You Can't Learn Japanese

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Why Japanese Students Struggle with Communicating in English During my stay in Japan, Japanese people often told me how they can't communicate in English despite studying the language for six or more years in school. In Japan, students in junior and senior high learn English grammar and vocabulary in compulsory formal English classes. English is also taught in elementary school as foreign language activities. Yet despite spending several hours in English classes, many Japanese people graduate high school with poor English communication skills. Table of Contents Education system Class culture Learning goals Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Mon, 13 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Common Challenges in English for Japanese Native Speakers If you ever find yourself driving in French Canada, you will be stopped by stop signs that say 'arrêt', which is stopped in French. Almost all drivers in North America would know that this means stop because it's the same octagon red stop sign. In Japan it's very different, stop signs are triangular with Japanese script on them but, beneath the Japanese, you can find English subtitles which read 'stop'. In fact, if you travel anywhere in Japan, the majority of signs and announcements related to travel are offered in Japanese and English. English has been taught in Japanese schools since the American occupation after World War Two. However, according to an EF English...  [Read more]

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 Laura Payne Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Differences in Teaching Monolingual and Multilingual EFL Groups 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. Table of Contents Listen to this blog post:...  [Read more]

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Classroom Activities for Various Groups of Students I love the use of games for learning. I have utilized board games, card games, and role-playing games in teaching for the past 3 years. I am currently using them to connect with students at the high school, to talk about some important and serious issues, with the pretense of game mechanics. I use games as a warmer for a Bible study I conduct with other students before school. Using the game as the introduction to the lesson we will learn about that morning, to try to get them to relate the game, in a simplified way, to real-world lessons. I have also, since having children, always been on the lookout for short games, that do require long term strategies or hours of gameplay,...  [Read more]

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 Laura Payne Destinations TEFL Information The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program: All You Need to Know and How to Apply The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program is not the only means to teach English in Japan, but it is one of the most popular programs out there both for aspiring teachers and those who wish to pursue other fields. I first joined this program a little over a year ago. In the short time since then, I've gained incredibly valuable experiences through my work as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). Table of Contents The History of JET Duties of an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) How to Apply for the JET Program Remuneration and Living Rewards of JET Common Challenges for ALTs The JET Community Listen to this blog post What are you waiting...  [Read more]

Alumni TEFL Chat with Maddy & Georgia - Two Aussie Sisters Teaching English in Japan 07/08/2021 all right hi hey everyone hi as you can see it's not only me this week welcome to our live stream we have guests today i'm super happy about it hi maddie hi georgia hello hey so yeah back here another for another week and i'm live on a different day i usually go live on fridays so today is very special and also because we have guests so i'm super happy about that and yeah if you are watching if you can see us if you can hear us please just leave a high in the comments that would be really cool and where you're watching from i'm always really curious about where people are watching from and um yeah i'm in south korea my name is linda from itt if you don't know me and i'm yeah about an hour...  [Read more]

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Challenges of a Teacher Based on My Experience I have been working as an English instructor for 8 years at an academy that caters to foreign students such as Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese, to name a few, who want to learn and improve their English skills and land a good job in the future. To me, my first year at work was the hardest. At first, I did not have any idea of how to handle students from different cultural backgrounds. I encountered numerous challenges no matter how much I was prepared. Thanks to my perseverance and dedication, fortunately, I was able to overcome the hurdles. I would like to talk about some of the major difficulties I dealt with and how I was able to surpass them. Table of Contents On top of...  [Read more]

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences How Can We as Teachers Motivate Our Students? 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)'. Table of Contents Reasons for Learning Teaching Approaches Teacher's Qualities Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zacharias Johannes P. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Multilingual and Monolingual Groups: What are the Differences? First and foremost I am going to assume by monolingual groups, we are referring to groups of students who all speak the same language, and multilingual groups refers to groups where the students all speak different languages, not that they are necessarily multilingual. Each group has its challenges, but I can also the benefits of teaching each group. Table of Contents Monolingual Groups Multilingual Groups Advantages of Multilingual Groups Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: And of course every case will be unique, so it may just also depend on the situation you are in. But these are what I believe in general are common things...  [Read more]

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 Alexis Biro Destinations Why Buenos Aires is the Ideal Place to Teach English Argentina is divided into 24 districts, 23 provinces plus the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, which is also the capital of the country and where the federal government is located. Buenos Aires is without a doubt the most cosmopolitan city in South America and a city that was built by immigrants from all over the world. Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: Unique Culture Unique Food Options EFL In Argentina What are you waiting for? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Buenos Aires is a city of contrasts. The traditional and the modern coexist everywhere you look. Buenos Aires' one-of-a-kind vibe is something you won't find anywhere...  [Read more]

Thu, 23 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences 3 Reasons We Can’t Learn Languages Without Grammar 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...  [Read more]

China's Ban on Private ESL Tutoring: What You Need To Know 10/29/2021 hello hi welcome to another live session my name is linda from i t t t and as you can see today we're going to talk about china's ban on private esl tutoring everything you need to know what we know so far there's still a lot of ambiguity but i've done a lot of research i talked to a lot of people so hopefully i'll be able to tell you something you might not know yet and give a little bit of clarity into this topic but uh disclaimer you know things change all the time and there's still like i said a lot of ambiguity around this whole topic a lot of even experts aren't sure yet how everything is going to be implemented how it's going to look like in the future so just i want to say that up front and ittttt this is also...  [Read more]

