Why Language Feels Meaningful

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I think it's generally my icky guy to be able to see, not as a teacher but as for me, uh I could be able to see how people are seeing things from outside and I'll be able to have the connection with other people, like people who are working in different countries for Japanese companies. There's so much to learn for me as well. So not it's not just teaching. I I love teaching. There's Oshai guy definitely in it, but on top of that, there's also so many things to learn for me as well. So that's something that I enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

My guest today is Shohei Yoshida. Born and raised in Kumamoto, Japan. Shohei has worked for both Japanese and British companies, giving him unique perspectives on language, communication, and workplace culture. This experience led him to found BusniHongo, an online platform helping professionals around the world build real confidence in Japanese business settings. Welcome to the podcast, Shawhei. Thank you for inviting me, Nick. It's good to see you again. We had a chat earlier this month, but we've connected through LinkedIn and had a few messages and whatnot. So it's good to see you again. So as I mentioned, you were born and raised in Kumamoto, and you've worked in both Japanese and British companies, and you lived in the UK and a few other countries. So would you like to give us some background?

UK Malaysia Japan Communication Styles

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Okay. So I was born and raised in Kumamoto, as you said. And Kumamoto is the west side of Japan. It's in the Kyushu area. It's a little bit of like tropical vibe there because it's in the south of Japan. And I was, yeah, just like a normal Japanese person who was just living in Japan. My parents are both Japanese and I only spoke Japanese growing up. But the first turning point was when I uh traveled to Malaysia and Singapore actually. And then I realized like, okay, there's something more than just Japan, you know, there's outside of the world, and I was like fascinated by it. And then I started to, you know, get interested in learning the languages, and that's where I started my journey of like, you know, studying English and teaching Japanese, so something related to the languages and um being able to exchange ideas through languages.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Nice. Yeah, language can really change your life when you learn one other than the one you're born with. Do you want to talk about your life in the UK?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Okay. So before going to the UK, I was actually in Malaysia, so I was like staying there for a year and a half, and then I moved to the UK. So yeah, the differences between, I mean, probably I'd say UK and Japan is a little bit similar to each other in terms of how they communicate. They're not necessarily like direct in terms of communication, and that's so um I found a similarity between UK and Japan. And on the other hand, Malaysia, it's kind of like a direct communication. Everything is simple, you say things straightforward. If you don't know the other what the person is saying, you just say huh, or like what? So that's like quite straightforward compared to how how they say in the UK or how people say in Japan, you know.

Ikigai Through Learning Languages

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Well, that is interesting. My wife is from Gifu and she speaks Tonoben, and I think that's quite direct. She often says nani. It sounds very aggressive sometimes. Maybe that's just the way she speaks to me. Yeah. But I agree. I think the UK is similar to Japan, a bit more reserved. Right. I think they appreciate silence. That is a fascinating aspect of language. There's there's also a culture that comes with it, and we'll we'll talk about that. But I think for both you and myself, learning a language is a source of ikigigai. So would you like to talk about that?

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Okay. So learning a language for me is to give an access to to talk to people in different from different countries. Especially English is um a great language because you a lot of people speak English. So before learning English for me, it was I could only talk to Japanese people, and it was impossible for me to talk to people outside of Japan. And what's fascinating about a language is is is that you can actually talk to those people and have new ideas and be able to learn the cultures and thoughts of those people. Well, yeah, what about you?

Why Japanese Feels So Indirect

SPEAKER_00 5:03

It's a never-ending journey for Japanese. And I guess what is appealing about Japanese is I guess there is this rich, or there is this rich history and culture behind the language. It is a different type of communication. But then you have these fascinating concepts like Yojan, four-character words, or the language is quite formal, yet when you go to Japan, you realize there's all this informal language too, and these interesting expressions. And then Japanese seem to create or adopt new words very quickly. So the learning never ends, but then obviously you also see this different perspective to think about life, communicate, and it's always very enjoyable to connect and get close to people who are different to you, and you you just learn so much. What it's done for me and all the opportunities it's created for me. And essentially, this is why we're talking because you learnt English, I learned Japanese. I I think your English is much better than my Japanese. So that's why we're recording, obviously, in English. But you describe English and Japanese as opposite languages. Would you like to touch on that?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

