May 2015

Hello everyone, I'm Danielle and I comefrom Canada. I was raised bilingually inEnglish and French. When I was 12 years
old, my uncle married a Spanish woman. I
was fascinated by her culture and decided
to teach myself Spanish so that I could
communicate with her. After that I went to her country forfurther study and stayed with a family in a small town
near Madrid. I worked as a translator in Canada andthen traveled around the world for two years and finallysettled in Taiwan where I taught English and French. InTaipei I met a Japanese couple who invited me to Tokyo.
That was many years ago and I'm still here! I love teaching
languages and learning them too. One of the ways I studied Japanese was by watching dramas on NHK!
In my free time, I take long walks with my three dogs.
Thanks to them I spend a lot of time outdoors! I love tofollow the news both in English and French and watch
movies too. I hope learning English becomes an enjoyable
part of your life.

Hi, my name is Andrew. I have lived in afew places in England, but I have not livedin London. My favourite place in Englandis Stonehenge because there's a nice cafénear there. You should visit if you get thechance, but please don't feed the cat
there!
In Japan, I have some favourite places. I especially likeMatsumoto in Nagano and Hikone in Shiga. I like those places
because they have very cool mascots and the people are very
friendly. I am thinking of visiting Nikko and Hirosaki next, butthey are a bit far from Matsuyama.
If I have some free time, I sometimes try playing squash,
go to a calligraphy class or take in an art exhibition withsome friends. There are lots of galleries in Japan and I want
to see all of them.
Teaching is fun for me because I like seeing students improve and have fun in class. If you see me, please say hello
and tell me about yourself!

This is me–Magee. I do not remember exactly when I came to Japan from England, it was a very long,long time ago. As you can imagine, I have many stories to tell; I hope to share them with you in the classroom. I could write about my impressive academic history but you might be more amazed to know that I
am very interested in happiness–aren’t we all?
If you think so, you are right!
To tell the truth, happiness, or rather the application of findings from neuroscience, psychology, andeducation in the classroom is my research interest. Our brains produce happy chemicals, dopamine, oxytocin, endorphin,and serotonin. Put simply: they create our sense of joy, safety, and security. My challenge is to make the classroom aplace that you feel safe in, secure in, and that fills you with smiles and joy.
Learning needs to be personal, it needs to mean something to us, and it needs to fire our creativity. This demands excitement. We must use language to study about the world because that is where we are going to use it, and toquit using language to study about language because that is about as-boring-as-it-gets. When we read words on a page
we can make them exciting by thinking like actors shining the spotlight on understanding and enjoyment. As learners, weget to decide how we feel. We can be as original as we want to be in the classroom. This is our English class, our story,and we get to write it the way we want to.
If you are not yet lucky enough to join one of my classes, don't panic! You can see me around campus or come tomy Talk, Talk, Talk class on Mondays. See you there!

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Mr. Heffernan and Mr. Tang have left Ehime University in March. These are messages from them.

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Farewell message from Neil Heffernan
I have been in the English Education Center since April, 2008, and have really enjoyed my time here.
I have worked with some wonderful colleagues and will forever be grateful to them. I have learned alot in the past seven years and will take this knowledge with me on the next stage of my career. I will
be moving to a university in Fukuoka and I look forward to the new challenges that this brings.
The students at Ehime University have also been part of my learning experience. I have encounteredmany fantastic students who have a real zest for learning English. I hope you keep this up and use yourknowledge in your future.
I wish for the continued success of the EEC and the students who study in the EEC. You have somefantastic teachers, so please make use of their expertise to help you further your knowledge of learning
English. Good luck!
The staff in the EEC has been extremely helpful over the past seven years. The members of staff in
the office are always willing to answer teachers’ questions, fix their computers, translate memos andgenerally be kind to the teachers in the EEC. You make all of our jobs easier, so thank you!
Finally, to my valued colleagues: Please keep in touch and know that I will always keep you close to
my heart, as you have played a special role in my development as both a teacher and an expat living inJapan. We have made some very special memories together, and I hope we can continue being
colleagues, but most importantly, friends.

Farewell message from Kevin Tang
I can’t believe that it has already been three years. The time has just flown by. It has been a great
pleasure teaching you English and a little bit more of American culture. Some of you may think, “I’llnever use English again”, but I hope you will get a chance to do more with all these new skills you haveacquired. Remember, the future hasn’t been written so you never can tell, and you should never, everstop learning.
One of the best comments I have ever received from a student survey was this: “Kevin is angry. Whyis Kevin always angry?” I really like this comment because first, I’m from New York City, and one of thethings that New Yorkers say is that we’re New Yorkers. It’s our right to be angry. Second, while it has
been rewarding teaching you all, it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows.
I am grateful for the amazing support I have received from the other educators and staffers. I havelearned so much from them, and I will think of them as I move to Kyushu to teach at APU in Beppu. I’llbe there for a few years, and then who knows where. Perhaps our paths will cross again…some day.
It is time though to say goodbye, so I wish you all the best and I want you to follow your feet. They’lltake you to some very great places, but only if you make those leaps and take chances.
In closing, here is part of a song from “The Muppets Take Manhattan” called “Saying Goodbye”:
Saying goodbye, why is it sad?
Makes us remember the good times we’ve had
Much more to say, foolish to try
It's time for saying goodbye