Recently in Step 4 Category

Good evening. Tonight we only had a small class of five students, and it was good seeing Yuki after a long absence from the class. It was also nice talking with everyone else who came tonight. We started the class with a group discussion since we haven't done that for a while and it was good chance with only five students. Then we talked about culture shock and studied some new vocabulary. I was so happy with the effort you all put in today. And your definitions of the words were all great! We'll continue on with this unit next week. Thank you for coming! Please have a good week. Bye!

Good evening! Well, tonight we had a fairly small class with only five students. I was a bit surprised because I was expecting a bigger class. A couple of students have kind of disappeared! Where is Fumiko and Shogo??? Anyway, I had a good time with you and I felt like we really "studied" tonight. That's a good feeling, hey? I hope to finish off this unit next week, so let's try hard! Don't forget to do the homework I assigned you, Grammar Focus Part A (page 25). We will probably check it at the beginning of class. I hope to see all of you next week, so until then, please take care. Bye for now!

Good evening everyone and welcome back to JOY after a long summer break. It was great seeing all of you in class and it was really great seeing Mika after such a long time. I think it's been over four months since we saw her last. We started the night talking about our summer vacations. Well actually, we talked a lot about my summer! Then we had pair discussions. We also worked in the textbook. I think we did a couple of really fun activities today, so thank you so much for trying your best in class. If you have any questions, please make sure to leave me comment here. Take care and have a good week. Bye for now!

Good evening. Well, tonight we had a fairly small class of only six students and no visitors. And it was just great seeing Yuki after such a long time. She told us that she came to JOY tonight because she knew it was the last class before the summer vacation. How great is that!!! Anyway, tonight we started the class with the grammar section. We learned about the simple past and the past continuous and how to use the two together. After that we did a listening. It was a little difficult, but I think you all did a good job. Sorry for keeping you after class a short while. Please have a great summer holiday from JOY and please don't forget to do your homework (the handout I gave you plus the self-study sections for Units 1-3 at the back of your textbook). Take care and see you in three weeks!

Good evening! Well tonight, once again, we had Yo in our class visiting us, which was very nice. We also had seven other students in the class. Unfortunately, there have been a few members in our class that can't seem to make it these days. I hope we can see Yuki, Shogo and Mika sometime soon. We started the class with quick pair discussions. Then we started the new unit on news stories. We brainstormed some different sections of the newspaper and did a listening of four different TV news stories. We didn't learn any grammar this week, but we did learn a lot of new vocabulary and expressions. Please make sure to study these new words and the words from the Unit 4 Summary list I gave you. Also, I would like to know more about Marine Day! So if you have a chance, please write me and tell me about it. Take care and have a good week everyone. See you all next week, I hope!
PS: Next week is our last class before summer vacation. Please come!

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well after our "very tiring grammar class." Tonight we had three visitors to our class, Yo (from Paul's class), Michiko (from Trish's class) and Chihiro (an observer). But in total we only ended up with nine students. That's amazing when you think that our class actually has ten students in total. Anyway, as promised, we did a lot of grammar practice today. We studied how to make indirect questions in many different ways and then we did some exercises in the book. As a review, we did a sentence correction activity. It was a lot of fun, actually, and I was surprised at how well you did. Great job! We didn't have enough time to completely finish the unit, so please do the reading on page 21 for homework (parts A and B). Have a great week everyone and see you all next time. Bye for now!

Hello everyone! So sorry to be late to update.
It was an interesting class again! We had three regular members and three visitors. It worked perfectly with three pairs of regular students and one visitor. Thank you for coming Yo, Sanae and Michiko!
After pair discussions we reviewed collocations on page 19. Luckily all regular students were here last week so they taught their partner. Chiaki, Teruyasu, Shinobu did a very good job! You are great teachers!
After that we did a listening on the same page. We caught eight favors to Jeff.
And then in pairs we talked about our experiences of cultural differences which we have faced in the past. If you have time, please think of a story about it and read the article on page 21. Next week we'll start with the grammar. I know you love to study grammar, don't you? So don't miss it, please! Take care and have a nice weekend! See you later!

... Unfortunately Joe's still sick. But despite that he's doing his best. He says he's better than Tuesday evening but he still has a pale face. For that reason his blog hasn't been updated.
---So someone wrote this post as a substitute for him. Guess who did it?! Post your guess RIGHT NOW! :)
Of course you're so welcome to post on Joe's blog from other classes' students like this! Let's challenge!

