Ｊａｍｅｓ　Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　Ｈｏｕｓｅ

This Spring a four year girl started studying with me. She is very tiny and very reserved so it has been a little hard getting her to relax and open up. She was pretty tense the first few times she came to class and would start weeping if she didn't understand what I wanted her to do.

Since I often use gestures with younger students I also thought that she was intimidated by them so I made a conscious effort to be careful about gesturing to her. Teaching her went a little bit better after that but she still was nervous until one day I started using "Kobito" seals with her.

I'm not sure what exactly a "Kobito" is, all I know about them is that they are some kind of animation that the Japanese kids have become very interested in in. The literal of translation of "kobito" is "little person" and from what I have gathered from the students is that these things are tiny beings that go around helping people and doing wacky things.

When I found that the dollar shops sold Kobito seals I bought some to see if I could use them in class and when I first used them with this girl she suddenly got this serene angelic expression on her face. The very next day she gave her older sister an envelope to give to me which had the above in it. (it says 'To Mr. James, English class is fun, thank you.')

Some of the kids take this Kobito thing very seriously. One student once happily told me that she had seen one of them in her grandmother's bathroom and couple of other students have told me that they were going to go home and look for Kobito in their yards after class was finished.

You might not believe that Kobito exist, but since I have had the experience of having them help me I am starting to believe that they might. And who knows, I may take the time after classes are finished tonight to search around the school to see if I can some real ones to help me teach!!