Rent a Friend in Japan (Intermediate Lesson)

ESL/EFL Level: B1/B2 (Intermediate)
Lesson Topics: friendship, loneliness, Japan
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: rental-friend-japan-intermediate-092025.docx

  • The lesson begins with warm-up questions about friendship.
  • Next, students preview vocabulary from the upcoming video.
  • The lesson's input is a YouTube video (3:20) about rental friends that you can hire in Japan. Though it contains some higher-level vocabulary, the speech speed is moderate and overall, the general message should be comprehensible to intermediate-level students. The video touches on the importance of having someone to just listen and spend time with, instead of trying to always be productive.
  • The video is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
  • The one debate topic questions whether it is easier to make friends today compared to thirty years ago.
  • As a unique feature, I've added five friendship-related idioms to the lesson to increase its vocabulary load. Students complete simple matching and cloze exercises, and are encouraged to use the expressions in the following roleplay activities.
  • Next, students do Part 1 of a roleplay between a rental friend and a potential royal client. One student must pitch herself as the idea friend-for-hire, while the other conducts the interview.
  • As the lesson draws to a close, students review the lesson's vocabulary and match collocations used in the video.
  • The lesson closes with some final discussion questions.

A rental friend in Japan having a conversation

INTERMEDIATE (B1/B2) Lesson on Rental Friends  

  1. What do you usually do with friends (e.g., eat together, play sports, talk)?
  2. Is it easy or difficult to make new friends in your country?
  3. What do you know about Japanese society and culture? Would you like to visit there? Why or why not?

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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.

Comprehension Q Answer Key

  1. … (students’ own words; main idea: Morimoto rents himself out “to do nothing,” providing companionship for a fee)
  2. About 10,000 yen, or roughly 70 US dollars
  3. Examples include: dining with clients, attending events, listening to people’s stories
  4. He doesn’t play a role or pretend to be someone else; he just shows up as himself
  5. Requests like traveling overseas (e.g., to Trinidad and Tobago) or heavy physical tasks (e.g., moving a fridge)
  6. Because with him they don’t feel pressure to “give back” in the relationship; it’s temporary and without obligations
  7. … (students’ own answers; open-ended)

Vocab preview answer key: 1-unique, 2-turn down, 3-accompany, 4-companionship, 5-clients, 6-favors, 7-trending, 8-agencies

Collocations: 1-e, 2-a, 3-b, 4-c, 5-d

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