Tag Archives: Japan

How Do I Teach Causative Form?

English has several words associated with causative form; Make Have Let Whereas Japanese only has one. The intricacies of English are like a Faberge egg, whereas Japanese is devoid of these like an ordinary ostrich egg. Teaching causative form is … Continue reading

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What Do I Do If My ESL Student Takes My Seat?

Imagine entering your car, only to find a stranger sitting in the driver’s seat. They don’t have keys, because it isn’t their car. They turn to you and smile, waiting for you to start the car and drive. This is … Continue reading

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How Do I Convince My Student That “Sand” and “Sandwich” Are Not the Same Thing?

Due mainly to katakana being used to represent foreign loan-words, foreign words take on many extra syllables when represented in Japanese. Something like “personal computer”, which has 6 syllables, would become “pasonaru conpyuutaa”, which contains 7 syllables. 6 is a … Continue reading

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Why Do Pencils In Japan Not Have Erasers?

In Japan, it is rare to have a pencil with an attached eraser. An eraser company by the name of Momo has successfully lobbied the Japanese government to make it illegal based on safety concerns. Other countries are little behind … Continue reading

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How Do I Teach Proper Usage of “See”, “Look At”, and “Watch”?

Since the Japanese language has only one word to represent the English words “see”, “look at”, and “watch”, a great deal of confusion arises from their use. At first glance, these words to represent sight are interchangable, but at second … Continue reading

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What Do I Do When a Student Hides Their Mouth Behind a Mask?

Face-to-face communication has been determined to be at least three times as effective as non-face-to-face communication, which may be one of the contributing factors as to why humans engage in such conversations on almost a daily basis. This degree of … Continue reading

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What Do I Do If I Accidentally Steal From a Student?

In Japan, there are many instances where the students have considerable wealth and choose to show their wealth through means of expensive watches, pens, pencil cases, and laptops. As teachers, one of the most important things to remember is not … Continue reading

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How Do I Teach Words of Latin Or Greek Origin?

Some students familiar with English gain their abilities through the workplace, bringing a wide range of vocabulary to the classroom. These words can be specialized to the point of being unusable, and corrections should be made to allow the student … Continue reading

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How Do I Teach Participal Adjectives?

Participial Adjectives confuse even the best English speakers, so it’s understandable that they are nearly incomprehensible for Japanese learners of English. As a teacher, I still have difficulty understanding the difference between the usage of “bored” and “boring”. A handy … Continue reading

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How Do I Teach Children?

Teaching children is no simple task, and is even more complicated when teaching them in a foreign language. Not only do children have different needs than their adult counterparts, but also cry much more frequently than adults. As much as … Continue reading

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