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Overview of the Best Online Teaching Platforms Hello everybody, we are just about to start our new live session. Thanks for joining me and while we are waiting for more people to join please let me know that you can hear me clearly and you can see me clearly. There is a comments box so you can use it to communicate with me. I really appreciate it if you use it because when there is interaction during the live session it's always much easier for myself to present it and I feel a little bit more comfortable because I am not just speaking to myself. Table of Contents Watch the live session here There was another comment if I can figure it out. So you want to find a resource with different lesson plans and things for adults?...  [Read more]

Overview of the Best Online Teaching Platforms   Hello everybody, we are just about to start our new live session. Thanks for joining me and while we are waiting for more people to join please let me know that you can hear me clearly and you can see me clearly. There is a comments box so you can use it to communicate with me. I really appreciate it if you use it because when there is interaction during the live session it's always much easier for myself to present it and I feel a little bit more comfortable because I am not just speaking to myself. Let me share the topic of today's session so that everyone can see it. Today we are going to talk about different online teaching platforms. I hope that this topic will be interesting and useful because there were a lot of requests for...  [Read more]

The Peak Hiring Seasons for Teaching English Abroad 02/20/2023 hello welcome Linda here from ITT back this week with another live session welcome welcome today we're going to talk about the top hiring seasons for teaching English abroad so we're going to cover different regions Europe Asia Latin America Central America um and different countries specifically in these regions and the top hiring seasons for each of those countries so you know exactly when to apply for the job for an English teaching job in the country that you want to teach in so um a couple weeks ago we talked about um tefl interviews and how to find jobs Etc so now this is kind of part of this series and just to yeah give you an overview of the top hiring season so that you know exactly when you should be applying for...  [Read more]

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Online ESL Game Design Workshop for Teachers Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Table of Contents Watch the live session here Are you ready to teach English abroad or online? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Watch the live session here Thanks a...  [Read more]

Online ESL Game Design Workshop for Teachers   Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Thanks a lot for letting me know that you are watching and right now please let me know at what stage of your ESL career you are at. As for me, I'm an online ESL teacher currently. I used to teach in a real classroom several years ago, but then I decided to...  [Read more]

Overview of the Best Online Teaching Platforms 01/20/2021 hello hello hello everybody this is here and we are just about to start our new live session uh thanks for joining me and uh while we are waiting for more people uh to come please let me know that you can hear me clearly and you can see me clearly there is a comments box um so you can use it uh to communicate with me and i really appreciate you use it because when there is interaction during the live session it's always much easier for myself to present um and feel a little bit more comfortable because i basically speak to myself uh right now and when i don't see any comments i feel a little bit confused you know um and let me share the topic of today's session so that everyone can see it uh today we are going to talk about um...  [Read more]

Top Tips for Teaching English to Young Learners 02/18/2023 hi welcome Linda here from ITT back this week with another live session I hope you're doing well thank you so much for joining me today I'm happy to see you if you can see me and if you can hear me clearly if everything's working please just leave a high in the comment section and uh maybe also let me know where you are right now where are you watching from today what time is it there how are you doing let me know in the comments we are live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time and we also always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes so if you're listening to this as a podcast thank you so much for the download and thank you so much for listening we really appreciate that don't forget to like And subscribe um so...  [Read more]

Reasons to Take an English Level Test as a Non-Native English Teacher   Hi everybody wherever you are right now. I'm in South Korea and it's 10 a.m. Friday, so good morning. I'm back here again today, my name is Linda from ITTT if you've been here before hi and if this is your first time watching thanks so much for tuning in and taking the time, we really appreciate it. If at any time during this live session you have any questions, feel free to drop your comments in the comment section from whichever platform you're watching from. We are streaming live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time. If you can see me and hear me just leave a hi in the comment box, that would be highly appreciated so that I know that everything is working well. For the first couple of minutes let's...  [Read more]

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences The Best Countries for Solo Women to Teach English Abroad Hi everybody wherever you are right now. I'm in South Korea and it's 10 a.m. Friday, so good morning. I'm back here again today, my name is Linda from ITTT if you've been here before hi and if this is your first time watching thanks so much for tuning in and taking the time, we really appreciate it. If at any time during this live session you have any questions, feel free to drop your comments in the comment section from whichever platform you're watching from. We are streaming live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time. If you can see me and hear me just leave a hi in the comment box, that would be highly appreciated so that I know that...  [Read more]

The Best Countries for Teaching English in 2021 12/17/2020 hello hello hello and welcome to another live session my name is linda from itt and you can find me on social media at linda ghost east um yeah thanks for tuning in let me just see that everything's working if you can see me and if you can hear me please um leave a comment as always you know the drill and yeah this is actually our last um live session or my last live session we have another one on tuesday from my colleague lisa but me it's my last live session before christmas and so um i wanted to get a little festive this is my attempt at being festive so um yeah that's what we're working with today um yeah if you can see me and hear me please leave a comment that would be really really awesome yay awesome it starts yeah hi...  [Read more]

