It is already one week since 25 students and friends of Smith’s School of English Koenji got together at Izakaya Don Bei in Koenji to catch up with their fellow students and meet some new like minded ESL friends.
I have received numerous sms and email messages telling me how much the senders had enjoyed themselves and how much they would like us to have another party together again soon, maybe we will as early as September.
It was a wonderful night as can be gauged by the photographs that were taken. There was plenty of laughing and high jinks. The food was good and the service was spot on just as I had expected it to be. It is after all one of my favourite izakayas in Koenji.
At Smith’s School of English we have students from age 11 to 50 plus and all those who attend the parties get on so well together. It is a fantastic way for students to increase their friends and to meet new people outside the normal meeting places in a secure environment.
It was great to have Dean and Stephen from Kichioji school join us as well as Shinji, who I taught English to in Australia.
We commenced the party at 5pm and the final stragglers left around 11pm. I guess we need a “One Point” for future parties. How does “Let’s go!” sound?
My subsequent enquiries indicated that all students had a great day at work on Monday.
My best memories of the night relate to laughter and smiling faces.
Thanks to all those who attended, it was your participation that gave the party such a happy atmosphere and made it the success that it was. Cheers!
Alex says
Ken,
I`m thrilled to hear that your party was a great success!
I agree that these kinds of events are a great way for us and our students to socialize and make new friends. I especially enjoy when students greet each other at subsequent events with a “Long time, no see!” because the last time they met was also at a Smith`s event.
Congratulations again and we here in Kansai are looking forward to hearing more from you guys out there in Kanto!
Keep us posted!
Alex
Ken says
Thanks Alex I want to add some photos to this posting and I also want to create a link to my home page. I could do it when the link chain was on the page and the word “link” looks to be the obvious way now but when I use it it doesn’t allow me to input an URL. Do you know how to do it?
Anyhow I have sent an email to Mark and no doubt he’ll get back to me on Tuesday – I have Mondays off.
I am also thrilled when I see the expression on the faces of students who have not seen each other since the last Smith’s School of English function. Some however have become close friends and meet often for dinner, movies etc and they too are genuinely happy when their friends arrive just as I am.
Alex says
Hi Ken,
Some photos of the event would definitely be nice to see!
My recommendation would be to contact Mark and ask him for help. He is very good at walking you through this. He recently spent some time explaining the more involved functions of this application to me.
Good luck and looking forward to the pictures!
Alex