Kyoto YMCA English School (京都ＹＭＣＡ英会話スクール)

Thank you for the newest likes.
Our spring/summer term is underway and we have some great students, from pre-schoolers to senior citizens.

Sorry we have not posted anything lately. We will do so soon.

We had a great summer camp this year with superstar kids and wonderful volunteers from the UK, Switzerland, and Japan, as well as our Canadian and Australian teachers. Good work everyone!

Thank you for all the new 'likes' recently.
We will be starting the second term in a few weeks and are busy preparing texts, classes, resources, etc.
More important than texts, teaching materials and convenient schedules are good teachers! We strive to maintain the high standard that was set more than a century ago.

Thank you for the new likes recently, and a very Happy New Year to everyone.
Our 125th Anniversary celebration will take place on February 11th. Please join us if you are in Kyoto.
Info (sorry, in Japanese only) at
http://kyotoymca.or.jp/125th/

京都YMCA創立125周年記念サイト - Welcome to the Kyoto YMCA Welcome to the Kyoto YMCA

Thank you to those who have liked us recently. We are busy with activities before the end of the year so we haven't been able to spend much time on our FB page, but we appreciate the positive feedback. By the way, do you all know that it it our 125th anniversary? That's longer than our head teacher has been working here, by a few years at least..
Enjoy the holiday season, everyone~

Thanks for the new likes! We have been busy with our programs but will post something soon.

Look at Beth. She's happy.

How are you?

Summer is here in and our annual Kids English World Summer Camp is a week away! Looking for volunteers who would like to work with kids and have some fun in a natural mountain setting. Drop us a message!

We had some visitors today from Springfield College, the birthplace of basketball. There was a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of basketball's introduction to Kyoto, via the Kyoto YMCA. A commemorative statue was unveiled in front of the YMCA on Sanjo Street. A lot of young basketballers are sure to come by and touch it for a little good luck.

The YMCA kids' summer English camp is coming up soon. It is always a load of fun. We will post some pictures afterwards.

A catchy tune......

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes "Weird Al" Yankovic's new album "Mandatory Fun" out now: http://smarturl.it/MandatoryFun Music video by "Weird Al" Yankovic performing Word Crimes. (C) 2014 ...

It's Hallowe'en Week next week at the Kyoto YMCA. Trick or treat everybody！

It’s National Punctuation Day today, so there’s no time like the present to finally master the points, marks and dashes that constantly get the better of us.

1. THE APOSTROPHE
For such a small flick of the pen, apostrophes sure cause a lot of grief. But the rules are pretty simple.
When you’re turning something into a plural, don’t use an apostrophe — even if the word ends in a vowel. So boy becomes boys, pizza becomes pizzas, CD becomes CDs.
But if you’re expressing ownership, an apostrophe is needed. E.g. Daniel’s books, the woman’s hat, the dog’s bone.
Ownership gets trickier when dealing with more than one thing or a word ending with s. Generally, the apostrophe goes after the s at the end of the word. So if you’re writing about a group of boys and their pets, you would write the boys’ pets.
Another point on ownership: his, hers, its, ours and yours don’t need apostrophes. Ever.
Also deploy an apostrophe when you’re contracting a word — like the one in this sentence. You are became you’re. NOT your.

2. THE EXCLAMATION MARK
This one drives us nuts. It’s become ubiquitous in recent times, we think, because of text messages and emails.
How else are you going to convey your enthusiasm in writing if you don’t exclaim what you’re saying, right?! Wrong. So wrong.
Unless you rein it in a bit, the exclamation mark will lose all its usefulness! You’re diluting its power! (See what I’m getting at?!)

3. COLONS AND SEMICOLONS
These ones have really unfortunate names but are super useful. They share a key on your computer, but the similarities pretty much stop there so don’t get them twisted.
A colon is often used to introduce a list of items. I needed three things: a comma, a full stop and a question mark.
Also use a colon to introduce an explanation or definition. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’m going to scream if you misuse a colon.
A semicolon is used to join two statements that could be separate sentences, but you want to convey a relationship between them, like this: John likes steak for dinner; Joan likes a roast.
Damn text messages are to blame for all those exclamation marks and smiley faces.
Damn text messages are to blame for all those exclamation marks and smiley faces. Source: News Limited

4. SMILEY FACES, SAD FACES ... FACES IN GENERAL
A bit like the errant exclamation mark, faces have joined the end of our sentences with the advent of texting and emailing.
While it’s undeniably a friendly (and pretty) way to express something, :) is not punctuation. Try showing you’re a nice person through the words you choose, not the pictures you draw. That’s called manners.

5. QUOTATION MARKS FOR EMPHASIS
You’ll see this one “all” the time. To emphasise a word in a sentence, the writer often incorrectly pops quotation marks around it.
It’s unnecessary. The same goes for figures of speech. Just because you’re using a well-worn phrase, doesn’t mean you’re quoting someone.
The pool is not “a stone’s throw” away. It’s a stone’s throw away.