Yesterday my students took the stage to make a presentation in English. I arrived early to set up the equipment and make sure everything was ready to go. Some students also arrived early, and they looked pretty nervous. They paced the room trying to remember their lines and get over their nerves.
Once things began, everyone seemed to shift into a different gear, and all the presenters did a great job. The audience was a little smaller than previous years, but it was still a high pressure situation for the students. I was very happy to see that everyone did well.
After the presentations finished and people started leaving I was able to congratulate some of the students for their efforts, but unfortunately I couldn’t catch everyone. I sent out a thank you email to everyone later, and I hope that the students will be able to look back on the experience as a positive one.
I also received an interesting piece of information from one of the HR staff. She told me that the recruiting for my next round of one-on-one business English classes didn’t bring in very many students. Out of a factory of 1000 people, only 10 students applied for free English lessons. That was pretty shocking to me – I can’t believe that more people wouldn’t want to take advantage of something like this. I see it as a sign of communication failure – everyone knows that the employees need to improve their English skills, but not so many people are committed to trying to improve them. Mysterious!
I’m not sure what HR is planning to do about it because I am out of the loop on this one. If it were up to me I’d make it mandatory that each section send someone to English training. Kind of like the Hunger Games for English learning. But what do I know? Many of the decisions made at a huge Japanese company like this one are completely opaque and have more to do with inertia and history rather than change and the future.
Tonight after work I am going to forget my troubles over dinner with Kuniko. We’re trying a new Italian restaurant that apparently is highly rated in the area. I’m always up for trying new things, and hopefully the food and the wine list can meet our expectations.