I think you also might have realized, but in English and Japanese, the differences between the main differences would be the um subject. So in Japanese, you don't always say the subject of the sentence, so you don't know if it's I or we or he or she or they. And in English, you specify the subject of the sentence. So you always know it's about you or someone else. And it comes from the way the society was made, and like English and Japanese. And Japanese is more of a collective as a society. So when they are having a rice crop and rice field, they have to work collectively, they have to work with other people. And whenever they say we need to do this or we need to do that, it doesn't have to be, you don't have to say the subject, you don't have to say I need to do or we need to do because it's obviously like we have to do it like as a group. So that's why in Japanese you get rid of the subject of the sentence and you assume that people know what we are doing as a group, and that kind of assumption is still in the language today, and that gives people vagueness in the language. Um, and then in terms of English, it's always specific, so that's the big difference, and English and Japanese are on the opposite side in terms of the perspective of the language and how you know in Japanese it's it's immersive in in a way, and in English it's like sad-eyed for few. So that's the the big difference.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, and I really struggled with that. I would come home maybe after catching up with friends or doing something, and my wife would just say, like, dodad. I was like, Oh, what's she saying? Like, oh, she's asking how it was, uh, what? Obviously, oh the time I went out with my friends. And I mean that's pretty easy, or she might say tabiru or no mu like eat, drink. And I thought, oh, Japanese just speak in verbs, but then I would start hearing phrases with Japanese, and that someone would just say something like Natsukashi ne and I'm trying to work out what are they talking about? Like Natsukashi is like this idea of nostalgia. So we we don't have that expression, we we don't say something like, Oh, how nostalgic. And you're right, we would have to be very specific. Maybe someone's eating candy from their childhood, and another Japanese person would go, oh, Natsukachi. Meaning, I love that candy. I used to eat it in my childhood. And I think when the sentences were a bit more complex, I'd be thinking, like, who you're talking about? Like you, me, someone else? So, context, understanding the context, that's the key to understanding Japanese. And in English, yeah, we're very explicitly. You should do this, I want to do this, we should go there. And it can be a source, it was and sometimes still is a source of frustration. So, do your students have this problem too? Do they tell you, oh, sometimes I don't know who or what my Japanese colleagues or friends are talking about?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Right. So it might not be just the language, but also the world culture also has that kind of vagueness. Sometimes maybe you don't have like specific roles or you're not told what to do, like specifically, or you don't know the specific specific goals. And so in that case, you not only have to work on that the language, but also you kind of have to work on what other people are expecting you to do, and figuring out that expectation is is difficult.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

I think we could talk about the cultural differences between English and Japanese for hours, but as a proficient student and speaker of English and a teacher of Japanese, what else stands out to you as either problems or something interesting?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, so the the language in Japanese, there's also formal style of language in Japanese and a casual style of Japanese. And what I see people who are studying Japanese and who want to work for Japanese companies, they are used to casual Japanese. They talk to maybe they make friends from Japan and they get closer relationships with Japanese people. But the more you get closer to Japanese people, the more casual language you're gonna speak or you're gonna use more often, and then you have no opportunities to practice the professional or formal ways of speaking. And so that's uh kind of the problems that I see.

Teaching Culture Not Just Grammar

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yeah, I remember one day when I worked for an English conversation company in Nagoya, the president or someone really important in the company came to check the office. I remember just walking up to him without thinking, and I just said Genki, and I put out my hand to shake his hand. This Japanese co-walker was like uh trying not to laugh. Like I was so friendly and direct, and I I kind of knew not to do that, but it just came out, and then I realized later, uh, like hopefully he you know appreciated my friendliness rather than my casual directness being a problem. That is a challenge, and as you know, I'm going back to Japan and I'm I'm thinking I want to hire these venues to do workshops and whatnot, and then I'm I'm I'm basically using AI to remind me of what are these set expressions I have to use, either in email or what are the things I'm going to say to be more professional. I don't want to be ignorant. So on that theme, you help your students go beyond grammar to understand the deeper cultural values that shape how Japanese people communicate and find meaning in their work. I think this is crucial to understand. So, yeah, crucial to understand culture in the process of language acquisition, especially for learning Japanese and actually English. So when I used to work in these E kaiwa schools and we'd have meetings, and we're talking about oh, how Japanese are slow to progress with their conversation. Like that their grammar would be outstanding. In fact, sometimes their understanding of grammar would be better than the teachers. But they just wouldn't say anything. And you'd you'd walk into an advanced room, and all the students are waiting for the teacher to speak. They don't instigate conversation. And I used to point out and argue we we have to teach in the culture of speaking English. We should encourage them that they start their conversations and they ask questions. So I think that was a massive hurdle. Would you like to touch on this from your perspective of teaching Japanese to foreigners?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah, when Japanese people are studying English, they they just learn grammars and they maybe practice reading, but they never get to learn the culture. So when in a group of like teaching class, Japanese people definitely hesitate talking to people. And that kind of happens to the workplace, like global workplace as well. Japanese people might not necessarily say things or they they could be fluent in English, but they don't really like adapt the culture of English-speaking people. So even if they're speaking in English, they could have like a misunderstanding, or the way they speak English can be similar to Japanese, so like it might not be direct, they might say sorry a lot more than they should be. So yeah, the uh understanding of the mindset of Japanese people is is also important. They might not they might be shy or they might not say things directly in a way. So the Japanese language also, when when I'm teaching business Japanese, most of the things that you might want to learn is like cushion phrases that you might want to add before the sentences or indirect way of asking, that could be more natural ways of communication. So the language itself has the uh reflection of the culture.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

