How To Say Speak In Japanese

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There are several pronunciation problems that students of English will face in Japan; however, I will focus on two. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandie K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first of these problems they face is the fact that Japanese doesn't have some of the same sounds in its' alphabet as English does. For example, Japanese does not have a hard R sound; instead, it has a sound that is a mix of R and L. So, when students from Japan go to say rice, for many it will come out sounding more like lice. This can cause some confusion as not everyone will understand that this is due to a lack of having this...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is my first language, however, I studied Spanish throughout high school growing up in the Midwest and eventually received a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature. I learned to speak Spanish very well after becoming a high school Spanish teacher for eight years and then a principal for elementary and secondary schools for 26 more years speaking Spanish to new immigrant students and parents the whole time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rex P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In reflecting on the title question I first asked myself how Spanish had influenced me over the years. The first obvious answer was that I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Throughout high school and college, I mainly focused on learning how to speak Japanese as my second language. Unlike English, Japanese is a fairly phonetic language. Two of its three writing systems, hiragana and katakana, are phonetic. This makes it easy for foreigners to learn because each syllable, also known as sound clusters in some circles, is almost always said exactly how it is spelled. The third writing system, kanji, is not and, as such, is much more difficult for foreigners to learn because kanji are essentially pictures that describe their meaning. They are much more difficult to learn and use in everyday speech. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicole H. Please note that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is an island nation and is a recognized homogenous society with a very small percentage of foreign permanent residence and more than half of the adult population lacks the necessary skills to speak English proficiently. Because of this, English as a Second Language is in high demand with young learners being a focus group in Japan. English is taught in the school environment during nearly all of a child’s primary education years, but this, unfortunately, doesn’t translate to a proficient English-speaking Japanese population. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Payton P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children as young...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience teaching elementary and junior high school level English in Japan, several different pronunciation problems appear frequently. The Japanese phonemic inventory is smaller than English’s phonemic inventory, and the sounds present in each language differ from each other quite dramatically. Because of this, it can be difficult for native Japanese speakers to learn and master English pronunciation, but there are a few teaching techniques that can help students overcome this difficulty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladlena H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Several consonants are difficult for native Japanese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have taught in a Japanese high school for the past four years as an assistant language teacher, which gives me a particular insight into the problems and advantages of EFL in that area. This will naturally require some generalizations. Individuals have very different problems from one another, but broader shared issues do crop up. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For context, I work in two Japanese high schools as an assistant language teacher in Toyama prefecture. I go to one school four days a week, which caters to students who can only study part-time. I also work at a farming...  [Read more]

Laura Payne Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas I am currently working as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan. Before I began this job I assumed that because Japan has a largely homogeneous population, all of my classes would be monolingual. However, I was wrong in this assumption. In addition to my Japanese students, I have many students who are Brazilian or Filipino. These students largely do not use Japanese as their mother tongue and have to learn both English and Japanese as a second language. This diverse student population, in addition to my work experiences and studies, has taught me a lot about working with both monolingual and multilingual classes. In the few monolingual classes that I teach, it is fairly easy to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There can be a lot of difficulties a teacher might face in the future lesson. You might have to manage a class without any help or you might have students from different nationalities, ages, interests or so on. I believe, however, that most of the problems you might have would be solved if you planned the lessons carefully in advance. There are some reasons to support my idea. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eri S. First, you can find what you should exactly do in a lesson as a part of a whole course by planning the lesson in advance. Otherwise, you go forward with your lesson aimlessly and you might lose sight of the final goal of the lesson. It is important to understand what the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japanese are known for being disciplined, dedicated, and hardworking individuals not only in their work but also in other aspects of their life like hobbies and studies. But why is it difficult for them to learn English despite their strong dedication, patience, efforts, and determination? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Princess D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I’ve been teaching English in Japan as my part-time job for more than one year now. I have seen and handled students of different ages, backgrounds, language levels, and experiences. Most of them are university students and young professionals, and I couldn’t...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Change is coming to the way that English is taught in Japanese public schools. The changes to the curriculum by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) increase the teaching of English at all levels of schooling. The goal of this change is, in the words of Ikuko Tsuboya-Newel, founder and chair of Tokyo International School, “The government has decided that beginning in 2020 all high school graduates must achieve a level of English equivalent to B1” (“Why do Japanese have trouble learning English?”, The Japan Times, October 29, 2017). To achieve that goal, high school entrance exams are expected to include more testing of productive skills in English. Therefore, junior...