Hello everyone! Well, today was an interesting class since we had a pretty big class of nine students. We had two visitors in our class, Michiko and Atsuko. It was great having them in our class and it was wonderful seeing Michiko again (my former student). After pair discussions we did a quick review of last week's grammar structures. I even made a couple of mistakes, so sorry about that... Oops! And then we did some pronunciation practice. What do you think of this kind of activity? Did you find that useful for you? After that we practiced the grammar structures and played a "kind of" game. Shinobu won the game, managing to borrow six items from other classmates! Good job! After that we did an introduction to collocations on page 19. Please study these verb and noun pairs before next week because we'll use them in class. Take care and have a good week! Bye for now!

Good evening. Tonight we had a good mix of students, seven in total including Haruki from Paul's class. It was very nice having him in our class and it was also very nice to see all of you. After group discussions, we started studying the grammar point right away. It was an interesting and useful grammar structure, so I hope you didn't mind working so hard. We did a lot of practice of the new structure and we also did a listening at the end of class. I kept you over for five minutes after the class, so I'm sorry about that. I hope you didn't mind! And everyone did their homework! So thanks for finishing your homework from last week! Take care and have a great week. See you all next time!

Good evening everyone! Thank you for coming to class. Today we had a visitor, Yasuko, from Paul's class. It was nice having her in our class. So in total we had a class of eight students. We started the class with pair discussions and then you had to report at least one interesting thing to the class that you learned about them. That was fun and interesting. We leaned a lot about our partners in only a short time, hey? Then we did a review activity using last week's grammar structure. The next topic of discussion was about doing favors for people and the favors you dislike being asked the most. This was a great discussion topic and I enjoyed hearing your opinions about it. We also did a listening at the end of the class. Sorry for keeping you over a few minutes after class tonight. And please don't forget to do your homework for next week. Have a great week. Bye for now!

Hello and good evening. Tonight we had a class of seven students, so thank you all for coming. Mika has now disappeared from our class, so I hope to see her next time or sometime soon! We started the class with an UNAGI presentation by Shogo! Well actually, it wasn't really a "presentation," but a sales-pitch! SO PLEASE BUY SOME UNAGI! Then we worked in the textbook. We learned the new grammar point. It was much more difficult for you than I had imagined, so we may do some more practice next week. We also did a listening exercise and a kind of role play talking about the pros and cons of different jobs by comparing them with other jobs. Next week I will have to give you a lot of homework, so I hope you'll be ready for it! Take care and see you all next week. Bye!

Good evening! Well, tonight we had a pretty big class of eight students. That was great to have so many students in class. And I was SO HAPPY to see Yukie after such a long time. Welcome back to our class Yukie! There were a couple of late students, but I was glad that you managed to make it! Tonight we had some pair discussions at first and then worked in the textbook. We did an exercise on suffixes (for occupations) and then we practiced last week's grammar, gerund phrases, and relative clauses from Unit 1. I think you all did a good job and I was happy with that we were able practice those grammar structures so much and in a natural way. At the end of the class we also did a listening exercise. Next week I hope to finish off the unit. Let's work and study hard! Have a great week and see you all next time. Bye!

Good evening! Well, of course there were a bunch of absent students tonight so it was great having Atsuko join us. We ended up with a total of seven students. I really wonder if we'll ever have a full class of ten students with all the regular members. Tonight, after pair disucssions, we started on the grammar point right away and spent the entire class doing exercises to support the grammar structure. And there were some questions about the pronunciation of "director" and "directing." I'm sorry that I couldn't be of much help, but I don't always know what's standard since I speak only one kind of English out of many kinds (I speak Northern Canadian!). But that is definitely something you can easily check in almost any dictionary. Next week we will continue to study the new grammar point and also do some review of the unit before. Have a great week and see you all in class next time! Bye for now!

Good evening! Tonight we only had five of our regular members in class, so I wonder if the terrible rain scared everyone away??? However, we also had two visitors (Michiko and Kyoko). We started class with a quick group discussion and then we did the personality quiz in the back of the textbook. I know it was a little difficult, but the point of the activity was to get you thinking and guessing in English. It turns out that I am a "super-achiever," the only one in the class. What do you think about this? Anyway, we also talked about personality types in class and did a quick listening. All in all, I thought we had a pretty good class tonight. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and also learned a lot! Take care and have a great week. See you soon!

