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Konnichiwa, everyone! My name is Anne, and I'm waving to you from rural Japan, where I have lived for alllllllmost one year teaching very young learners (ages 2 and up). I have been teaching since 2002, mainly in South Korea and recently in Japan.

I am here because I want to teach better, get new ideas and learn new ways to use old ones, and help my littles be more comfortable with their English-speaking selves.

I’m also interested in creating non-competitive activities and other strategies to help learners who need a different class structure.

In my non-teaching time, I do freelance writing and proofreading and study Japanese.

One of these days I’ll have free time, and then I’m going to read the piles of books that keep stacking up, do some baking, and take long bike rides.

It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to learning together!

Comments

  1. Scott GrayNovember 3, 2017 at 5:25 AM

    Hi Anne, just a quick question are you up North or down south? I am in Osaka and really miss teaching the little ones.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anne HendlerNovember 3, 2017 at 5:50 AM

    Scott Gray I'm in Shiga, so we're almost neighbors. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Julia BlinovaNovember 4, 2017 at 6:06 AM

    Hi Anne So you are a book 'collector' just like me. :) Do you know the secret to curbing this terrible desire to buy more and more? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anne HendlerNovember 4, 2017 at 6:16 AM

    Julia Blinova I wish I did! It would save me so much! But then I wouldn't have so many books and I love them so much. I just need a really really long and tech-free vacation to read them all!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Julia BlinovaNovember 4, 2017 at 6:18 AM

    Anne Hendler That's all true, but my cat doesn't agree with me :) So I've taken up giving some of the books to my students. But it just means now I have an excuse to buy more ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Scott GrayNovember 6, 2017 at 6:48 AM

    I'll never give up on books but I do like my kindle. It is nice to be able to flip through and pick one of a few hundred books I have on it. The portability is so nice but nothing beats the feel of a good book and the fact you don't need power for it. Besides that I just like the choice I have.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anne HendlerNovember 6, 2017 at 2:43 PM

    Scott Gray I like my kindle too for those reasons. I even have a case for it that I can stick my fingers into and feel like they're saving my place in a book. But it just can't mimic book-smell, and the feel of paper in my hands. I find I'm more likely to read a book I've bought in paper than one I've bought on kindle. They're better for sharing, too!

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  8. Scott van LeenenNovember 7, 2017 at 4:40 PM

    switch to ebooks... while I miss the feel of a book in my hand... I find i can accumulate thousands without impacting the (limited) space in my house.

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  9. Julia BlinovaNovember 8, 2017 at 2:41 AM

    Oh, guys, having an e-book reader doesn't help me at all! It just means now I can read two books at the same time without feeling guilty. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anne HendlerNovember 8, 2017 at 4:14 AM

    Haha. That's the truth! But finding time for even one is sometimes a challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Scott GrayNovember 10, 2017 at 10:22 PM

    Another good point for the kindle is they can highlight any word and a dictionary meaning will pop up if they have it set right. For students when you can just touch the word on the screen and a short pop up window comes up with that word's dictionary entry is very useful. I wish I had it when I was a student.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anne HendlerNovember 11, 2017 at 5:41 AM

    Scott Gray That is so true. By the way, do you know if there are kindle books of a very VERY easy level available in Japanese? Does the dictionary work in Japanese as well?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Scott GrayNovember 12, 2017 at 2:59 AM

    If you have a Japanese kindle(Amazon.co.jp ) then it should have the dictionary in natively. You can download a dictionary (english-Japanese) but it is like a book you will have to search yourself. The one that comes with the kindle has it natively in it. I got mine in the US and it has english to english (oxford dictionary) as my choice. But if you buy it from the Japan store it should have a Japanese dictionary you can choose. They change from time to time so I am not up to date but when I looked at buying one it had it in Japan. I ended up going with the cheaper ones from the US as I wanted to do just my pleasure reading and professional reading on it so it wasn't worth paying double as I did not need the Japanese that much. I really miss the text to speech which the old kindles had on them that my new one doesn't have anymore. Like the iphone removing the app store from itunes another step away from customer service.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Julia BlinovaNovember 12, 2017 at 12:56 PM

    Anne Hendler I have a Sony ebook reader and it allows you to choose which dictionary you want to use and I believe you can download more, if necessary.

    ReplyDelete

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