Unplanned Lessons & Dogme
Unplanned lessons and MET assignment | Rob Haines | April 9th, 2004
Is there anyone out there who teaches unplanned lessons? If so, have you completed MET, or are you currently working on MET?
It seems to me that the task of proposing a MET assignment becomes problematic if one does not teach planned lessons. For example, how should one go about undertaking a particular course of action if the students' motivations and interests do not lead the lesson in that direction?
I hope what I'm asking is clear enough. Perhaps I simply haven't thought through how action research might work with unplanned lessons; however, I'd like to gather any feedback I can from CPs on the matter in addition to my own thoughts.
Thanks,
Rob
Re: Unplanned lessonst | Jerry Talandis Jr. | April 9th, 2004
Could you give us some more idea of what you mean by "unplanned lessons?" Does this mean that you just go into a class and totally wing it without any thought to what you're going to do, or without a syllabus or anything? I find that hard to imagine... even when I wing a class I spend at least a few moments before the class starts to determine what I'll do- making a plan, in other words. How can a lesson be "unplanned?"
Even if this is the case, you could still find a good assignment topic, I think. Action research is just about finding some problem or interesting question, creating some response, then evaluating it. You could, for example, look at what happens when you actually plan a lesson. What effect does this have? There are lots of other ideas. Give us some more of your context, and we can help you come up with others.
Jerry
Japan
Re: Unplanned lessons and MET assignment | Martin Lovatt | April 9th, 2004
Hi Robert,
Great to see you playing devil's advocate again. Your e-mails always stir up the status quo nicely!
I'm doing MET at the moment and trying to investigate what goes on in my (pretty much) unplanned 'warm-up' chats (that I call the Initial Chatting Period). These occur before my 'planned' lesson begins. So I'm interested in your 'unplanned' approach. However, I have to confess to being a little in the dark about what exactly you mean by that.
Having said that, I think there's lots of things for you to study for your MET assignment in your 'unplanned' lessons. In my case I often abandon my pre-lesson plan if a student brings up something more interesting and useful pedagogically, and the lesson naturally moves away from my plan. However, that's because I have been teaching for well over 150 years now (at least it sometimes feels like it!) and I can use some of that experience to make an intuitive decision to follow the 'flow' of the lesson, and draw out something I think is useful pedagogically for the students, rather than inflict my will upon them. However, there is still a kind of unconscious 'plan' in a sense that I'm using skills I've gained over the years, and the lesson then probably follows some kind of intuitive pattern. (Since I'd never thought about it until reading your e-mail I don't know what kind of pattern I follow, but since patterns exist in everything there must be one!)
I'm sure if you record some of your 'unplanned' lessons, you might notice a kind of pattern emerging. Identifying what pattern tends to emerge and why might be an interesting area to research (although it's a bit of a whopper in terms of scope so I'd probably be blown out of the water by Steve for that suggestion), but it's a place to start for an inductive approach to the assignment.
One last thing, I think 'unplanned' (in your meaning of the word) is still methodology; it's just your methodology. I don't interpret methodology as being the 'experts' methods (although we can read about many of them in the literature), I take it to mean looking for the patterns I use in my teaching context to encourage my students to improve their English skills.
Anyway, that's all I can write for now as I have a massive day ahead and I need a shave before I scare the hell out of a couple of new students starting this morning.
Wishing you the best of luck with your assignment.
Martin
Fukuoka, Japan
Re: Unplanned lessons | Robert Haines | April 10th, 2004
Thank you, Gerry and Martin, for your feedback and input. Let me explain a bit more about my version of unplanned lessons as you've requested.
I should preface this by saying I'm a proponent of dogme, which you can learn more about at www.teaching-unplugged.com (That's not to be a shameful plug, but rather a way to avoid lengthy explanation here if I can). My "confession" about dogmetic teaching might cause some of you to scratch your head, some to suddenly see where I'm coming from and others to groan with disdain, depending on your own value system, experience and pedagogy.
The term "winging it" implies carelessness, which I don't espouse in teaching. By unplanned lesson, I mean a care-ful period spent with the people in the room (students), in which I've given no real consideration as to how I will engineer the interaction among us all. Perhaps that seems impossible to you, but I believe one can anticipate without planning, which is more than semantics to me. It's natural to anticipate a lesson; however, it seems unnatural to suppose one can really predict and plan meaningful, memorable social interaction in the classroom to any great extent.
