to write about your favorite public space (not your room Maki). Look at page 57 #7 for ideas on what to do.

Well, I guess those of you who said there was little chance that it would snow were very wrong! Ken you had better get your tires changed. We finished up unit 6 and started Unit 7. We talked about bridges, dams and tunnels. The homework for next week is to the grammar focus on page 54.

Yumiko said that Kyoko was on a short trip with a friend, so she couldn't make it to class tonight. I wonder if she will remember to send a postcard. Ken and Maki were also absent tonight, but I don't know why. Atsuko from Tuesday morning Step 4 was her for a make up class.

We went over the homework and talked about folk tales. Atsuko mentioned that she had just seen the movie The Brothers Grimm which was a coincidence because I was going to say the the Bremen Town Musicians was one of my favorite stories when I was a child.

We moved on and looked at conditionals. There was a listening exercise and some grammar drills. The homework for next week is 11 C & D. If you want, you can do the review exercises on pages 51 and 52. We may start Unit 7 next week.

I stopped by Daiichi near Chikudai on my way back from class, but the taiyaki place that Ken mentioned in class wasn't there. Ken is it only there on weekends?

During the warm up portion of the class we got on the topic of foods and several people mentioned new restaurants or places to get delicious food. One that Ken mentioned I will definitely have to check out this Wednesday because it is on my way back from Chikudai.

We talked about people that we admire and the reasons. Rosa Parks, who recently died, came up as an example.

Another exercise we worked on was a dictionary entry to learn more about a word. You might find this site interesting.

The homework is to do the exercises on pp 45-47 numbers 5, 6 and 7. At the end of class there was a question about the differences between, folktales, fairy tales and myths. I will post more information tomorrow.
Compare these definitions and see what you think the differences are.
folktales
fairy tale
myth

Yumiko thank you for the pumpkin pie. It was really delicious. We did the Halloween quiz at the beginning of class and only Maki got a perfect score. We talked a little bit about the holiday and where some of the traditions came from.

The homework was to do the reading about the volcano. If you want to learn more and see some photographs go here. In checking the exercises there was a little trouble using how and what in making questions. This site gives some good information and you can go here for more practice.

We moved on to Unit 6 and did the first listening exercise. In the activity they mentioned Wilma Rudoph and Nancy Drew. Just before the end of class we also looked at verbs and prepositions and for more practice go here.

I hope Michiru is having fun on her school trip and learning a lot. I am not sure what happened to Ken tonight maybe he will do a make up class on Tuesday morning. We continued talking about natural disasters which is timely because Sunday was the one year anniversary of the Niigata Earthquake and Hurricane Wilma hit Florida today. I talked a little bit about the tornado drills we had to do when I was in elementary school and living in Iowa.

The homework for next week is to do the reading on page 41 and 42. We will talk about it and then do something special.

It was nice to welcome back Kyoko tonight. She had been gone for about 10 months. It turns out that she was in the same class as Maki about 5 or 6 years ago.

We went over the homework and people did a really good job. They tried to use the prefixes that we looked at and used a lot of new vocabulary. We did the listening exercise about the national parks. If you want to learn more about them go here. We then talked about linking and I gave you some homework. Remember to find three vocabulary words for each of the nine natural phenomena listed in #8 on page 39.

At the end of Michiru asked why the hurricanes in the US had names, but in Japan they have numbers. Kyoko said that storms all over the world use different naming systems. I found this site that has a list, but you have to download a pdf file to read it. This link explains why they name the hurricanes which was what Michiru wanted to know.

Update: I found this site which has some good information on linking that we talked about last night.

We are now a class of five. We gained two and lost one. Takeshi is going to be visiting California this fall and may rejoin us after he comes back. I hope he will send an e-mail while he is traveling and let us know how he is doing.

At the beginning of class we had a chance to chat and get to know each other. We also talked about what we will be doing in this class this semester. I am going to be experimenting with some different types of warm up activities. I hope you will find them interesting.

