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The CALL Guy
Many years ago, when I was just starting out my career as a part-time university teacher, I was given some advice by an older colleague who was already well established in the profession. He told me that I needed to…
Read MoreFive Words That Could Damage Japan's Future (Feedback)
Thanks for all your comments. This has been the most viewed entry on the blog so far, although that might just be YU, Tomo, and Fumie chatting to each other (LOL). Anyway, it was a very interesting discussion. I read…
Read MoreFive Words That Could Damage Japan's Future
This is a topic that I have been thinking about a lot recently. I wasn’t sure how to explain it, but I hope you will be able to understand what I mean. The problem is not the words themselves, but…
Read MoreToo Old to Drive (Feedback)
Thanks for all the comments. It seems most people agree that there should not be a maximum age for driving, but most are in favour of having frequent tests for older drivers. To be honest, I’m not sure what the…
Read MoreToo Old to Drive?
On my way into work this morning, I saw an elderly lady getting out of her car, which was parked in the middle of the road at a busy junction. I thought she might have broken down, so I pulled…
Read MoreSpam (Feedback)
Thanks for your comments on the topic of spam. Another topic that has been in the news in the UK recently is the problem of “trolls.” These are people who attack others online, posting horrible messages and sending hate mail.…
Read MoreSpam
Many of you probably know the word “spam” from the phrase “spam email,” but do you know what it actually means? Spam is a meat product that was invented in 1937. The name is a mixture of the words “spiced”…
Read MoreUnited Breaks Guitars (Feedback)
Thanks for all your comments. The discussion ended up with a slightly different focus than the one we started with, and that is a very good thing! One reason why I think this musician’s fight was so successful that the…
Read MoreUnited Breaks Guitars
Last week, we talked a bit about the sense of “duty” that Japanese people tend to have. This is one thing I really admire about Japan. A few months ago, a group of bus drivers in my country won a…
Read MoreHome Alone (Feedback)
Thanks for all your comments. I think we ended up talking more about using children’s reins than anything else, but that’s a really interesting topic as well. By the way, I noticed today that I forgot to update my ALC…
Read MoreThe Coefficient of Group Cohesion
Let me begin with a confession: the “Coefficient of Group Cohesion” (CGC) is a pseudo-scientific term that I came up with in order to make a very simple concept sound more academic. However, I make no apologies for this. After…
Read MoreHome Alone
Over the weekend, I had a lot of spam attacks on the site, so I have decided to disable comments for all the old entries as soon as I write a new one. You will still be able to read…
Read MoreA Song to Remember (Feedback)
Thanks for all your comments. As I thought, it was interesting to hear everyone’s stories. Now that the blog is held on my server, I can see how many people are visiting it. (I was never able to do that…
Read MoreA Song to Remember
Over the last few weeks, we have discussed some very serious subjects, so I thought it might be fun to do something a bit more light-hearted this week. One purpose of this blog is to discuss controversial topics, but the…
Read MorePornography on TV (Feedback)
Thanks for all your comments. This week has been a bit nerve-wracking for me because I wasn’t sure what would happen when I shifted the blog to my own server, but it has worked really smoothly so far. From next…
Read MorePornography on TV
The other day, I was at my friend’s house, and we were watching an adult movie about lesbians. Actually, that is not quite true: we were just watching TV, and suddenly, a commercial came on that featured some very pretty…
Read MoreTen Things You Should Not Say to People from Other Countries
This is a version of an article that was originally published on the Teacher Talk blog at azargrammar.com. It has been adapted to make the references more appropriate for Japanese learners. Please feel free to copy it if you would…
Read MoreA Nuclear-Free Japan?
Hi everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your Golden Week holiday, although as many of you are mothers, I suppose it is not really much of a holiday at all. I saw the news about the tornado in Ibaraki last…
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