Lesson 16 — Travel Questions

In this lesson, Yasuhiro gave his mini-presentation on local restaurants.

We also learned the new questions for Travel.

• Where have you traveled?
• How did you get there?
• What did you do there?
• How was it?

Memorize these questions for Saturday and be ready to answer them smoothly (practice!).

Lesson 15

In this lesson, Minori gave her mini-presentation on music and so did I. We also practiced more with the Music questions and the strategies.

Lesson 14 — Music Presentations

We saw four presentations about favorite artists, music, or songs. On Saturday, we will see another presentation from Minori and me.

Lesson 13 — Music Questions

In this lesson, Minori gave her mini-presentation and we learned 5 questions to talk about music.


Music Questions
We practiced 5 questions about music.

• What kind of music do you like?
• Who's your favorite group?
• Who's your favorite singer?
• Who don't you like?
• What don't you like?

Lesson 12

Slideshow
I shared photographs from my trip to Okinawa. You can see them again on my Facebook account. Or, if you don't have Facebook, you can see them from this link:
Okinawa Trip 2016


Mini-presentation
In this lesson we heard from Aya about Haneda Airport.



More Conversation Strategies (Food)
We learned how to to talk about things we don't feel strongly about.

Showing indifference:
It's OK.
It's all right.
It's not bad.

Of course, intonation is important when using these phrases.

Older Conversation Strategies
Don't forget to use the strategies we have used before.

1. How about you?
2. Pardon me?
3. Repeating
4. Hmm…let me see.
5. Oh really? Oh yeah?
6. Uh huh, Mm hmm.
7. So…

Lesson 11 — Food Questions

Mini-presentation
In this lesson we heard from Ko about his volunteer work at a guest house in Kyoto.


Conversation Questions (Food)
We learned three new questions to talk about food.

1. What food do you like?
2. What kind of ice cream do you like?
3. Is there any food you don't like?

Conversation Strategies (Food)
We learned how to agree and disagree with someone's likes and dislikes.

Agreeing with likes:
Me too!
I do too!

Disagreeing with likes:
Really? I don't.


Agreeing with dislikes:
Me neither!
I don't either!

Disagreeing with dislikes:
Really? I do.

Older Conversation Strategies
Don't forget to use the strategies we have used before.

1. How about you?
2. Pardon me?
3. Repeating
4. Hmm…let me see.
5. Oh really? Oh yeah?
6. Uh huh, Mm hmm.
7. So…

Announcement
We will not have class on May 21 because I will be at a conference.

Lesson 9 — Conversation Strategies (Shoppping)

Mini-presentation
In this lesson we heard from Yu about Hawaii.

Conversation Strategies (Shoppping)
We learned three new strategies to talk about shopping.

1. Showing interest: Oh really? Oh yeah? — these phrases show that you are interested in what your partner is saying. The intonation is important.
2. Showing you are listening: Uh huh. Mm-hmm.  When your partner is speaking for a while, using this strategy will help them know you are listening.
3. Introducing a question: So… You can use this strategy to ask a new question. 

Older Conversation Strategies
Don't forget to use the strategies we have used before.

1. How about you?
2. Pardon me?
3. Repeating
4. Hmm…let me see.

Announcement
We will not have class on May 21 because I will be at a conference.

Lesson 8 — Shopping Questions

Mini-presentation
In this lesson we heard from Yasuhiro and his train trip over Golden Week.

Shopping Questions
Try these questions to talk about shopping.

1. How much do you like shopping?
2. How often do you go shopping?
3. What do you like to shop for?

Conversation Strategies
Don't forget to use the strategies we have used before.

1. How about you?
2. Pardon me?
3. Repeating
4. Hmm…let me see.

Announcement
We will not have class on May 21 because I will be at a conference.

Video — Samurai Smartphone Parade

We watched this TV commercial by Softbank about walking while texting. What do you think about it?

Lesson 4 — Family Conversation / Discussion Principle #1

In this lesson, we did some more conversation practice and looked at our first discussion principle.

Conversation
We used our conversation vocabulary (Family) and learned 3 family conversation questions:

How many people are (there) in your family?
What's your mother like?
What does your father look like?

We practiced the conversation questions and then had a conversation using those questions.


Discussion: Discussion Principle #1
We learned about Disucssion Principle #1 — Respect Every Voice: Be a good listener.
We looked at some bad attitudes and practices. Next week, we will consider some better attitudes and practices.

Principles are like the foundation of a building.

Building foundation

.

Next Week
Starting on Thursday, each lesson will begin with a mini-presentation from one of our students. Please think about what topic you want to present on. The presentation should take about 5 minutes and can include visual aids like video, photographs or illustrations. Please be prepared to describe the images if you use them. However, you do not need to use visual aids. You could share a story (true or fiction), talk about a topic, or share some music or video you like.


Feedback Form
I would like to get your feedback about our class. Please fill in the form below:
Feedback form for Lesson 4

Video – Gangnam Style (Jayesslee cover on YouTube)

We watched Jayesslee's (Janice & Sonia Lee) cover of Psy's Gangnam Style. They are a talented pair of Korean-Australian women from Sydney. Enjoy it again below:

Lesson 3 — Conversation / Discussion

We continued to practice conversation and to continue our discussion practice.

Conversation

We continued to use our conversation strategies for beginning and ending conversations. We also learned vocabulary for talking about family.

We will use the vocabulary to ask questions about family in the next lesson.

Discussion

We had a short discussion about countries we have been to in order to look at diversity of experience and depth of experience? Which kind of experience is more valuable? Why?

Lesson 2 — First Discussion and Conversation Strategies

In this lesson, we learned some conversation strategies and also had our first discussion.

Conversation Strategies
We learned and practiced these strategies:

Opening a conversation (questions)
How (are) you doing?
How's it going?

Opening a conversation (answers)
Never been better!

Great!

Good!

Pretty good.

Not bad.

Okay.

Not so good.

I’ve been better.

Terrible!

Ending a conversation
Nice talking with you!
You too!

Let your partner talk

How about you? (sounds like how bow chew)

Ask to hear it again

Pardon me?

First Discussion

We had our first discussion about what items to send into space to share about the diversity of life and culture on earth. After our discussion, we took a self-assessment. Please share your answers with me by filling in the form linked below:

First Discussion Form

Picture of a group of people around a table having a discussion.

Lesson 1 – Introduction

In our first lesson, I introduced myself with a slide presentation. You also introduced yourselves with a short speech and by filling in a form online.

I am looking forward to our classes together this Spring!

Welcome!

Welcome to the English Communication 1 (Spring) Blog for Daniel Beck's course.

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