We started Unit 5 and the theme of this unit is ecology and natural phenomena. It is a timely topic after the severe hurricanes that have hit the US and the tsunami in Asia last year. The grammar point tonight was using the passive form of present/past continuous and present/past perfect forms. The homework for next week is to pick one of the headlines from exercise #3 on page 36 and write 5 or 6 sentences about it. Try to use the forms if you can.

Well, I thought Ken was going to join us again tonight, but I guess he must be getting ready to start classes or his helping with Rally Japan.

At the beginning of class we talked about panhandlers and the word panhandling I couldn't find a source for the word, but I will keep looking.

We talked about the difference in conversations styles between men and women. I mentioned the bookMen are from Mars, Women are from Venus. I have never read it, but it was on the bestseller list for a long time.

Ken from Amy's morning Step 4 classes was doing a make up tonight. Ken is a Chikudai student, so he is able to come in the mornings. We listened to a small part of the Angela's Ashes tape and it was difficult for people. Yumiko is going to try to listen to it at home. We also talked about work and working overtime and the different work environments in the US and Japan.

This link will take you to an article about an unpaid overtime case in America. This link will take you one about the issue in Japan.

Update: I just came across this articleand I thought it was interesting. Read it and tell me what you think in the comments.

As I said in class the blog is looking a little strange. I am not sure what the problem is, but I am working on it now. We went over the homework and did the listening exercise. The homwork for next week is to do #11 and 12. If you would like to read a little more about Angela's Ashes go here. I will bring the tapes next week and we can listen to parts of it. Also next week we can see Maki's new car. I guess she could also e-mail me some pictures and I could post them.

I had an entry ready post earlier, but I must have forgotten to hit the publish button. Well, I will try one more time.

Atsuko joined us from the Tuesday morning class. This wasn't her first time so she knew everyone. We talked about the homework and moved on to the new material. Today's lesson had a lot of useful communication techniques. Try to use them next week in class and then at the End-of-Term party on the 29th.

The homework for next week is to write about your job or someone you know. Look at the examples on page 30.

I mentioned a web page where you can translate text from Japanese to English. Here is the link. This isn't the one I was thinking of in class, but that link is on my computer at home.

Yumiko had fun with the anagrams and if you want to do more go here. We started Unit 4 which is about occupations and what people do in different kinds of jobs. The grammar focus of tonight's lesson was gerunds and infinitives(you need to scroll down).

The homework for next week is to look at #3 on page 28. We will start with #4 on page 29 at the beginning of class next week.

Tonight was a review night with going over the review pages for Units 1-3. We also talked about the traditions related to Tanabata and O'Bon.

Maki wasn't here tonight, and I wonder if her co-workers told her that a foreigner came in to buy ice cream on Saturday night. I got there just as they were closing and they said that they quit selling ice cream at 6:00. I will have to give it a try another time.

Ayumi joined us again tonight. She has a party tomorrow, so she can't go to her regular class. She said that during summer vacation she will be going to Tokyo for two weeks to study. Hopefully, it won't be too hot!

We went over the homework and looked at the relative clauses (object). We also worked on constrastive stress. We ended with the song Bus Stop. The group that made it big was The Hollies and they weren't one hit wonders. Were you able to get the song out of your head or did you have dreams about it last night?

Next week the homework is to do the Review section and we will talk about Japanese traditions for Tanabata and O'bon.

Ayumi joined us from Erin's class on Tuesday, but Takeshi was absent tonight. We continued talking about coincidences and the homework as to write about one that you had experienced. Maki said she didn't have one, but I reminded her of a time we met by chance at a mutual friend's party. We were both surprised to see each other there. We all had other examples.

We then did the reading about six degrees of separation. There is a game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon based on this theory. I have never played it because I am not that good with movie trivia. I will have to ask Braden if he has ever played.

It was nice to have everyone back tonight. We talked a little bit about the news and the 7-11 robbery that happened this morning.

We started Unit 3 about coincidences and learned about Joseph and Deborah. Maki did a good job of guessing what the story might be about. She said it was because she watches a lot of Korean TV dramas. After finishing the reading and listening I asked if people thought it was a true story. Only Maki thought it was. Guess what? It is true. Look at the back of the book in the credits and you will find out the name of the book it came from.