Good evening! Thank you all very much for coming to class today. It was good seeing you after such a long Golden Week break. Actually, it's been three weeks since we saw each other last! It was fun telling you about my trip to Canada, so thank you for listening to me. Tonight we had four absences, but we also had two visitors, making a class total of eight students. You talked about your Golden Week holiday with your partner at first and then we got started working in the textbook. We did a quiz on things that annoy us and also learned the new grammar structure on page 6 (clauses with it + adverbial clauses with when). I think we had some pretty interesting conversations about many different topics tonight, so thank you for your participation! Please do the reading on page 7 (parts A and B) for homework. I will check your answers next time. Take care and have a great week! Bye for now!

Hello everyone. Thank you for coming to class. We had yet another big class tonight with nine students!!! It was a lot of fun and we managed to do a lot of work and discussion, so that made me very happy. Tonight we worked on personality adjectives and reviewed relative clauses. Then we talked about the idea of an "ideal" parent, friend and partner. Finally we had a quick group discussion about things that annoy us! It was pretty interesting! Anyway, next week there is no class because it's GOLDEN WEEK! YEAH! So please have a great time over the holidays, no matter what you end up doing, and I'll see you all in May! Bye for now!

Hello everyone! Thank you all for coming tonight. Actually, we started off with only a small class of three students. However, gradually, one by one, five other students came in. I realize that many of you are busy, but I hope you will try to make it on time or at least let me know if you'll be late. With a class of ten students, it's difficult to judge how many students will come every week. Anyway, thanks again for coming! We were going to have a group discussion but then I changed that plan after all the latecomers arrived. We had pair discussions instead. Then we worked on the textbook. We studied about relative clauses and also studied some vocabulary. Please make sure you take advantage of the vocabulary handout I gave you last week. It can be a really great resource for you! So have a great week everyone and I'll see you all next week. Bye for now!
PS: If you read this, please write a comment to me on my blog!

Hello everyone! Wow, we had a pretty big class of eight students tonight! It was a lot of fun, too (and Shogo was joking around a lot, too!). We started class with a quick open discussion and then we brainstormed some interesting questions to interview a partner with. Some of your questions were very deep and some of them were a little silly, but that's what makes these kinds of activities fun! Also, Kyoko joined us tonight, so it was interesting to have a new face in class. Then we started the textbook and did the first two sections of Unit one. If there are any vocabulary words that you are unsure about the meaning, please look them up at home. And please study the vocabulary handout I gave you before next week. Thanks for coming and have a good week! I hope to see Yukie in class next time! Bye for now!

Good evening! Well, I was surprised to see only six students in class tonight out a total of ten. I guess everyone must be so busy at this time. But in any case, I had a great time in class with all of you and it was good to see again. Two new students joined our class from this semester, Teruyasu and Fumiko! So I hope we can all have a great time together and learn lots of new English! Mostly only Shinobu writes messages to my blog, so I hope more of you will "follow in her footsteps" and write to me! I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you! See you next week!

Good evening everyone! Tonight was our last class of the semester and it was good see everyone. But there were a couple of students absent. Both Eiko and Yukie were absent, so it was unfortunate that I couldn't thank them for coming to our class this last year in class. We had an open discussion at first, while we waited for Shinobu to arrive, and then we did a special activity to see how much we knew about each other. Shinobu was the winner of the activity, so congratulations! I hope to see you all at some of our events coming this month. If not, please take care and have a great break from JOY. I hope to see you soon! Bye for now!

Good evening everyone. Tonight we had a class of five students. At first there were only two students in class, so I was sure it would be a small class. However, as the class got started, the other three students eventually came in late. We talked to Yuki about her trip to Ise. It was interesting to find out that she could see some early blooming cherry blossoms there. Then we talked to Yukie about her busy week and about the month of March and the big changes ahead of her. Shinobu talked to us about a movie she saw at the theater and Eiko told us about her bad cold. Finally Take talked about his computer and about a DVD that he has that makes it possible to see a "glass horse" in 3D. We then worked on the textbook and did a pretty long listening. Take care and see you all next week for our last class of the semester. Bye for now!

