Is Chat GPT A Good Replacement For Learning A Language? (part 1)

The path to a memory

Harumi came across the word 'confound' in her book. She had no idea what it meant.

She would typically pass it over and try to get by without understanding but this time she decided to dig into it.

First she made a note in her book, opened up her dictionary app and looked up the word in Japanese. She wrote it down.

She had heard that it is good to try to study in the native language as much as possible so she looked it up in an all-English dictionary as well. She made a note.

The next morning it was out of her head. She was determined to start growing her English skills, so she picked up her notebook and looked again. There were about 4 such words she had written so she took some time to look at them all.

That day in English class the teacher asked one of the boys, Tomoharu, a question and he looked confused. She saw her chance and she chimed in, " Tomo-kun is confounded."

She got a reaction which made her feel good. Her classmates blinked at her in confusion and the teacher looked surprised, then grinned.

Her experience had ensured she would remember the word. She had made a memory.

Effort is an under-rated gateway to success, especially in study and work.

What is the best rate of study?

I had an epiphany while I was standing in the rain watching my son's team practice for soccer. My son was in junior high school at the time and he has been doing soccer since he was in kindergarten. I had been a teacher and language coach for around 16 years at the time but I never could settle on how much was the best amount of time to study to really achieve results. So, there I was standing in the rain watching my breath dissipate in the air in front of me wondering why the heck they had to practice every day. My mind flashed to Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers and his theory about needing 10,000 hours to become proficient at something. That was it, not only the amount of time but the total immersion of the mind and commitment to a regular rhythm were a key to reaching the next level.

Doubtlessly the more time you dedicate to something, the more you can see improvement, but the rhythm of soccer practices suggested to me that constant and frequent repetition is also important. I thought this was the way to get the students at the company I was teaching at to remember some words for their TOEIC goals. I set up a practice sheet where every three days they had to focus on a single word. The first day, they look up the word in English (afterwards Japanese was permitted) then on the second day they had to come up with a practice sentence. If they followed this program, they would think about the word on successive days and interact, making a better chance to remember. On the third day they would get another chance and they would find some synonyms for the word. The following day was a new word and the cycle began again. The problem is that the students didn't follow the theoretical path and only studied everything on one day, before their class. The most serious students did follow it and I thought it was a good program. The beauty of it was that the students should be thinking about English everyday. They established a rhythm, even if just for 10-15 minutes. If I were stricter about it, I think we would have seen more results.

Looking through the Internet at ideas about how much to study, theories range between 20 minutes and 3 hours per day. An interesting post by Ouino (We know, get it?) language says 30 minutes of active studying and 1 hour of exposure is good. Of course they are promoting their business so it's merely a theory. If you don't subscribe to Medium, you will be trapped by the pay wall, but this post says 1-2 hours is best for rapid language acquisition.

I will say it again though, I believe that the true key lies in the daily rhythm more than the amount of study, though logically more time spent should yield more results.

Finding that a bridge is needed in the first place

He made it happen himself. He built the business from the ground up and put in the hard hours to get the income coming in like blood from stone. He relied on his business sense and his understanding of the culture that he lived in. He knew that being direct with the people he brought on board was a key because that was what people in his country expected. He knew how to establish good relationships and market his products and he did it his way. He was a cowboy, a maverick and nothing could stop him.

Now his business was running like a well oiled machine and there were more zeros at the end of his profit numbers. He had a healthy number of employees and he even managed to branch the business out across America. This time his sense paid off but he also had a number two that he could trust for valuable input.

The elephant entered the room and stood in the corner solemnly, waiting to be noticed and staring blankly at the men. Finally it was brought up, international expansion. It turns out that Japan was a great potential market for their product and they decide to seek out an area to do business there.

The men thought that the first meeting went well, the business owner spoke frankly and aggressively pitched their dream and what they wanted from the partner. The potential Japanese partners were very polite and left the meeting briskly. Nothing came from it. What went wrong?

American culture is an independent culture and free thinkers are considered important. Similarly having a bit of initiative and strong mentality can translate to good business acumen, but Japanese culture is structured differently. Different country. Different rules. Japan is a collectivist culture and typically follow the trend. That also means that the first people you meet are likely not the decision makers. When they reported to their boss that the company was very aggressive and seemingly demanding, this did not fly in the face of the level of respect needed to conduct business with Japanese companies.

This is one example but there are other areas where either side may underestimate and end up failing to strike a good business connection. The truth is that when you are stepping away from your comfort zone, be prepared to work hard to have a deeper understanding of what you are getting yourself into. Understand that it might take longer than you expect to get something done or that more attention needs to be paid to some loose talk before business. This goes on top of the necessary market research that can help you understand market trends better.

That is why you seek out a bridge, a foreigner who understands both sides and can be an effective middle man to communicate with both sides. On top of this, remember that it is not necessarily automatic that you will succeed in the same way you did back home, adapt and think on your feet. With your partner or consultant, you can land firmly on your feet and gain an advantage over the others. Giddyap!

blood from stone is an idiom meaning that you are trying to get results out of a very hard situation. Almost impossible.

a well oiled machine is a process that runs smoothly

the elephant entering the room means that there is a topic that everyone is thinking about but no one wants to talk about

What is a realistic target?

