Engage And Enjoy!

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.

Time to bring humanity back to the classroom

COVID 19 has had a profound effect. It really goes without saying. But I am not talking about the heart-shattering loss of life or the cabin fever inducing 3 years we spent locked in our homes. I am talking about the way business is conducted and how foreign language training has evolved here in Japan. With an increased acceptance of video meeting software such as Zoom, Teams or Meet, the classroom shifted into the virtual world as well.

Companies were forced to move the office to people's homes while the pandemic raged and after companies grew to accept that style, many have stuck to Work From Home. Nikkei Asia estimates that nearly 40% of workers are still doing a hybrid style of work (link), saving transportation and even electricity costs for businesses. This shift to video meetings also impacts on the number of business trips as communication can be achieved for a fraction of the cost. This research positively talks about how 64% of companies still find business travel important, but that means that 36% don't.

Of course, what I am leading up to here is that this has impacted the general attitude towards studying foreign languages, particularly English. More private students or companies are turning to more reasonably costing online English training meaning there has been a step back from the beneficial environment of face-to-face English lessons. Aside from the obvious lack of technical issues that sometimes crop up, there are many benefits to a more intimate training environment. A teacher can have quicker reaction times to questions or problems and has a better capability of reading learners' body language. There is a better sense of connection between all members when you are in a live environment, with more live tools at the teacher's disposal. Last, but not least, there are less chances of succumbing to distractions such as pets, children or that temptation to turn the TV on. This website also talks about motivation and focus as a couple of benefits of being in a classroom as some other potential benefits.

Companies offering English training need to embrace a commitment to quality lessons with practical contents set up in a way that is enjoyable for the students. And most importantly, we need to bring the humanity back to the English study environment and get back in the same room. The teacher needs to work closely with the students to help them realize their goals and use all the tools and signs at their disposal. This is at the heart of what Lowrey Global Consultants strives to do.

So, what are the differences between face-to-face and online lessons

I will say right off the bat, that I am not against teaching English over Zoom. If there were no video conferencing options during the pandemic, I would be in a really bad place right now. There are many good tools that flow smoothly, especially the Whiteboard which is such a great tool to use in class. There are also Breakout Rooms and Polls which can be useful in classes. These features exist in Teams, but I have found them more difficult to find and activate, so Zoom is my tool of choice there.

But face-to-face?

Live!

There is just something so refreshing and so much more crisp about a lesson in the same room. Students seems to communicate and connect more with the teacher, everyone looks more comfortable and the classes just go more smoothly. Not even considering the occasional Internet connection issues that are experienced, things just seem to flow that much better! A teacher can make more dynamic use of the teaching environment, alternating between sitting, standing and whatever falls in between the two. When LGC started some lessons with a new client this year, I felt like I was coming home after a long absence. It was so refreshing! Everyone seems to connect better and the students are completely free of temptations to be distracted (I have caught a number of students with their televisions on as background noise in the Zoom era). It just feels like the right way to do classes.

Of course, we can do both types of classes and the students always get full effort from the teacher, but it was just so great to get back into the classroom again. If you are in Hamamatsu, where we are based, or nearby (Toyohashi, Kakegawa, Iwata, Fukuroi), you can take advantage of our experience, dedication to teaching and enthusiasm for making a difference with in-person classes. If you are elsewhere, we can still work out online lessons or I am open to offers of short programs within reach of a Shinkansen!

Enjoy every moment

I heard some sad news today. The kind of news that will dramatically alter the course of a long time friend's life. But without getting into specifics, a lot of soul searching comes from it. The takeaway is that we should make every effort to make the best of every moment of our life.

Say thank you to anyone who makes an effort. Tell your family you love them. Hug your kids. Pet your cat on the head when you pass her. Stop and smell a beautiful flower. Take a picture of that interesting scene you pass that leaves an impression on you. Most importantly, go after what you want.

If you want to learn a language. Do it. Do it properly. Do the boring memorization and then activate it. Make opportunities to speak in that language. Don't be shy. Help a stranger or join a social group. Stop worrying about being perfect and focus on improving your communication abilities.

Life is short. The little things we worry about, are they that big? Was it a big deal that you made a grammatical error when speaking? What does matter is the connections that we have made, the appreciation of life and satisfying our curiosity and desires.

Life is short and unpredictable. Be prepared to make the most of everything you experience.

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.

