In this episode of Hear Us Out, we try something new! Andrej shares a recorded interview with Alex Sheffrin, an English instructor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, who discusses innovative listening and pronunciation activities from his classes, like dubbing video clips, creating ads, and understanding sarcasm in English. Back in the studio, Andrej, Ash, and Cooper listen in, chiming in with their own thoughts—and Cooper’s surprised to find out they have an interview to react to!

Across this 40-minute episode, the hosts explore how these creative tasks help students develop real-world listening skills, such as identifying tone and humor. They debate the challenges of teaching sarcasm in Japan, share insights on word stress and intonation, and talk about how these activities could be adapted for language classrooms in Japan and beyond.