That's interesting you frame it as cushion phrases, but that's exactly what it is. You're sort of adding more to what you want to say just to fit in with cultural values of respect, politeness, and non-directness. And I know even for Japanese, it's kind of hard and tiring, even though they're used to it. Um it's fascinating that there's this vagueness in Japanese, but requires you to say more when you actually are in these formal settings or workplace settings.

Silence And Saying No Indirectly

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah, you obviously have to say things that you know you might have to you need to get out your points and then you need to, you know, say things that you're supposed to say, those are the things, and you need to balance that kind of simple communication that you need to do in business settings, but also at the same time, you also have to think about the politeness, and that's how what people struggle with as well. Having a simple communication is also important in business settings, but also there's polite, vague language, and having that balance is like a difficult skill to learn.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Something really interesting about Japan is silence, and I think this is something new learners of the language struggle with, and what you mentioned before, also vagueness. So, could you talk about this? And do your students struggle to understand how silence communicates in Japanese?

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Japanese language. For example, if you want to reject something, if you want to say no, people might not say just no, they say choto, you know, chotto, do, like just a little you kind of like leave it as a silence and you expect people to understand what you're saying. I think those are things that you learn maybe from a textbook, but when you talk to Japanese people, you truly understand the mindset behind and psychology behind it. So yeah, it comes down to indirectness as well. The silence part is cut might come from like people avoiding saying direct things and expectation of other people to understand.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

But I think there's also this comfortable silence. So often I tell people in the West we have uncomfortable silences, but in Japan they have comfortable silences, and they they don't have to fill the silence with unnecessary conversation. Right. Did you struggle with that when you lived in Singapore?

Building BusniHongo For Professionals

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yeah, Singapore, Malaysia, um Southeast Asian countries might not probably have that kind of silence in communication. Like you always have something to say, conversations tend to be quick. So yeah, I think Japan is quite unique in terms of how they communicate because compared to other Asian countries, maybe different from uh other Asian countries, so yeah, it's quite unique.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

It is very unique, and I really enjoy the silence now, and I enjoy going back to Japan and there's a lot of silence despite so many people being around you. Moving on, as I mentioned, you have your own business, Busni Hongo, an online platform for helping professionals around the world become proficient in business Japanese. So, how did that begin?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

So, when I was in Malaysia and the UK, I was teaching Japanese side hustle, and yeah, I really enjoyed teaching Japanese, and the point that I big shifted to business Japanese is that when I was working for Japanese companies in Malaysia, I also had to learn business Japanese. I wasn't sure what to say or phrases that I should use. And even native Japanese speakers go through this kind of phase of learning business Japanese, and I went through different resources, textbooks and webinars, or even copying how my Japanese colleagues or managers are saying. And from those experiences, I overcame that kind of difficulty in business Japanese, and I wanted to provide that value in my experience, and I want to mix those two. So, like the teaching Japanese part and me overcoming business Japanese part. I wanted to mix that. Then I um came up with the business Japanese idea. The business Nihongo came out.

Keigo And Modern Hierarchy Confusion

SPEAKER_00 20:21

And Nihongo means Japanese. Yeah. Teaching Japanese is blown up on YouTube, and there are a lot of uh Japanese teaching, Japanese, whether it's basic, intermediate, advanced, conversational. But I don't think you see a lot of Japanese teaching business on YouTube. So I think you found a nice niche. Back on this subject of business Japanese, it obviously includes Keigo. Right. Yeah. Alright. So what is Keigo?

