GuySmiley comments

Re. toilet knocking, which I find discombobulating as someone who likes a bit of privacy: you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes 1) to observe the occupied/vacant sign 2) to see the bolt slid across through the crack in the door 3) to listen for giveaway noises that someone is there! Now I knock back as that is the thing to do here, but I'll never feel comfortable doing so.

Another helpful column thanks - look forward to your next one.

New books are so expensive but one or two crowd-pleasing new books each month off Amazon keep my kids happy and eager about reading English, and it doesn't break the bank.

An idea that's worked for us is to get friends and family to send over cheap used books Also, when we shipped all our stuff over here from New Zealand, It didn't cost any extra to pack in a HUGE collection of books acquired from a whole day spent trawling through some second-hand bookshops. This treasure trove has lasted us these past 4 years in Japan. I spent about NZ$200 for a collection of books probably worth over 150 000 yen new. I bought lots of chapter books that weren't age-appropriate for my children at the time but that I have gradually introduced as they've got older.

We believe that home delivery will continue to grow and we plan to put our weight behind it,”

I'm too lazy to think of it just now, I'm sure there's a witty pun to be made there, with reference to increased weight and couch potato lethargy of some Makudonarudo consumers being the driving force behind the new home-delivery expansion.

An excellent set of tips thank you. I can tick most of them as things my family does. One parent one language from the start was an easy choice. From my perspective, it's absolutely foolproof so why risk another strategy. It depends on how desperately you want your children to develop as fully competent users I suppose.

Regarding written work: My kids write a daily diary entry after dinner of just two or three sentences, which will be a future treasure in terms of memories but importantly also provides that regular practice to re-enforce spelling and encourage variety in sentence construction. Just a little each day to prevent their English development from being overwhelmed by the Japanese world that surrounds them, without overdoing it or seeing Japanese as being 'a villain'.

Perhaps he got off on teasing people over their looks because of his own insecurity about resembling an Oompa-Loompa. (I don't like the look of it)

I hope this means a six pack of Asahi Super Dry will soon sell for as little as a half dozen Tui!