Teaching English in 2023: Setting Realistic TEFL Goals 01/08/2023 Hi, Linda here. Welcome back with another live session this week. Welcome, thank you so much for joining me today and taking some time out of your day today to spend it with me. I really appreciate it. I know it's a busy time of the year. You know we're almost New Year's Eve so we're heading into the new year, busy time. Busy time, but um I'm here and thank you that you're here as well. I appreciate that. How is everybody doing? Um, let me know guys, where are you watching from right now? I'm in South Korea, it is 10:30 a.m. Friday morning. And yeah, how about you? Where are you watching from today? What time is it? Let me know. I'm always super curious. Let me know in the comments and let me know if there's an issue if...  [Read more]

The Dos & Don'ts Of Teaching English Abroad 02/27/2023 hi guys hey Linda here from ITTT back this week with another live session thank you so much for joining me today and taking some time out of your day today to be here with me and learn something new hopefully about teaching English and today we're going to talk about the do's and don'ts of teaching English abroad sort of everything you need to know you should know before you embark on this exciting journey of teaching English abroad so yeah let me know if you can hear me if you can see me uh drop a hi in the comment section oh perfect and also let me know where are you watching from today I already see crystalline here Hi crystaline how are you doing good to see you again awesome great where are you guys watching from today where...  [Read more]

ESA Methodology of Teaching - Why Every Teacher Should Use It 08/26/2021 hello oh my gosh hello welcome hi linda here from itt back with another live session this week hi guys how are you doing um first of all if you can see me if you can hear me just drop a quick hi into um the comment box we are actually live on facebook and we're also live on youtube at the same time so if you can see me if you can hear me please just let me know and also let me know where you're watching from where are you at right now i am in south korea it is 10 a.m friday morning i'm super excited to be here again so um yeah sometimes there are some technical difficulties i had some issues i think last week so um there was no sound for some reason for for a few seconds so if that happens just let me know and then...  [Read more]

The Best Countries for Solo Women to Teach English Abroad 02/19/2021 hi everybody hello and good morning or good evening wherever you are right now i'm in south korea it's 10 a.m friday and so good morning um yeah i'm back here again today my name is linda from itt um if you've been here before hi and if this is your first time watching thanks so much for tuning in and taking the time we really really appreciate it um yeah so if any if at any time during this live session today you have any questions feel free to drop your comments in the comment section from whichever platform you're watching from so we are streaming live on facebook and on youtube at the same time if you can see me if you can hear me just leave a high into the comment box that would be really highly appreciated so that...  [Read more]

The Different Types of Schools Where TEFL/TESOL Teachers Work 02/02/2022 hi guys hello i'm linda back with another live session this week from itt welcome so nice to have you here i'm super excited it's a beautiful day outside um it is 10 a.m in south korea what about you where are you at where are you watching from today let me know in the comments and what time it is there and what brought you here are you an itttt tefl tesol graduate um are you yet to take a course um what's what's going on with you let me know in the comments who are you like a brief introduction would be great i'm also going to introduce myself in a little bit if you don't know who i am um and also please don't forget to like and subscribe you're already here you have nothing to lose we share a lot of good content...  [Read more]

Answering the Most Asked TEFL/TESOL Questions 06/03/2021 hi welcome guys linda here from itt for another live session this week i'm so happy to be here today the weather is great today the lighting is good uh if you were watching last week uh yeah it was pretty much like the end of the world weather here and it suddenly turned super dark and i don't have a light or anything like a ring light so um but today it's great i feel good i have my coffee right here even though it's almost gone but um yeah so happy to be here if you can see me if you can hear me please just drop a high into the comments we are live on facebook and we're also live on youtube and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks for the download we really appreciate it we always turn our live sessions into...  [Read more]

TEFL TALK: Open Q&A Session about all things TEFL & Teaching 01/21/2021 hello everybody hello and welcome we're actually also going live on instagram today so i'm gonna check that out as well so when i look here hi this is on instagram and when i look here this is on facebook and youtube so hopefully everything will be working fine i hope everybody can hear me well and can see me as well so this is the first time that we're actually live on instagram and on facebook and youtube at the same time so i have a lot of screens here in front of me hello there i see somebody tuned in on instagram and a couple of people here as well on facebook and youtube so i hope everything is going well today hi great okay so unfortunately if you're watching on instagram um you won't be able to see...  [Read more]

TEFL TALK: Open Q&A Session about all things TEFL & Teaching   Hello everybody and welcome. We're actually also going live on Instagram today, so I'm going to check that out as well as the usual Facebook and YouTube. Hopefully everything will work fine. I hope everybody can hear me well and can see me. This is the first time that we're actually live on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at the same time, so I have a lot of screens here in front of me. Hello there, I see somebody tuned in on Instagram and we have a few people here on Facebook and YouTube already. I hope everything is going well today. Unfortunately, if you're watching on Instagram you won't be able to see the screen and maybe some of the questions that I'm popping in there but that's all good, you can still...  [Read more]