The nickname for Christchurch, New Zealand, is "the garden city." It's easy to see why, as much of inner city space is filled with parks, trees, and lots of green areas. As you walk along the shores of the Avon River, hike along the trails within the finely manicured Bontanical Garden, or exercise in huge Hagley Park, it's VERY easy to forget you are in a large city. Mr. Kawahata captured some of this beauty in a series of photographs, which have been turned into a short video clip here:
Here is a short video clip that shows a bit of what it was like to study English at King's Education. Overall the curriculum was quite challenging for our students, as they were required to use English all the time, both in and out of class. Our students were grouped by level into three different classes, and each week on Friday they had to prepare and present a short public speech on that week's given topic. Also on Fridays, all the King's students gathered in the cafeteria for a short school assembly. Usually at this time all of the teachers gave out "student of the week" awards to a particular student who had worked especially hard. It was interesting to see such a focus on publicly acknowledging student work, something that is not done at TCFL.
Friday, March 7th was the final day of classes for our group at King's Education. During the weekly student assembly, each of our students received a graduation certificate from their teacher. Afterwords, we took them out to Oxford on Avon, a great all-you-can-eat buffet place right on the Avon river. It was a sumptuous meal, and good times were had by all. This also gave us an occasion to offer up some appreciation to Beth Pettigrew, the King's administrator who was in charge of our group. She worked really hard to make sure we were well taken care of, and everyone was really happy with her efforts. The fact that she had spend a year in Toyama as an exchange student in high school and could speak fluent Japanese also helped!
