【講師コラム】メル講師 No.7～Englishbuds名前の由来～

オンライン英語スクール Englishbuds 管理人 Mommy Kayo です。

昨日から４連休がスタートしましたね。

本来だったらオリンピックが始まり

盛り上がっていたのかな・・・

と思うと、なんだか複雑になる４連休です。。。

わが家は息子が来週テストということで

どこへも行けませんし、

コロナが４、５月よりも

感染が蔓延している感じがするので

どこへも行かない４連休となります( -_-)

さぁ、そんな４連休中の金曜日、

講師コラムの担当はメル講師となります。

今日は”Englishbuds”という

スクール名に込められた思いについて

メルが語ってくれています。

どうぞお読みくださいませ♪

I have always loved planting flowering plants since I was a little girl. I used to have this very small flower garden in front of our house when I was an elementary student. I had some small roses and hydrangeas in different colors in my garden, and I used to spend most of my free time tending my garden and watching the flowers go from tiny buds into full bloom.

You are probably thinking why I am talking about this childhood memory. This memory actually plays a big role to Englishbuds name. Mommy Kayo was extremely busy then (I mean super duper busy) making the webpage for online english lessons and writing entries everyday for her blogs to introduce me to moms and dads who are letting their children have English lessons online. Ahhhh… Remembering these days never fail to make me go teary eyed. Mommy Kayo was already very busy with her job as a High School teacher and taking care of children who were still small then, but these did not stop her from doing some thing really , really so big for me… She asked me then to think of a good name for our online school. I honestly had a hard time thinking of a nice and catchy one for our website. There were already so many online English schools that time and all the names that I thought of were already existing. Then I suddenly thought of my garden when I was a small girl. I thought of how similar children were to those tiny but lovely flower buds in my garden back then.

I learned a very important lesson about growing flowers when I was young. As I watched my flowers bloom everyday, I would always notice these buds and my hands would always have this strong urge to peel each petal layer by layer to force open the flower buds. Until one day, my childhood curiosity got the better of me and finally did just that. I immediately regretted what I had done as the result was not good. The petals got wrinkly and all bad.

It was a childhood lesson about growing flowers, but it means so much to me more now as an adult and as an English teacher to children. You see, these buds are just like children. We cannot force open the flower buds as they have their own cycle and season to bloom just as we cannot force our children to learn something so quickly. We cannot force them to be like other children who learned things much earlier than the others. Learning things later than other kids of their age does not make them less smart. All children are special and unique. Parents and teachers are like gardeners who tend their gardens. It is our duty to take care of them and provide all the love and support that they need as they grow up just as how gardeners feed and nourish their plants in their garden.

Anxiety, comparison and competition encourage us to force open the flowers to bloom, to force our children to learn things that they aren’t ready to learn yet. I was once like this to my son. It made me realize that forcing my child to be good at many things would leave more damages than good results in the end.

Upon remembering all these, I thought of ENGLISHBUDS… I thought that Englishbuds was going to be a perfect name for our online English school. Because children are like tiny buds, they may have their own seasons to bloom, but they’ll surely all bloom into beautiful flowers one day. My students are my precious buds… And I will do my best to make sure that they will all bloom confidently and beautifully…
Thank you so very, very much, Mommy Kayo… Thank you for letting me take care of the most wonderful and amazing garden in the world… Thank you for all the understanding, love, patience and support. Thank you sooooooooooo much Mommies and Daddies… I will do my very best for your little flower buds…

メルと二人で５年前に立ち上げたEnglishbuds。

その名前の由来は

このサイトのご挨拶のページにてご説明しているのですが

たぶんそのページはほとんど読まれていないので(^^;

「バズラーのバズってなんだ？！」と思っておられた方も多いかもです。

budsというのは【芽・つぼみ】という意味なんです～。

私は素人ながらにサイト作成に挑戦していて

ネーミングを考えるところまで手が回らなかったので

メルに一人で決めてもらうことにしました。

サイト作成とネーミング決めが同時進行で行われたため

EnglishbudsのサイトのURLに

englishbudsを入れることができなかったという・・・(^^;