The vocabulary point tonight was phrasal verbs. This page will give you all kinds of practice. We also looked at the past perfect and practiced using it a little. You will get more practice in doing the homework, but if you want even more go here.

I finally remembered to bring the CD that mentioned 3 weeks ago, but Yumiko was the only person who came. We listened to parts of it and really liked it. The group Curujey has a website where you can buy their other two CDs .

Yumiko and I went over the homework and talked more about the grammar point from last week. We will start Unit 3 next week and there is no homework.

Maki was back and Atsuko joined us from the morning class. We went over the homework from two weeks ago and did the lesson that I had planned last week. We did the listening about game shows and I tried to explain how the shows were different in America and Japan. I mentioned one of my favorite quiz shows Jeopardy and this site all kinds of information and links to other game shows.

The homework for next week is #13 on page 16. Remember to think about how you can improve in these areas.

Tonight Takeshi came with his friend and we spent a lot of time learning about his home in California and Yumiko also talked about her trip to Otaru and Yoichi. Israel is from Cambira which is near San Semion and the Hearst Castle.

Takeshi also brought some photos of his paintings. They look great and I really want to see the real ones. Maybe he can bring one to class sometime. I forgot to bring the things I promised last week, so I will do it next time.

No homework for next week.

Takeshi had planned to bring his friend tonight, but it didn't work out. We talked about Michael Crieghton and there were a lot of good questions. To learn more go to his site. It was interesting to hear about people's hobbies. Maki will send a link to her site, I hope. Also I hope that Takeshi will bring some pictures of the paintings he has done. Here is the link for the my niece's husband's site. He does work in acrylic.

The homework for next week is to do the grammar focus on page 15. We will start with the listening on page 15. I have a lot of things to bring next week so please leave a comment next Sunday to remind me.

We went over the homework, but the present perfect continous seemed to be giving people some trouble. Use this quiz to practice some more.

We also did the reading about Prince Eyango. I have heard some of his music and if you visit his site you should be able to listen to a mp3 sample. Remember the homework is to write about a non-Englsh singing singer that you like. Also do the reading about Michael Crichton on page 13.

Tonight Yumiko joined us. She has moved from the 4G class on Thursday. Take joined us from 4H on Thursday. He was just doing a substitution class. He said he will be going back to his hometown on the weekend so he may miss class on Thursday. Takeshi had gotten over his cold and was back, but tonight Maki was gone.

We went over the listening that Maki and I did last week. We went over the vocabulary related to performing arts. A lot of good questions came up and we talked about many different things. I did mention that if you are going to talk about a certain topic you will need some special vocabulary. here is a page with classical music terms, here is one for the theater (very detailed) and here are some ballet terms.

I had hoped to make it through the grammar exercises today, but we didn't. The homework for next week is to do #3a-d. Don't do the reading on page 11 before class because I would like to use it as timed reading.

Maki and I had another interesting discussion tonight. She explained how the road station system works and I totally misunderstood what they were. I thought they were run by the Hokkaido government, but they are run by the towns and villages.

We checked the homework and then did the listening exercise in Unit 2. One phrase that came up in the interview was finding your calling. We discussed the different ways it can be used and in what situations. I forgot to give Maki homework, so I hope that both you will take a look at the blog before next class. Next time do the vocabulary and grammar exercises. Another word we talked about was in the limelight and how it was different from in the spotlight.

It looked like it might only be Maki and I this evening, but Takeshi made it at 7:30. He had a dentist appointment today. While it was just Maki and I we talked about Golden Week and the two days off that she had. She spent one of the days rearranging her room. We also talked about gardening because she had seen the picture of the new beds that I had made. I had written a post on Sunday talking about compost, but it disappeared and never posted.

We finished up Unit 1 today and the homework for next week is to think about the telephone conversation in 13C on page 8. We will start Unit 2 next week.

Well, Takeshi read last weeks post and made sure that he could make it. Maki didn't make it like she thought. I wonder if she sold a lot of ice cream today.