TOEIC. Japanese companies continue to use it as a measuring stick for English progress. I previously posted about the problems with TOEIC and how it falls short as a true measuring stick for English growth but without it, how does a company measure their staff's growth? If you have any ideas please feel free to put in the comments below!

What this means is that we will often be asked to support a company lesson that uses TOEIC to measure the training program's effectiveness in communication training. Though I will tell them that TOEIC is not an effective measuring stick, I still have to strategize around this hurdle. You see, a communication-based lesson focuses on different (and arguably more practical) skills than a TOEIC lesson. TOEIC is about building vocabulary through a strong reliance on listening or reading. We teach little traps students need to be aware of, or ways to improve the efficiency with which you complete the test (most students are unable to complete the entire test).

The sticky point is that a company will set a target or a bar for the students to achieve. I've seen a 70 point increase target, which I felt was reasonable in a year, but the next year I have seen that grow to 100 points. Sometimes setting the bar too high is de-motivating, in contrast if a student feels their target is more attainable, they might make a stronger effort. In my recent experience working in a company, I saw a 40-70 point growth as a positive result and rarely saw students see a 100 point increase. I have always tried to make English enjoyable and in some ways, self motivating, so I know that we can set a stricter training regimen, but I think the truly realistic bar is 70. If a company sets a 100 point jump over a year, they need to be open minded and possibly set up a secondary interview-based test to measure areas like response time, accuracy, comprehension, the ability to ask for repetition or the students' ability to make long answers.

This is my take on the situation, if anyone reads this and has another opinion, please let me know!

Happy 2025

Hi, everyone! It's already a month and a half into 2025 and I am just updating now! 2024 was such a busy year and that spilled over into this year as well, but that is just an excuse. Like with studying a language or skill, it is important to stay focused and dedicated to what is important.

We are still in business and we are working to help LGC's clients with growing their language skills or addressing needs in establishing business links into Japan.

I have never talked about where we are based or what areas we serve. As far as face-to-face lessons go, we are based in Hamamatsu in Shizuoka so are able to service businesses in the outlying area. Naturally, online is always an option anyway.

We are always at the ready to work with you, so never be shy to contact us and let us know what you need!

Chat GPT in language learning (part 2)

My previous post relied heavily on my opinion drawing on my long experiences as a teacher, but what of outside sources, what other issues do people see with using ChatGPT for your English language communication needs?

This article highlights the risks of sharing your company's sensitive data since the service relies on machine learning. That means that the extremely powerful AI system is learning from everything we tell it. Many are questioning whether the information people have asked ChatGPT to write their reports about is suddenly available to anyone who enters the right question in the site. The site claims that one research into this probability showed that there is indeed a likelihood of it happening.

Long running tech news site ZD Net highlighted 6 potential ways that the AI service can be used. Aside from the obvious composition of phishing e-mails or clickbait articles, they also suggested that people could use the service to more efficiently gather data to help support them in committing a crime, such as finding what IT systems a bank uses. While this seems unrelated to your language needs, imagine if you are feeding company information into the interface to help explain your new technology to internal stakeholders. That is now inside Chat GPT's data resources.

One LinkedIn user asked ChatGPT the pros and cons of using it for blogging, which I also feel can be applied to using if for your language needs. ChatGPT questioned its ability to write creatively, which to me suggests that readers may be able to detect when they are answering correspondence sent by the AI engine. A lack of depth, a lack of context, and a sub-standard quality of writing may also damage the reputation of a company.

While IBM may have a bias against ChatGPT, since they would prefer to promote their own WatsonX, they do have a couple of other compelling points about the usage of the trendy AI. Intellectual property issues may come up due to ambiguity or ownership of the content rights as well as what the answers they generate are based on. Similarly the ownership of different open source libraries could be contentious and lead to legal issues.

All these are different angles from the reliability I talked about in my previous post and should also factor into a company's weighing of the decision whether to use it for your language needs. To me, there are a lot of potential issues that go on top of the questionable reliability of Chat GPT in this method of usage, but I would be at fault if I did not explore some of the pros associated with this topic. Therefore that will be next in this series of posts.

Signs, signs everywhere a sign

My previous post about unusual signs was just scratching the surface, strange English can be found in a variety of places such as on t-shirts, menus or bags. Here are a couple more examples (courtesy of my acquaintance WM).

This sign is very near in their communication but it just feels very... well... generated using Google Translate or Weblio (my bane, some of the translations from this site have confounded me over the years). The most glaring error is the phrase, "what a so tasty". Why the heck is the 'a' in there? And it just doesn't work. It should be "What a tasty treat!" or simply, "How tasty." If I were to make this more natural I would probably say, "Congratulations! You have selected one of our shop's most popular treats. We are dedicated to seeing our customers' happy faces as they say, "How tasty!" We will never give up on our pursuit of making tasty treats. We are only satisfied if our customers are and we extend all of our efforts with the hope of seeing our customers' smiles. We are looking forward to your next visit." With a little more time I would smooth it out even further and leave your foreign guests feeling welcome with your strong and natural English.

