Canada Quiz results

Congratulations to the winners of the Canada Quiz. We had a 6 way tie for third so it had to be settled through a tie breaker. Here are the results.

1) Kayo (12/12)

2) Kazuyo (10/12)

3) Etsuko (9/12) Tiebreaker round (3/3)

Some interesting things to note were that more than half of our students got the first question incorrect. The question was “Canada is the _______ country in the world.” Most of the students chose third largest but the correct answer was second largest. I can understand why many would choose third largest since the United states appears to be bigger but Canada is slightly bigger than the United States.

Another question that surprised many students was the question about sports. The question was “which of the following sports originated in Canada?”. Only one student got this question correct while the rest chose ice-skating. To everyone’s surprise, the correct answer was basketball. Although basketball in Canada is not the most popular sport, there has been an uptick in popularity for basketball recently, especially with Canada’s lone team, the Toronto Raptors winning the championship in 2019. Likewise, Japan has recently seen a rise in popularity for basketball due to their homegrown superstar Rui Hachimura inspiring the Japanese youth to take up basketball.

Prizes for our winners :)

What is fast food anyways?

This month, we had an interesting topic discussion with our adult students about fast food. It was very interesting how what is considered to be fast food in Japan, would never be considered as fast food in western countries. Our image of fast food mainly consists of hamburger and french fries or anything that is cheap and fast to it. Usually we would feel guilty about eating out at McDonald’s but we don’t have the same feeling towards Japanese fast food chains like Yoshinoya. The reason behind this is that all Japanese food overseas is very expensive so even a bowl of Gyudon (beef bowl) is priced at 1000yen and up!

Here is an interesting article about all of the fast food restaurant chains found in Japan.

What are your thoughts on what fast food is?

PEA x ジョダン英会話 Live stream this Saturday at 9:00pm

Hello everyone.

The emergency lockdown has once again been extended so many of you probably spend more time on the internet with no school.

Why not watch our live stream this Saturday at 9:00pm? We have partnered with a former PEA student who now has a passion to teach English to beginner level students.

The format for the live stream is quite simple. We will say English phrases from popular media (eg. movies, music, etc) and the students will try to write down what they have heard.

We will be using POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN this week.

After that, we can answer any English related questions you might have. The livestream will be between 45 minutes to 1 hour. If you have time, please check it out!

Cabin Fever

Hey everyone, Chapman here. It’s been a while since we’ve met in class. It has been quite lonely but we are glad that some of you have joined our online classes.

Do any of you know what cabin fever is? It is a term to describe a type of hysteria caused by spending too much time indoors. Being from Vancouver, where the winters are always rainy and cold, I know what this feeling is like spending nearly every day stuck indoors. It was very depressing indeed.

Now I am in Japan and must do the same thing due to the scary corona virus. It certainly feels strange since now is the best weather to go outside . At least we are all going through these difficult times together.

I hope all of you are staying safe . Let’s continue to do our best!

Happy Pancake Day and Last day before Lent

Hello everyone. It’s been a while.

Today is Pancake day AKA Shrove Tuesday which is a day that is celebrated in the UK. It is the last day to indulge yourself in something special and since everyone loves pancakes, pancakes are chosen to represent this day. The next day is Lent, which is a period that starts on February 26 and runs for 40 days until Easter Sunday. That means Lent this year ends on April 12, 2020.

During Lent, we must choose one thing to sacrifice for 40 days. Drew先生 has chosen to sacrifice his PC games and Chapman 先生 will give up social media such as Facebook, Instagram and especially YouTube. It will be a grueling 40 days but we will become stronger once the 40 days are over.

We made pancakes with the adult group classes :)

Akemi's trip to Taipei

Hello everyone. Our student Akemi went on a trip to Taipei from 11/30 to 12/3. Please take a look at some of the pictures she took.

Chinese cabbage made from stone

Tamsui is called Taiwanese Venice.

Utterlya (at Tamsui)

Toughness (at Tamsui)

We bought each amulet at Longshan Temple.

Dihua street is an old town.

dried sea cucumber (at Dihua street)

Pig thick slice meat on fried rice 

Everyone going their separate ways

It’s an end of an era for our class of young adults who have been coming to PEA for several years. All of them will be leaving their nest and will be starting a new life outside of Kansai. It was a blast to teach them for all these years. We will wish them the best!

New expressions:

Leaving the nest- leaving one’s parents home for the first time.

To have a blast- to have a great time.

Why is English spelling so weird?

Please watch this video for those who have a hard time to spell words. I can totally understand why spelling can be so difficult for non-native English speakers.

