FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Over twenty years of one-to-one Japanese — for executives, diplomats, professional athletes, and the families who came with them.

Onsite in the Kansai area. Online anywhere in the world.

FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Over twenty years of one-to-one Japanese — for executives, diplomats, professional athletes, and the families who came with them.

Onsite in the Kansai area. Online anywhere in the world.

If You Employ International Staff in Japan

They were hired for what they do, not for their Japanese. Most of them work in English and could go on doing so.

Then something changes. A visa category that now asks for N2. A client who would rather speak Japanese. A promotion into a room where the small talk decides things.

I work with one person at a time — or with a team of up to six, where the work is genuinely shared. Every engagement begins with a needs analysis, and the course is built from it: any level from complete beginner to advanced, and anything from daily Japanese to JLPT preparation and keigo. There is no fixed syllabus to fit anyone into.

What your organization receives:

A written plan after the needs analysis, before the lessons begin One named teacher, who does not change mid-engagement Course materials selected for the individual, and digital flashcards after every lesson

If You Relocate People to Japan

Your clients arrive with a start date, a new role and very little time. The language support you arrange is one more thing that has to work without coming back to you.

I teach the people you relocate, one to one: online before they arrive, and onsite in Kansai once they are here. Where your agreement requires it, I work under white-label representation.

I take a small number of engagements at a time. That is a limit, and I would rather you knew it before you refer a client than after.

For Executives Taking Up a Post in Japan

The Executive Programme is eight sessions of ninety minutes, usually completed within the first month in the role.

Each session takes one setting the executive will meet in those first weeks — a first meeting, an internal meeting, a business dinner, a team to lead. We cover the Japanese the setting calls for, and the business customs behind it: why decisions take the time they do, what a polite "that may be difficult" means, where to sit.

Instead of a textbook, each participant receives a handbook written for them, one chapter after every session. Between sessions, questions can come by email; the evening before a dinner is a good time to ask.

The programme opens with a conversation with the sponsoring organization about what the role requires, and closes with a written report. It runs online as standard, with sessions onsite in Kansai where that serves better.

It is not leadership coaching in the general sense. It is the language, and the understanding of Japanese working life, that a leader needs in order to be effective here.

The People Who Came With Them

The accompanying spouse or partner is the part of a relocation that most often goes unsupported. Years in Japan can pass without the language ever becoming usable — enough to order coffee, never enough to talk to a neighbor.

The Family Table Course is ten one-to-one lessons for exactly that person. It runs on weekday mornings and daytime, Japan time, and it can be purchased on its own or alongside an assignee's programme. One teacher for the assignee and the family is one fewer vendor for you.

THE FAMILY TABLE COURSE

Practical Terms

Lessons — 55 minutes (90 in the Executive Programme), one to one, online or face to face in Kobe, Osaka, Ashiya and Nishinomiya

Hours — Japan time, weekdays, 8:00 to 18:00 (later by arrangement); from 7:00 for the Executive Programme

Reporting — attendance and progress, at your interval and in your format

Invoicing — in Japanese yen; confidentiality agreements on request

Fees

Organizational engagements, including the Executive Programme, are quoted individually, because the scope differs every time. Once I understand the situation, I will send a written quotation.

Who Would Be Teaching

I hold 登録日本語教員 — Registered Japanese Language Teacher, Japan's national qualification for this profession. I studied literature at Kobe University and qualified as a Japanese language instructor in 2004. Since then I have taught around five hundred students, almost all of them one to one, and for many years I have also taught executives on behalf of global language-service providers, to their reporting standards.

Early in my career I taught at the U.S. Consulate General Osaka-Kobe, as a contracted instructor of the language provider the consulate worked with. Teaching diplomats and their families set the standard I have worked to ever since.

MEET MIKI-SENSEI

Tell me the situation, and I will tell you plainly whether I am the right teacher for it.

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