Countless colleagues have told me that their most memorable and meaningful moments with students, where the learners seemed as engaged and truly present as they (the teachers) were, came when everyone strayed from the course, pursued a live wire, and put the books and cassettes away to instead look at and listen to each other.
So in an unplanned lesson, the content and activities involved emerge from the immediate motivation and interests of the learners. The "lesson" moves as the interaction among the people present takes shape.
Vocabulary (and often grammar "disguised" as vocabulary) evolves out of the discussion and, as Martin has pointed out, experience can help to trigger what might be useful activities in the midst of all this. I do not think teaching experience is essential to an unplanned lesson though --- more heckles? Having been a teacher trainer on CELTA, I don't think it's impossible to imagine less of "the book" and more of the people.
I am not anti-materials per se, and I do often create informal plans for lessons. But I have the impression that the more planning, the less vital and memorable the learning. Maybe Gerry is on to something with his idea of probing what happens when one plans or does not.
The idea is that students are more likely to remember and find interest in what they consider important and relevant to them at a given time than what I have mapped out, based on my best guess or what a coursebook, written by people who've never met the students, says they should find interesting and relevant on a given day. The people in the room become the engine instead of syllabus, materials and planned activities. I used to drive myself nuts, planning lessons down to the minute shortly after coming off the CELTA --- Oh the trees that fell for my many drafts!
I understand that this type of pedagogy stands to challenge learner and teacher assumptions and expectations. Publishers might feel especially threatened, not to mention institutions of education. And, of course, there is the reality of institutional conventions (rules?) and the fact that teachers who are not entirely comfortable with their English language competence might depend heavily on materials for what they consider more accurate models than they themselves can supply.
I don't want to bang on too long about all this, so check out the web site for more examples, information and even lesson plans and materials --- (tongue in cheek) Heaven forbid! Several of these "unplanned" lessons of mine have been reported in some detail on the discussion list if you're interested and have copious spare time ;-p
Some might recognize constructivism or critical pedagogy in my descriptions of what I mean by unplanned lessons, which would seem only natural. Again, others are sure to be rolling their eyes. All are welcome to respond.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. I'm encouraged by what Gerry and Martin have contributed.
Best,
Rob
Re: Dogme | Martin Lovatt | April 11th, 2004
Hi Rob,
I checked out the site you mentioned, but I've only had time to gloss it very roughly. Obviously, there are lots of new and interesting ideas (for me) there that need much deeper consideration. It would also be a mistake to dismiss 'unplanned' lessons out of hand without good pedagogical reasons to support 'planned' lessons in their stead. You can't knock it if you haven't tried it, if you'll forgive an old, extremely tattered cliché .
On the other hand, if someone suggested knocking someone over the head with a frying pan to motivate them to study harder, we should think twice before rushing into the classroom to give it a try!
Of course, I am certainly not suggesting the dogme approach is a 'frying pan' idea (I've tried that and it doesn't work anyway...).
Actually, the unplanned lesson reminds me of a friend of mine who teaches without materials (well for small classes anyway), here in Japan. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem able to keep his private group students (i.e. the one's that are not part of a 'captive audience' in a school) for very long. Since he's a personable sort of Pinkie (in my opinion, at least), I always wondered whether it was because Japanese students (in general) have a fairly old-fashioned idea of what a teacher (of any kind) should be doing in the classroom, and perhaps his freestyle approach did not feel like 'English study' to his students. He used to complain that his students wanted to cling too much to textbooks and were not capable of 'real' conversation. (One point he made was that his classes sometimes had 'quiet periods' because natural conversation with good friends also has such interludes.) Now, I am not trying to criticize his way of teaching, because (like the rest of us) he's trying to do what he thinks is best for his students, but if we have no students to teach, our methods are superfluous.
I am also not arguing here for doing what students expect in classes (whether it be PPP, TBL, unplanned, or anything else), but I think it's very important to get the students 'on board' in terms of whatever is going on in the classroom. If your students can see the light behind your pedagogical approach; understand you are doing your best for them; enjoy studying with you; improve their English in a measurable way within reasonable time spans; and achieve feelings of success (by which I mean setting and reaching their own goals under their own steam and by their own means), then you've cracked it.
