In testing, the site has been unstable, and there have been some times when it has not worked well in different regions around the world. We are sorry if this has been inconvenient. This month we rolled out changes that will improve things—there should be fewer issues with speed and stability. We'll continue to update you as we fine-tune the site.
Greetings everyone!
August is my favorite month of the summer. Here in Massachusetts, U.S.A., it's still hot in the daytime but starting to get chilly at night. I know it's not like that for everyone around the world—I hope the weather where you are becomes this beautiful soon!
We have decided to post news once a month now rather than once a week. So here is your first monthly update from The English Farm.
Good morning,
Over the weekend, we made a change to the back end of our system. However, this resulted in an issue with the booking system. It would not load. We are very sorry for the inconvenience. The issue has been resolved. You can now make changes to your schedule as before.
If you had problems because of this and need help, please contact support (support@theenglishfarm.com).
I am very sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
I hope you have a fantastic week.
Thank you all for your continuous support and hard work on your English so far.
Since many of our students are going to have their summer break during this time, we are offering 15% off all points purchased from August 10th to 18th, 2019. Just use the coupon code SUMMER2019 when you buy points.
You can use this code as many times as you like during this period, and the points you buy will be valid for 180 days after purchasing them.
We hope you stay cool despite the summer heat!
Hello everyone,
Our Employee of the Month award* for July goes to a teacher who has taught the most lessons out of all our current teachers at The English Farm—Aditya! He is rock solid and reliable, always willing to put in the time and energy to teach even in our busiest seasons. A constant learner, we never fail to see him at our internal staff meetings and workshops. And whether it is a Skype message, a one-to-one meeting, or a group meeting, Aditya is always pleasant and likeable, showing respect to everyone he talks to.
Hello everybody,
Today I have a simple question for you.
Do you remember how to pronounce the new words and phrases you learn in your lessons?
If not, one easy way to practice is by using TEFbot, the automatic recording next to the words in your Vocabulary, Phrases, and Words to Practice lists on your lesson records and on your edited homework. It is a great way to improve your listening skills, too.
Look for the play icon if you are on a computer, or the download icon on mobile.
Hi everyone,
The English Farm is devoted to doing good things. I wanted to share what TEF does for our local communities and the planet.
We have been certified carbon neutral since April 1st 2018 by Ekos of New Zealand.
Hello everyone,
This month's Employee of the Month award* goes to one of our newer teachers who has been making a huge impact on The English Farm—Pamela! A true team player, Pamela is always engaged and proactive in our internal meetings and workshops. She is incredibly tactful, transparent, and generous about sharing her knowledge and experience in the business world, and she is always curious to learn more from her peers as well.
Hi everybody,
We have updated our course page so that our line-up is clearer and easier for everyone to see.
Now you can filter courses by:
Or, you can just scroll through our list.
Hi everyone,
I have some exciting news. We are replacing Skype!
We have been working for a year on a new video conferencing system. It will enable you to do lessons on our website without using Skype or any other software. It will make lessons easier and calls more stable. It will also enable The English Farm to build new functions and tools to help you learn English.
Our beta version will be ready by the end of this month. Teachers will be asking some of our students to test the system and give feedback.
Hello everyone,
This month's Employee of the Month award* goes to one of our first and main members of our support and admin staff, Akiko Hori. You may know her if you've gotten an email from our Support team.
Hi everyone,
I'd like to introduce you to one of our new teachers, Jenna. She is a TEFL-certified, online English teacher who has experience teaching various students from adults to children. Before teaching English, she was a production manager for a clothing company and independently ran the store, made the clothing, and dealt with customer satisfaction. Jenna also has teaching experience beyond English. She used to be the manager of an organic farm in America where she taught children and adults about healthy eating and living.
Want a fresh new start for the new era? Now is the perfect time to try our new intensive courses: our 7-day plan and our 30-day plan.
These short courses are designed to be like a stay-at-home study abroad program.
Our 7-day plan gives you 10 lessons in one week. That's 2,195 yen per lesson (about 12% off from your regular 10-point package for 180 days).
Our 30-day plan gives you 30 lessons in about one month. That's roughly 1,998 yen per lesson (about 19% off from your regular 20-point package for 180 days).
Hello everyone,
April's Employee of the Month award* goes to Craig—a teacher who is always such a pleasure to have in staff meetings and workshops because of his good-natured presence, ability to both share knowledge and stay curious about what others have to say, and of course, his brilliantly funny jokes. In fact, Craig is so inclusive that a couple of our newer additions to The English Farm staff came with his introduction.
Hello everybody,
We have a new feature on our website: the ability to add your own words and phrases to your study lists. You can do this by going to "My study lists" from our homepage and clicking on your Vocabulary or Phrases list.
For more information, please take a look at "Using your study lists" on our Help page.
Hello everyone,
We're excited to announce that Stage One of our new in-house Business English for Consultants course is out now!
Hi everyone,
As many of you already know, The English Farm has a homework checking service for anyone using our services—for every lesson you take, you can send in homework up to 1000 characters long.
But did you know we also have a sister site—a writing correction service called Poligo? Some of our teachers are active there as checkers, and some of our students at The English Farm use it when they need longer writing checked or they want to practice more writing.
Hello everyone,
The Employee of the Month award* for March goes to someone who plays a huge role at The English Farm and has an impressive list of contributions here... Di!
Hello everyone,
We have found and resolved the issue with the points purchase system. You should now be able to buy points from our site store again. Please contact support if you are still having problems with this.
Thanks to those who let us know about this problem. I am sorry for the inconvenience this caused.
Thank you all for your patience while we solved the problem.
Enjoy your lessons!
Kind regards,
Yumi