Use That Idiom Properly

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.

Dragon Stew Teaching

When I was younger I really thought the story of Dragon Stew was quite clever, and the solution to the problem was so simple that it was genius!

If you don't know the story (and I may get a fact or two wrong as it has been years), the basic idea is that a King declared that he wanted to eat Dragon Stew and he tasked his people with catching a dragon. The dragon was caught and was getting prepped to be cooked in the stew. When it came down to the crucial moment, the dragon was desperate for his life and he talked the king into allowing him to cook a meal for him. He asked the king what he liked and he listened carefully and he used the information he had learned to make an absolutely delicious meal. The dragon managed to secure the job as the king's personal chef and he did so by listening every day and making exactly what the king wanted. Win/win. The dragon lived and the king got his 'dragon stew', though in the end that meant it was a stew made by a dragon. Apologies if I have mixed up some details of the story (let me know in the comments!).

Subconsciously, this has bled through into my philosophy as a teacher. There are, of course, non-negotiable staples that need to be in the classes I teach but beyond that, we need to know how we are going to please our students. How are we going to make our lesson time productive and useful for them? The answer is in their words, in their mannerisms in their consistent mistakes. Pay attention, take note and adapt your curriculum to those needs. Put aside your ego or the sense of entitlement your years of teaching affords you. We should always be developing and growing as teachers, this is how we keep our job and our lessons fresh.

On top of that, you can avoid being eaten. :-)

Don't overdo it!

It's important to commit to our work or our studies and exert a maximum effort. But it's also important to take a step back, breathe and assess what we are doing. Make sure you have ME time, whether it is to sit down for a coffee, go to a hot spring, go for a walk, hit a punching bag or just sleep in on Sunday.

Here are some simple expressions talking about relaxation and stress;

Don't overdo it - Make sure you don't work too hard. Take care of yourself.

Hang in there! - The Japanese have an expression 'ganbare' which they always say. If you are going through a tough or busy time, do your best!

Take Five - Take a break

To ride out a storm- remember the movie Forrest Gump when Lt. Dan sat on the mast of their boat while the storm pelted them? He fought through the potentially damaging situation and came out ahead. That is what this means.

Get your restaurant menu right

My friends visited Japan a few years back and we spent a week exploring Tokyo. Overall the time was full of positive and memorable experiences. However I remember the horror we faced when I took them to a Yakiniku restaurant and we looked at the English menu. It sounded like the inventory list for a horror movie; chicken gizzards, sandy liver, entrails. It was thoughtful of the restaurant manager to try to provide an English menu for their international guests, but they missed some of the poetry needed for an English menu.

While there are no scary sounding menu items, this is a good example of how a typical Japanese menu looks, the dishes or ingredients are listed rather neatly. An English menu needs some descriptive words to help sell the items or entice their customers.

Duck with demi-glace and shiitake mushrooms would probably be written as 'Free range grain fed duck served with Fuji Mountain picked Shiitake mushrooms and drizzled with our chef's own demi-glace finished with Yamanashi port.'

Spaghetti bolognese -> Hand cut fresh spahettini in a wagyu bolognese topped with farm fresh basil leaves and shaved Pecorino.

Looking at this menu, you can see the menu features explanations everywhere, 'flame-torched ocean-wise steelhead', 'crispy tempura'. You can better reach your international guests with this same attention to selling the dishes. We can help with this!

Incidentally, for the Yakiniku restaurant, we could call the 'entrails' - 'Offal'. The gizzards and sandy liver (Japanese Sunagimo is gizzard) could be gigerium or ventriculus. Not familiar words, but they don't bring out the image of Nightmare on Elm Street when I read them.

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!

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.

Why people say they can't study English and why they are not legitimate

There are some people who have no interest in learning another language and they don't feel that they need it. While that might not always be true, there is no budging people from that hard stance. However, there are those that have thought about studying at the back of their mind for years but seem to always be met with obstacles. But are they real obstacles? Let's explore some of the reasons;

I have no time -> Time. It is so precious and it seems in our adult life a lot of us are battling with the clock constantly. I can't get my project done, I wanted to relax but I had to drive my kids to soccer, I just started writing the essay and it's already midnight! The truth is, when you make something important, you find the time. Just ask that couple that found themselves pregnant even though they said many times there just wasn't the time for a baby.

I hated studying English in school -> If you are in Japan, I don't blame you. Japanese schools often center their English curricula around test prep and most students rarely get a chance to practice speaking English. I talked about that situation here. Studying as an adult is different. Us teachers know that students want to experience language in a new way and need to get practice activating what they have studied.