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar is the rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in a natural language. Simply put, grammar is the general rule of a language. Language is logical; grammar tells us in which order we say words. It’s about how words become phrases; how words and phrases become sentences and how sentences become language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yang S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Some of these rules are acquired naturally in childhood while others are acquired in the learning process under the guidance of a teacher. While most of the time, people don’t know which grammatical rule they are following...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Through my experience as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan, there have been numerous difficulties and challenges my students face in learning the English language. My students are primarily between the ages of 5 and 15. These challenges involve the pronunciation difficulties the students face coming from Japanese pronunciation, as well as the methodology of teaching English in Japan They may not apply to all of Japan but are definitely prominent issues within my area. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate James W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The most commonly known challenge in learning English for Japanese people is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I work in two schools. I am an assistant language teacher at one commercial (low-level English) high school, and an integrated (high-level English) academic junior high and high school. I have had experiences with different kinds of students, Japanese-English teachers, and classroom atmospheres. In Japan, students take an entrance exam to get into high school. If they scored low on the entrance exam, then they are placed in the lowest ranking class. Each school has a certain number of classrooms for each grade. Both of my high schools have six classes total for each grade. There are usually around forty to forty-two students in each class as well. Teaching forty plus students in a crowded classroom is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The native language -or L1-, is the language a person has been exposed to from birth. It can also be called the first language and it is usually referred to as the language one learned as a child. It is part of the cultural identity of a person. The second language -or L2-, is the language that is not the native language and it is learned later, usually as a foreign language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Natália S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. According to English at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019), English is the most widely spoken language in the world with a total of 1.132 Billion speakers. It is the first most spoken...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Classroom management is one of the most important aspects of teaching and is the key to students’ successful learning. Consequently, how to effectively manage and run classroom becomes the central theme and sometimes the biggest concern for English teachers, especially when facing young learners. There are a variety of settings with different scenarios but since I currently teach in Japan, here I would like to focus on the class setting in which all students are Japanese, i.e., of a single nationality who learn English as a foreign language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yumiko F. The typical size of my classes are four to six people and many of the young learners’ classes consist of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have had the opportunity to study several foreign languages, some in a formal setting, some self-taught. Through my personal experiences learning other languages, I have developed some insights into language learning. I would like to describe some of my experienc| ITTT | TEFL Bloges, and some of my thoughts on what I have learned from them, and from this course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kim T. My first experience in language learning began at age fourteen with French; by the time I graduated high school I had studied French, German and Spanish as part of my curriculum. The method in use then was ALM, so as a result, I learned language patterns very quickly. However, the only...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When you teach English as a foreign language it’s important to pay attention to details that we sometimes ignore when communicating with other native level speakers, either in spoken or written English. Some people have got into the habit of writing in uppercase/capital letters, use abbreviations, and don’t think much about punctuation. We also tend not to be too critical of people’s spoken English as long as we get the point across. ‘There’s a lot of cars on the road today’ is grammatically incorrect for example. We also tend to enjoy speaking when we should be letting others speak. This is a particular issue in the classroom when you should be maximizing student talk time and minimizing yours. Here are...  [Read more]

Shanique Hutchinson Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Throughout my scholastic journey, I have been exposed to various foreign languages such as: Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese. Apart from learning the lexical and grammatical structures of these languages, I was apprised of other cultural elements of the countries that spoke these languages through various materials as well as interacting with natives from these territories. This deep rooted love affair with other cultures, specifically languages, stirred my future aspirations to become a cultural ambassador. Fast forward to 2017 - when I applied for the Japanese Exchange Teaching (JET) program in that year, admittedly, my perception of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This summative essay will exam the importance of teaching the differences between American English and British English for EFL learners. I will examine the intention behind teaching these differences, and when these teachings should be applied, and to what effect and purpose. This essay will focus primarily on the problems of pronunciation and spelling, which are the two main differences. I am a British citizen, born and raised in London, England, and currently teach at a public high school in Tokyo. