Hello everyone! My name is Sakura. I was born in Brazil and moved to Japan when I was in elementary school. I originally spoke Portuguese, and learned Japanese when my family moved to Japan, and then learned English at University in Canada. I believe my background helps me to understand how my students feel when learning English, and the difficulties they may feel. In my free time I usually play the ocarina and play with my dog, Apollo. I also love gardening and I’m interested in sustainable lifestyle.

カフェトークの講師インタビュー番外編。オフィシャルカウンセラーが行う無料カウンセリングについて知れるインタビューです！

I like to send written feedback because it reminds students of what they learned in the lesson, lets them know what they did well, and gives them advice on how to improve. I like to cover things like: new vocabulary and idioms with examples of how they are used, mistakes and how to correct them, study tips, and answers to any questions that the student asked during the class.

I am an avid fan of basketball. I play hours after hours before my body gives out (usually after five hours). I also enjoy ice skating. I am just learning how to skate backward! I like watching movies as well. My favorite movies are Parent Trap (original), Forest Gump, Shutter Island, Good Will Hunting, I Am Legend, Wedding Crashers, Meet the Parents, and many more.

In my lessons, I want to build up my student’s confidence and their openness. Many Japanese students are quite shy, but they are very intelligent, and I want their voices to be part of the great global conversation! For example, the country of my parents, Jamaica, has made a big impact on world culture, even though we are only a few million. BUT, Jamaicans are an outgoing and outspoken people – and we speak English! Japanese is a beautiful and graceful language, but only the Japanese speak it. When more Japanese speak English and speak from their heart, the world will listen, and become a better place for it! So, in my lessons, speak from the heart.

There are lots of things that are important in learning a second language. The first is meaningful exposure. If you take lessons that do not have any real meaning for you as a student, then the lessons will not help you. That is why I typically offer a “Free Talk” style lesson, because I like to negotiate with the student about what their individual goals are. I am quite happy to change the focus of the lesson completely, as long as the student tells me in advance.

Try to remember what you’ve learned in your last lesson until your next lesson: what your teacher asked you and how you answered them, the newly learned phrases or grammar.

Learning a language is like learning to use a tool. It cannot be a target in itself. Have fun with whatever language you want to learn. You will get better the more you use this ‘tool’ and the more you have fun handling this tool.

My best efforts are to train the student in English, namely conversation, pronunciation, listening and reading as per their requirements and requests.(Help with preparation for job interviews preparation for exams like TOEFL, IELTS).

When we speak English, we use phrases that change the meaning of the words in the phrase. When we use the phrase, “That looks hot!”, it means, that something looks great. This phrase is seldom written, but is spoken frequently. To learn a language, you must use it. Don’t worry about mistakes.