Before I go, can I just ask one question? How does the dogme approach work with beginners? (Forgive me if it's clearly stated somewhere on the site, as I haven't read it in detail yet.) I was just wondering how you run unplanned lessons with people who speak very little English.
Okay, I'll shut up now. And it's time for bed.
Thanks, Rob, for introducing a whole new area to think about. I intend to look at the whole dogme concept more closely as I believe it could offer many new perspectives for me as a teacher.
Best regards,
Martin
Re: Dogme | Robert Haines | April 13th, 2004
Martin,
You've made valid points, especially:
"If your students can see the light behind your pedagogical approach; understand you are doing your best for them; enjoy studying with you; improve their English in a measurable way within reasonable time spans; and achieve feelings of success (by which I mean setting and reaching their own goals under their own steam and by their own means), then you've cracked it."
I'm not sure which light you refer to behind the pedagogical approach, but I assume you mean students understand the purpose for what happens in class. Maybe you mean something else?
The enjoyment students experience is essential. That doesn't mean they won't want to be challenged, but motivation is key, isn't it?
Unfortunately, I think the means of measurement mentioned by you above is all too often a standardized test, which means that the language focus will be simply learning how to pass the test. I remember a father (British), living in Germany, telling me how his son (German) would come to him asking for help with his English homework. After a few minutes, the man's son would complain that his father wanted to teach him 'real' English, but the son needed 'school' English to pass the exam. I think that's an example of learning about English instead of learning by using the language for meaningful communication.
Finally, what you've written about students working at their own pace (as I understand it) towards goals that are meaningful to them seems very relevant. That is why I question syllabi that presume to know what language learners need without considering who they are as people and where they stand as language learners.
Dogme for beginners? I've never met a true beginner, have you? I did once work with a businessman from Brazil who seemed to have very little communicative competence in English. I came to the conclusion he would be better served by a bilingual (Portuguese - English) teacher.
You've asked about dogme for people who speak very little English. There is a thread on the dogme discussion list on this very topic. At the risk of sounding like I'm ducking the question, I think I would have to meet the folks involved; I can't think of a recipe for this situation. I do know I would work with the language students brought to class with them and scaffold that language in order to push the learners a bit beyond their present level of communicative competence (similar to Vygotsky's ZPD?). I think these students might need lots of time to prepare and reflect.
Click on this link to see what Scott Thornbury decided to do with a group of beginners in Saudi Arabia. You'll find more examples of lessons under the Resources link.
Having taught quite a few groups of Japanese learners in a private school myself, I can understand your friend's tribulations. I had the good fortune of working with students here in the U.S., which means they were more willing (and often had little choice) to immerse themselves in English. Many of them found using English an empowering transition from clinging to coursebook English and one piece of grammar-based writing after the next. Again, I think this had a lot to do with the local context and the kinds of students who travel outside their own country to learn about and explore another culture. And, no, this transition didn't all happen overnight.
At the same time, a coworker at the same school taught a group of Spanish teenagers (Some of them would want me to call them Basque teenagers) that same year, who didn't appear to use much English at all during their stay. They sort of brought the language and culture with them, unpacked it, then left with it. My coworker said he'd never teach a group like that again, which shocked us as we considered him the most humanistic, perhaps even shamanistic, teacher we'd ever observed. So many variables, eh? And so much depending on the immediate circumstances.
Well, I've gotten off track here. This thread started with my asking about the MET and whether it lends itself to action research that investigates classroom practices outside of convention. As I read through the MET, perhaps I've let myself be overwhelmed by the steady references to materials and methodological cycles. That's only to be expected, of course, since most of us are working with coursebooks and planning lessons along those lines.
What sort of action research might you do with those chats you have at the beginning of your lessons, Martin?
Thanks for your comments and questions.
Take care,
Rob
Re: 3-word activity & Dogme | Tisa | April 13th, 2004
Hi Martin,
Thanks a lot for all the feedback. I read it with great interest. Nice to get them to find connections between words and then branch out into a discussion about vocabulary acquisition. I'll have to try that out next time. Funny that a bunch of messages about Dogme should pop up simultaneously, too, because I think what you did with your classes (and the whole concept behind the 3-word activity for that matter) is exactly what 'materials light' (and so-called 'unplanned lessons') is all about. Basically you're using your students' ideas to fuel the lesson and guide its path.