Good evening everyone, how are you all doing? I haven't received a comment on my blog from anyone from this class for a long time so I hope to hear something at least from one of you in the near future. Tonight we had a fairly large class with seven students, including a visitor from David's class (Miki) and an observer (Fumiko). It was nice having some different students in the class. We played a game of dominoes using prepositions and then we worked on the new unit in the textbook. We will continue on with this unit next week. Have a great week everyone and don't work too hard!!!

Good evening! I had a great time in class tonight, so thank you all for coming. We didn't manage to get everything I planned finished, but we did do a lot of work that's very useful for your English development. So for that reason, I was very pleased with the class. We started with pair discussions and then we talked about our organizational skills. Almost everyone in class is organized when it comes to work, but some of you felt that you weren't so organized at home. After our discussion, we worked on some very useful Step 4 vocabulary and then did a questionnaire about being organized. It was a lot of fun but I was surprised to find out that I got the highest score in the class and that I was the most organized. Oh my....
Anyway, please have a good week everyone! I look forward to seeing you next time!

Good evening everyone. Tonight we almost had a full class, which was really nice. I enjoy this class very much, so thank you all for coming and trying hard! Unfortunately, Yukie had some bad news about her car, but it was really good that she wasn't injured. And Chiaki had a bad toothache. I hope you'll get better soon, Chiaki! Finally, Eiko had a bad rash and thinks she may have a developed an allergy towards crab. I hope you'll still be able to eat your favorite food, "shrimp," Eiko! Other than that, everyone else seemed to be doing well, so that was good. we worked further on the unit about parties and you actually organized a party with your group and then presented your plan to the other students. We had a vote, but it seems the "winter camping" idea won in the end. Good job everyone! Please do the homework I wrote on the board for next time. Have a great week! Bye for now!

Good evening everyone! Tonight we had six students in total, including Miki (a regular visitor from David's Step 4E class) and Yuki (who we haven't seen for a while). At first we did short group discussions and I talked with Miki and Yukie about snowboarding and skiing. Then we got started on the textbook work. We had to check the answers from last week's exercise first, but then we moved on to a discussion about parties directly after that. The discussion was very interesting and I was surprised at how naturally the conversation moved from "the kinds of parties we like" to "party planning" and then on to "different kinds of parties." After this discussion we did a questionnaire and then talked to our partners about a party we enjoyed in the past and why we enjoyed it. All in all, I think we had a good class! Take care and see you all next week!
PS: If you have any questions about your evaluations, please ask me anytime!

Hello and good evening! Tonight we had a class of four students. I'm beginning to wonder what happened to Yuki and Yuko since they both have been absent throughout the month of January, except for the first class of the year. Anyway, tonight it was a small class, and I think you may have been a bit tired, but I had a fun time. I did a one-on-one interview with Take, which completes my one-on-one interviews for this semester (There will be no interviews for the students who missed it). We worked on some phrasal verbs at the beginning of class and played a game called, "Call my bluff." It was fun and I was happy that Shinobu made her own fantastic example definitions! We also worked on the future tenses a bit. Please finish part 4 on page 60 if you haven't already. See you all next time! Until then, please take care.

Good evening everyone! Tonight we had a pretty small class of only four, but I had a good time talking with you at the beginning of class and throughout the lesson. We talked a lot to Yukie about her trip to Toyama. Sounds like she had a very good time and managed to eat a lot of really good food on her gourmet tour! I also did two one-on-one interviews today with Shinobu and Yukie. Next week I will try to finish these interviews with the rest of the students in the class. In the actual lesson, we did a lot of work with phrasal verbs and we discussed some different topics. I gave you all a very good reference sheet with many common phrasal verbs on it that are used in everyday conversation. Please keep this invaluable reference sheet forever! Anyway, have a great week everyone and I'll see you all in class next time. Bye for now!

Good evening! Tonight only Chiaki was in class when I arrived, so I was thinking we would have a small class tonight (but I knew that Shinobu would be coming to class a bit late). Then after we got started, and after Chiaki and I had an interesting conversation on bunch of different topics, Shinobu and Eiko showed up for class. It was a small class, but I really enjoyed our class tonight. We had a really good atmosphere tonight and everyone seemed really "into" speaking. Great job everyone! I wonder why we had so many absences tonight. Maybe because of the winter homework??? Oh, I also did a one-on-one interview with both Chiaki and Eiko tonight. Next week I will continue with these interviews. The topic about parties and about festivals was also very interesting. Anyway, please take care and have a good week and I'll see you all again soon. Bye!

