KIFL Business Communications Skills - final interview preparation reminders, points & tips for interviewers

Hello to all my Senka students,

Image "Business Coaching Concept" courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? I've made a separate post for the interviewers for our second round of final interviews on Wednesday (12/12) to look at, about the kinds of questions you should ask the interviewees. 

Click on this link here for a reminder about the language, tasks and roles of the interview process; click on this link to review the job postings.

While it's necessary to ask interviewees some easy, straightforward questions, I will ask you to deliberately try to make at least 1-2 questions difficult for the interviewee to easily answer; be a little vague, both for general questions, and even in questions that are focused. 

You want to see how well the interviewee can handle the kind of thinking required to respond to any hard-to-answer questions. Here are some examples of the difference between some easy questions, and hard ones:

Easy or straightforward questions:

• What was your major in university?
• What did you do in your internship?
• How long did you work at ________?

Harder and more vague questions:

• What is your impression of your coursework in your major?
• How do you feel your internship prepared you to enter this company (organization)?
• In what way did your time at ________ give you any insight as to how this business (field) operates?

IMPORTANT NOTE: Try to make your questions like these - open-ended, of a kind that doesn't leave room for yes or no, right-or-wrong answers. 

Asking questions such as these often is the real test of how well interviewees handle the interview process, and how well they present themselves. See you at the interview!

KIFL Business Communications Skills - final interview preparation reminders, points & tips for interviewees

Hello to my Senka students,

I am making a separate post for the interviewees on final interview preparation in the second round of the final interviews for Wednesday (12/12). Above is a shot of the board notes from last week's (12/5) first round of interviews.

Click on this link here for a reminder about the language, tasks and roles of the interview process; click on this link to review the job postings.

There is one point for interviewees to remember going into any interview about the kinds of questions you'll get asked. While interviewers will ask some easy and straightforward questions, they will often ask more hard and vague, difficult-to-answer questions. I chose this point because it might be the most difficult part of any interview. 

You can handle hard and vague general questions by trying to bring a focus to the questions as a way to be clear on what the content is, so you can respond to them.  Here are some examples from another class I have been teaching this year: 

Here, it's okay to admit that even what seems to be a general question is hard - but then focus it in a way that will help you - even force you - to give an extended, thinking response to it. Now take a look at this: 

Sometimes more focused questions can be hard to answer too. You can also admit that this kind of question is hard - but then offer or propose to respond to it in a thinking way, or give an example that illustrates a point or demonstrates a situation that touches on something you believe the question is asking about. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: It's better to give a response that shows thought and depth - even if it may not be the response the interviewer is looking for - rather than hesitating or going silent. 

I hope these points and tips will help you as interviewees in our second round of interviews. See you at the interview!

KIFL Business Communications Skills - final interview preparation - job postings

Hello my Senka students (yet again!), 
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As you can see in the picture above, it's the fictitious Kanda Park Hyatt job posting from today (11/28). In this post, I have this plus three other job postings for you to choose from for 12/5 and 12/12.

You do not have to do these, but they may be good to use. They are not real, but are based on some recent, real job postings.

(*DISCLAIMER: these job postings are fictitious, but have features of real job postings. These have been adapted and modified strictly for non-profit, educational use.)

JOB POSTINGS
Below are three additional job postings. Again, they are fictitious, but are based on real postings. Take a look at each one, and choose one you would most be interested in as an interviewee. Work with your interview partner - as the interviewer, he/she will ask you questions based on what the job is asking for.

Good luck!

1. Bilingual Communications Assistant – U.S. Consulate, Osaka

The U.S. Consulate in Osaka is looking for a bilingual (Japanese-English, English-Japanese) communications assistant. The duties for this position are:

Maintains the Consulate’s social media tools, including Facebook and Twitter.

Participates in Consulate meetings, including business promotion events.

Writes reports about Consulate activities for use in the Principal Officer’s monthly report and other publications.

