Last Thursday after a doing some local promotion, I went to a Starbucks shop for a cup of coffee with Mark Smith, founder of Smith’s School of English Franchises (スミス英会話).
We went there to discuss our advertising for Smith’s School of English in Kyobashi (スミス英会話 京橋校), teaching in Japan and of course, have some no-business chat too. For those of you who don’t know Mark that well, a “no-business” chat with him is all about sailing (セーリング) in Japan, yachts in general and a bit more about yachting. I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about, right? Anyway, jokes aside. For me personally, it’s always interesting to be able to have these conversations with him as he has a great experience with life and work in Japan and ……well, yachts (Mark is a member of Kansai Yacht Club).
As we got into the Starbucks shop, we were greeted in nice English by a smiling girl behind the counter. What a lovely surprise. She started to talk to us before we could say a word. Both Mark and I complimented on her English skills and she seemed really happy and proud to be able to have a little chat with us, while we were ordering. I was really surprised with just how happy she was to have the opportunity to use some of all that English Conversation (英会話) she has studied over the years. It’s always nice to see interest and passion in something you do, outside the walls of your school. These are the little situations that you encounter unexpectedly and that get you going for days and weeks to come.
So without even knowing it, this girl in the coffee shop made the day not just for herself, but for me too. All achieved by couple of English words and a great smile. Plus you know, I was getting really worried about how would I say ‘One big blueberry muffin and small cafe latte, please’ in Japanese.
Tom.
English Conversation Teacher at Smith’s School of English, Kyobashi (スミス英会話 京橋校).
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