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Teaching English in Japan

Foreign English teachers in Japan pick their favorite Japanese-language phrases【Survey】

Ironically, number-one pick is something many foreigners in Japan hate hearing too.

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New book teaches Japanese people English to help out foreign travelers

Publisher wants to help make it easier to help.

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Anime girl English teacher Ellen-sensei to star in written-in-Japanese light novel series

Ellen Baker expands her (New) horizons.

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Foreign English teacher in Japan calls student’s ability garbage, says it was an “American joke”

Teacher reprimanded for inappropriate remarks towards junior high school student.

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New English textbook for Japanese learners is completely full of crap, looks pretty useful

Unko Drill series wants to help English learners in Japan get ready for their college entrance exams.

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The anime girl English teacher textbook character that stole Japan’s heart has gotten a promotion

Ellen-sensei is in charge of more than just the English class now.

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English conversation school in Japan has clever reminder that students don’t have to be perfect

But is there such a thing as too much confidence?

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ALT in Japan asked to remove earrings by Board of Education

Assistant language teacher left angered by the request.

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Japanese student teased for American pronunciation gets sweet revenge on classmates

Heartwarming tale of a boy who grew up to have the last laugh, and get rich off the experience as well.  

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The reason why Japanese students don’t pronounce English properly

Good English pronunciation is less about ability and more about “surrounding eyes”.

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Japanese student’s “drug dealer” English gaffe confuses foreign ALT

Assistant Language Teacher quickly learns that Japanese doesn’t always translate properly into English.

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Beautiful anime fantasy mom is now teaching Japanese people how to speak English

Fans of Do You Love Your Mom? Will learn how to say “You may not look at me in the nude” as part of new textbook.

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Foreign English teacher in Japan caught hitting 2-year-old child at daycare facility 【Video】

Reports say the Canadian teacher regularly spanked children and shoved books into their mouths.

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Grabbing the attention of young minds with the implied power of hot lead.

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These “Engrish” T-shirts are kinda lame, compared to what we’re used to

Call us cynical, but we find that our standards over what constitutes funny Engrish have been changing.  Unless it’s something really hilarious, perhaps involving naughty words or references to embarrassing body parts, we just can’t muster up the same kind of enthusiasm we once had. When it comes to English that’s just a little bit off in certain ways, it’s sometimes just not that funny, especially when you understand the number of reasons why Engrish happens in the first place. However, visitors to Japan will always remember that first taste of Engrish fondly, even if the same example might fail to raise an eyebrow after a few years of acclimatizing. The last piece of Engrish I felt was worthy of documenting can be seen above – it’s a T-shirt from a store in Osaka and several years later it still blows my mind. However, there’s also plenty of pretty mediocre Engrish to be found, as we’ll demonstrate after the jump.

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Japanese student’s English homework captures futility of life

I’ve marked my fair share of English exam papers here in Japan, and there have been a few gems of hilarity in amongst the spelling mistakes and butchered grammar, but nothing that measures up to this beauty. One student’s answer to a simple question was so deep and existential, it read like poetry.

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【TBT】10 common phrases that stump Japanese students of English

Learning a second language is never easy, especially when there are so many things like context, nuance, and cultural connotations standing in the way. The key to conquering these hurdles, though, usually lies outside the pages of a textbook, and the Japanese Government addresses this issue by employing thousands of foreigners to assist English teachers in its education system every year. So where would a foreigner start when correcting a student on the finer points of English as a second language? One of the easiest ways would be to take a look at this collection of commonly misused phrases and their simple fixes, put together by David Thayne, the head of AtoZ English.

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The Problem With Everyone Knowing Where We Live【You, Me, And A Tanuki】

You, Me, And a Tanuki is a weekly featured blog run by Michelle, a Californian who is currently one of only two foreigners living in Chibu, a tiny fishing village on one of the Oki islands in Japan. Check back every Saturday for a new post or read more on her website here!

My husband and I live on a five square mile island with less than 600 inhabitants. To make matters even cozier, most of our island is mountainous so the houses are clustered together on the coasts where any flat land is available. As a result of our close proximity to our neighbors and the fact that we are the only two foreigners on the island, everyone knows where we live.

This is a great thing most of the time. People often come to our door to give us extra vegetables from their garden or fish they caught. When Khoa and I stayed on the island during New Year’s, the principal of the elementary school saw the light on at our house, figured we were home, and invited us over for a big New Year’s feast.

However, there is a downside to the entire island knowing our whereabouts.

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