English is too difficult -> Sure, a new language is difficult. So was riding a bicycle, did you give up? So was learning how to do your job or how to study for your university program, but that didn't stop you did it? There is so much to learn with a new language, it looks like a huge mountain to climb, and I am not going to lie, it is. But when you decide to hike up Mount Fuji, you focus on where your feet are touching the ground, not on the peak. That is because you still have to take the journey to get there. Start simple, learn words daily, start making simple sentences and build from there. The key is, don't be worried about making mistakes, that is how you learn!

I probably won't be able to travel for a while, so I will do it later -> I have taught students many times that have just been informed that they are being transferred overseas. Their company gives them 10-20 lessons to build up their language skills which is just not enough. Of course, something is better than nothing, but it just isn't. You can feel their tension and stress about the upcoming transfer and an anxiety to cram as much as possible into their brains. Learn the language before it becomes an emergency situation. Take the time and go through the ins and outs and build up your confidence on top of your skills.

These were just a few examples, but you can see there is always a counterpoint. Do you have any other ideas about excuses people make? Leave a comment and I can talk about them in the future.

Nominication for study?

For those unfamiliar with the expression 'nominication,' it is a Japanese portmanteau of the words 'nomu' meaning to drink and 'komyunike-shun' or communication in English. It refers to the phenomenon of enjoying communication over a drink and is a large part of Japanese culture.

Sometimes people I have met have mused over the idea of a lesson held while drinking to enjoy English communication. Overall my instinct has always been that this is an ineffective way to study, as the best way to take away results from an English lesson is through active involvement. This includes speaking and asking questions which we will achieve in a nominication- based lesson, but it also involves writing notes and clarity of mind to put together information and new language usage opportunities. I typically chuckle and say, 'good idea' because I know these spontaneous ideas rarely come to fruition.

That opinion is formed from the core of what I believe and how I plan my language lessons, but the problem is that there actually may be some benefit to such sessions. As a student of Japanese, early on I spent time making word lists, reviewing grammar points and writing out the same kanji (Japanese version of Chinese written characters) but I could barely communicate. Part of that problem was fear, but the other half was a lack of practice. It wasn't until I joined the local festival and a Bon Odori (traditional Japanese dance to honor the recently departed) called Enshu Dainenbutsu that I started to get some practice and grow my speaking skills. On top of this, my son started soccer and I took care of driving him and cheering for him, so I had many chances to interact with other parents. I discovered that after a couple of beers I was able to communicate more and it helped me make bigger steps in my speaking ability. A Time magazine article cites a research done by British and Dutch scientists where they concluded that there is a positive influence on foreign language skills after a few drinks (not too many!)

The reason is simple enough to imagine. When we are under the influence, we worry less and we speak more freely. By eliminating the overthinking factor, I found I could have longer conversations and activate words that I had thought I had forgotten. There is also room to experiment and, if we manage to ensure that we don't drink too much, we can stay aware of people's reactions and grow. I feel a reason why this can help is that language is more than math, more than science, there is an artistic element to it as well. The brain needs to grow on many different plains to increase our aptitude and confidence, which is such an important factor in reaching the next steps in communication.

So does this sway my hardliner opinion? A little. I still think structured lessons and practice are essential, especially in a business context. However students could separately enjoy the occasional session with a private teacher or language group which may help give the students a judgement free environment in which to practice their speaking capabilities. Even some classes I have taught like to have a seasonal party to relax and enjoy English communication, but a class still needs to be centered in a classroom with a pen or pencil in your hand.

Chat GPT for language positive points

I posted a few times about why I felt it was dangerous to rely too much on ChatGPT for your English needs in business (here and here). I also allowed ChatGPT itself to counterpoint, teaching us some of its positive points. But I would not be a fair and impartial person if I didn't acknowledge some positive points.

It can work as a proofreader. You could copy your writing into the interface and ask it to proofread. If you ask it to preserve your own words as much as possible it could be a win-win.

It could take care of some routine communication that is not vital or involving company secrets.

If you feel your business partner is sending you ChatGPT e-mails, why not return the favor?

It can keep you company if you work alone or at home. Have a fun chat with it.

I still feel it is important to stick to your own word when you are building a business connection or you need to deal with sensitive information. But I exist in the real world and understand that people will use it sometimes, much as they use Google Translate when they are short on time to write an e-mail. But always proofread it and make sure that ChatGPT is saying what you would like to be communicated on your behest.

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.