Do you keep a professional diary by the way? If not, keep your last two e-mails to me, because I think you'll find your thoughts useful when it comes to writing up your research. I'm reading a book on the topic and the author claims that the minute you start writing, you've begun your research. In terms of your action research project, sounds like you've got some great examples of the 'student's voice'.
Better get back to my reading (I'm working on IIC right now). My research is still in the early stages, but I think I've got a 'hunch'. Since I'm very interested in the concept of learner autonomy and progress, I thought I'd listen more carefully to see how my students go about asking for help (from their peers and from me) and how we offer it. I have a sneaking suspicion that I give them help too readily and perhaps present them with info they already have. We'll see.
Ciao!
Tisa
Lausanne, Switzerland
PS: Have no doubts that you can learn English (amongst many things) in your sleep!
Re: 3-word activity | Martin Lovatt | April 13th, 2004
Hi Tisa,
I haven't got any feedback from my students about my regular ICP yet (I'm awaiting the return of their questionnaires), but I tried your 'three-word, warm-up activity' with two classes today. The classes were both intermediate level and their responses were very interesting.
In both classes, I did as you suggested and just asked them to write down the first three words that came into their heads. They then discussed them with their partners. Surprise, surprise, most of the students chose words that were connected in some way. Even better, one student who wrote 'tree, cherry blossom, lucky', said there was a connection between tree and cherry blossom (obviously), but she couldn't figure out where 'lucky' had sprung from. After a short discussion she decided it was more of an unconscious connection (she described it as 'just a feeling') as tree and cherry blossom represented very positive images for her (as did lucky, of course). This highlighted the rather nice point of how the brain flits comfortably between conscious and unconscious activity while 'thinking'. We then talked very briefly about how that might be connected to language learning, memorization, and recall. (And they concluded some learning must happen unconsciously...) I have mixed feelings about their conclusions (maybe they think they can learn English in their sleep!), but at least it was thought-provoking.
I followed the three (random) word activity with a further three-word activity, but asked them to deliberately think of words that were not connected in any way. Again they discussed their words with their partners.
Finally, I asked them which exercise had been easier and they concluded that the first one had, as they had 'naturally' chosen connected words. It was then very easy to illicit the idea that it's much easier to learn, remember and recall words that are connected (as collocations etc.). I hadn't expected so much to come out of such a small exercise (and I confess it took about 20 minutes of class time to do this), but it was very worthwhile-- especially as the students came up with most of the above without too much prompting from me.
So thank you for that idea. I will be thinking about the meanings of their responses in more detail, but just wanted to let you know (and others) that your idea was a very successful opening to those two classes.
So, if you have any more good ideas for starting classes, please let me know!
All the very best,
Martin
Re: Dogme | Martin Lovatt | April 13th, 2004
Hi Rob,
I had a look at Scott Thornbury's lesson in Saudi Arabia & a few others listed under 'resources'. I like the idea of just sticking a picture up on the board and seeing how things go from there (although I know that's technically cheating according to the dogme principles), and several other good ideas for activities in the classroom. As I said before, lots of interesting ideas in this area for me.
I'm not sure which light you refer to behind the pedagogical approach, but I assume you mean students understand the purpose for what happens in class.
Yes, I mean exactly that.
The enjoyment students experience is essential. That doesn't mean they won't want to be challenged, but motivation is key, isn't it?
Yes, I completely agree.
Unfortunately, I think the means of measurement mentioned by you above is all too often a standardized test, which means that the language focus will be simply learning how to pass the test.
Standardized testing is certainly one type of measurement (and I usually recommend the TOEIC test to my students as it gives them a score rather than a pass/fail result, and it's useful in helping them gain employment or increases in salary here in Japan.) However, as long as students notice their improvement (whether it be beginning to understand some lines in movies, going up a level at my school, successfully ordering in a restaurant on a trip abroad, or whatever), that's fine with me. The point is for the student to find a way to 'measure' their improvement. For all their faults, standardized tests can also be motivating if the student is interested in taking the test and not coerced into it.
... living in Germany, telling me how his son (German) would come to him asking for help with his English homework. After a few minutes, the man's son would complain that his father wanted to teach him 'real' English, but the son needed 'school' English to pass the exam. I think that's an example of learning about English instead of learning by using the language for meaningful communication.