テスト中心の考え方を捨てよう

*前にこのポストは英語でアップロードしました。こちらです

私自身の子供たちが生まれ前から気にしていました。色んな日本の生徒さんたちは学び始めからつまずきます。今でもまだ日本企業において英語力を計る一番の手段はテストです。それは正しいか正しくないかわかりません。

日本の教育システムはテストに焦点おいています。すべての英語のレスんやテキストブックは生徒が試験を受けるそして取る目的のためにあります。塾の目的は次のステージの学校に受かるためです。生徒は自裁に英語を話す能力をはぐくむことができませんあぜなら学校のカリキュラム使用する言語を自裁に活用することをもっとにしていないからです。

大人でも同じパターンがあります。、現在、残念ながら様々な会社はＴＯＥＩＣ　を中心にしてスキルを計っています。何で大人になっても変わらないのでしょうか？全てのレベルで本当の英語でのコミュニケーションをかんがえられていません。私の経験の中で、ある生徒さんはTOEIC スコアが700点だが、あまり話せませんでした。一方、400点ある生徒は英語でコミュニケーションを取れました。TOEICのシステムは英語力を計る完璧システムではありません。

英語を含め全ての言語においてトレーニングの一番大事な目的はコミュニケーションです。クラスルームで生徒さんたちは賑やかにターゲットの言葉や文法を使う方がいい。それの方が生産的です。先生より、生徒たちの声を聞いた方がいいです。今、日本の英語力ランキングは全世界で８７番です（リンク先）。もし学生の頃から、テスト中心の学習を辞めたら、チェンジできます。先生は、大人を教える時、一生懸命スピーキングする機会をつくらなければなりません。でも会話だけでは生産的ではありません。いつもレッスンでは役に立つの情報を教える事が大切です。

もちろんテスト全てが悪いわけではありません。勉強のモチベーションを作れるためは単語すごく学ぶ人もいます。その上、会社は絶対英語のレベルを計る事は必要で。英語のレッスンを受ける事はもちろんコストが掛かるためマネージャーは生徒の英語力を知る必要があります。でも今のテストシステムは十分ではありません、もっと正確なテストがどの方法がベストなのかまだわかりません。いつも考えています。自分の力でクラスではたくさんのコミュニケーションチャンスを作っています。

Is Chat GPT a good replacement for learning a language? (part 1)

It's a legitimate question. Of course I am biased as a language instructor, I want to shout 'no!' I have already spent time in classes arguing why it is not a healthy path to take, but my counter-arguments are thinning out as the technology gets better.

Around this time last year, I had just heard about Chat GPT when a few students were rumbling about it. I thought it was just a chat bot like a lot of websites use, so I brushed it aside. When I finally read about it, I had to check it out. I did as a lot of people did the first time, entering into an argument about which movie robot character was the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) or launching into some juvenile chat thread. It impressed me suitably. Since then, I got it to write a sales e-mail for me, correct my Japanese in another e-mail I was writing and help me with a difficult calculus question I was studying.

Math has been a tough one for me and it was here that I had my first instance where I doubted the integrity of the AI's ability. It gave me a wrong answer. It was a minor miracle that I could spot that the answer was wrong in the first place, if I was relying on it as my tutor, I was in trouble! When I called it on its error, it did remind me that it is a language engine, not a mathematical one but it left me wondering where else it might let us down.

I then started searching the web for articles about Chat GPT's accuracy and I found an article where they asked the AI service to write a summary of a book. It gave a great description and school-worthy report that would have scored top marks. The thing is, the book didn't exist! Okay, I can't find the link, but here is a case where it summarizes a book completely incorrectly. And here are some links where Chat GPT makes up reference lists with non-existent resources (LINK) (LINK).

On top of these academic shortcomings, last year I was trying out a job representing a beverage-related company and asked Chat GPT to give me a list of up and coming beverage companies in Japan. You guessed it, the list contained all companies that don't exist at all.

I have a theory of why this is. You can imagine the panic spreading from educational institutes over the implications of having such a powerful automatic writing tool available for free. The integrity of schools is in peril as more and more students are handing in Chat GPT generated reports as we speak. The key is to build in some fallibility to deter students from cheating. The prospect of saving themselves hours of research which would take previous generations months to compile is too alluring for young students. Therefore, the mistakes are put in on purpose to keep it a fun, yet powerful service for students. But business owners know that it can be adapted for business needs and help make money for the developers.

This chink in the armor is one reason why I would not trust the new powerful AI sites to handle a company's communication requirements. When you consider how important communication is for the success of your business, you can see why it is better to stay in control of your destiny by doing the communication yourself.

Put the test mentality behind you

I was aware of the big problem in Japan before seeing my own children battling through it. It hinders language students from the beginning. It remains, wrongly, the criteria that companies use to gauge success.

Japan's education system is anchored around a focus on tests. Every course, every textbook is centered around the students taking and passing exams. It is very common that the children will go to cram schools called juku, where they essentially are trained the ins and outs of how to pass the tests to get to the next tier of education. And this stands in the way of their ability to actually speak the language that they speak, because schools don't set a curriculum based on activating the language they use.

This continues on to the adult level. TOEIC, the Test of English for International Communication is the standard that companies and some institutions measure people's ability to communicate. Which means that company workers are bound by a similar constraint of a system focused on the wrong thing, the ability to actually speak. I have taught students with strong TOEIC scores in the 700's (990 is best) but are unable to string together a few sentences. Similarly I have taught students in the 400's who manage to communicate consistently. It is just not the right focus.

