セミナー講師は著書『米国の日本語教育に学ぶ新英語教育』,『完全マスター英文法』でおなじみの講師、米原幸大が担当！
少人数でのセミナーになりますのできめ細かく対応いたします。

カプランで行っているアイビーリーグイングリッシュとはハーバード大学、エール大学、コーネル大学など世界をリードする米国の多くの大学が使って大きな成果が実証されている外国語習得メソッドを日本人の英語習得に応用させたメソッドです。

　このメソッドでは日本語母語者が英語の習得を試みる場合に問題となるポイントのみにフォーカスしますので、日本語母語者にとって難しいとされてスムーズな英語習得への妨げとなっている弱点が効率よく克服出来ていきます。
　グラマー（文型文法、発音やイントネーションのルール、英語文化上のルールなど）中心に日本人が苦手であると言われているアクティブスキルであるスピーキングやライティングを強化するメソッドですが、理解を伴いながら英語の習得を試みますので同時にリスニングとリーディングのスキルもスムーズに伸びていきます。

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▼テスト/セミナー詳細・お申込については日時をクリックしてください！▼
◇日時：・2/19（金）表参道校　18:30-20:00
　　　　　・2/28（日）銀座校　10:30-12:00

◇受講料：　無料
◇定員：　7名
◇担当講師：米原幸大
<講師略歴>
セントラルミズリー大学 TESOL (英語教授法) 修士課程卒業
サウスカロライナ大学 言語学博士課程中退
コーネル大学客員講師、トゥルーマン大学講師などを経て、現在カプランジャパン講師
＜著書＞
・『米国の日本語教育に学ぶ新英語教育』　大学教育出版 〈単著〉（2008.7）
・『完全マスター英語文法 ― アイビーリーグイングリッシュ』　語研　〈単著〉(2009.3)
・『英会話through英語文化（仮題）』　語研　〈共著〉（2009.12）
＜論文＞
・「アメリカの日本語教育に学ぶ理想的なティームティーチング」 （「英語教育」大修館書店2008.5）
・「費やす時間とエネルギーに見合った英語習得プログラムを」 （「英語教育」大修館書店2008.11）
＜その他＞
・『News Digest#1』　（英語での問題作成、問題の解説担当） （The Japan Times 2006.4）
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また、他のセミナー情報も随時更新中です！

セミナーはKAPLAN生はもちろん、一般の方もご参加いただけます。
お申込みは上記日程のご希望の日にちをクリックしてフォームから申し込んでいただくか、お電話でも随時受け付けております。

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KAPLAN銀座校　03-5524-5851までお願いします。

SOME PEOPLE REALLY KNOW HOW TO BALANCE THINGS.
Some don't need to hold train straps. Others can balance a spinning frisbee on their fingernail ( I still can't do that one ). Some animals are trained to balance on a ball to entertain humans. A waiter can balance a tray of food while walking through a crowded restaurant and manage a smile when he arrives at the customer's table! And how about those break dancers!

Olympic gymnasts amaze me. Especially the ones who hop up on a balance beam from a running start, do a variety of maneuvers, then dismount in some dramatic fashion. All on a 10cm-wide piece of wood!

Millions of years of weathering have allowed nature to create unbelievable natural balancing acts for tourists amusements at Colorado's Garden of the Gods.

Some people are in a perpetual state of balancing their diets. Don't eat that, it's high in cholesterol. Don't eat this, it's too sweet. Eat that, it's good for your eyes.

But perhaps the most difficult thing of all is to balance our lives with all the things we crowd into them. Studying, sleeping, eating, commuting, working, exercising, shopping, raising children, socializing, eMailing, texting, calling, and spending time on our hobbies.

Now, that's a balancing act !

▼▽▼▼【講師】Rob先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━


・【Plant EKGs?】2010.01.15 (Fri)

I've recently found myself in two very different situations where I ended up greatly regretting some things that I had said. I don't mean regret like I said things out of anger or drunkenness and then couldn't take them back, I said them out of... naivety I guess is the right word. Actually, in high school, a kind of mentor of mine told me that my greatest weakness was naivety. Since then I've met some pretty nasty people and think myself to be toughening up a bit, but it's still a work in progress.


In these situations, my hasty speaking did not result in something of great consequence, but not of positive consequence either. So I guess it's really just been a kind of good learning experience. I really value these kinds of learning experiences. Generally, I really value anything that helps me become better. I'm sure everyone does though, this is not something unique to me. But I do think that many of us do not recognize the things that make us become better. Even worse, we mistake the things that make us become worse for the things that make us become better! I could venture some examples but that would probably leave me out on dangerous ground. So let me move to some fairly safe ground.


Studying.


I think everyone probably recognizes that they're studying to make themselves better in the end. But I think some people might have that end benefit misdirected to just the knowledge that they are acquiring, that the knowledge (or the score) makes them better or more capable for tasks ahead. Umm... I'm not really sure, haven't thought it through, you might be able to beat me in a logical argument on this, but my initial gut reaction is that knowledge doesn't make you better necessarily. Yes...if I add the word "necessarily" I feel pretty confident with that statement.


I think the greatest benefit from studying is the perseverance you acquire, the problem solving skills you acquire, the creativity you acquire, the multitasking because many of you are still working, the time management, the critical thinking. Many things. I probably initially value critical thinking the most.