Success As Confidence In The Workplace

SPEAKER_01 20:59

So Keigo back in history used to be about hierarchy. So when you are talking to someone, maybe you are in in like the low, below bottom area of hierarchy, and when you're talking to someone above, you use a certain language, you use a different verb to respect the other person, and and the vice versa. So that's what Keigo used to be, and that's the original concept of Keigo. But the modern world that it's the the society is lie in the concept of like having the equal rights and equal, you know, position. Everyone is equal. So that's kind of the confusion that people get from learning Keigo because it's all about respecting the other person and being humble, humbling yourself. So you feel like you're like lowering your position or you feel like you're just respecting the other person, and you have the confusion of how how is it like how that how it makes sense in modern society. Um so that's the cago. Uh the meaning of the cago, uh the the concept of the cago has shifted, um and it's a little bit different now.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

You are Quite active on LinkedIn, and I'd like to quote you from a post you wrote. One of the most enjoyable parts of learning Japanese is the human connection it creates. Building close relationships and communicating naturally is a huge part of the language's charm. And I share this belief. Some of my best friends are Japanese. Obviously, those friendships have come from language learning. So, what about you, Shohei? What have you witnessed and experienced in your learning journey of English?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Yeah, so a lot of people see my focus on grammars, especially when I was in high school, just school in Japan. People focus on exams, passing through exams, and focusing on how to get high score in the English as a subject. And that's some part that people see. But when it comes to language, it's not just about the scores or passing the exams. It's about communicating with people and having that joy of being able to talk to people is like an essential part. And that's what language is for. And if you miss that part, and if you're just focusing on just grammar tests, what is right, correct, you miss the point of the enjoyment of learning a language. So you always have to, I think, remind yourself that learning a language is about you being able to communicate with millions of people and instead of passing the exams.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

You can study for a test, but it's not very meaningful if you can't communicate and share and connect with others. So your your tagline for your business is your path to success in the Japanese workplace. But success is often defined differently in Japan than in the West. So how do your students need to reframe what success means when working in a Japanese context?

Flexibility And Word Choice In Japanese

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Yeah. So I focus on individual success, just the company as a whole. So if the other part, the clients or students are thinking that they feel lack of confidence in business Japanese, and if they could gain confidence in business Japanese, I I define it as a success. It comes with understanding of uh Japanese culture, business culture. So having confidence means that you overcame different obstacles. Maybe it's Kego, or maybe it's about speaking perspective of language. It really depends on the person. And if they could speak in a meeting in Japanese, that's also another success. So yeah, it really depends on the individuals.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

You also talk about flexibility and having this flexibility in how you express yourself and how you make an impression. I think that's a powerful concept. Could you expand on that?

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Yes. In Japanese, you have a choice in like what word to use. Um, example, like even saying I, you can say what does she, boku, or uchi. There's so many ways to say I. Right. So say like that in business Japanese, you also have a choice, word choice, how polite you want to be, you can control that, and you can say Negai Itachman's like best regards in English. It's there's no direct translation in this. It's like a greeting for Japanese. And you get to choose which to use, and people forget that kind of perspective. People think that they should use one thing. They think that one phrase is correct and the other is incorrect. But you might want to think that kind of uh change that mindset, and changing the mindset to how you want to give the expression to the other person, you want to do you want to sound polite? Uh, do you want to sound less polite and you want to have a close relationship? So that's the choice of the word or flexibility in in Japanese.

In Group Out Group Social Rules

SPEAKER_00 26:37

You just reminded me of Tonomune, which is the same, but it's more friendly and playful. And obviously, you you'd only say that to friends or really, really close co-workers. Um that's the joy of learning Japanese. You've got oh, all these different ways to say something. And yeah, I think something like tonomune is a little bit more intimate and and fun and playful, and then uh if it's a you know a request or something quite serious, then it's oh okay, onigaitashimas, and then you're showing respect, awareness. I often touch on the subject of this awareness, and I I think probably because of these cultural rules around language, I think Japanese are more aware. They're more aware of the impact they have on people, and the language evolved that way to have all this formality, but also this flexibility, and more recently this direct, playful language. Would you say that's true?