Provides input and promotion support for community outreach events in Nagoya and the surrounding areas.

Helps prepare for Consulate activities such as the annual Holiday party and U.S.
Independence Day reception.

Assists in protocol activities and administrative tasks.

Photographs or records video of Consulate activities as needed.

Other duties as assigned.

The requirements for this position are:

Good working knowledge spoken and written English is required.

Fluency in spoken and written Japanese.

Good computer skills are required, particularly with Microsoft applications.

Proficiency with various social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Familiarity with American culture, politics, and society.

Preference will be given to those candidates who have:

     TOEIC scores of 800 or more.

     Experience living in both the U.S. and Japan (for either educational or employment   
              purposes)

Japanese nationals and U.S. citizens who have spousal visas, or have permanent residency, in Japan are welcome to apply. 

2. Gourmet Shop Manager – Four Seasons Outlet, Tokyo

The Four Seasons outlet in Tokyo is looking for one (1) manager for the hotel gourmet shop revenue center and its daily operations.


Basic roles and responsibilities:


1. Provide and ensure quality service to guests by responding to their requests in a prompt, efficient and courteous manner.


2. Maintain excellent cleanliness and order of the shop to ensure an attractive and appealing environment.


3. Be responsible for monthly stock inventory checks and reports, and prepare monthly reports on sales and activities.

4. Assist guests in related services such as gift-wrapping and delivery of purchased products.


5. Monitor performance and conduct evaluations for shop service attendants.


6. Train service attendants in operating procedures, sales techniques, product knowledge and customer service skills


7. Maintain excellent communications and relations with the pastry kitchen and other hotel departments.


8. Handle complaints and related follow-up.


Requirements:


2-3 years or more experience in café, bakery, patisserie, chocolaterie and/or confiserie products and shop operations, with a preference for some experience in supervisory capacity.

Undergraduate degree from a university, or diploma from a vocational college, in skills related to food service, communications, management and/or the hospitality industry.

Effective customer relations, communication and sales skills.


Food and beverage knowledge preferred.


Knowledge of administration duties.


Good training skills.


Computer literate, with license or certificate in PC/IT applications preferred.

Able to work under pressure.


Flexible,
 good team leader,
good motivator of staff,
quality-oriented
with high standards.

3. Software consultant – Slatecraft Software (Yokohama)

Slatecraft Software is an innovative, dynamic software company that is expanding into the Asia-Pacific market. We make products that enable people to process and understand a wide variety of data. Our software is used by a wide range of business executives, bloggers, journalists, and educators.

Our working culture is casual, family-friendly, yet committed to quality.  Here is what our ideal person would do:

As a software consultant, you will become an expert in our software. You will communicate the features, capabilities, and benefits of Slatecraft. You’ll work in presales capacity, and help existing customers learn about the products by designing and delivering regular training sessions.  After sales, you’ll help people make breakthrough advances with analysis to ensure adoption of our software. You can quickly turn-around possible sales into guaranteed sales with great visual design on our YouTube-style platform. You’ll make this happen by:

     Provide presales support for prospects including data review, product demonstrations and analytic problem solving.

     Become an expert in the features, benefits and application of Slatecraft’s products. Communicate via phone, email, face-to-face and on the web with prospects assisting  

     and guiding them through the evaluation and selection process.

     Communicate daily with sales staff regarding sales activities and tactics.

     Deliver web-based training sessions for customers and prospects.

Here’s what our ideal person would come to the interview with:

Commitment. Willing to go for it with a strong work ethic; self-directed and   
      resourceful.

Energy and Creativity. Energy and enthusiasm are you. You think differently and 
      amaze people with your interesting angles and quality work. You love the 
      creative process – whether that’s selling a new customer or recruiting a great 
      salesperson.

True Team Play.  You're a leader and you know that to get the best results, you 
      also have to be a great team player.

Experience.  A 4-year university degree in computer science, IT, business or 
      economics, or a certificate with a background in languages, business and/or IT.

