Learn English!

Learning English is not easy to do, as you know, especially when you have to spend a lot of money for "conversation courses" in Japan. When you go to these English classes near you, you spend a lot of time having conversations with your native English-speaking teachers, most of whom have no experience teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). Perhaps you are wasting your time and money. You cannot succeed in English conversation without the knowledge of English grammar. There is no short cut to learning English.

英語を学ぶのに近道はありません。読むこと，書くこと，文法，そして話すことを，言語を教えることを専門としている人間から総合的に学ぶ必要があります。講師と向かい合って、何のあてもなく話していれば，話すことがうまくなるものではありませんし，教室の全員が日本人というような環境では，なかなかうまくなりません。英語はあくまでもコミュニケーションの道具ですから，それを使って相手に自分の考えていることを理解させる必要があります。あなたの意見に同意をしてもらうか、否かは別問題ですが，書くことでも，話すことでも，相手に理解してもらうような英語を身につける必要があります。

To learn English correctly, you need to practice and learn four elements: WRITING, READING, SPEAKING, and GRAMMAR. In our English classes, you get all four of these components. You will have classes by e-mail in the first semester (three months) and the second semester (three months). During the first and second semesters you will write short essays every three weeks on certain topics selected by your professor. These essays will be sent by you by e-mail to the professor, will be corrected by the professor, and returned to you by e-mail with the corrections. You will then submit your essay by e-mail with all the corrections made. You will be expected to keep all rough drafts of your essays in a folder. We will provide the textbooks to you after you have signed up.

In the summer of each year, after the two semesters, we will invite you to a summer speech class for five weeks at a state college in Connecticut, USA, if you want to participate. This speech class starts at the end of June and lasts five weeks. In this course, the students are assigned four or five speeches, which must be delivered in front of the class on topics decided upon by the professor. The first speech is usually an introduction of yourself. Among other factors, good pronunciation is considered very important because your words must be understood by the rest of the class. The class usually consists of students from many different language backgrounds. Usually, half the class will consist of American English speakers.

During your stay in America, the weekends would allow you the time to visit such nearby places as New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington.

One professor will teach the entire six month of courses and the five-week speech class. He can teach you the grammar, reading, writing, and speaking of the English language.

If you have any general questions, as well as inquiries about prices, please contact us at ogawaec@aol.com in either English or Japanese.