I was lucky enough this week to see in action Kentaro Iemoto deliver a short but powerful business presentation in Japanese.
Good talkers, especially in the business world but in daily life as well are a rare species here. Japanese politician are typically appalling speakers, incoherent, incomplete, when not inaudible. The Toyota fiasco, also commented as a communication fiasco beyond the quality issue, was an opportunity to see, and hear a poor speaker in action. Mr. Iemoto was impressive, so much that I wished someone had recorded it. Calm and steady, he smashed down the "mysteries" of the cryptic Japanese language, delivering a clear, extra well constructed presentation, with Powerpoint slides not crammed with data as is standard here. I briefly talked with him later. Mr. Iemoto is a famous maverick, having launched his current company - Clara Online - at the age of 15. I am not worshipping early starters and it's OK to be a 15 years old teenager with teenagers interests. I am not impressed nor envious. But I am impressed and envious with speech articulation and confidence, a recurrent issue even in business liaison interpreting (an why should I write even by the way?). Mr. Iemoto spent a few years as a TV anchorman. It was not the best place to ask him for more details, but the encounter has lighted up the keen understanding that eloquence is so much at work in this job that looking for training should be part of the ever growing list of ToDoes. I am on the market for speech training in Japanese, no less. There are plenty of books, I know, but being not Japanese, the issue at stake is different. I am not into wanting to copycat the gaijin talents. It's not the purpose. Any hint from someone?
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