Teach English: First Lesson Warm Up + Rock, Paper, Scissors

[tjcomer]

Did you film this in Japan?

[GenkiJapanNet]

@tjcomer This one is in Japan, yes.

[sandugosathailand]

THis is cool, Activity centered, TPA total physical approach... great Job!

[limersbey]

Your whole program and style of teaching is really amazing and clearly very effective.

I've been using your lesson plans but I find it much more difficult to communicate things and get the children fired up because I don't speak their native language, nor do I have a co-teacher in the room, and the room is also very small.

What advice would you give to help me adapt to these contraints?

[GenkiJapanNet]

@limersbey I've done this in countries where I didn't speak the kids' language (e.g. China, Thailand & Sweden) and it works out good, it just takes longer!

It is worthwhile learning the language, especially when we move up into more complicated lessons.

One easy way is to practice the lesson on your own the night before.  Think through what you'd like to say, write those phrases down and learn them in the kids language. Just a few key phrases can make all the difference!

[dialp4penguin]

I think your presentation is great, but I don't understand the concept, "losing means 'try again' or 'one more time.'"

Does it mean, "if you lose next time try harder," or does it literally mean, "if you lose, keep playing a game until you win." Or is there something more obvious I'm missing?

I fully subscribe to the "if you think you can do it, you can do it" way of thinking, but in a competitive game in an elementary school setting, I'm still not sure what to tell the loser.

[GenkiJapanNet]

It's that if they lose a game they should not feel bad about it but should simply try again. This thinking then gets transferred to normal English speaking, where if they make a mistake they just try again.

Most kids already know this from playing computer games.

Unfortunately many bad teachers drill it out of them by instilling a fear of making mistakes and failure, which is a huge problem in later life!

[dialp4penguin]

So if we're playing karuta or something, and one kid gets 11 cards and the other gets 1, what do I tell the 'loser' in that situation? Or do you not refer to it as competition at all? Is it best to avoid games like that where there is a distinct winner and a loser?

Also when I say "tell" I mean literally, in Japanese, what kind of things are good to say? If I say mou ikai I feel as if that implies that we're going to play the game again, when that is often not the case.

Thanks!

[GenkiJapanNet]

It's all life skills so just removing competition doesn't teach them how to handle things in the future.

I always get them to think "try again" - even if we don' t do it right then it gets them wanting to do English in the next lesson.

[Klebkatt]

I think if all language classes were actually interactive rather than boreing lectures and mindless memorization, not only would more students pass their classes, they'd also retain more.

Don't get me wrong, there's till the greuling lectureing and studing to fill in grammar and vocab, but it wouldn't be nearly as tidious.

[GenkiJapanNet]

You don't even need it for that, the vocab you can get with special songs and the grammar is just practice!

[gamall1]

my students are 12 and 13 years old and its hard to teach them cause they feel bored !!?i duno how to prove my teaching skills @?

[GenkiJapanNet]

Have a look at the Junior High section of Genki English, there's lots of games and songs on there for that age group!

[wikgurl]

what a cool teacher....... when i was young our teacher used to do that kind of method .. and i beleive you dude.. that childrens will gonna learn a lot the way you teaches them... like me here i am.. cool and can speak english beacause of good teacher like you... honto ni genki sou ne... omoshiroi desu ne.....

[belaagente007]

3 ways awesome:

1) kids learning english

2)keeping in shape(sit down, stand up )

3) really funny class

[ichbaas]

woah, total genki!

[seraphinapandora]

Dude, I'm 20 and I want to take a language where they teach me like this...!

[livvyxo]

ha yes!

[JazzBlack]

do you speak japanese fluently?

[Reinenite]

SOOOOOOOOO KAWAII!!!

[heyya15965]

wow this is indeed a really good way to teach children english. i'm an esl teacher, but i usually teach teens. however, i do see others using this method when small children come for class. plus it's also very cute

[DavinTerrizzi]

This is so beautiful. Japanese kids are so cool. Very good teacher!

[limengxia1985]

this is good:)

[tabithascobra]

looks like fun!

[reiaraia]

素敵だねこいう教え方なら楽しい(o^_^o)

[aaaaaaaaooooooo]

I'm AMAZED at the children's pronounciation!!!

[wakalakawhee]

Wow, this is a really good way to teach smaller children a foreign language! I wish my teachers did this when I was younger!

Hopefully, if I get a job as an English teacher in a foreign country, I could use this strategy. It actually looks pretty fun!

By the way, I am a sophomore in high school, taking German and Japanese along with English, so you could say I have a strong interest in this field. Any advice, if you have any?

[xXAiyanaXx]

that's what i call motivation!

[Ricenoodlecake]

小さい子供全員はかわいい! 投稿をありがとう。

[joeya62]

Hey, I can do this with my German class. They are 5. The kids will love it. Thank you

[ghosthunters88]

wow, really?

[CraigMD]

This guy is very well known in Japan! Well done Richard.

[vetyp619]

wow! i could use that for Jann Lee, a 'student' i'm teaching english here in NZ

thanks for the idea Richie ^_^

[OMGlo0lz]

nice way of teaching children through games :D

[GenkiJapanNet]

The English version is on the "Help" section of the Genki English website!

Richard

[wasah88]

this looks like so much fun! lol

[tokyoislander]

Nicely done!

Was wondering if the curriculum of private English teaching companies (juku) which are based mainly on Eiken etc could be applied to public schools, seeing as how public schools have such basic curriculum. And if so, how?

[GenkiJapanNet]

Lots of publishers have tried, it tends not to work because of the large class sizes. Hence the popularity of Genki English.

You probably wouldn't want to put juku stuff in elementary school anyway, most juku curricula are worse than the elementary school ones!

[vampiricrogue]

Why was the tv screen blocked out back there?

[GenkiJapanNet]

Not sure, I think it's a technical thing with the file conversions.

Shame because in real life you can see all the software flashcards and animations on the screen.

Richard

[CyborgNinja7]

LOL his English has a Japanese accent at times. Must be all that time spent in Japan.

[GenkiJapanNet]

I think you'll find it's an English accent. ; )

[azuraflame]

nice ^^

[168ASGilbert1]

That's energetic.

I don't understand Japanese though.

[myargonauts]

Richard -

When did you film this lesson? 2007?

I can see you had your laptop hooked up to a projector for the video - did you also have it hooked up to the internet?

Thanks.

[GenkiJapanNet]

Hello,

That video is, I think, 2005. Yeah, carrying around heavy picture cards got a bit too much so now I always use the laptop.

It's not linked up to the net, it's just the Genki English CDs!

[GenkiJapanNet]

ぜひコメントを書いてください！　－リチャード

[BookGoddess92]

Kawaii desu! Those kids looked like they were enjoying themselves. I had fun watching them.

[Ninensei18]

Wow great job! How long have you been in Japan? Wish I could talk that good!

[GenkiJapanNet]

by the time this was taken I'd probably been in Japan longer than half the kids!

But you can get good a lot quicker than that!

[kirarazoe]

hontou ni sougoi! ^^ you're so kind for teaching kids so kindly

[Xanophalgue]

Sugoi!