Today's English Class

Well, it was a great class today.

The students did all of their enrollment and other bits and pieces. They went to Unipol and played games for about 40 minutes. I think that they had a good time, but they looked quite tired by the end of it.

In the English class, we learnt to use people's names.

For example: Student(S): Hi, Mike, I'm home.
Host mother(HM): Oh, hi, Yusuke, did you have a good day?

(S): Yes, today, I played at Unipol and it was good fun. Um, I'm just going to change me clothes, but um, yeah, I'll come back soon. See you soon.

The students learnt how to safely (politely) excuse themselves, but say that they would like to continue the conversation soon. We have also taught the students that a simple response to the question "did you have a good day" is not just "good, thanks," but rather an invitation to say what they did during the day.

We also said that it was the students' responsibility to be the first one to greet their homestay parents, and not vice-versa.

It was a packed English class, so I don't know if everything went it. In the end, I said, a simple smile and a look as though you are trying to communicate goes a long way to communicating a lot.

We'll pick up practising the conversations tomorrow.

Best of luck with hosting your student, and if there is anything that you would like to share then please comment here or send me a personal email, so that we can teach the whole class.

My email address is: mpryde@tekotago.ac.nz.

Cheers, Nathan and Mike