Coaching For Real Workplace Scenarios

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah, I think Japanese people are constantly thinking the impact of the other person and always thinking as a as a whole, as a group, and that kind of reflects the uh Japanese people's mindset of caring other people. Another concept of Japanese is there's in-group and outside group concepts. So like inviting someone to a house is like a big hurdle for Japanese people, I see. So it's like specific you're in the group, so you're if you're inviting someone, it's kind of like a big hurdle because it's you have the strong concept of in-group and out-group.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Yeah. There's a lot of navigation, I think, either outside or inside the workplace, the home. How do you help your students navigate work culture in Japan?

SPEAKER_01 28:41

So I think that's where coaching comes in. I need to talk to students and get to know the work culture, um, the job, the company's culture as well, or the industry they are in. If you are in a different industries, the politeness level would change. And I need to assess who they are talking to or what kind of scenarios they are in. Are they giving a big presentation to a large audience or just talking to a small group or with casual conversation? That's something that like one-on-one helps um as identify the scenario or context of the language. I think that's the great help in terms of business Japanese because what I can suggest would be different based on the scenarios. On the other hand, online course helps you just understand maybe grammars that the business when you're speaking business Japanese, you use certain grammar patterns, um, certain ways of saying things, and giving general examples of how you would could be able to choose phrases, and that's where online course comes in. So I think those two have different purposes. Yeah.

Relationship Building And Omiyage Culture

SPEAKER_00 30:01

I lived in Japan for 10 years. I knew once I started to plan my retreat, so I had this Ikigai retreat, and I was caught up. And we'll, you know, we'll have a workshop on Ikigai, and we'll do all these activities that imbue Ikigai, like making pottery, Zazen, uh, indigo dying. And I knew I will have to visit all of these places in person and greet the owners and maybe give them a gift. And I knew just emailing them and was not enough. Like I I thought I I have to go and plan all this properly. And I had um a really good Japanese friend help me. Basically, I had to take a business trip/slash holiday just to form these relationships and going to hotels or going to these workshop places or these crafts people's places just to say, hey, I'm Nick, we've been emailing. Just want to thank you for the opportunity for to have a workshop with you later this year. So I think that kind of cultural practice is very important. I enjoy it, but at the same time, it's like, wow, this is an investment of time. For me, it was money flying to Japan, staying at hotels, all these things. So is that still important if let's say you're not working for a business, but you're an entrepreneur or you want to start a business in Japan, you often hear you you cannot really form relationships in Japan unless you have someone who does an introduction, or unless you go to these extremes of really showing you care and you have respect and you you've gone to this effort of understanding Japanese cultural relationship.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah, so in terms of like reaching out to people that you might want to reach out, it might be difficult for in a Japanese kind of work, you know, society. It's you might not be able to directly connect them. You might have to get referrals or introduction from other people. And um, that's what you might want to go through. Well, uh just like going back to what you said, like giving souvenirs or like omiage, giving presents to people is also another culture that you might want to learn in Japanese business settings. To be honest, I was away from Japan and I kind of forgot about giving souvenirs things. And then I like met some people and they're giving me like souvenirs, and I was like, okay, I forgot about this souvenir thing. But yeah, you it it really depends on like depends on you, like how much you follow the culture. But it's really nice to have um it's nice to it's better to for you to understand first and decide whether you want to follow it or not later.

Why People Keep Choosing Japan

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Yeah, there is this risk of you go to Japan. I mean, I I often say this, like I'll say, oh, the amazing and wonderful thing about Japan is everything is different. And at the same time, the challenging and hard aspect of life in Japan is that everything is different. So it's really like an attitude. But I I think when you go to Japan, there is this risk you find something so unusual or strange, you kind of instantly reject it. That's weird. Oh, that's strange, but you've got to learn to think, well, hang on, okay, that is different, but I I should probably learn more about it, or at least start thinking about this. And I'm you know, obviously I'm a guest in Japan. Uh so I won't open my mouth and say what I want directly. Um, I'll hold back and uh take my shoes off, you know, wherever I have to, all these little things you gotta get used to. Um but as you know, Japan's become very popular with obviously tourists, but I also think with people wanting to work there, people wanting to start startups. Um I think Japan's getting quite popular. It's a place for startups and tech, uh, even their use of AI is attracting a lot of people. So obviously, many of your students are professionals learning Japanese specifically to advance their careers, but are you seeing a shift in why? Like, why do they want to learn Japanese? Is it just because they want to be skilled in communication, or are they drawn to something deeper in Japanese work culture?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

I think it really depends on people. I what I feel is that they generally love Japan. Uh, that's like the first thing. Maybe with you working for Japanese companies, you might find struggles. Um, maybe that's the fun part, but not everything is fun. Maybe they are like bad sides of Japanese working culture as well. But regardless of that, probably the reasons that they want to continue is they want to have the connection with Japan or they love something about Japan. And I think the growing popularity of people wanting to work in Japan is is probably just Japan as a general idea of Japan, maybe.