I agree with you here. However, we could argue that the son is the 'student' and obviously decided his need was to pass the school exam (right or wrong from a linguistic competency point of view). In some ways, this is another example of 'teacher (father) knows best' and doesn't teach what the student (son) wants but what the teacher thinks the student should be studying. That said, I really empathize with the father as the whole English 'educational' system in Japanese schools is geared up to teach students lists of words they are required to regurgitate to pass university entrance exams here. As you rightly said, learning about English rather than learning to communicate. And, surprise, surprise, after 6 years of such study they can't communicate in English! Which is very fortunate for me of course, because if they actually got their act together, I'd be out of a job.
Finally, what you've written about students working at their own pace (as I understand it) towards goals that are meaningful to them seems very relevant. That is why I question syllabi that presume to know what language learners need without considering who they are as people and where they stand as language learners.
I think questioning syllabi is a very healthy activity. I didn't use to use coursebooks very much at all, but some of my students said they wanted to review that day's class and prepare for forthcoming classes in advance sometimes, so they preferred to use a set textbook. I think it made them feel more like they were 'studying'. (This is very much part of the Japanese psyche: there are 'manuals' for everything here.) So I use coursebooks now, but only as a base or 'skeleton structure' if you like. I think they're just one tool in our armoury. Dependence on them is very naive I think, but I guess textbook writers don't intend the books to be used religiously either.
Dogme for beginners? I've never met a true beginner, have you?
Yes, if we define beginner to mean someone who doesn't know the alphabet and cannot read, but only one! My many other 'beginners' could at least read, even if they couldn't put two words together orally. However, logically, every L2 student starts out as a beginner, and I guess many of my false beginners (level 1 students in my case) would have a very hard time with the picture exercise (for 'beginners') outlined by Scott Thornburg above. However, that is a presupposition: I shall certainly have to put my money where my mouth is and give it a try! If I allowed them to use bilingual dictionaries and asked them to come up with things they want to say about the picture, that might be one way to start off. Maybe I'm just limited by my imagination here.
Having taught quite a few groups of Japanese learners in a private school myself, I can understand your friend's tribulations. I had the good fortune of working with students here in the U.S., which means they were more willing (and often had little choice) to immerse themselves in English. Many of them found using English an empowering transition from clinging to coursebook English and one piece of grammar-based writing after the next. Again, I think this had a lot to do with the local context and the kinds of students who travel outside their own country to learn about and explore another culture. And, no, this transition didn't all happen overnight.
I envy you this experience. It sounds like you did a great job with these people, too.
What sort of action research might you do with those chats you have at the beginning of your lessons, Martin?
I'm trying to look at some or all of the following:
Can the pedagogical usefulness of the ICP be clearly established?
Do teachers
and students recognize the usefulness of the ICP?
Can students initiate the
ICP?
Are these activities practical in the L2 classroom?
Is the ICP the best use
of the first 10 minutes of class time?
Does the ICP improve student punctuality
for class?
One last thing; it would be nice to hear from a few other CPs on dogme, coursebooks, or other related alternatives, too.
Thanks again, Rob, for keeping me thinking.
All the best,
Martin
Re: Unplanned lessons | Catherine Buehler | April 13th, 2004
I've been following the discussion with great interest as I have the problem with my senior citizens that the lessons that I plan very often turn into something quite different. It's not easy telling a bunch of 70 year olds that they have to do what you want, so very often I go along with their theme - and to be honest we have covered a lot of vocabulary which I wouldn't have been able to teach them with any of the materials available - such as the taxation system, health insurance, various British traditions and customs, historical events etc. etc. If you have a group who are willing to work like that, it's fine when you don't have much time to prepare a lesson and by doing revision in the next lesson, by teaching a grammar point which came up, for example, you already have 2 lessons. The group likes to read a book. They like to read a page in turn and then discuss the contents. Sometimes, the contents lead to completely different subjects - but the main thing is that they are using the language and not learning phrases from a coursebook, which they would never use in "real life".
I also give extra lessons to a 15 year old and an 18 year old, who need to improve their English to get better grades to go on to a higher level at school. Here, you can't be so flexible and still I try to get them to practice their oral skills by speaking about whatever they want. School curriculums can be very frustrating if you are used to letting students plan their own lessons, so it's good for me to have the contrast and keeps me disciplined.
