In demand for good business

I hesitate to write something like this, because I can't be sure who's reading it. But as I doubt I have very many followers, and perhaps even fewer people linking to here from our business website, I think I'll go on and state what I feel must be said.

I was watching TV last night through dinner -- feeling a bit bummed out from failing quite horribly my shot at the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), 1st level, and thinking that I should get started right away at studying (in whatever free time I can manage) for the next one in six months. With only five (sometimes six) channels to flip through, there wasn't anything particularly interesting on at this hour; however, I decided upon a program that had just started which revealed design ideas and plans for upcoming car and other consumer appliance models. 「空想からのデザイン」 (kusou kara no dezain), was the motto, I think -- basically meaning something like "a design of fantasy." It continued to repeat this creed as it cycled through different ideas from cars and whatnot that would highly appeal to today's Japanese youth.

I'll focus on the car bit since I think this is a great example of exactly what kind of practice has put me in such a sour mood. When asked if they ever planned on buying a car, the random young interviewees among the busy crowd said they'd rather not as cars are expensive and there are after all many trains that can take you just about anywhere in Japan. Hence the problem in the eyes of both the show's staff and the car manufacturers: a lack of demand. Now I'm of course looking at this and thinking about the 温暖化 (ondanka), global warming, awareness promotion commercial I'd seen just a few hours earlier on the same day. Isn't this hesitation in the consumer public to buy more CO2 emitters a good thing? Yes, I know, there's an financial crisis on our hands as well, and an economic stimulation is necessary to keep the cash flowing and businesses in business. But is creating and selling more cars the best way to handle this? Worried about the manufacturing employees? I'm sure they are too. But our best way to tackle issues in general isn't to merely tackle them one at a time. Societies are still unreasonably bad at handling their problems in a relational and systemic manner...

Anyway, the creation of demand seems at the heart of this matter -- an unabashed ignorance of what should be done, what should be in demand, and what we know we can make quick and easy money off of. Take a couple of examples of the car model design ideas. There's the 'theater car,' described by one of the designer representatives as basically 'a theater on wheels' and great for making easy friends. (It's probably also effective in impressing girlfriends.) Then there's the camera-attachment car, which features a large but unobtrustive manually controllable camera on the dashboard -- perhaps thought at first useful for videotaping roadtrips but clearly advertised both on the show and by the company for turning inward and videotaping ourselves (or two young teenage girls showing peace fingers, as was the case). The first model is tied to our friendship needs and loneliness, an acknowledged social issue in mainstream Japan. The second turns to what appeals in all of us: our ego, promoting a new and shiny narcissist fashion of driving.

Here at MIE (and many other businesses and even schools) we are constantly pushed to follow a very similar way of business. We have attempted in several avenues to create demand where it isn't readily available -- in this case, for English. English is showcased like a car as a cool and popular thing to have. It is further manipulated to distort real issues into seeming the solution to our own personal or social problems. Don't have friends? Learn English and meet some cool white people. (You can see a black person on an advertisement every now and then as well -- which must mean we're becoming even more "international.") Wishing you had tendered your curiosity of everything and studied harder while you were young? Well, you still can! Come study English, and keep your mind strong and working! And when none of that works, it's easy to point out the rising foreigner population -- ignoring all the Chinese, Filipinos, Brazilians, etc. who have been present here for some time now -- the rising population of Americans (who are deemed anyone who's white...and now maybe black too.) The international/intercommunity commucation problems that World Englishes have the ability to help solve are actually being put on hold for the sake of those trying to make the same quick buck.

And the worst part is, most everyone believes them.

MIE teaching developments

Long time no write...

Things have been very busy at MIE in the past. Recently, though, it feels like things have calmed down a little. I'm still working about as hard as before to prepare for classes and such; but I feel much more organized than before, and I've given less attention to attracting new students than before.

I'm becoming more organized thanks to trial-and-error and a couple of changes of habit. I'm attempting to keep a schedule book now (something I loathed the idea of before), and I try to hone my teaching plans for the adults' classes in on making basic materials (textbook stuff, etc.) more exciting than they would be otherwise. Up to now, I practically did away with basic materials or attempted to create only my own. While I appreciated the opportunity to be innovative, I failed to give enough value to a foundation in resources; I was more or less just copying anything I liked here or there and dishing it out at high speed. But now, I'm weighing in the fact that the textbooks I've selected are ordered in a professionally decided way, and while I shouldn't become completely reliant on them, I should definitely give them the credit and attention they deserve. Besides, extending from the texts still allows me the opportunity to do and use what I want, and with more relevancy than the random fashion I had going before.

The children's classes have completely revolutionized. I owe everything to a little research I did on methodologies used in Montessori schools after being introduced to one during my stay in the US this past Christmas. I've been making the materials myself (boxes neatly organized with colored juggling bean bags or miniature objects for pronunciation games or rearrangeable shapes, including print-out laminated flashcards), which has taken a decent toll on my time as well.

As far as my waning attention on attracting new students, I feel completely justified by saying that we have done just about all we possibly can in that area, including flyers, posters, radio advertisement, and institution visits, and I honestly think that the better thing to focus on at this point is making the classes here so good that they advertize themselves via word of mouth. Quite frankly, I'm sick of soliciting myself anyway -- just a couple of fallen ethics short of prostitution. People will come and stay at this point because they want to, not because they've been convinced that they need something that they see no realistic immediate benefits in (aka, the process of creating demand).

Anyway, things will probably continue to grow busy again from here, as I will have to start visiting and teaching at local elementary schools and the military base in the next town over.

Other random news:

- I just purchased a Japanese Acer Aspire One yesterday, which is what I'm using at work now.
- I've begun adding extended pages to the MIE website that will include further interesting studies and study methods in both English and Japanese.
- The rain and fog here today is beautiful in a wet and dreary way.
- Naoko will be graduating next month. We're not sure yet how that will effect our lives until she starts working less than a month later.
- I'm growing my nails out for no great reason except that I'm finding unexpected advantages in having them.