Case in point, my math studies in university. What would you guess, do I remember all the formulas and theorems that I learned? Yeah, probably not. Well, definitely not. Until very recently when I made a small trick by which to remember this fact, I could never ever ever even remember if the derivative of sine was positive or negative cosine, or if the derivative of cosine was positive or negative sine. But I can see the fruit of my laboring over math problems all the time. It depends on the situation, but sometimes I can have such a mind for details that solving just everyday scenarios becomes pretty easy, seemingly easier than it is for others. I'm also very patient when trying to find solutions. See, the studying, the act of sitting down for hours and just trying to understand something, trying to make the connections in my brain trained my brain. And now I'm benefiting. Sometimes anyway.


So I want to say, that if you can learn to value just the act of studying, of thinking and trying to figure things out, I think it might help serve as motivation. If you think of just studying as something that is making you better, you'd probably want to do it more. If you can't find the answer or if you can't get a super high grade it's still ok because if you've put yourself through an honest studying process you will have benefited much, and that should leave you happy! That should also take some of the pressure off which will probably help to increase your score.


Yeah I don't mean to say you should throw caution to the wind and lose sight completely of your end goal, just value the process. It'll make you happier, less stressed, and therefore more capable.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【The Easy Way】2010.1.13(Wed)

In a recent Newsweek Discussion class we talked about phobias. Do you know this word? It comes from Latin and means an irrational fear of something. I think everyone has phobias, some of them we don't like admitting to.


I have a phobia of spiders. Where I was brought up in England we had quite large spiders that we called "Grandfather Spiders". They had long, spindly legs and moved really quickly. No one in my family was brave enough to deal with them except my father. We hated the spiders but didn't want to kill them so my Dad had to catch them in matchboxes and then take them outside. He always did this while muttering how hysterical and stupid we all were!


When I came to Japan, I discovered that you have far worse insects and scary bugs than we do in England. I had never before experienced mosquitoes, cockroaches, or those weird beetles that have gold backs and are so stupid that they repeatedly bang against the paper-door in an attempt to get to the light (I think you call them kanabun or something). Cockroaches are shocking. Does anyone actually like them? It's like being a fan of Hitler or thinking that SMAP are good singers...


So, I now have a fear of cockroaches as well as spiders. I don't have many other phobias. I don't enjoy flying too much- but it's only really the takeoff and landing that I'm scared of. Once I'm up in the air at high altitude I can enjoy myself and start drinking beer and watching films on a tiny screen!


One of my best friends suffers from vertigo. This means he is scared of being in high places. If he looks down he gets a giddy feeling and starts to panic. Vertigo is a fairly common phobia but my friend has a really weird one as well; he is scared of buttons. Yes, buttons. He doesn't mind metal buttons, but he is terrified of plastic ones. Have you ever heard of such a thing? When I was younger and less sympathetic, I used to show him my plastic buttons to make him feel sick. I used to be quite cruel...

The way to overcome phobias is to actually confront it. So, if you are scared of flying, maybe you should take pilot lessons. If you are scared of cockroaches, you should spend time in a room full of them. If you are scared of buttons, you should wear clothes with hundreds of them. Tell me your phobias and I can give you my completely unprofessional medical advice on how to overcome it. I want to hear how weird your phobias are! After all, no phobia is worse than SMAP is it?

▼▽▼▼【講師】Anthony先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【SARCASM】2009.12.11 (Fri)

 

It's almost Chinese New Year. And Setsu Bun, one of my favorites! Despite my age, I'm still managing to learn new things, and I want to share some with you. First new thing is the kanji chosen by the government for 2010. It's '新' meaning new! Second new thing I learned is the lucky direction for this year. As a bonus, I'd also like to talk about Setsu Bun, which is not so new for me, but I love it, it coincides with the publishing of this article, and it's lucky!



Since there's not much to mention about this year's kanji, I'll first write about E-Hou which is the lucky direction for this year. It is West-South-West (WSW) which is halfway between West and South-West. To look in this direction prior to your Toefl test, your wedding, or your job interview is guaranteed to boost your score/longevity/chances, whether by lucky gods recognizing you, or just some classic placebo giving you confidence. Even better, you could head down to the 7-11, buy some E-Hou maki, and eat it in some high place, maybe a rooftop, while looking and contemplating in the WSW direction.



Growing up with fairy tales, I know that magical beans are way more lucky than a direction will ever be. The magical beans in season are the setsu beans. Japanese people and some foreigners living in Japan will consume their age in setsu beans on this auspicious day. With the remaining beans, we pelt the 'Oni'¹ while chanting 'Oni wa soto/Fuku wa uchi' meaning the Oni better go outside (or we will keep throwing beans at him) while luck is (coming) inside. Sure, the beans end up all over your apartment, but if you have a pet dog, no worries.



And as far as setsu beans go, I think they're pretty tasty. Oni has his own brand of sake, called Oni Goroshi, which complements the beans quite well. Check it out, 7-11 has this too. Just look for Oni's red face with horns on a white box. Oni himself must be pretty lucky with sales, considering convenies only really sell the most popular stuff. You should be able to pick up the beans there and, if you've got the Oni's own luck, a cardboard mask of Oni! Now you too can be Oni! Terrorize children! Rob 7-11's with your identity disguised! Just don't forget to celebrate...Happy Setsu Bun!!
_____________________________________________________________

1. Your father wearing an Oni mask.

▼▽▼▼【講師】Sandy先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【No Tray】2009.12.23 (Wed)