Teaching As Ikigai And Oshigai

SPEAKER_00 35:47

It is interesting because as a tourist or a traveler, you know, Japan is an amazing place. There's so much to explore and learn. But I do think entering in the workplace would be quite challenging, would come with a lot of stress, probably get paid less for the same role. I guess there has to be also this deeper drive to want to learn about the culture and find meaning in that. And this relates to your own journey. So you mentioned that you started Bisni Hongo because you know firsthand how challenging learning a language for professional purposes can be. So, how much of your own ikigai is wrapped up in teaching? And we can mention this other word. Is it a source of oshegai? So osheru being to teach. Obviously, you find value and meaning in teaching. Have you ever thought about it as oshegai, or just generally, is it more ikigai?

How Shohei Learned English

SPEAKER_01 36:57

I think it's generally my ikigai to be able to see, not as a teacher, but as for me, uh I could be able to see how people are seeing things from outside, and I'll be able to have the connection with other people, like people who are working in different countries for Japanese companies. There's so much to learn for me as well. So not it's not just teaching. I I love teaching, there's Osha guy definitely in it, but on top of that, there's also so many things to learn for me as well. So that's something that I enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Let's touch on your own journey of learning. So you're very proficient in English. How did you learn English and become a proficient speaker? What was your learning journey?

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Where can I start? Maybe yeah, I I always had a passion of learning. That's what kept me going. You also you need to keep studying that. You cannot really stop. Then you obviously have then don't have the growth. Oh, you won't be able to improve. And finding a passion is is was an important aspect for me. Yeah, reading a book that you like, watching films in English that you love, then that's something that you can start with, and I just could be able to learn from that. Yeah.

Community Sessions And Keigo Coaching

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Yeah, I've just started watching Japanese dramas again in preparation for my return to Japan. And you realize there's so many expressions I've forgotten. And I guess we're really lucky now. We have all this media, um YouTube, Netflix. When I first started, there's none of that, and you you basically had textbooks and you you had to pay for some audio discs or tapes, and it would be quite expensive. So there's certainly a lot of opportunity to learn language. And I I do think people should at least learn one language fairly deeply, and obviously a language very different to their own makes it sort of fascinating, especially if there's a a different culture behind that. We're examples of the benefits of learning a different language. We both have businesses, you teach Japanese, I I teach Japanese cultural concepts. So it is life-changing, isn't it, when you learn another language?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Becomes a source of ikigai. All these benefits. Communication, I can start a business, I can help people, I have a role, a new role.

unknown 39:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

So you created this role. So let's talk about your role and your business. You run a community and have weekly sessions. So what happens in those sessions?

SPEAKER_01 40:00

So I create a space for professionals who are working, bilingual professionals, like English, Japanese professionals, to connect with each other and exchanging their ideas, experiences, and that's kind of the place. Yeah. So that's that's the place I provide. So people have a place to connect and communicate.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

You also offer one-on-one coaching with a focus on Keigo.

Where To Find Shohei And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Right. Do you want to touch on that too? Uh, as I said, Keigo. Keigo can be a difficult concept to learn. It's like maybe you see on textbook and you probably try to use it in a real situation that people say it's wrong, even though textbook says it's it's right. So it's really complicated. And being able to teach Keigo, I also had to like go through like the government guidance in Keigo. Keigo can be misused by Japanese people as well. So I also need to tell them that this can be misused or this this misuse usage is not it's common. Some of them are common and some of them are not common. So I teach that as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

That's interesting. Yeah, the language is, I don't know if it's evolving or degrading, but it's certainly changing. So yeah, changing definitely. All right, and so people can reach out to you at www.biz-nihongle.com. We'll put a link on the show notes, and you're very active on LinkedIn. I really enjoyed this conversation, Shawhei, and thank you for being a guest.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Thank you very much for inviting me.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

My pleasure. Let's continue this conversation in in person when I'm in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Yeah, that'll be great.