Takeshi and I talked about many different topics. One of the things we talked about was Sapporo's attempt at summer time last year. I haven't heard if they are going to do it again this year. We both thought it would be a better idea to call it "Hokkaido Time" and make it for whole the island. I think it would be a good way to promote summer tourism. It would make the island unique. You would step off the plane or train and set your watch to Hokkaido time. What do you think?

Only Maki today. Yoji has decided that he prefers 3A, so now it will be only Maki and Takeshi. If there are any Step 4 students who would like a small class-- Monday 4A is the place to be.

Maki and I talked more about voicemail and text messaging or as it is sometimes called instant messaging. The verb I have seen is "Iming". We then did the listening exercise on page 5. We both disagreed with the sociologist's definition of gossip and thought it was too broad. I think that the word still has a negative connotation.

No homework for next week, but try to bring some news items to talk about at the beginning of class. Takeshi please try to make it because Maki says she has to work late and can't come. Maki did you buy an iPod on your way home? Here is some information on podcasts.

Not too much news today except Maki said that they started selling ice cream cones at the Otufuke rest stop near Yotsuba on Saturday. I drove by there on Saturday and thought about stopping in, but I thought she had said they wouldn't start selling ice cream until Golden Week. It was a good day for ice cream, too.

We did the article and talked about the different types of communication. We also talked about how communication has changed in our life times. We looked at the different ways of contacting people and which method was best for each situation. The opinion was that e-mail is good for just about every situation. There was misunderstandings about text messaging, voice mail and .

We got started with the new step 4 class. Yoji is the only new person, but I am sure we will get a few more people in the coming months.

We started the book and talked about the different means of communication in the picture. We then did the listening exercise and tried to identify the different sounds. The words that we selected all convey a specific image. The best example was between closing the car door and slamming the car door. The image you get from each sentence is totally different. Yoji made a good point that you can get a better idea of this from reading English comic books.

The homework for next week is to read the article in the book, but try to read it in 3 minutes.

We had a good turn out for the last class. We heard about Hiroko's trip to China and looked at some of her photos. She said the weather wasn't very good. Chiaki has been working part-time at city hall and will work there until she leaves in May.

We practiced giving opinions and there were some interesting ones. You shouldn't hesitate about expressing your feelings about something that is bothering you. We talked about the telemarking and I mentioned the no call list. This link will tell you more about it. Is there something similar in Japan?

Only Ayumi, Maki and Chris this evening. I thought Hiroko might be back from her trip, but maybe she was just too tired. Last week Chiaki said she was going Asahikawa to visit the zoo. I guess we will get to hear how that went on the 28th. Remember no classes next week.

Ayumi and Maki have both been very busy so they were unable to do the homework (reason or excuse?). We did the homework together and if you haven't had a chance to do the homework then I think you should really look at #9 the Word Power exercise. There is some good information there. After we went over this exercise we talked about different predicaments. Both Maki and Ayumi had been in situations like the one in the book.

For next class there is no homework and I am not sure what we will do for the last class yet. We may use the textbook, but we will also want to hear about China and Asahikawa.

Some great new slogans for JOY's next ad campaign. Maki even had music for hers. Maybe Hiroko will have time to think of one on the flight between China and Chitose.

We started Unit 13 and skipped around a little bit. We looked at the three different situations and what people would do in the different cases. I was surprised by the answers to the broken engagement. This link will take you some advice on how to handle the situation in America.

The homework for next week is to look at #9 on page 83 and #11 p. 84. For number 11 you only have to think of one perdicament.

We had an observer today and it turns out that he is a cook at the restaurant that Hiroko and Ayumi recommended last week! I am sure it was surprised by the reaction he got when he mentioned where he worked, but the coincidence was too surprising.

Takeshi is back from Brazil and he had suntan and had lost weight. He said there wasn't a large selection in food. He also said no one spoke English, so he had to pick up some Portuguese. I forgot to ask if he took many pictures. If he did maybe he can bring them to class next week or on Wednesday if he comes to English Time.

