Children's Preschool English Classes

One of the most important reasons for moving AEL was the opportunity to start teaching children's classes. We started with what we call our "Preschool Class" for children ranging from 3 to 5 years old. I've been teaching the class for 6 weeks now and it's great to see how fast the children are learning and speaking.

The first focus for these young children is not so much to "learn lots of English", but to learn how to listen and therefore correctly reproduce the foreign sounds of the English language to these young Japanese ears and minds.

The second focus of the class is to have fun, fun, fun! I believe that if these very young children start their "English language lives" with lots of fun, fun, fun, they will always have fond feelings and memories of English. This will become much more important in the future as they enter the Japanese school system and start their years of mandatory English study.

"Wine Bar Time"

One of the services we now offer at our new AEL location is "Wine Bar Time". My wife Katy has been dreaming of opening the type of wine bar that she always wanted to find, but never could.

Her concept is very simple, but very nice. A place with no table charge or cover charge, with very nice but affordable wine. Another important point to Katy is the fact that we are there to provide friendly and interesting conversation so you never feel lonely. It's very important to her that it be a place where ladies can dress up or dress casually. Most importantly, a place where ladies feel very comfortable coming alone.

We also serve beer and soft drinks if you're not a wine lover. Smoking is not allowed in the lounge, but you can smoke outside if you must. I also do live performances during "Wine Bar Time" with no music charge. You only pay a very affordable price for you drinks, and enjoy nice conversation and free entertainment. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Click here to see this month's schedule!

Here We Grow Again...

AEL has undergone even more extensive and fundamental changes. We've moved from Kohoku, Yokohama to Yamato-shi. This has been a wonderful move for me and my wife, as well as AEL itself. It was not a quick and simple decision, or an easy move. We've been very busy the last several months, but now we're very happy and optimistic about the future.

Our new facility is very comfortable and flexible. We now offer classes for children, which has been a goal and priority for AEL. It's one of the major reasons we decided to relocate AEL. We're expanding our lineup of classes and lessons. We'll have some interesting and exciting announcements in the near future.

New System, New Changes...

Well once again I've been a very negligent in my blogging, but there is a reason... (maybe not legitimate, but I'll use it as an excuse anyway).

June 1st, we completely changed our system at AEL to accommodate the many requests for private and group English lessons and singing/voice training lessons. Since then, I've been very surprised at the amount of students we've signed up. So surprised, (and incredibly busy), that in fact we've had to make big changes to our "Free-style Conversation" system and schedule so we can have more time for lessons.

Today and tonight we're working at a feverish pace to update the website and send an email to our AEL family to inform them of the new changes to our "Free-style Conversation" program. I'm sorry that I have to cut back the time for our "Free-style Conversation", but at the same time I'm elated at the success of our new system for lessons.

The New AEL Website

The new AEL website is here and ready for your viewing pleasure.

Endless thanks go out to our webmaster Seita-san for his professional work and artistic eye. His web design and layout makes for a much more usable and informational site than our old site (designed by yours truly)... (and I am NO webmaster, that's for sure)...

We will also include more videos soon (as soon as I can produce them)...

Check out the new site here:
http://www.americaneikaiwalounge.com

Very Special Ceremony...

My friend Harumi-san was kind enough to take me to a very special local event. It was a ceremony for the renewal opening of a local temple. She explained that this event happens about every 20 years.

I was the only Gaijin (foreigner) at the event. I felt very honored and special to attend this event. I would not have had this wonderful experience without the kindness and consideration of my good friend Harumi-san.

The parade was planned to go around the neighborhood, but it was raining so they had to shorten the parade to the temple grounds only. The parade included a group of adults playing different types of Japanese flutes. They had a very distinct and wonderful sound. The parade also featured many children.

The most interesting and wonderful part of the experience was the children. They really touched my heart.

Thank you Harumi-san!

Live Performance Tonight

Tonight I have a live performance in Motosumiyoshi. I think many friends and members of AEL will come to my live. This is the first time in quite a while that I will perform somewhere other than one of our AEL events.

I am very excited and I know I'll have a lot of fun. I'll be sure to write about it here in my blog.

Break a leg Brian! (That's an old saying from the stage and theater world that actors usually say to each other. It means good luck!)...