[floatr][/floatr]English teacher Takehiko Kikuchi thinks Japanese students are spending too much money on lessons and materials which don't improve their skills. He hit upon a cheap way to improve his own pronunciation while learning and includes it as part of a newly published book. He takes two empty instant noodle cups and tapes them together to cover his mouth and ear. He argues this helps you gauge more accurately how you are pronouncing words as you speak them, so you can make instant adjustments. In his book, he says he doesn't believe there is any general method of self-learning which works for everyone so all students have to think of techniques which best suit their own needs.