We did the two listening exercises. The first one I had skipped by mistake two weeks ago and the second one we had listened to once last week. The radio commercials were fun and challenging; especially trying to catch the store slogan. We talked about people's favorite commercials or company slogans. I thought someone would mention Its a Sony. or one of the other popular ones now. I mentioned that there were a lot of jingles used on tv and radio in the 60s and 70s, here is a site with a few.

The homework for next is to think a new advertising slogan or commercial for JOY. Also do the reading at the end of the unit.

Only four people today. I guess Takeshi has decided to stay in Brazil. Shinichi said he was busy, so he may be doing some make up classes later. Good new from Chiaki today. She said she was accepted at the University of Albeta in Edmonton. She will be leaving this spring and do an intensive English course to get ready for starting school in the fall. I am sure her English will improve dramatically when she is in an all English environment.

We went over the homework and talked about the qualities needed to be a successful English teacher. We then moved on the grammar focus on page 75. The example conversation talked about popular clubs and so we talked about the in places for high school students and teachers. I was asked about the places that JOY staff likes to go, but we don't have people that go out that much.

We did the listening exercise once and will do again next week because people couldn't catch all the details. There is no homework for next week.

It was fun listening to people's answers to the homework. I was surprised that Chiaki and I were the only ones who were interested in living in the past, everyone else wanted to live in the future. We moved on to Unit 12 and practiced phrases of purpose and the example conversation talked about opening a restaurant. The speakers concept was to have singing waiters. I mentioned one such restaurant that I went to in Seattle, but I couldn't find it listed on the net. It was long ago and the gimmick of singing waiters probably didn't last for more than a few years. We also heard about Maki's dream of opening a business someday. I won't mention it here, but if you were absent tonight make sure to ask her about it next week.

Only three tonight. Takeshi isn't back from Brazil (maybe he decided to stay for carnaval) and Shinichi was in Sapporo for the Snow Festival.

I mentioned at the beginning of class today that I saw Rie at the Obihiro Central Post Office, but I couldn't talk to her because I didn't want to lose my place in line. As it was it still took over 90 minutes to get an international postal money order.

When I came down after class there was a postcard from Takeshi on my desk. He is having a great time. I wonder if he will decide to stay.

The homework for next week is IC15. We will start Unit 12 next week.

Update: Here is a link to an article about the actor you were talking about at the beginning of class. The word you were looking for was "extortion".

We had a lot of fun in class tonight and there was so much laughter. There was a wide range of opinions about the different age groups and what words described them best. I mentioned the radio show that I listened to on the internet. Here is a link to it. It is difficult, but I think you will be able to pick out different parts. It is good for this unit because it talks of rights of passage, becoming and adult. Try listening to it and see what you think.

The homework for next week is the Grammar Focus on page 69.

I read on the internet after class that the 24th of January is supposed to be the grimmest day of the year and I am sure people on the East Coast of the US feel that way digging out from the blizzard that hit.

At the beginning of class I asked Chiaki to predict how many people she thought would show up. She guessed three, but we ended up with four. Ayumi showed up a little late. We hadn't seen her since the beginning of winter vacation, so it was nice to have her back.

We started the unit on life's little lessons and talked about rites of passage. They seem to be pretty much the same in both the US and Japan. Here is a link to the book I mentioned in class. It seems the author has written several others along the same lines.

The homework for next week is to do the Word Power exercise on page 68.

Welcome back Maki! She probably can't read this because she said she was having computer trouble--maybe she will read it at work. Now if Rie comes back we will almost be back to the normal number. Still no postcard from Takeshi, but I am sure one will be coming soon. Maybe he will check the site from Brazil and leave a comment.

We checked the homework which had people think about their future. The question about retirement was a difficult one for Chiaki and Shinichi. Of course, being that young they aren't thinking about retirement yet. After checking the homework we went over the reading about the idea of a global village. It was a little more difficult than I thought, so look it over again at home.

Here is the link to the webquest that I mentioned in class. This will give you an idea of the type of material we will be using. I said it was about the media, but more specifically it is about advertising.