With this sign, they really tried and again were not far off the mark. The section about the 'batch setting system' is a little awkward, I would change that sentence to say, "The air conditioning system is controlled centrally, so you are unable to adjust the temperature yourself." And the last part used 'fade away' when it should probably be 'turn off', so it should read- ' the green lamp will turn off when you push the power button and turn off the air conditioner. The monitor will also automatically turn off after a short time. '

Clear communication contributes to your branding and helps your foreign guests feel confident in your company. If you don't have the time and you want a native speakers input at a reasonable cost, we can help!

Are movies good for English study?

Many students over the years asked if it is good to use watching movies as a way to study. Essentially I would say that it is a good thing. I have always believed that we need to enjoy studying English which acts as a self motivator. So interacting in English in a way that we enjoy is a great enabler for your language skills.

That's the key though. There has to be something active to the process. You could, for instance watch the movie once purely for entertainment and at that time you can pick up some listening practice and basic comprehension if you aren't focused on the Japanese subtitles. But they you should watch the movie again. Either with English subtitles or none at all. Have a notepad nearby and take notes of words, difficult to hear points or idioms that you encounter as you go. Pause the movie. This time you are studying. After you finish, watch it again, purely in English with no subtitles at all and just practice listening and use the points you took notes about as review opportunities.

The key to any study success is to do it actively and to review what you have learned, or even better use the new expressions. Studying passively can get some results but it will take far longer for them to be noticeable than if you actually approach it as a learning opportunity.

That being said, just watching the movies with English voices and hopefully subtitles is better than not doing it all. This is just my suggestion for how to get the best results.

Broadening experiences

On a personal note, I really feel that I enjoyed a large growth as a language facilitator over the last 5 years. By taking on new experiences and prodding the English language from different angles and opening up to new experiences, we can grow our awareness and become better teachers, coaches and vessels that help to transport our charges through language acquisition.

The 4 and half years I spent as an instructor working from within a Japanese company helped to give me a more practical experience of how English is experienced in an international company. I could find some areas that English training could be useful that I hadn't considered before and how to prepare my students better for international communication or travel. COVID 19 really shifted that whole scene, which I have touched on before, but business travel is still needed.

One of the most unique experiences I took on in that time frame was developing a curriculum for an English Communication School that wanted to operate in a VR environment using Microsoft's ALT Space. Sadly as my contract finished, Microsoft shuttered their venture into the metaverse and when I offered to adapt my plan to a different platform, the company did not seem interested.

We used the MEXT website as a reference and found the target vocabulary and grammar points and developed a fun program for grade 3 students. One idea was using mini stories to illustrate the targets to kids in a fun way. I was able to record the voices for the characters and it was really fun to develop.

The best experience helped me to finally collaborate with my sister on something.

For the program we wanted to use songs, but the staff said that due to copyright issues, it was difficult, could you make songs? Sure! I thought up lyrics in each unit as I made the course plan and after that was done, I set out to think up a tune. With my iPhone, I recorded some sketches that fit the rhythm and the lady in the staff actually had some musical skills so helped fix them so they were more technically sound. They wanted to use an AI singer but I suggested using my sister as the singer as she has some experience with singing. I was quite proud of the results. Unfortunately only about half of my songs were recorded.

The first two songs had a few hits in the first few weeks, but seemed to stop getting interest soon.

Every program needs a hello song. We used a traditional tune but it still came out alright.

Sadly, I thought this last song was the best one but it had only 230 hits. I learned a lot about naming. If I named the song Colour and fruit song, it would have 1000 times more hits.

That was a great, fun experience and I learned a lot about thinking about an entire language training program, even if it was just for 3rd graders.

The bridge

Why did Lowrey Global Consultants settle on a title as a consulting company as opposed to just a language training one? Because there is so much more that my 19 years in Japan have taught me, so much more that I can help foreign companies with. Conversely, my deep understanding of foreign culture and my connections make our business a convenience conduit to foreign businesses in Canada or North America.

One of the keys that can see a lot of companies tend to fall face first is in a lack of understanding of local conditions. A famous example is the French supermarket giant Carrefour when they tried to expand into Japan and gave up in only 4 years. They started in 2001 and had exited by 2005. They didn't understand that Japanese consumers prefer to buy small quantities of food to make sure that they are always eating fresh food. So they shop more often but buy smaller amounts which did not fall into the plans of the European company used to high volume sales. Walmart saw similar disappointment though they gave their majority share in Seiyu 20 years before giving up.

Understanding the local mindset, not just business conditions is a key to success. On top of this giving things time is essential here. A company can't try to enter into a highly competitive industry and expect to have success in a half year. Relationships need to be built, successful smaller connections can lead to more openness to business from other companies and move up the ladder from there. These insights plus an ability to communicate and research in the local market gives us a chance to arm you with the right expectations and strategies in coming into a market such as Japan.