Good evening and welcome back to JOY! It was great seeing you all after such a long time. Actually, tonight we had a full class plus a regular visitor, Miki from David's class. So it was a really nice class for me. At first we talked about our winter vacations and ranked it on a scale from one to ten. Most of you gave your winter vacations an either, but Yuki gave hers only a three!!! Anyway, we also talked about our New Years resolutions. After that, we studied about English newspaper headlines. I hope you enjoyed this lesson and found it interesting. We also worked a bit in the textbook. So we really had a FULL class tonight, hey? Anyway, congratulations Chiaki for completing your homework first! Great job! Take care everyone and have a great week! Bye for now!

Good evening! Well, we had a pretty big class tonight, so I was happy to see everyone. We worked on the textbook and did some listening and also some dicatation. Dictation is a great way to improve your listening and grammar (and also spelling! So maybe I should also try that too, hey?). And then it was already the end of class. I wanted to do something a bit more fun, but we ran out of time.... Sorry! Anyway, please have a great winter vacation and don't forget about the "winter vacation homework!" Actually, it's not due until the second week of classes, but please make sure you work on it during the holidays. All the best to you and your families and friends! Bye for now!

Hello and good evening everyone! Tonight we had six members in class, including Miki from David's Step 4E class. It was an ALL women's class once again! Of course, I had a good time in class tonight, so thank you all for coming. We stared with group discussions (groups of three) and then we got started in the textbook. We did a vocabulary activity in the textbook and then did a discussion activity. After that we did an editing activity. However, this last activity was a little difficult and time consuming. Of course, we barely managed to finish the first part of the activity. It was fun though, at least for me, but we won't be continuing this activity next week. Remember that next week is a our last class this semester, so I hope you'll be able to make it to class. Please have a great week everyone and until the next time we meet, please take care!

Hello! Thank you all for coming to class, and thank you Miki for joining us tonight. We had a pretty big class tonight with seven members in total. And I had a lot of fun, so thank you for coming and thank you for speaking a lot in class. At first we started with pair discussions, but we only did this for a short time. Then we had an open class discussion about the reasons why news (or media) is sometimes incorrect. You all came up with some great ideas. Then we did an activity where you had to make up and write a news story that you heard on the radio from some random picture cards I gave you. Some of you found this difficult, but I really wanted you to write notes only, not the entire news article. However, when you reported the news, you all did a wonderful job of not using your written work. We also did some work on the passive voice which we will continue next week. Take care and have a great week everyone! Bye for now!

Good evening! Tonight we had a total of five students, which was the perfect number for the fist activity we did. Actually, to start the class off, we had group discussions. I joined Chiaki and Yuko and we talked about Aikoku and Koufufu stations. Then we did a discussion activity. Using topics written on small cards, you were responsible for facilitating a discussion (being the "conversation leader"). I realize these topics were slightly difficult, but I hope you enjoyed the conversations and using English to express your opinions! I thought it was a lot of fun and interesting to hear your opinions and thoughts. Anyway, after the discussions we also reviewed irregular verbs and we even tested each other at the end. Yuki was my partner and she really tested me with the most difficult ones! But it was fun! Anyway, there's no homework this week so please just take it easy and I'll see you all next time. Bye for now!

Well, good evening! When I first walked into the classroom, only Yuki was there! I was kind of surprised and I thought maybe the rest of your were just late because of the snow. I started talking with Yuki about all the snow we got in the afternoon and about winter tires and stuff like that. Then Shinobu came to class and we continued this conversation. Shortly afterwards, Take also came to class and we then started the new unit on News. We talked about a bunch of different kind of news and where we can find news and then we talked more specifically about "celebrity news." I enjoyed our conversation about this topic very much, especially about the new story concerning a famous Japanese rakugo performer. Then we read an interesting web-site article about the Paparazzi! For homework, please complete part two of the lexis section on page 52. And please remind me to check it next week! I hope to see more of you in class next time. Until then, please take care!