With this message I will take my leave from the discussion group. Family commitments and a new area of work do not allow me to continue with the MSc. A big thank you to all the CPs out there - I really feel like I know you all personally, and I wish all of you the very best of luck with the rest of your studies. Thank you, too to all tutors. The staff at Aston are marvelous and I would certainly recommend the course again.
Catherine B ühler
Switzerland
Re: Dogme | Maria Leedham | April 13th, 2004
Dear all,
Just thought I'd stick in my two pennorth and answer some of Martin's questions.
Can the pedagogical usefulness of the ICP be clearly established?
Do
teachers and students recognize the usefulness of the ICP?
Can students initiate
the ICP?
Are these activities practical in the L2 classroom?
Is the ICP the best use
of the first 10 minutes of class time?
Does the ICP improve student punctuality
for class?
I think T and ss may or may not recognize the usefulness of the initial chat. Ts probably do. Ss often think it's a friendly way to begin and use the time while everone arrives. I usually chat about weekends / free time, drawing on anything I know about ss. Sometimes I can build in the homework - last term I had a class who wanted to learn lots of colloquial language and I set them homework to listen out for more such language. This evolved from the initial chat quite naturally. I suppose I usually try to weave the chat into the start of the lesson by a few leading questions that move the chat on to the topic of the reading etc.
Ss have to feel pretty confident to initiate. It helps if we've worked on small talk and discussed local events. If I ask them to tell their partner what they did at the weekend then me, it makes it feel more of a teaching activity - but then it's not spontaneous.... ? I think pointing out the usefulness of small talk is important as it helps them to see the ICP as worthwhile rather than a time-filler.
One point against the ICP is if ss don't see it as marking the real start of the lesson then they don't rush to arrive on time. Sometimes I like to get straight into the meat of the lesson to encourage everyone to get there on time - it's important if lessons are 50 minutes long and we have to get out promptly as there's another class due. So I suppose it doesn't improve punctuality unless ss really see its value.
Maria
Oxford, UK
Re: Questions | Robert Haines | April 14th, 2004
Martin, in response to your questions, understanding that your local context is going to be different than mine:
Can the pedagogical usefulness of the ICP be clearly established?
I think that depends on how you measure usefulness. I believe it can be established quantitatively, but we our profession seems to value quantitative values over how students feel, which is understandable since the numbers, tables and taxonomies fit more easily into papers and books than do the hearts and minds of learners.
Do teachers and students recognize the usefulness of the ICP?
The students I'm working with came to the program coordinator the first week of class, where we had been chatting for hours on end, telling him they liked the class but didn't seem to really be learning English. The program coordinator told me how ironic he found their stories, which were in English and very comprehensible, two aspects of storytelling which the students hadn't demonstrated until then. In feedback, students have told me they questioned my 'method' at first but now they appreciate it. Some of them call it a 'natural method' --- that's been taken, eh?
Can students initiate the ICP?
Yes. But that one really comes down to your local context, I know. With Japanese students here, I used to just join in the conversations they were having. Soon the whole class was talking until one or two of them realized we were already halfway into our time together.
Are these activities practical in the L2 classroom?
I believe they are, and I think it's important to recycle the vocabulary and content that comes up during the ICP. One of the members of the dogme discussion group has added an example of how he summarizes class discussions onto a single sheet of A4 to be posted on the class chat site where everyone can read and/or print it out. This sort of recycling is essential, I think. Students can also be asked to write summaries at the end of class, which helps you understand what they got out of the chat and the language they've chosen to express it.
Is the ICP the best use of the first 10 minutes of class time?
I'm not sure it has to come at the beginning of class, but students are often chatty then, so I can understand why one might want to begin with the ICP. I think the less it's considered an ICP (a technical part of an engineered interaction between people), and the more natural it flows, the better. I understand the term helps out with action research on an MSc.
Does the ICP improve student punctuality for class?
Hmm... that really depends on the students and the institution. The owner of our school was a stickler for punctuality, meaning she would count late students as partially absent (partially absent?), but a couple came late anyway.
Must run, now. Thank you, Martin. I would also enjoy hearing from others like Maria.
Rob
Thanks | Martin Lovatt | April 14th, 2004
Thanks, everyone for your helpful feedback for my MET assignment. I greatly appreciate your insightful comments.
Martin
Fukuoka, Japan
with 
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