Service Mindedness.  You deliver customer support like you expect to receive it; 
      with excellence.

Cross Cultural Experience. You have experience relating to customers from a 
      variety of cultural backgrounds. Fluency in English and Japanese. 

KIFL Business Communications Skills - final interview preparation - tasks, language & roles

Hello to my Senka students (again!),

Above is the shot of our plan for next week (12/5) and the week after (12/12) - in this post I will show the first part about what we will have for our last two meetings. A second part will follow shortly.

I decided to do this as I have a lot of notes here, and it might make the post really long. 

INTERVIEWER/INTERVIEWEE LANGUAGE
First, here is the rest of the board notes for today (11/28). These are the kinds of questions most likely to be asked by interviewers (*NOTE - pay special attention to this, the next board shot, and the points in red I show after the board shots!): 

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These are the kinds of questions most likely to be asked by interviewers.

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Here are some question language items and strategies for interviewers to use: 
Can you tell me (more) about...
How would you describe your strong points?
What would you say were your weak points?
Tell me more about (your experience/internship/coursework at KIFL/university)...
What would you say is your ideal working environment? (In your own words, can you say...?)

DO NOT RELY ONLY ON THESE! Interviewers - by all means think of some questions of your own, following the ideas on the kinds of questions interviewers ask as well on the interviewers' board note shot above! 

Now here are some more response language strategies for interviewees to use: 
I would say...
It's my feeling that...
I'm glad you've said that, because...
I'm very interested in...
It's hard for me to say, but I'll try...

Again - DO NOT RELY ONLY ON THESE as ways to initiate responses, and DO NOT SCRIPT OUT RESPONSES! Interviewees - by all means think hard about your skills and experience on your resumes, following along the ideas on the kinds of questions interviewers ask as well on the interviewers' board note shot above! 

INTERVIEWER/INTERVIEWEE TASKS
For 12/5 - first round of job interviews
As the board notes show, all of you will pair up and play the roles of interviewers and interviewees. One person will interview the other person. The interviewee has to prepare for the interview and the interviewer must ask questions of the interviewee. The interviewee has to be ready for the questions, and respond to them. 

INTERVIEWEES - bring your resumes!

For 12/12 - second round of job interviews 
So for 12/12, the same pairs will come in, but the roles will be reversed. The ones who were the interviewees on 12/5 will now be interviewers, and the interviewers from 12/5 will now be interviewees. 

INTERVIEWEES - bring your resumes!

Here are the lists of interviewers and interviewees for both weeks:
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Good luck and see you then! Part 2 to this final interview preparation post will follow.

KIFL Business Communications Skills - 11/14 resume writing: writing job & internship descriptions

Hello to all my Senka students (again!),

Image "Lady Showing Hire Me Board" courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I'm making a separate post for BCS reviewing our job and internship description writing for resumes today (11/14).

To refresh you - one of the hardest things about resume writing is how to write good job or internship descriptions in a short way that also says the most about what you did in a job or internship.

We began with simple sentences, like these:

Then, we went to bringing them together in an extended statement, like this:

Finally, on the resume, we slimmed it further, like this:

Served customers, waited tables, cleaned the kitchen and ran (the) cash register. 

NOTES: Put the most important information, experience or skills up front in any description.
NOTES: Take no more than 3 lines maximum for any description - 2 lines is even better.
NOTES: Put the verbs in your description in the past simple - even for a job you have now.
NOTES: Change your most important information for the job you're applying for.  

SPECIAL NOTE FOR DAISUKE & EISUKE: I'm very sorry I didn't get a chance to come around to you today. So here's a task for the both of you:

You are applying for one of these two jobs: 
1) Store manager for a Starbucks outlet
2) Public relations assistant for Uniqlo

Now choose a real job from your resume - and re-write the job description for it that would be best for one of the jobs above. Think about what you did at the job on your resume - what skills did you get from it? What experience do you think it represents that would be valuable for one of the jobs above?