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Challis C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The most prominent differences in spelling would be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Admittedly, learning grammar may not be the most appealing part when learning a new language. It usually connects with conjugations, tenses and in some languages, the position of the verbs, for example, German. Grammar itself can cause a huge problem for both the teacher and students to carry out the language class smoothly. People might argue that unconscious imitation is the best approach to learning a language since it is the most natural way. I would like to say this is the idealist method. Truth speaking, not many students are able to enjoy the bilingual or even multi-lingual background. Moreover, even with the mother tongue, people will encounter grammar courses in school. This essay focuses on the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I am an EFL teacher in a kindergarten in Japan. I have two years of experience teaching English in kindergarten. It is only a 30 minutes session every day. In my first week, I made a lesson plan for them that is good for one month. I was surprised that they didn’t get the lesson, memorized it or even pronounce it properly. Then the lesson plan I had to prepare last for about 3 to 4 months. I find it hard teaching English as a foreign language to my students even though I am only teaching them the basic vocabularies and some nursery rhymes. But their curiosity in the English language and their eagerness to talk with a foreigner in school helps me to find my style in teaching them the language. Before that, I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Language acquisition often involves four skills. These skills are further divided into two groups receptive skills (reading and listening) and productive skills (writing and speaking). Not all languages have a corresponding writing system however, learners of English will have to learn all these skills to be proficient in their use of English. Reading is more than just calling words on paper, In this essay, the importance of reading in language acquisition will be discussed on the basis that reading influences vocabulary expansion, facilitates the practice of word pronunciation and finally sparks and improves the imagination. These concepts will be discussed from the standpoint of English language acquisition in...  [Read more]

Amanda Stern Alumni Experiences Globalization has been changing our world. Once foreign cultures have become more and more familiar, and some even hit the global mainstream, such as Bollywood film and the recent wave of K-pop. One thing aiding in bridging this gap would be the rise of interest in bilingualism and multilingualism. Many children are in education systems where a second language is mandatory to study from a young age. For example, In Canada, my home country, French is taught in the Anglophone provinces from grade 4 (about 10 years of age). In Japan, my current address, the English curriculum is changing, and now students will begin learning from 三年生 sannensei, about 9 years of age. Of course, many more curriculums of multitudes...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In classes all over the world, students of various linguistic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds are struggling with a lack of motivation. Not only in English as a foreign or second language classroom but also in other subjects from Mathematics and Science to Arts and Culture. For this course, we will focus on the students learning English as a foreign or second language hereafter simply referred to as ‘student(s)’. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zacharias Johannes P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Students have many different reasons or motivations to study English. For example, Japanese foreign exchange students...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every fresh teacher, once starting his or her career, has this question: how should I teach English? What is the best way to organize my classes to make sure students would not be bored and learn something? And how to keep them motivated and enjoy every lesson? I did have all these questions at the beginning of my teaching career, and by trials and errors, I found the approach this TEFL course is based on – ESA. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Angelina G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. My English journey began long before I became a teacher myself - as an ESL student. However, my own experience was not that enjoyable:...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have been teaching English as an assistant language teacher in Japan for the past 4 years. I have taught all grades from kindergarten through 9th grade, and have worked with many teachers with a variety of teaching styles. In this essay I will look at the use of games in the foreign language classroom, drawing from my experiences to look at several specific games and discuss how they help students learn and use English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tansly S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are many types of games that are used in numerous contexts. Some games can be played with different age groups, modifying the...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Welcome guys, Linda here from ITTT for another live session. I'm so happy to be here today, the weather is great today, the lighting is good. If you were watching last week it was pretty much like the end of the world weather here, but today it's great, I feel good. If you can see me and hear me please drop a hi into the comments. We are live on Facebook and also on YouTube and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks for the download. We always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes and you can find them on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts etc. It's called the TEFL and TESOL Podcast by ITTT....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Troubleshooting TEFL is the most interesting, culturally challenging, and socially difficult there is. It is as much a cultural and social exercise in communicating with and managing people, as it is an intellectual exercise in simply conveying language skills to academic students enrolled in an institution of learning. Furthermore, it is more complex and varied due to age differences, cultural diversity, and discrepancies in the motivation of students enrolling in TEFL classes. A teacher who teaches her/ his native language to native speakers of the same language, in her/ his native country will have it significantly easier when troubleshooting problem situations because such a teacher will know what’s...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas My first experience working as a professional was when I worked as an instructor with the Human Employment And Resource Training (HEART) agency, teaching Front Office Supervision. With the academic and overall development I witnessed in my students, I was eager to embark on this challenging new career. Since then I am convinced that teaching is a career I wanted to pursue. However, due to the unavailability of jobs, I was forced to consider other options. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vanessa W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. My search led me to participate in a cultural exchange program, Au Pair, in the United States of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many different types of teachers in the world: funny ones, boring ones, excitable ones, monotonous ones, stern ones and ones that are just too laid back. In my lifetime, I have had many teachers and experienced many different types of teaching styles. As I considered all these in retrospect, I realized there was a common theme in the handful of teachers that had a special place in my heart. These are the teachers that not only communicated genuine care for me and my success but exuded enthusiasm for what they did. This life in them changed my perspective on subjects I had always detested, like algebra and calculus! These teachers have played a major role in my life and have encouraged and inspired many...  [Read more]