• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Smith's School of English

To provide English speakers the opportunity to own their own business teaching English in Japan.

  • Franchise Entry
    • Buy a Developed Franchise
    • Start Your Own
  • The Franchise
    • Work Visa & Taxes
    • Franchise Training
    • Franchise Support
      • What Franchisees get
      • SSE Products
      • FAQ’s
  • Testimonials
  • About
    • Coaching Confidence
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • English School Articles
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Blog, English School Articles · July 20, 2007

Preparing a Student for Studying Abroad

You are here: Home / Blog / Preparing a Student for Studying Abroad

I recently had a lesson with a 4th year university student who is planning to go to Canada to study for 6 months. He will study for 3 months for TOEIC test improvement and the last three months will be spent studying business in English. I am sure that he will have a great time and will learn a lot there. He is taking a 6 month holiday from my school to do this. In his recent lesson, since he only had 3 lessons to go before he left, I decided to work with him on how to discuss the following:

  1. Talk about himself (self-introduction): He already has been doing this for a while but I tried to expand his description of himself by getting him to talk about which movies he likes and why.
  2. Global Warming: His opinion on whether it is a real potential problem, why and what can individuals and governments do to stop it or slow it down.
  3. Japan’s “peace” constitution: Should it be changed to allow Japan to have an offensive army?
  4. The potential increase in the consumption tax in Japan: Is it necessary or reasonable?
  5. Japan’s future: What kind of changes are taking place now that will affect Japan’s future?

These are difficult topics but he was able to discuss them with a little bit of help. He brought up the topics of “outsourcing” and the trend to move from “a manufacturing economy to a service industry related economy” by himself when we talked about Japan’s future. I asked him to write his thoughts down for next time and we will correct his English and he can then practice them so as to be prepared to talk with Canadian’s about these issues. He appreciated this lesson as it will help him to prepare for his experience in Canada. I explained that to get into a conversation, one must first have something to talk about and have an opinion. He agreed and said that he will prepare his thoughts for the next lesson.
This was a fun lesson and I felt that he learned a lot and was very happy to cover these topics. The study of English can enable the students to develop their own opinions on many issues and this will help them to have conversations with other English speakers when they travel. Great fun!

Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English- Okamoto)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • X

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Filed Under: Blog, English School Articles Tagged With: Travel Abroad

Mark Smith

Reader Interactions

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search

From the Blog

  • Blog
  • English School Articles
  • Smith's Sustainabilty
  • Sustainability Development Goals
  • Testimonials
スミス英会話メインページ

6 days ago

スミス英会話メインページ
今週のワンポイントレッスンはコチラです★Tell us about a conversation you had today.今日した会話について教えてください。smithweb.co.jp/2025/06/one-point-lesson-7a15/#スミス英会話 #月謝制英会話 #ワンポイントレッスン ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

スミス英会話メインページ

2 weeks ago

スミス英会話メインページ
今週のワンポイントレッスンはコチラです★What do you think is necessary for a person to grow?人が成長するために必要なものは何だと思いますか?smithweb.co.jp/2025/05/one-point-lesson-7a14/#スミス英会話 #月謝制英会話 #ワンポイントレッスン ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Blog Posts
  • Discussing Milestones
  • A Common Listening Problem English Learners Have
  • Protected: The Japan Iwaskows
  • Christmas holidays in Germany (part 2)
  • German Christmas (part 1)
  • Autumn in Japan vs Autumn in Canada
  • Unique Japan- Smith’s School of English, Sagamihara
  • Edward’s Language Journey
  • Osaka Higashi Line – Convenient Fuse
  • Small Talk in Katsura
Smith’s School of English Franchises
#101,8-21-5, Hanafuku-building, Fukushima-Ku,OsakaTel: 0120-222-248 (Japan)
Tel: 81-6-6455-8050 (Other)
Fax: 06-6455-8052
E-mail: info@sse-franchise.com

Copyright © 2025 · Smith's School of English, all rights reserved. · Privacy · Log in

%d