Communication

Communication is very important. Nobody denies that this is a fundamental function to characterize human beings. In management too, any organization won’t work well without good communication. Conversely, good communication makes good management. GE(General Electronics), for example, is one of the most successful campaniles to put it into practice. The great CEO or Jack Welch, who lead the company, was well known as a good communicator. He talked so often to his employees. Some fellows were handed notes with comments by Jack. Some were sent advice paper by facsimile with his handwriting. This basic management style some people call MBW(Management By Walking), will encourage employees to work hard for companies.

Communication, however, causes misunderstandings. This happens so frequently even among the people speaking the same language. Particularly if two people with different tongue languages are communicating in common language, they may miss each other so oftener(It depends on the language level).

As Japan today has been exposed to globalization, it's not strange that Japanese employees have foreign colleagues. As a matter of course, the language they have to speak is the common tongue in business or English. Nissan, struggling for its recovery, for instance, a Japanese auto maker whose common language is English although it was financially helped by a French car maker. When the foreign top came to Nissan, some of the employees must have rushed to English conversational schools in order to communicate with foreign bosses.

Some of the pure Japanese companies exposed to globalization use English as an in-house language. It means that English is spoken in the official occasions such as board meetings or conferences usually under way only among Japanese employees. Furthermore, many of the companies have started to give the certain level of English ability as one of the promotion criterion to employees when they become managers. As for the workers who have allergy to English, it's unbearable.

What is concerning next is the English level of Japanese people. If you want to ask ways in Japan when you are lost, you don't hesitate to ask the Japanese people. Don't worry about that. The Japanese start learning English at junior high school in the compulsory educational system. Considering the high rate of going to high school, they study English at least for six years. Some kids learn it from very young ages, and many study additionally in university. No country is so enthusiastic in English education that Japan except English speaking countries. That's why one of the Japanese Prime Ministers could say a joke once before to the American President of Japanese intimate partner "Who are you?" instead of "How are you!" when they met with each other for the first time(He said it seriously).

The truth in the English level is the lowest among major Asian counties according to the comparison of TOEFL scores in non-English speaking countries. Of course excellent English speakers are not always good communicators. But as far as Japan is going toward a global country, they need to speak more English.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that the English level of the people has gradually improved. It's partly because more companies has been encouraging Japanese employees to speak English as I mention before, partly because public schools have shifted the English education to speaking and listening skills rather than reading and writing which were focused on up to the present. The advent of the Internet is also driving the Japanese to study English for the reason that English is often used on the web. No matter how eloquently the Japanese people have been able to speak English, there are still communication risks we have to recognize as below.

<Case1>

Don't ask negative questions because the people often nod or say yes despite the true intentions are negative because they agree on "not". .

A question : Didn't you report to your boss?

The answer : Yes!(He/She did not report )

<Case2>

Be careful about the replies when you ask Japanese colleagues to come to your room.

A question : Will you come to my room?

The answer : I'll go(He/she has the intention to come to you not going out)

<Case3>

The English words are sometimes misused to get the wrong end of the stick.

You may hear in the self-introduction of a Japanese businessperson, "I'm living in a mansion(Mansions mean apartments in Japan)". They live in rabbit hutches.

<Case4>

You could hear a lot of 'maybe's from Japanese counterparts because the Japanese tend to avoid decisive answers.

"I have no appointment tomorrow maybe" after checking the schedules.