Hello everyone! Tonight we almost had a full class, but Yuki was absent. So we had a total of six today. It was good to see Chiaki after a short break and I think everyone really enjoyed talking with her about her trip to Balli. It sounds like she had a wonderful honeymoon and enjoyed her time there immensely. After talking with her, we started studying in the textbook. We did a reading exert from one of Roald Dahl's works and also studied the use of "would" and "used to" to talk about past situations and actions. At the end of class we played a game using some of the grammar points and vocabulary from the unit. For homework, please complete the handout I gave you. Next week we will start the new until on NEWS. It sounds pretty interesting to me! I hope you will enjoy it, too! So have a great week and I'll see you all next time in class. Until then, please take care!

Good evening everyone. Tonight we had a class of five students. We started class by talking about some different topics in an open discussion. It was interesting to hear what everyone does in their spare time. We also talked with Yuko about the disco festival. It sounded really interesting although no one really likes dancing in our class. After that, we worked on the textbook and did some more exercises on relative clauses and pronouns. And then we did the definition auction! It was really funny because Yuki only bought one definition (and that definition was right), Yuko and Eiko bought two definitions (but only one was right) and Take and Shinobu bought five definitions (and two were right). So I guess the best strategy is to buy as many definitions as possible at the lowest price. It paid off in the end for Take and Shinobu! So good job! Anyway, there is no homework this week. So please have a great week and I'll see you all in class next week. Until then, take care!

Good evening everyone! It was great seeing you all in class and it was so nice seeing both Yuko and Yukie after a long time. Actually, it was the first time for us to see Yuko in class this semester, so thank you for coming back. Tonight we continued working on the unit about kids and we started with the continuation of activity 3 at the top of page 43. The activity didn't really go exactly as I had planned, but it was fun to try and explain things as if you were talking to a four year old child. Then we studied about defining relative clauses. I wanted you to use the English skills you already have to try and figure out what relative clauses and pronouns are, but it was a bit difficult. So we ended up doing the first one as an example and you did the rest on your own. Then we used some Japanese words to write some more examples of relative clauses. If you didn't finish, the rest is for homework. We also did a crossword puzzle at the end of class. That was a lot of fun. Okay, please take care and have a great week! Yuki, I hope you'll get better soon!

Good evening everyone! Tonight we had two visitors in our class, Sanae from Carlos' Step 4H and Miki from David's Step 4E. So in total we had six students (a pretty good number, if you ask me). We started class talking about superstitions once again and you gave me some really good advice. So thanks! I will try my best to be the best! Then we worked on the new unit in our textbooks about kids. We talked about the qualities that make a good parent or child and then we read some different definitions about moms written by kids. After that, we did a listening exercise. It was a little difficult to catch what the kids said, but it was interesting and quite funny. Next week we will continue on with this unit, but I'm not sure how much of this unit we will do. So until next week, please take care! Bye for now!

Good evening everyone! It was very nice having you in class tonight, so thank you for coming. And it was great having Shinobu in the class after a long time. We started the class tonight with a group discussion about superstitions. I asked you how I can become successful and I hope you think of some ideas for me for next time. After that we talked more about sports and how to describe them. Actually, we did an activity where you had to guess the sport by asking yes/no questions. We also did a listening in the textbook and studied some different comparison expressions. We will start the new unit on kids next week. I hope to see Yuko in class next time! Please take care and see you all again soon.
PS: Yuki, I still have your book! I will return it to you next week, so please remind me, okay?

Hello and good evening! Tonight we had a pretty big class, which was a nice change from the previous weeks of only a few students (although I enjoyed those times, too!). We had two visitors from David's Step 4E class (Emi and Miki) and an observer (Eiko) who will attend our class starting from next week. I really enjoyed tonight's class because I felt like there was a lot of positive, fun energy! Thank you! For homework, please complete part 9 on page 37 (I hardly ever give you homework, so please don't be upset with me!!!). Have a great week and please take care. See you next time!

