May 9th, 2009 Eng-ins: New School Year Meeting

Everyone is well into the new school year and everything should becoming more routine.  So as the dust settles, I am planning on having an Eng-ins meeting on May 9th.  We will have the meeting at the usual place and time - at the Kasukabe Chuo Kouminkan near Yagasaki station.   

The meeting will start at 6pm, and we'll finish around 8pm.  After the meeting I have made reservations at local restaurant with Karaoke room.  It will be fairly cheap and won't cost anymore than 2000 per person.  The Karaoke room is free, but the cost will depend on how much we eat and drink. 

For those new to Eng-ins or coming out for the first time here is a basic break down of the group.

The Eng-ins group is an independent native English teachers group - but not limited to native speakers, English educators of all kinds are welcome to join.  Primarily, we are a discussion group concerned with issues in English education in Japan, as well as creating more effective lessons to inspire students.  Currently, we are working on creating podcasts for students and for the classroom.  The goal is to create both interesting comical stories for students to practice using their skills rather than merely learning English.

If you are interested in joining our group please send an email to r.j.hartungiii ( @ ) gmail.com.

I hope to see more people turning up this year, also the first set of podcasts should be interesting. 

Here is a map to the building:

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Saturday Feb 7th

The first Eng-ins meeting of the year is being held at 6 PM in Kasukabe at the usual place.  We will work on the podcast and hopefully finish it it this Saturday. 

Anyone is welcome to join at anytime.  If you have any questions or concerns feel free to send me an e-mail or leave a comment.  Please check below for further information and directions.

 

Hope to see you this Saturday. 

Next meeting will be on Feb 7th

There has been a schedule change. The next meeting will be on Saturday Feb 7th. Stay tuned for further updates.

Next Meeting

I have been thinking about the next meeting, although I know what we will be doing I am unsure what date would be good.  I think this month the first meeting of the year should be January 31st and the next meeting after that on March 7th. 

We will work on the podcast and further polish future scripts.  Anyone that wants to come out and help is welcome.

More details will be available next week. 

Rob Hartung 

Saturday 6th 2008 Eng-ins Meeting

On Saturday 6th 2008, the Eng-ins group is meeting.  This meeting is open to any and all teachers of English, but this is a group primarily for and ran by Native English Teachers.  The meeting begins at 6pm and ends at 8pm.  The location is the same as last time, we are once again holding the meeting at the Choukominkan.  If you have difficulties finding the location or have further questions please leave a comment and I will answer any questions there.  

Below is a Map and a photo to guide your way.  You can see the building once you cross the tracks.  The building is less than 2 minutes from the station. 

Hope to see some new faces.  Please spread the word.
We are meeting once again at 春日部市中央公民館 (Kasukabe city Chuoukominkan). The station on the map is 八木崎 （Yagisaki station). 

Meeting Update

 

The next Eng-ins meeting is fast approaching. Our next meeting is on the 6^th of December. We are having the meeting in the same place and at the same time. So far, the next meeting is without a theme or a presentation. So it would be nice to hear some of your ideas for the next meeting. If we don’t have anyone presenting that would be fine, because I have a decent back up plan for the meeting. We can create and edit the first Eng-ins podcast. We could make one or two depending on the time.

 

If you have any ideas for the podcast please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me. I will work up some of the basic formatting for the podcasts and post it latter today or latter this week. I would like to gear the podcast for Jr. High school 2^nd and 3^rd graders, but we can make one for English Teachers in Japan too. Either sounds good to me. And, hopefully this will attract more people to the meetings as well.

 

Well, please brainstorm and let me know what you think. I also welcome the international community at large to provide us with some input. What kinds of things would you like to see or know about English education in Japan? Please leave some comments and provide us with some ideas for the upcoming podcasts.

The Second Eng-ins Meeting Report

The second meeting went extremely well.  At the second meeting five people attended.  So far Eng-ins consists of four "ALT's" and several supporting Japanese English Teachers.  Our primary support is Mr. Okuzumi, without Mr. Okuzumi I think Eng-ins would not be possible or run so smoothly.  We are indebted to Mr. Okuzumi for his support and wealth of experience - or in the very least I am greatly indebted to him. 

At the second meeting we discussed reading and writing exercises.  Mr. Okuzumi and I demonstrated and presented Cosmos.  Most of the time was spent discussing reading and writing exercises and other related discussions.  Unfortunately, there was not enough time to create a podcast.  Perhaps next time we will have extra time.  To conclude the night we ended up at Yakitori pub. 

The next meeting will be held at the same place on the 6th of December.  I hope that more ALT's will show up in the future.  I believe that groups like this can benefit both those who involve themselves and also those whom they teach.  So, please pass the word on.