We'll continue with more next week (11/21)!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 11/7 lesson review & prep for 11/14 GS open class

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you? Just wanted to say today that you did a great job in class. Above are the board notes for GS (11/7).

Great job with the open class discussion in BCS as well!

Don't forget for next week (11/14) in GS - our open class on discrimination & minority issues! 

See you next week!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - 11/7 lesson review & video about dealing with angry customers

Hello Michelle and Tomoyo,

How are you? Let me first refresh your memories with the other part of the board work from 11/6:

Here's the video I talked about in class. It strictly isn't about the hotel industry - it's about customer service - but the things in it are also true for the hotel industry. Watch this video as many times as you like - and answer the questions I have below the video.

In the video, there are two main characters - Mrs. Decker, an angry customer, and Paul, a sales clerk. Watch the video and answer these questions.

1. What is Mrs. Decker's problem?
2. When Mrs. Decker first talks, what does Paul first do?
3. How does Paul focus her anger?
4. Once Paul has a dialog going with Mrs. Decker, what does he say?
5. Why does Paul summarize the facts of Mrs. Decker's complaint?
6. When Paul gets to dealing directly with Mrs. Decker's problem, what is the first step he takes?
7. When Paul says that he cannot do what Mrs. Decker wants him to do, what does he do instead?
8. What are the alternatives Paul suggests to Mrs. Decker?
9. How does Mrs. Decker feel by the end of the situation?

Do this as homework for next week (11/13). 

See you then!

KIFL English for the Hospitality Industry - 10/30 & 31 resume writing review - job, internship & skills description writing

Hello Tomoyo and Michelle,

How are you? Here's a review of what we have done with our continuing resume writing review.

One of the hardest things about resumes in English is how to write about our job and internship experience, plus our skills, in a way that communicates the most about these things in the shortest way possible.

Look at the board work in the picture above. Here we have four short sentences. You can see how we can bring these sentences together to make one statement about experience at a part-time job - for example, a restaurant job.

We'll continue with more next week. See you then!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 10/31 & previous week's lesson review

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you? My apologies for no blog post last week - for the reason that I did not have my Smartphone with me to take pictures of the BCS board work - and for some other special work I had to do at one of my other jobs that kept me quite busy last week.

Global Studies 
Some interesting talk last week in our second session about the declining birthrate and the cultural impact this has had. Good job!

Here's the review for our lesson today (10/31):

Business Communication Skills

As you can see from the picture above, we started a theme last week on marketing and presenting information - focusing on marketing, especially with regard to advertising. Here was the review of our lesson last week (10/24):

1. Warmer - what might be the target market for these companies and their services? (Reve 21, Avex, Boss Coffee, Takasu Clinic, & Kizakura)
2. Unit 12
    a. pg. 56 Part 1 - what kind of advertising would the companies/services above aim for?
    b. pg. 57 Part 3 a & b
3. Activity (Part 1) - think of a product or service - think of a famous person (actor, actress, athlete, etc.)  you would want to promote the product
4. Homework - none for now - but Part 2 of activity to follow on 10/31!

Now here's our review from today (10/31):

Remember the open class for next week in BCS! Prepare a topic, or talk of your interest, connected with some area of business - such as a company, product, service, or issue in business.

See you next week!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 10/17 open class & resume writing review

Hello to all my Senka students!

Global Studies
How are you? Today in our open class in Global Studies, Ken's comments about the declining birthrate in Japan and what it means for the future was very thought-provoking.

Here's a chart that shows a lot about what he talked about today:

Chart courtesy of Mail Online (the Daily Mail online version (UK))

Read a medium-length article at this link. It's from the UK earlier this year - and says a lot about how the declining birthrate in Japan is seen in other countries.

Business Communications Skills

Intense work today from all of you on your resumes! 

It was a lot for you to do and I know it was tiring. We'll take a break from it  - but remember about your resume pictures (head shot, from between shoulder and collar up, in business recruiting suit, looking directly at the camera ideally against a light-medium blue background). 

