I am here in Ikoma City, near Osaka, working and playing with Fumiko Fujikawa, amazing English teacher and ECE.  Fumiko has taken the learning through play philosophy and adapted it fit her F.L.A.T. English School www.flat-ed.com curriculum for adults as well as children.  F.L.A.T. stands for Fun to Learn And Teach. It has a very positive meaning in Japanese.  Cleverly, it also stands for Fumiko, Lynn, and Terry; three friends and Early Childhood Educators.  The late Lynn Caruso was Fumiko’s professor at Seneca College in Toronto, her mentor, inspiration, and extremely close friend.  We are still mourning the loss of Lynn to cancer just a few short months ago.  While I am here, we are remembering Lynn a lot. People here who met her on her previous trips to Japan are missing her and still giving their condolences.  But, in the way Lynn would want, we are also having a lot of fun.

 The gorgeous and brilliant, Fumiko!

Lynn, Fumiko, and Terry,  tired and happy in Japan 2010

     While I am here my first duty is to be a model native English speaker.  This means I must remember to speak slowly, clearly, avoid slangy jargon, and odd Canadian expressions.  No “Haliburton Mumble”, that a friend says I slip into sometimes.   My second duty is to assist with the children’s classes and special activities that Fumiko has arranged.  It is fun to learn English when all of your senses are engaged, as in the water balloons that we played with.  It took me about 20 minutes to fill them all and less than five to burst them all, but what fun vocabulary! Burst! Explode! Break! Wet! Blue, red, green, pink, yellow!  Fun! Wow! Oops! Roll, throw, catch, bounce! 

It took 20 minutes to fill the balloons.  My job, nice and cool considering it gets to about 37 degrees!

 And less than 5 minutes to break them!

 

     Fumiko incorporates so much art into her work.  The children are so engrossed in the engaging activities they don’t realize how much English they are learning.  No drills.  Their parents are impressed with the outcomes.   “Water balloon!”  “I am painting my dinosaur!”  The children learn in the natural way, without having to conjugate verbs.  

 More updates very soon.