Our goal in this class (and, hopefully, beyond) is to LEARN to HAVE interesting conversations in English. The process INVOLVES three phases: (1) DECIDING what to say, (2) DECIDING how to say it in English, and (3) OPENING your mouth and actually SPEAKING English in a conversation. Within each phase, we can USE the PDS（改善する）Cycle: PLAN（計画）, DO（実行）, and SEE what HAPPENS（評価）-- to IMPROVE our English AND the flow of our conversations.

Normal conversations are NOT PLANNED in advance, but the beginning, the first sentence, the Conversation Starter CAN be PLANNED. Our conversations TAKE PLACE in the classroom. We TALK about assigned video stories ... that you WATCH for at least 10 minutes a day outside of class. While you WATCH these videos, you should CARRY OUT Phases One and Two. Then you'll be PREPARED for Phase Three: the discussion in class.

Plan: Decide WHAT to say in Japanese. Don't just repeat phrases from a textbook or your teacher. Do NOT copy English subtitles. MAKE your sentences original. USE your own ideas. Almost any sentence can be USED to START a conversation, and while there is NO perfect Conversation Starter, some ARE better than others.

Do: Watch the assigned video. Find interesting scenes. Write one 4区和文 about each scene. Do this for several scenes, about 10 or so.

See: Look at each of your sentences. THINK about its meaning. Would a person who had seen the video be able to IDENTIFY that scene? Would a person who had not seen the video WANT to KNOW more? If the answers are both YES, then it is probably a very good Conversation Starter.

Plan: Decide HOW to say your Conversation Starters in English. After WRITING each Japanese sentence, it is time to SPEAK English (not write English). The English sentence pattern is often similar to the Japanese sentence pattern, but the noun phrases are CONNECTED to the verb in a different order.

LOOK at S+（最初）and SAY the noun phrase in English. Next LOOK at V（最後）and SAY the verb in the appropriate tense（過去, 過去進行, 過去完了, sometimes 現在形）. Then GO in the opposite direction（逆方向）. SAY the O+ phrase and/or the C phrase in English, and finally the A+ phrase (s). (There may be more than one of these noun phrases.) If there is no S+, you will probably USE the English pronoun（代名詞）that is IMPLIED by the meaning of the Japanese sentence.

MAKING English sentences is very difficult for many students. This process (Write Japanese => Speak English) should MAKE speaking English much easier, although it will also SLOW DOWN the conversation. KEEP PRACTICING. Practice MAKES difficult things easy. As you practice, REPEAT the sentence faster and faster (like the Bounce Patrol). Eventually you will be able to SAY the sentences that you have PRACTICED quickly, easily, and automatically.

Do: Look at each 4 区和文 . Say each 区 in English（最初 , 最後 , 逆方向）.

See: Do you KNOW all the English words for the verbs and in the noun phrases? If not, LOOK them UP in your dictionary or on Wikipedia. Can you SAY the sentences quickly, easily, and automatically? If not, repeat each difficult sentence over and over. REPEAT it faster ... with feeling ... again ... while IMAGINING the meaning. Repeat without looking at the Japanese sentence ... CONCENTRATING only on the image and the feeling of what you are saying.

Plan: Have a real conversation with other students that have seen the video. Imagine that ... what you SAW really happened（本当の事, not just in a video）. We all SAW that same thing, but we HAVE different ideas about it. It does not MATTER（どうでも良い）if our ideas are right or wrong. (This is a conversation--NOT a test.) We will SAY ... what we THINK OR IMAGINED was HAPPENING (as we watched the video). Some people in our conversation group might DISAGREE. If so, they will SAY so--TELL us we are wrong. That will MAKE the conversation very interesting and enjoyable. It will be a real conversation.

But, of course, we will usually be right, because we SAW what HAPPENED. Then the next person to speak will ADD information with a strong connection to our sentence (probably NOT one of their Conversation Starters). Thus the conversation will CONTINUE step by step, sentence by sentence until we RUN OUT of things to SAY. Then ... we BEGIN a new conversation with another Conversation Starter.

Do: In the classroom AND online, we have group discussions (3-4 students in each group). And each group writes a report during their meeting on Teams. They WRITE the report in the Chat Box inside the meeting. (It will also automatically APPEAR on the Channel Page outside of the meeting).

See: After the meeting you can REVIEW your conversation. (The students in other groups can also READ it and LEARN from your conversation.) You should THINK deeply about these questions: How long was your conversation? Thirty minutes? How many sentences were there? How could you make it longer and more interesting? What information could you have ADDED to the discussion?