We'll then work more on our resumes as we go along. 

Good job! See you next week!

KIFL Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - 10/10 lessons review, GS homework & 10/17 GS open class

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you? Here's the GS lesson plan review for 10/10:

For GS homework - have fun with this! And don't forget our roundtable discussion next week (10/17) on themes of birthrates & cultural gaps! Bring in topics, questions, & talking points on anything relating to these themes.

And here's the BCS lesson plan review & board notes for 10/10:

We'll continue this theme next week (10/17), with formal emailing.

See you then!

KIFL Business Communications Skills - 10/3 business topics open forum

Hello to all my Senka students,

Hope you're all okay and not wet! As promised, I decided to make a separate post about the BCS class for 10/3 - the open forum with your business topics & issues.

Image "Business Meeting" courtesy of luigi diamanti/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thank you today for your thoughtful and well-done talk and commentary in our first open forum today. It went very well and while I did not manage the time the way I should have, all of you who were there contributed greatly. I'm proud of all of you.

Saori - I was impressed by your Uniqlo business strategy talk.  It really is a dilemma for a company to expand overseas, especially with tough domestic competition, and you showed the dilemma very well.

Matsuken - I am still impressed with your Start Today talk. It seems like a really innovative company. All I can do here is to post the Zozotown video you showed in class. This says much more than what I can about it!

Once again - I'm impressed!

See you next week. Good job to each of you for your comments and insights today! 

KIFL Senka Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - this week's BCS open class discussion reminder & 9/26 lessons plans/homework

Hello to all my Senka students,

How are you on this typhoon night? Hope you are not out of your homes and are safe and sound.

My apologies for posting on this late. I have now started my full schedule of all my work, and it's busy!

Image "Business Meeting" courtesy of luigi diamanti/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

REMEMBER! An open class in BCS this week (10/3)! You can do as we did last semester - an open discussion, or discussions, on a company, product or service of your choices - or something else that relates to business in some way.

Prepare something to bring to class - and as a whole group, we have to fill up almost 90 minutes of time! All of you carry this week's class!

And here are last week's lesson plans for your refresher:

Global Studies for 9/26:
1. Warmer & homework check
2. Unit 10 
* pg. 66 5a with pg. 67 6a
3. Activity - pg. 65 3a
4. Homework - check blog for 3 videos on education - choose 2 of the videos and write your impressions on them (see last week's post for questions to comment/reflect on)

Business Communications Skills for 9/26:
1. Warmer - taboo/non-taboo topics of conversation list
2. Unit 13 activities
a. "topics to talk about" handout
b. Unit 13 pp. 63/82 conversation making
3. Homework - Unit 13 worksheet handout

Maybe because of the typhoon, the wi-fi connection in my area is not letting me send anything - so I still can't receive the pictures of my board work from 9/26! That's why I wrote the lesson plans like this.

See you later! Take care!

KIFL Senka Business Communication Skills 9/19 lesson review & business podcast link

Hello again to my Senka students,

I decided to make a separate BCS post today. Here's our lesson plan from the Wednesday class:

1. Warmer - what's your network mapping? (with world map handouts)
2. Textbook
    * pg. 62  1
    * pg. 63  2 CD with 3
3. Activity 
    * pg. 64  2

While I gave no homework today in BCS, here's something for you to check out. It's a business podcast  about starting a conversation in a business setting. Hope you find it interesting and useful. Tell me what you think of it - post a comment or email me.

See you next week!

KIFL Senka & English for Hospitality Industry students - some new interesting sites (Part 2)

Hello to all my Senka & EH2 students,

How are you? Hope you are looking forward to the weekend!

I have been busy updating the blog. Hope you like the changes to it. If you look at the long red sidebar on the right side of the blog, you'll see some more websites and blogs for students that I have found. I don't want to explain too much - so click on them and take a quick look at each one!