Halloween adjectives game

We played a Halloween adjectives game with our elementary class. The rules are simple. Each player draws an adjective card and a Halloween character card. After, they must draw it on the board for the class to guess which adjective and character it is. We had so much fun!

Question: What do you think this is?

Answer: I think it’s a ______________.

Fads and Trends

This week, we had a topic discussion about fads and trends. Many people get these two words confused. The biggest difference is that a fad is something that suddenly becomes popular but quickly dies out (a 90’s toy called Furby in America or Tomogatchis).

Trends last much longer. For example, Instagram is widely used in Japan and will continue to be used for the foreseeable future.

What are your favourite fads and trends?

One of our students showed us this file folder that displays all the top fads from 1989-1998. People from Western countries are familiar with some of these fads.

Snake Oil Boardgame

We had a special class on this board game called Snake Oil. It’s an amazing way to use your English to convince the customer to buy your product with the combination made from two word cards. You will need an adjective (describing word) and a noun (object) to make your item.

Our student made an amazing sales pitch for pirates. Introducing the snow soap which allow pirates to spray their enemies with soap and snow. They can also use it to mask their smelly scent!

Special guest teachers who are currently teaching English in Korea have come to introduce this amazing boardgame for our students. Now they are all professional “snake oil” salesmen.

Zero waste town

For those who have missed it, our teacher’s lesson for this week was about garbage. We talked about our disposal habits and what we could do to reduce our waste. We also shared a video about a town in Tokushima Japan called Kamikatsu (上勝町). They separate their garbage into 45 different categories. Amazing, isn’t it? It may be a bit tedious but it can also change the mindset of how we live our lives. Please take a look.

Akemi's trip to Indonesia Part II

Hello again with another installment to our travel series. Our student Akemi went to Indonesia again and has more photos to share with us. Please take a look!

Awww!!! Isn’t he adorable?

Yuki's awesome trip to Las Vegas

Hello again everyone. Our student Yuki just sent us some awesome photos from Las Vegas. It looks like her friend snoopy was very hungry. We hope this can motivate you to learn English and go travel to a foreign country one day. Until next time!

Bellagio hotel Las Vegas

Grand Canyon

Have an awesome Golden Week!

Golden week will be extra long this year. Do you think there will be more Japanese people who will go overseas because it is a longer break this time or will they travel domestically? Please share your stories from your Golden week Holiday with us after the break. We are looking forward to it.

Shanshan, Kochan and Redchan would like to wish you all a nice Golden week :)

New feature for Junior high classes

Plain English academy is looking for new ways to connect our classroom into the 21st century so we have introduced Google classroom for our Junior high classes. Any questions that students may have can be asked here or students can look at what they have learned from their class.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to use it.

Join a class with a class code

1. Go to classroom.google.com.

2. At the top, click Add   Join class.

3. Enter the class code your teacher gave you and click Join.
A class code consists of 6 or 7 letters or numbers. For example, hjhmgrk or g5gdp1.

Hanami event 4/6/2019

Thank you to everyone who joined our Hanami event. We were very lucky to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom.　　Some students told us that it would be gone by April 6 but that was not the case. See you all for the next event!

Idiom-Don`t make a mountain out of a molehill

This week, the students learned about a new idiom which is “don’t make a mountain out of a molehill”. This idiom confused many students. It basically means to not make such a big deal out of a small issue. We hope you can take this advice to heart. We only live once so learn to let go of the small things that make you go crazy.

Akemi's trip to Indonesia

Hello everyone. One of our lovely students Akemi would like to share with us her trip to Indonesia. She was there for a new years trip from December 30 to January 5. Her main destination was at a city called Bandung which is a three hour train ride from Jakarta. Bandung is the capital city of West Java province.

Here are some photos taken from there.

Kawah Purim- It means white crater in English. It smells of sulfur gas.

Angklung - Indonesian traditional instrument made of bamboo

Tea garden- Indonesians like Java tea very much.

Institution Teknologi Bandung- It is one of the famous educational institutions.

Chapman 先生’ｓ return to Vancouver

It’s been a long time since I returned to Vancouver so there were many feelings of nostalgia. Please take a look at the photos I took. It was raining for most of the days I was there but it was still very enjoyable. If you get a chance, please come and visit Vancouver.

Snowy mountains of Vancouver

Family Christmas tree

World Junior Ice Hockey tournament hosted in Vancouver this year.

Driving around the neighbourhood looking at Christmas illuminations.

Greek food is famous in Vancouver. Very delicious!

Photo of Boundary Bay in my hometown.

A rare moment of sunshine in rainy Vancouver.