Hello! I'm very happy that the school year got off to a smooth start. I have been working so hard that I didn't realize until a few days ago that this is BIG BOW English Lab's 20th year! We've come a long way since 2006!
BIG BOW English Lab in 2013
March is always a bittersweet month because I have to say goodbye to the high school students graduating from BIG BOW. I'm very proud of H. and A., who came to BIG BOW for many years and made so much progress with their English skills. I wish them both the best of luck!
This summer, I will be teaching an intensive course for the Master's program at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. The topic is teaching English to young learners. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to share all that I have learned from my over 30 years of teaching children.
At the end of the school year, Mr. Ito and I took a short trip to Spain. I had been wanting to see the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao for many years, and finally got my wish!
The artworks outside of the museum are also interesting. This is Puppy, by Jeff Koons. Live flowers grow on this statue.
This somewhat scary work by Louise Bourgeois of a spider with her egg sack is called Maman, which means "mother".
The last time we came to Spain in 2018, we saw Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica, at the Sophia museum in Madrid. This time we had a chance to visit the real town of Guernica, which has a tiled wall replica of Picasso's painting.
We also visited the Ancient Roman Aqueduct in Segovia and the Royal Palace in Madrid.
English is not as widely spoken in Spain, compared to Portugal (where we visited last spring). I often had to rely on Spanish phrases that I remembered from junior high school and translation apps. However, it seems that there is a lot of interest in learning English in Spain, judging from the very large Cambridge Testing billboard we saw in Madrid.
Of course, it is always important to sample the sweets of a new country! I enjoyed eating churros dipped in hot chocolate and also flan, which resembles Japanese pudding.
We are looking forward to having a great year at BIG BOW English Lab!