Hello and good evening! Welcome back to JOY for our first class of the new semester. It was really great seeing all of three of you in class tonight. Yes, it was a small class but I'm sure it will get bigger once Shinobu returns and when Yuko and Yukie are absent. All together, it looks like we'll have a class of about six students this time around. I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you and talking with you in class. Please try to attend as many classes as possible and always take substitution lessons if you are unable to make it to your regular class. Also, make sure you read this blog every week to keep informed about what we did. Tonight we had an open discussion at first and we talked about the topics we wanted to talk about. It was really interesting for me! Then we worked on the textbook. We did a pretty difficult listening and then did the first exercise on page 36. I think we'll continue with this unit next time. Until then, please take care and have a great week!

Hello and good evening! Thank you so much for coming to our last class of the semester. It was great seeing a bigger class compared to the last couple of classes. And it was good seeing Takuma after a long time. Unfortunately, both Yukie and Shinobu were unable to make it to our last class tonight. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've really enjoyed this class and talking to you about so many different topics, both from the textbook and during open discussions. I'm looking forward to talking with you more next semester! In class tonight we did some work on gradable and absolute adjectives. It was a little more difficult for you than I had imagined, but I guess in that case it was really good practice for you! We also took a look at some sports and the verbs used with each one (go, do and play). So thanks again for coming tonight and I hope to see you all really soon!
PS: Please come to the party on September 28th! If you want to join, please call Shinobu and let her know!

Hey there! Tonight we had a very small class of only three! Where have all the regular students gone??? Well, I knew that Take would be absent, but it was a shame that the others couldn't make it either. Anyway, thank you for coming to class Yuki, Yukie and Yuko (the three "Ys" women = sounds like "wise"). I had a nice, relaxing time talking with you about some different topics at the beginning of the class and then throughout the class. The whole topic of Adrenalin is interesting, but the reading was a bit long. I'm sorry about that! But I hope you found it interesting anyway and I hope you learned some new vocabulary and expressions from it. Next week we will continue on with this unit! Don't forget that next week is our last class of the semester. Okay, take care and see you next week (how many students will come, I wonder....). Bye for now!
PS: Check it out..... www.deadmike.com

Good evening everyone! Tonight we had a really small class with only three of our regular members and one visitor, Sanae from Carlos' Step 4H. It was a small class, but I had a great time talking with you, as always. Actually, the group discussion we had the beginning of the class was very interesting and I was glad to see how talkative everyone was. After the group discussion, we worked on the textbook and did some review on making statements less direct, more tactful or more positive. I prepared two activities for the this topic, but it seems that most of you didn't really want to practice it more. So we started the new unit instead on Adrenalin. Next week we will continue on with this topic. Okay, please take care everyone and have a great week and I hope to see you all again next time (and everyone else who couldn't make it tonight, too). Bye for now!

Good evening Step 4 members! Today we started off the class with ladies only, but Take soon came and we ended up with five members in total. Thank you for coming to class! We first went outside to check the lunar eclipse since both Yuko and Yuki had not seen it yet. Then we started class with a group discussion. We had a very interesting talk about many different topics, including what we had for lunch today, what we did on the weekend, our sight-seeing recommendations for new people to Tokachi and our dream honeymoon locations! Then we talked about who our "ideal partner" would be like (or is like, for those of us who have a partner already). It was a very interesting conversation! We also did some work in the textbook and did a listening exercise. Please review the new adjectives you learned in class and their meanings. Have a great week and see you all next time! Bye for now!
PS: Thank you Takuma for bringing in your homework even though you couldn't make it to class! Excellent!

Good evening everyone! It was great seeing you again after a long three week break. So thank you for coming to class, I had a really nice time in class tonight! At first we had an open group discussion about our summer vacations. It seemed like everyone had a good time during the break, except Take had to work very hard due to the extreme heat. Then we started work on the textbook. Actually, we didn't really work in our textbooks today, but instead we did some review of the use of since and for. Shinobu won the "stand up, sit down" game, so congratulations Shinobu! It only proves that review before class helps all students perform better! Then we did another activity where you had to write five statements about yourself, four true and one false, using the times expressions in the chart on page 26. I was surprised that no one could guess my false statement! After that, we talked a little about "fate" and told some stories related to the topic. I even told you why I believe in fate! I hope it was interesting for you! Okay, please take care and have a great week! Bye for now!

