How was your week? Some of our students took the Eiken test last weekend. Now they’re over, you can relax a little, at least until the speaking tests. If you’ve read Alan’s blog you’ll know I had a small badminton tournament last weekend to celebrate my birthday. It was a lot of fun, but my arm was really sore the next day. I should do some more exercise. If you follow football, there’s lots going on with the Copa America and Euro 2016. I’m supporting England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales at Euro 2016. This time many home nations qualified so it’s very exciting. Tonight is England vs Wales. For this game, I will support England because I have no direct Welsh descendants, although my hometown of Malvern in England is only about an hour from Wales. I hope both teams do well.

You are probably aware that most students of Hario are children. However, we also teach adult classes and company classes. I’m pleased to announce we have a new company client. It’s evidence for our younger students of the importance of learning English and the value that English ability can have when you are looking for a job in the future.

We use the PLS system to teach our elementary school students. This curriculum, developed by Pacific Language School and used by sister schools across Japan is a fun, effective, and highly regarded system that really delivers results with our students. The annual PLS conference is being held this weekend in Mishima, not far from here. 4 Hario staff, including me, are going to attend. I attended this event 2 years ago and came back full of ideas and insights. I’m really looking forward it and I’m sure it will be useful for us as we try to, like the Japanese say, 改善, <em>kaizen</em> or continuously improve our school.

Thank you for listening to my speech.

Kevin