In my quest to find what excites Japanese students into learning English I’ve found that one way to really connect with them is through pop culture. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift will catch the attention of most Japanese teenage girls. To fill the silence we’ll often play songs like these and they’ll immediately start humming or singing along. I have a snippet of a Japanese friend rapping to Eminem. He doesn’t get all the words right, and there’s a lot of mumbling, but he got excited when he heard it and that’s the kind of excitement you want to see in an English language classroom. Incorporating references to relevant pop culture is key to keeping students interested.