English training, or any language for that matter, needs to be centered around a focus on actually speaking and relaying information. Classrooms need to be loud with students using the target language in structured, productive, activities. And it needs to be the students' voice you hear the most, not the teachers'. Activating and getting practical experience can help push Japan towards a stronger average level of proficiency. Japan is ranked at #87 in the world in the global English proficiency rating (LINK), which is labeled as 'Low Proficiency'. It would help to see this over-reliance on tests change from the Elementary level, but as trainers of Adult Speakers we can make a difference by giving our students every chance to speak, but ensuring that the lessons are productive and there is always a takeaway.

I should qualify that tests are not all bad. They do provide a motivation to study and some people really grow their vocabulary trying to do well in their tests. Also companies do need some way to measure people's progress, especially if they are spending money on English training programs. But the current test systems are insufficient and there needs to be a way to measure people based on their ability to communicate. I don't have the easy answer to this, but my eyes are open to how we can achieve this. Either way, for now, I am focused on improving the opportunity to speak while ensuring the students have multiple takeaways from each class.

Some common English mistakes in Japan

After teaching English here in Japan for nearly 20 years, I've noticed that there are some common mistakes that keep coming up. Fighting off the urge to roll your eyes, a teacher needs to understand this is a teachable moment. This is like finding a nugget of gold while swimming in the river. Because they are common errors, we can make a dent in this fault in the local language skills by explaining why they are wrong.

Here are a few that have come across my path in the last week or so;

"I choiced to go to school in Kansai." -> It is common to hear students mistakenly use 'choice' as a verb. I will challenge them; choice is a noun, what is the verb? If they can't come up with it, I'll introduce choose-chose-chosen. (Success/succeed has the same problem)

Safety Driver. In a similar vein, for years the Japanese police and other safety-concerned agencies have made stickers to put on cars saying 'safety driver'. Safety is a noun- safe is the correct adjective.

Do you drive MY CAR? Rather than saying 'your own' they often will staple 'my' in front of words like 'home' or 'car' for instance. I think a few clever advertising campaigns are to blame for this problem, but, hey, let's remember that 'my' means that is the speaker's own possession.

I overworked yesterday. While many may argue that it is overworking, the truth is, what the speaker wants to say is, "I worked overtime yesterday."

These are just a few examples, but there are a lot more. I will keep note as I encounter them and post again on this topic in the future.

Chat GPT's counterpoint

So, I told Chat GPT, "I have written a report speaking about why using you would be a bad idea for Japanese businesses who want to compensate for their lack of English skills. How do you feel about that?"

I got this response;

"As a machine learning model, I don't have personal feelings or opinions. However, I'd be interested to know more about the points you've raised in your report. If you could share some specific concerns or arguments against using AI language models like me for Japanese businesses compensating for their lack of English skills, I could provide information or clarification on those points. Keep in mind that while AI models like mine can be powerful tools, they do have limitations, and their effectiveness depends on various factors.

Okay, I highlighted that there some reports of fake book reports, lists of non-existing companies or references for a report, security, the ability to gain corporate secret information or open source license concerns.

Chat GPT says;

"Your concerns are valid, and they touch on important considerations when using AI language models in a business context. Here are some points to consider:

Authenticity and Accuracy:

AI models generate responses based on patterns learned from vast datasets. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, errors and misinformation can still occur.

It's essential to verify information obtained from AI models, especially when dealing with critical business decisions or relying on the generated content for official documents.

Security:

There is a potential risk of sensitive information being inadvertently shared with the AI model. Organizations need to exercise caution when inputting proprietary or confidential data.

It's crucial to educate users on the types of information that should not be shared with AI models and implement measures to protect sensitive data.

Ethical Use:

Users should be aware of ethical considerations when utilizing AI. Generating fake reports or providing false information can have serious consequences and goes against responsible AI use.

Open Source License Concerns:

Depending on the specific implementation and usage, it's important to check and comply with any open-source licenses associated with the AI model or related software.

Bias and Fairness:

AI models can reflect and sometimes amplify biases present in training data. Organizations should be mindful of potential bias and take steps to address it, especially in contexts where fairness is crucial.

Data Privacy:

Organizations must adhere to data protection regulations and ensure that any personal or sensitive data processed by AI models complies with privacy laws.

User Training:

Proper training and guidelines for users on the appropriate use of AI models can help mitigate risks. This includes understanding the limitations of the technology and promoting responsible usage.

By addressing these concerns and implementing best practices, businesses can leverage AI language models more effectively while minimizing potential risks. It's important to strike a balance between the benefits of automation and the need for careful oversight and human judgment in critical business contexts."

I begrudgingly admit that was pretty good.