Good evening! How are you all doing tonight? I had a very nice time in class today, so thank you all for coming! We also had a visitor in our class, Risa, so thank you also for joining us! At first we talked about the mama-chari race and I showed you some photos (taken by Shinobu). Sorry it was a little difficult to see! Then we talked about our summer vacation plans in pairs and then got started on the textbook. Actually, today was a continuation of the two stories you read last week about two couples meeting under unusual circumstances. The listening was quite quick, but I think you all did a great job after two listenings. Then we worked on some grammar. I also handed out "summer vacation homework" to all of you, so good luck with that! Have a great summer vacation and I'll see you all again after the break. Until then, please take care!

Good evening everyone! Thanks for coming to class. Tonight we had quite a few more students than last week and it was nice seeing all of you. Actually, tonight's class went by really quickly for me, so I hope you also felt the same and had a good time. At first we had pair discussions and then we stated on the new unit of the textbook. We talked about "love" and the differences between Western and Japanese cultures. We also talked about what love actually is and some different "romantic" situations that you rated from one to five hearts (five meaning the most romantic and one meaning the least). After that we split the class in half and read about two different situations in the textbook, one situation per student. Then you had to report what happened to the other students who read a different situation. You all did a great job! Have a great week and see you all next time! Until then, please take care!

Well, good evening everyone! I was so surprised to see only Yuki in class tonight when I first arrived to the classroom. Then Shinobu came slightly after that and then Yuko showed up. In total we had a very small class of only three students! Actually, I had planned a lesson for tonight, but then decided to have a more casual, conversation class instead. So we talked for nearly the entire class about many interesting subjects. We talked about our jobs, both now and in the past and we also talked about our dream job. It was great talking with Yuko about her new job at Kachimai Newspaper and I wish her all the best there! Good luck Yuko! Anyway, since we didn't really do much in class tonight, there's no homework this week. Please take care and see you next time!

Good evening! Tonight we had a class of seven (lucky number seven!). That you for joining us Risa, it was a pleasure to have you in our class. We started class with a short group discussion and talked to Chiaki and Takuma. Chiaki told us about her trip to Tokyo with her new husband to attend a wedding and Takuma also told us about the wedding her attended over the weekend too! The wedding date was 07/07/07! Then we did short pair discussions and began work in the textbook. We did a quick warm-up talking about movies and then we changed the subject and talked about books. We studied "ed" and "ing" adjectives and did a lot of discussion exercises and a reading. Please do the Anecdote section on page 21 for homework (choose either a book or a movie and answer about five of the questions). Have a great week and I'll see you all next time. Take it EZ!

Good evening! Tonight we had another "all ladies" class, with only four students showing up. But I had a very nice, relaxing time in class tonight, so thank you for coming. Tonight we started with a group discussion. We talked about various different topics including hiking, languages, work and Chiaki's "new life." Very interesting! Then we continued on in the textbook from last week's lesson about books, films and music. For one activity, I asked you to define some different kinds of movies, imagining you were trying to explain the kind of movie to someone who didn't understand the word. I was impressed with your work! At the end of class we checked the homework from last week. If you didn't finish the homework, then please do it for next time. Bye for now and have a great week!

Good evening everyone! I had a great time in class tonight, very interesting! We started off with pair discussions and then moved on to working on the textbook. The topic of tonight was "Books, Films & Music," so at first we brainstormed some different words associated with those topics. Then we did a conversation activity where you became the facilitator of the discussions. I would like to thank Takuma for being brave and going first! And I would also like to say that I think you all did such a great job! Fantastic! I would like to hear what you thought of the activity, so please let me know by writing me a message on my BLOG. Finally, we did a listening activity. For homework, please do the close up section on page 18 and 19, part 1 and 3 (first read and study the Language reference section at the bottom of page 19). Okay, please have a great week and I'll see you all next time! I'm looking forward to it!

Hello everyone! Thank you for coming to class. It was good to see you all and talk with you all and I had a good time in class as usual. At first we talked with Chiaki about her wedding on Saturday. It seemed like everything went really well, so congratulations once again Chiaki! I hope to hear all about your honeymoon (when you go on it) after you return back to Obihrio. Then we did the reading in the textbook about Sally and her life before and after reading the Little Book of Calm. I guess in the end the advice from the book didn't change her life. So my advice is, maybe she should read the book again from cover to cover! Anyway, there's no homework once again, but please make sure you review the vocabulary that we studied, okay? Have a great week and I'll see you again next time! Bye for now!