2008/06/12

2008 May 26 Monday thru May 31 Saturday.


Back to business.

At 13:00 on Monday, the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会, had two new visitors who came to see our discussion group in action.

The young lady who did not attend last week because of severe Pollen Allergy symptoms, did attend this week, but also with very severe allergic reactions to pollen.

She was wearing a double layered white mask on her face, and was forced to remove it from time to time, in order to expectorate the excess mucus from her nose, and watery eyes.

I know EXACTLY how you feel Mrs. I.

Drink 甜茶 and stop taking that useless poison, commonly known as; Over The Counter pharmaceuticals.

I have been there and tried that, it does not work.

Try a different approach.

A more herbal remedy may be just the ticket you need, to fly into breathable air again.

On Tuesday, I spent about 90 minutes with a group of Freshman Students at Asahikawa University, in the computer lab.

About 25% of them didn't show up today.

The lesson continues without them.

On Wednesday at the Kosei Nursing School, our 90 minute class together was a lot of fun.

The entire time was spent with me and each and every one of the 40 students taking turns, practicing a pre-scripted telephone conversation, using real cell phone display models as props.

A few of the students, who are really interested in speaking English, took the opportunity to ad-lib, and get off script.

GOOD!!! That is exactly what I want to happen during these skits 演習.

An actively participating student group is a teacher's dream come true, in real time.

On Friday at the Dokan Nursing School, I had a 90 minute class with one half of the 2nd year students.

Again, I and each and everyone of the 20 students performed a pre-scripted skit, about buying a fitted hat.

Trying on three different hats until the size was just right.

Some students were able to ad-lib through the script, but some could not memorize their lines at all.

On Saturday, I drove out to Shibinai to visit with Charles Hamel and family. We took a drive over to the 東川森林公園 and the kids took a ride on the Green Slider.

Also, Charlie made a short video for one of his blog readers who had sent him a small gift in the mail.

Charlie has a new type of video camera called FlipVideo, which is entirely without any moving parts!

No tapes to mess around with at all.

It takes reasonably good movies and is about the size of my hand.

His model can record up to one hour of video, which can then be downloaded to a PC via a USB connection.

Very easy to use. A must have for any serious video blogger.

After we got back from the park, Charlie showed me some of his other websites and how he manages them, plus some of his ANIME drawings that he makes using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.


It was a very interesting and educational day for me.

See ya again next week on Sunday at the 志比内小学校運動会!