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Coupon Name: OBON Gift — and an Invitation to Meet Manning 2.0: Jazz
Code: ccda991f
Discount Rate: 100%
For Lesson: Any lesson except for lesson packs
Effective for lessons conducted between: Aug 10, 2026 ~ Oct 2, 2026
URL: https://cafetalk.com/coupons/detail/?id=6494927&lang=en
(GMT-04:00 DST New York)
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Subject: An Obon Gift — and an Invitation to Meet Manning 2.0: Jazz
 

Hello everyone,
 

I’ve been thinking about all of you lately — those I see every week, those I see occasionally, and those of you who may be wondering whether I’ve fallen off the edge of the Internet.
 

About ten months ago, I significantly raised some of my lesson prices. I still believe strongly in the value of the preparation, individualized lessons, coaching, and detailed feedback I provide. But looking back, I don’t think I fully appreciated just how much the weak yen and rising prices would affect some of you.
 

So, I owe you a small apology.
 

And since apologies are considerably more useful when accompanied by something free…
 

I’m giving you a free lesson coupon.
 

Consider it my Obon gift.
 

You can use it for absolutely any reason:
 

1. Offset the cost of studying with me. The yen could use some assistance. I am apparently now part of Japan’s economic stimulus program.
2. Come and catch up. Forget serious studying for a day. Tell me what’s happening in your life. New job? Trip? Grandchild? Dog? Cat? Scandal? I want details.
3. Kick-start your English again. If your English study has quietly wandered away while nobody was watching, let’s go find it.
4. Because it’s FREE. I spent 30 years in business, and even I recognize this as a reasonably compelling value proposition.

This is the second of three little gifts I plan to offer during the year: Christmas/New Year’s, Spring, and now Obon. Christmas/New Year’s will come around again before we know it, assuming 2026 continues moving at its current completely unreasonable speed.
 

And I’d particularly like to invite back some old friends…

If we haven’t studied together for a while—or you tried me once and I didn’t quite tickle your fancy—I’d love another chance.
 

Because something rather interesting has happened to my teaching.
 

I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing transcripts of my own lessons and looking closely at how I actually teach, rather than how I thought I taught.
 

And I discovered something.
 

Sometimes I was using a fairly traditional approach:
 

Manning asks a question → student answers → Manning asks another question → student answers → repeat until Zoom mercifully ends the meeting.
 

It worked.
 

But I realized I could do much better.
 

So I’ve been experimenting with a much more consultative, exploratory approach—and it has been something of a revelation.
 

Instead of arriving with a long list of questions that I need to march through, I listen for the interesting idea in your answer and follow it. I ask follow-up questions. I challenge you. I ask you to explain why. We explore unexpected directions. And when useful English emerges naturally—vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, phrasing—we stop and work with it.
 

Think a little less interview, a little more Socrates—and, increasingly, a little more jazz.
 

A good jazz musician doesn’t walk onto the stage without preparation and simply make noise. There’s a structure. There’s knowledge. There’s a plan.
 

But then you listen to the other musicians and respond to what they’re doing.
 

That’s increasingly how I think about a great English lesson.
 

I prepare the structure. You bring the ideas. We improvise from there.
 

I’m calling it:
 

Manning 2.0: Jazz

The early results have been exciting. Students are talking more, thinking more deeply in English, and taking our conversations in directions I never could have predicted in a lesson plan.
 

And frankly, I’m having more fun too.
 

There are undoubtedly still bugs. Apparently, even jazz musicians have rehearsals.
 

One of the things I love about teaching is that after thousands of lessons, I’m still discovering better ways to do it. I never want to become the teacher who says, “Well, this is how I’ve always done it.”
 

I’m constantly experimenting, learning, adjusting, and trying to make the next lesson better than the last one.
 

So if you haven’t seen me for a while, come test-drive Manning 2.0: Jazz.
 

No obligation. No pressure. No software subscription.
 

And if you preferred Manning 1.0… unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the installation disk.
 

Most importantly, thank you.
 

Whether you’ve studied with me 100 times, ten times, once, or took a trial lesson and decided I wasn’t quite your cup of tea, you gave me an opportunity to be part of your English journey.
 

And all of you have helped make me a better teacher.
 

So please enjoy the coupon. Use it to save a little money, restart your English, satisfy your curiosity about Manning 2.0: Jazz—or simply come and tell me what you’ve been up to.
 

I’d love to see you.
 

Warm regards,
 

Manning
 

 
 

P.S. Yes, it’s really free. I know some of you well enough to know that this will be your first question. ?