I hope you can find something here that will be useful or enjoyable for you. I will keep searching for new things to upload, so keep checking.

Senka students - did you see the animal experiments video posting? What did you think of it?
EH2 students - I'll remind you about this next week - but check out the "unprofessional front desk clerk" video. It's funny - but serious too!

See you next week!

KIFL - Senka & English for Hospitality Industry students special posting - some new interesting sites

Hello to all my Senka and EH2 students,

I would like to introduce to you three new interesting sites I have found.

The first is called Elllo (English Listening Lesson Library Online). This is a teacher-created website with natural conversations and listening practice, and some videos. Feel free to check this out anytime.

Another is Language Japan, which is a student-created blog. On it, students explain young people's life in Japan, and points of Japanese culture and lifestyle, in English, with some Japanese content. If you would like to know how you might be able to explain Japan better with any foreign friends, either in person, on Facebook, or on blogs, this is a really good site.

The last for today is ManyThings - a good, general website with lots of things on it about pronunciation, slang, listening, among many other points of English.

Check any of these out anytime you like. From here, I will search out new sites I hope will be to your interest and bookmark them. So there will be more to come! 

Special thanks to my friends and colleagues Scott Bohart and Michael Stout for bookmarking and explaining these links online!

KIFL Senka Global Studies & Business Communications Skills - Global Studies - animals in medical testing

Hello to all my Senka students,

It was great to see you again after the summer vacation! I'm happy to be back and start the fall term with all of you.

For the Global Studies class, here are two videos about the use of animals in medical testing:

This video supports the use of animals in medical tests.

This video is against the use of animals in medical tests. 

WARNING: This second video may be difficult to watch, because it shows animals being handled in a rough way, and being shouted at. But what do you think? See you in class on Wednesday.

KIFL Senka Global Studies & Business Communication Skills ・some GS final presentation notes

Hello to all my Senka students,

I'm back - temporarily. I'm still without a computer but this week I am planning to go to the Apple store in the Ginza to look around, with the intention to buy, a Mac. Bye bye Windows! I'm switching back to a Mac after six years with a Windows computer.

I'm catching up with things so this won't be a post about anything new - just a reminder of the board notes from July 4th for Daisuke and Niko.

Note to Niko: I have this to show you. It comes from a friend of mine who's a professor at Chuo University, in the law faculty. Take a look at these:



These posters come from a series of poster presentations my Chuo friend's students did in his global issues class. Their theme was immigration - both of people from other countries moving to Japan or Japanee moving to other countries. Here's more:

  

My apologies for this last one. I couldn't get it aligned right!

Niko - take a look at these in detail. Blow up the pictures of the posters large. This may give you ideas about your final presentation theme.

See you all in class!

KIFL Senka & English for the Hospitality Industry 2A ・ special link about final presentations

Hello to all my Senka and EH2 students,

I'm very sorry for posting so late - I've had an especially busy week. Because of the typhoon on Wednesday, I thought it was better to be flexible and ad-lib what we did. I also wasn't feeling well on Friday, so I am only now able to post.

Basically, this is short. I want to direct all of you to a link. Click here to check it out. It's from last year and has three videos on it about presenting. For all of you in the Senka classes - you've already shown me that you are great presenters, but look at these - you may get some other ideas about how to present yourself while talking, about what to use on PowerPoint slides, and so on.

For the EH2 students - you've seen this before in EH1 but take a look at it again. It's a good refresher about presenting.

Hope this helps all of you. Watch the videos on the link as many times as you like. See you in class!

KIFL Senka Global Studies & Business Communications Skills 6/13 lesson plans

Hello to all my GS & BCS students,

How are you? I'm posting late, and I apologize for that. So, I will make my post short.

Here's the lesson plan for GS for 6/13:

Really impressed with the two presentations today! Good job!!

Here's the lesson plan for BCS as well:

From now on, I'd like you to start thinking about your final presentation themes for GS!

See you next week!