Monthly Update January 2024
Welcome to our school monthly update for January 2024. Our school offers lessons for elementary school-aged children and above. In addition, we provide daily conversation and business English classes for adults. We offer onsite lessons at our school location in Yoga, Tokyo. Additionally, we provide Zoom lessons for remote students.
Please contact us at staff@bumblebenglish.com if you are interested in a trial lesson or have any questions about our school.
Group Lessons - Kids
We have formally started our lessons for pre-elementary school students. We currently offer a biweekly Sunday morning lesson, but with future demand, we can offer another one on Sunday and possibly one during the week. As mentioned last month, due to the classroom size, we limit the number of students per lesson to four, allowing everyone to stretch and move around a bit. The lesson focuses on phonics, letter recognition, songs, and simple vocabulary.
Two elementary school students (H.K. and R.K.) will leave our school this month. H.K. has been with us for nearly five years and will attend a local junior high school in April. R.K. will take additional cram school lessons in preparation for the junior high school entrance exam and won’t have extra time for English lessons. We will miss both students as they participated extensively in the classes, always had a great attitude, and were well-liked by the other students.
On a brighter note, this month, BumbleB English welcomed two trial students who will join the school in February. One student had a trial lesson with us last year, and although things didn’t work out then, this time around, the student will be joining our Level 3 class. The other student is from the Futagotamagawa area and will join our Level 1 class.
One of our Level 3 classes uses Grade 3 level Scholastic Success with Writing and the Scholastic Success with Reading Comprehension workbooks. These workbooks are quite advanced and are a good challenge for students with Eiken Pre-2 or above. From these workbooks, the class can engage in discussions, and with our small classroom size, everyone has an opportunity to voice their opinion.
Private Lessons - Kids
One of our junior high school students is progressing very well with using Eiken Grade 3 level materials, including the 英検3級 文で覚える単熟語 book. In addition, this month, we have incorporated the interview questions during our lesson so the student can get experience in providing his opinion in English.
This month, the Winter Session of the Eiken test was held. A few students took the test, including one elementary student who took the Pre-2 level test. While we hope for the best, this student mentioned he could not complete the writing portion. We were disappointed as we spent several weeks practicing the writing assignment, including how to begin the answer, write the reply, and write the conclusion.
As the test results won’t be released for another week, we will re-evaluate how best to improve our students’ writing skills. We have access to an award-winning online writing app but have yet to provide it to our students as it is challenging for non-native English speakers. We will reconsider this app and consider writing a diary each week.
Private & Group Lessons - Adults
Our Wednesday morning adult group class is going well. The lessons have incorporated a lot of role-playing and real-life situations. For example, in one class, the students had to provide directions from the Yoga train station to several nearby restaurants. It was an excellent method to use terms such as: on the right side, turn left, go straight, go across the intersection, etc.
Another of our adult students returned from his trip to Africa and brought pictures of his journey. The trip went smoothly for the most part, though he did encounter small mixups at a hotel. Thankfully, it wasn’t a big issue, and things got cleared up. One aspect of the trip was the communication speed of native speakers. After returning from this trip, the student realized he needed to quickly understand what someone was saying. As a result, we will encourage the student to use more quick response phrases to clarify a speaker’s meaning, ask for clarification, and repeat the question when the student does not understand a speaker’s English.
We have finally found suitable materials for another student. This student uses the NHK Radio English materials. We will start with the February 2024 monthly book and continue to use the Eigo Book to enhance conversation and useful phrases.
Summary
The new year has started, and with it comes changes. A few longtime students will say goodbye, while several new students will join our school. In addition, classes will change a bit as our elementary school students adjust their schedule due to club activities and cram school lessons.
Our enrollment is ongoing, and we welcome new students throughout the year. We do our best to assign students to the appropriate level.
We encourage anyone interested in our school to contact us for a free trial lesson. Online lessons are available as well for students regardless of location.
As always, please get in touch with us directly for information about our school: staff@bumblebenglish.com
