'Try never to be the smartest person in the room' - Michael Dell. Back in 2008-2009, I went through the greatest learning curve I have ever experienced. I was an exchange student studying in Japan for six months, and in that short span I feel I learned a few years' worth of lessons. I had …

The Greatest Chance for Growth Read More »

The best time to begin to invest was yesterday. The second best time is today. After much research and deliberation, I decided a few years ago to begin investing in index funds. If you're unaware, index funds are where you purchase the top (say 500 or so) companies of a market, on the basis that …

Stay the Course Read More »

My profile for my university job states 'In the communication age, knowledge is power. Find your power.' It didn't take me too long to realise that this is actually complete rubbish. If the greatest ideas in the world were stuck in the mind of someone without the ability to communicate them, then they're completely useless. …

Knowledge that knowledge is not power is power. Read More »

Back about 10 years ago in an interview applying for a MEXT scholarship I was asked what in my opinion was the biggest difference between NZ and Japan. My answer now is the role of women in society, however that Japan is extremely conservative and NZ extremely progressive would be a close second. When I …

The one constant thing in life is change. Read More »

I heard of a challenge from Seth Godin to write everyday. I have learned the importance of effective communication by being a teacher, translator, and interpreter over the years, and I'm going to write this blog, even if it's crap, everyday for as long as I can. My reasoning is purely selfish, to be a …

Better communication, better results. Read More »

I was a little taken aback the other day in one of my junior high school English classes because the teacher had told the students to work alone on their self-introductions just because he wanted them to finish quickly. Actually I was angry because I said that they should ask each other before they ask …

Languages shouldn’t be learnt alone Read More »

When you are put in charge of teaching English to young children it can often be quite challenging. They need to be constantly entertained and engaged, which means either one really fun task, or lots of little ones are necessary. Any activity that is not the least bit fun will have the children off-task and not learning, so …

More easy activities for the low-level language classroom Read More »