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About Monkey Business
The Monkey Business program was created by Chris Howe, a singer-songwriter and ESL instructor with over 35 years of experience teaching kids in Japan. He arrived in the 80s to study Japanese with a homestay family. Since then, he's done voice recording for English materials for many large and small language schools. For 10 years, did also narration for FM 802 and Hiro-T’s Morning Jam.
Throughout his time in the classroom, Chris used a wide variety of commercially produced EFL materials for kids in Japan. He quickly noticed that some activities worked well, but the conventional teaching style was just difficult, boring, and not designed to appeal to kids. Students were expected to sit quietly and memorize words and sentences. The problem is that kids don't want to sit and study all day - they want to play!
Monkey Business evolved out of Chris' search for an effective, fun-based way of learning that's appropriate for children. His fun, simple, and easy-to-use course is based on experience and the latest research on language-learning acquisition. Monkey Business materials are all 100% original, with music and vocals that were written, developed, and recorded by Chris himself. He has watched young learners use the curriculum to improve and thrive in his own classes and with their parents at home. We hope you'll enjoy using Monkey Business with your kids as much as we have with our students!
"We here at Ai Kindergarten have had the distinct pleasure of receiving Chris’s English lessons since April 1998, and the past twenty years have seemed to fly by. From the start, he has been a pleasant and musical presence, and the students are all very fond of him. Even now, his efforts at the school extend to the elementary school students and various extracurricular lessons. Whereas a number of our native English teachers have tended to come and go in the past, Chris has been a constant source of excellence and passion in his instruction. Thanks to my time spent studying early childhood education in America when I was young, I have been able to discuss a great deal with Chris about educational materials.
When he first began with us in 1998, we were using different materials, and through the years he has tested a number of original ideas in our extracurricular classroom to guide students through the joys of learning English.
MONKEY BUSINESS is the culmination of those years of trial and error. By analyzing a vast number of materials and literature, and spending countless hours in development, Chris has created an excellent resource for children to learn English by listening. Moreover, the children are able to enjoy these listening materials as they learn. I firmly believe that in the future, these students will be able to spread their wings and travel the world over, due to their ability to use these English skills in the workforce. This possibility is all thanks to Chris developing these superb materials borne out of years of experience."
- Shimizu Academy Inc. Education Institution, Ai Kindergarten Principal Toshiyuki Shimizu
”At first, the kids have no understanding of what they are hearing, but as they progress in their lessons, they become able to fully comprehend and properly pronounce the English songs. Because they’re based on everyday scenarios, their application and use is also easy to intuit, and the students quickly became able to master Chris’s drills. The songs are also quite upbeat, so they’re easy to sing along to.”
- Ai Kindergarten Senior Staff Member, Ms. Kodama
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