Monthly Update September 2023
Welcome to our school monthly update for September 2023. Our school offers lessons for elementary school-aged children and above. In addition, we provide daily conversation and business English classes for adults. Lessons are offered 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
In addition to speaking and listening exercises, we have continued to focus on vocabulary development and reading practice for our kids’ group lessons. By doing this, students can express themselves better and develop speaking and reading proficiency. For example, many words we use are from Eiken tests and are also found frequently in the textbooks and supplemental reading materials we use. Encountering words in multiple situations (vocabulary list, textbook, reading book) helps to reinforce vocabulary mastery and retention.
For our beginning classes, we don’t focus too much on reading; primarily, we focus on repeating short phrases and proper pronunciation. This month, we have focused on “My name is,” “I’m … “, “I’m seven years old,” “What’s this?”, “They are…”, etc. Many of our beginner students have learned a little English before, so we are starting to introduce new words through flashcards. They have also done well on their alphabet writing and can now proceed to write simple three and four-letter words.
For our intermediate classes, we have been using several native-level materials. These materials have helped advance students’ reading and vocabulary skills, though we are careful not to push too hard for those students who struggle. That is why we only assign 1-2 pages a week and take time in the lessons to review each homework assignment thoroughly.
Private Lessons - Kids
During the first week of September, we finished teaching lessons from the Summer Program. The junior high school student who returned to the Yoga area completed her studies with us, and we are very happy for her as she has passed the Eiken Pre-2 Level exam. We recommended several English resources, such as podcasts and YouTube channels, for her to continue improving her English.
Another previous student has returned for lessons this month too. He is currently a high school student in Kanagawa and has taken lessons with us since he was an Elementary School 3rd year student. Seeing this student grow from a class clown to a serious and thoughtful young man has been a pleasure. In July, he and his older brother traveled to Europe and experienced using English in real-world situations. For September, we have been holding Zoom lessons with him to prepare him for the Eiken Level 2 exam.
And finally, we were contacted in late September by another one of our previous students. This student is now in her second year of high school and spent a year studying abroad in the United Kingdom. She visited and talked about her experience abroad and her desire to join a study-abroad program at university. To do so, she wants to improve her TOEFL scores, and we discussed a plan for her. It was nice to see this student as she was the first student of about half a dozen who have studied or are studying abroad to come back and visit BumbleB English.
We look forward to seeing more of our previous students drop by, at least to catch up and chat about their overseas experiences.
Private Lessons - Adults
During September, we had two trial lessons for adult students. One student plans to travel to Europe next year for a family vacation and wants to improve her conversational English. Another adult student is in her retirement years and also wants to increase her language fluency. Both students have decided to join our lessons; one will join an existing adult class, and the other will start a private lesson.
Another private adult student has given positive feedback about the material from BusinessEnglishPod.com. We will investigate using these materials more for future business English students and potentially creating similar materials that better match our students’ needs.
Summary
September was still a hot month with a few days of rain. It seems the humidity stayed in the air longer than in previous years. As regular classes resumed, students slowly adjusted to classwork and homework. We were encouraged by the return of several students and were happy to see their progress. As the year winds down, we plan a few fun activities for students and hope to make English learning something they remember as they age.
As mentioned in prior updates, several students are currently testing our online academy, and we continue improving it before we release it to everyone. Contact us for more information: staff@bumblebenglish.com
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
