英会話教室Pure English（旧ファングリッシュ）

Good afternoon! Wednesday’s posting mission has been completed. There was a small problem though. When I was walking around Yuhigaoka I got confused a couple of times, ha-ha. I wasn’t sure if I missed a street or if I had already posted on one of the streets. There are many 3-way intersections and triangle shaped city blocks. It can be tricky if you’re not familiar with the area.

The weather was ok today and I was lucky that it only rained very lightly. It felt very humid to me though, but maybe that’s just me. I hope tomorrow will also be ok.

Now I have a couple of hours of spare time so I think I will go rollerblading for a bit. Serious question: Does anyone know how to rollerblade, or skate? If you want to learn I can help you. It’s always more fun if there are more people. Don’t be shy and leave a comment if you would like to rollerblade (skate) or learn how to do it. It’s also great exercise. Well that’s all for today, thanks for reading.

-Paul

Well, unfortunately I didn’t end up having too much time to go posting today. I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow. It’s too bad because the weather was great. I really hope it holds until tomorrow. Sometimes you just get too busy and your plans don’t work out as you had hoped. Ah, c’est la vie mon ami!

Anyway, I taught some Funglish classes at the Mishima Culture Center today and it was nice to get back at it. As usual the students were great and I think everyone enjoyed learning, chatting and practicing English together! There was also a new student which is always exciting.

Tomorrow it’ll be time to hit the trail again and be an ad posting machine! Let’s boogie!

Have a great night everyone!

- Paul

Good afternoon! I hope everyone had a good day today.

Recently I have been doing an ad campaign for Funglish Eikaiwa. I’ve been walking around town and posting fliers (チラシ) in mailboxes. I’ve already posted 5000 of these fliers and this weekend I received 3000 more so the mission continues!

Here’s an English phrase for today: “I’m going to be a trooper and post all the fliers this week in my spare time.” Can anyone guess what ‘be a trooper’ means?

I’d like to thank Bois Colombes (ボア•コロンブ) for sponsoring this and printing the fliers for me. It’s been a huge help and has kept me very busy lately. I’m also teaching Funglish classes at their location for children and adults. If you have a chance I recommend you check out their homepage. They offer a wide variety of classes in music, art, dance and more.

Today was another great day of weather. The cool breeze kept it from being too hot so it was very enjoyable to be outside. I was posting in the Daikancho area today. Tomorrow I’ll be posting again in the Daikancho and Yuhigaoka areas, close to the big street than runs South from Hiratsuka station to Hiratsuka beach. I’ll be wearing a name tag which is pictured over there so if you see me walking around don’t be afraid to say hello. We can practice chatting in English, don’t be shy!

Funglish was closed during Golden Week and tomorrow classes will resume again. I’m looking forward to spending time in the classroom and chatting with students again, it feels like it’s been a long time since the last class. There will also be a couple of new students tomorrow so if they read this, Hello and see you in class tomorrow! I’m looking forward to meeting you.

So, could anyone guess the meaning of the English phrase earlier? If you could then good job! To ‘be a trooper’ means to persevere or continue doing something until it is finished, especially in a difficult situation or if something requires a lot of effort. It can sometimes also mean to be brave or take action. A trooper is technically a state policeman or cavalry officer (army rank) and is sometimes used for soldier. You could also say someone is/was a trooper if they are working hard or did a good job. A Japanese person in a similar situation might say “Ganbatte ne!”

Take care everyone and thanks for reading. I hope you can enjoy the nice weather.

Hello everyone! Today was a beautiful day, I hope you had a chance to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. It’s also boy’s day so happy boy’s day! We don’t have a similar holiday in Canada so I’m still not exactly sure what to do, ha-ha.

This morning I had to do some paper-work(-_-) and this afternoon I took my oldest son to Matsukaze park(^_^). He was itching to get outside and like I said the weather was perfect.

There was a new store which opened up for business today. It’s called the mo3store and they sell equipment and clothing for skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding. The owner/operator Mo-san (nickname) is very friendly and was busy taking care of everyone all afternoon. He was kind enough to let my son and his 2 friends try out some skateboards at Matsukaze park during the afternoon. The boys had great fun trying to stay on the skateboards and go down a very small slope. I had a chance at this time to chat a little bit with Mo-san as he can speak a little English. So a big thanks to Mo-san for a fun afternoon in the sun!

The store is located on the North edge of Matsukaze park. If you or your children need something for skateboarding, surfing or snowboarding I recommend you go and check it out. I took a picture of the store and Mo-san for reference. That’s all for today, thanks for reading!

-Paul

Hello! Yesterday I went book shopping in Tokyo. I met another Canadian friend who is also an English teacher and we hit the trail in search of enlightenment. First we went to the Kinokuniya close to Shinjuku station. After about 3-4 hours of reading and discussion we then recharged with a quick coffee from Starbucks and headed to Iidabashi station.

There is an excellent English book store close to Iidabashi called Nellies. They have many excellent resource books for teaching all ages and levels as well as regular readers. We spent another couple of hours there looking around before going to the nearby hill for a late lunch. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the hill or area but it’s very close to Iidabashi station. There are a ton of small shops and restaurants packed into the area. We were trying to be thrifty so we settled on a gyu-don place however, ha-ha. Nothing too fancy.

After that we headed to the Tokyo University Hospital to visit a friend of ours. He will be there for another 2-3 weeks and it’s always good to have some familiar company when you’re stuck in the hospital. We just had coffee with him and talked about many things for another couple of hours before saying goodbye and heading out again. Perhaps I will see him next when he gets out of the hospital. This was my first time on the Tokyo University campus and I have to say it was quite impressive. I like all the old buildings covered with vines and all the lush vegetation around. It helps create a very memorable atmosphere.

Finally we went to have a few drinks and sample some Tokyo night-life. My Canadian friend will be having a baby boy very soon so we had reason to celebrate! All in all it was a very enjoyable day and evening. I hope to do it again someday soon. Thanks for reading this and take care for now.

-Paul