Cases of Failure
For businessmen, English is a tremendous weapon. Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and corporate tycoons, who speak English poor are left cold in the global market. If a working-level executive does not have a strong command of English, his business goals are difficult to achieved.
One Korean conglomerate head, who will remain anonymous, is be reluctant to meet foreign businessmen due to his poor English skills. For lack of confidence in his English, he would avoid meeting foreign business leaders. last spring, he made an appointment to meet the chairman of a German business group--one of the top ten in Germany--in a bid to make an alliance. Preparations for the meeting took two months and itineraries for both executives were adjusted so they could attend the meeting.
However, the meeting was aborted as the Korean CEO cancelled the appointment one day before the meeting. Needless to say, the proposed alliance was also aborted. Overlapping schedule was given as the reason for the cancellation, but in reality, the tycoon discovered the meeting was to be conducted in English and became burdened due to his poor English skills. Furious about the short-notice and the cancellation, the German chairman sent a letter of protest to the Korean corporation. Since the cancellation of the meeting, the Korean tycoon is considered a discourteous man among top German managers.
The president of company A, an exporter of industrial machines, has a painful experience of bungling a business deal due to his poor English. He thought as long as the product was excellent, he would be able to find buyers without any problems. This notion turned out to be a mistake. In his first business session with an American buyer, he said "No!" when he should have said "Yes!" and "Yes!" when he meant to reply "No!" The infuriated American buyer was said to have run out of the talk. Since the mishap, he has been taking an interpreter along whenever he went abroad on business.
One senior executive at Daewoo Corporation committed a blunder during a telephone conversation with an American buyer because he misused a word. When he meant to assure the buyer of a delivery, he mistakenly said: "I"m concerned that I am going to ship your order on schedule." The excited buyer responded, "If the deadline can't be met by sea, ship the order by air at your own cost." He misused the word "concerned" and suffered unnecessary consequence for some time afterwards.
Altered English expressions, so-called Konglish, which are in accordance with Korean logic, invite common misunderstandings, says Chin Sang-yol, an executive director at Daewoo Training Center. "The English proficiency of our staff has considerably improved in recent years, but they are still unfamiliar with American expressions use in businesses," he said.
Another senior manager of a different company has had a difficulty for a long time because he repeatedly told his American buyers: "According to our engineer...." This led the Americans to distrust him even before he finished his explanations about the product. This eventually led the buyers to ask: "How can I contact the engineer." The business deal eventually evaporated. What's a correct expression in such a case? "I've learned recently that I should have started the sentence with "we" instead of "according to a third person," confided the manager.
Wang Tong-won, an official at the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) branch in Zurich, recalled: "A medium-sized company president, manufacturing construction materials, asked me to take him to a German firm in a telephone call which he made upon his arrival at the airport. His English was so poor he had difficulty fetching a cab. Despite the company's excellent products, his company failed to close any of the deals at the time. His company eventually inked export contracts with five Swiss corporations. If the president or his employees had a better command of English then, the company would have exported more then."
"Most workers who scored better than 900 points in their TOEIC tests have poor knowledge of business terms in English," said an English lecturer at Hyundai Education Center. "Systematic education in practical business English is needed, as well as greater efforts to understand the local customs of their business counterparts."
English in Japan
Dean Suzuki of Akita Prefecture College in Japan, likens the Japanese people's miserable English proficiency to an enigma comparable to the pyramids. The average Japanese TOEIC mark corresponded to 65 percent of Malaysia's in 1996. Their TOEFL performance two years ago ranked 205th among the world's 221 countries, sharing a ranking with North Korea. The ratings are shameful for an economic power in which four out of 10 people go to college.
The allegation that Japan's tone-deafness in English ruins the country peaked in the spring of 1998, when the financial sector faced a crisis and the yen dropped in value. While numerous analyses emerged about "defeat in the financial war" and complicated prescriptions were presented for it, a business leader and then chief secretary of the business community, Jiro Ushiro, touched the core when he said, "Japan's financial unrest has come about because of poor English on the part of (Japanese) politicians and bureaucrats. Because they lack self-confidence in English, Japanese spare themselves at international conferences. The yen has been weakened because government authorities failed to explain to the world community Japan's realities as they are."
His criticism pointed to tone-deafness on the part of politicians and civil servants engaged in multilateral negotiations aimed at blocking the yen's weakening position and restoring the financial sector. Deaf to English were then prime minister Hashimoto, and then foreign minister Obuchi, both subject to concentrated fire at G-7 conferences. Then finance minister Matsunaka was also close to being deaf in English. Bureaucrats refuted the allegation, but public opinion in Japan sided with Ushio. His reasoning, the media said, convincingly explains the causes for Japan, the world's number two economic power, to have seen her credibility plunge to the level of Latin America.
At the G-8 (seven industrialized countries plus Russia) foreign ministerial conference held in Bonn in July 1998, the foreign minsters lined up for a photo session following the adoption of an emergency statement on Kosovo. Perhaps relieved at having resolved the issue, they smiled and began to chat with one another. The only exception was Japanese foreign Minister Obuchi. His figure standing blankly with his mouth shut reminded one of Japan's isolation in the G-7 Club. "What's really important at the G7 summit is the cultivation of personal friendships and chats exchanged among the participants without interpreters' help. But Japanese prime ministers are busy shying away from talking to their counterparts." said a commentator.
Ex-economic planning minister and incumbent councillor Yoshio Terasawa published a book with a shocking title, "Tone Deafness in English Ruins the Nation." Those who can express themselves in English from among Japan's prime and foreign ministers number less than five, according to him. Having lived in the United States for 22 years, Terasawa is a typical international hand in Japanese political circles. Nonetheless, he confesses, "I've suffered from an English complex throughout my life." He frankly tells his "seeing yellowish colors" when he was unable to understand the contents of a debate at an international meeting. The book, delving into Japan's alleged national decline due to poor proficiency in English, has become a best seller, quite a rare happening for one authored by a politician.
Japan's limited English competence often emerges as an object of concern by foreigners. Senior minister Lee Kwan-yew of Singapore at a symposium held in Tokyo last year cited the English issue as Japan's major defect in the 21st century. After enumerating Japan's strengths, he said, "Japan's level of competence in English, however, is a major weakness in the Internet age." Former German chancellor Schmidt noted, "Worrisome is that the Japanese leadership lacks in personal connections with world figures."
Waseda University, the prestigious private institute of higher education in Japan, a few years ago suspended using English books as texts in seminar classes. It came in response to students' pleas that "the contents are too difficult to understand." Professor Nobuyuki Tose explains, "The students' word power and reading comprehension have fallen in general. As they are preoccupied with English comprehension, no satisfactory economics lecture and discussion can be conducted."
Foreigners may starve if they hunt for "McDonald hamburgers" in Japan. Most Japanese don't understand McDonald unless it is pronounced in a Japanese style as "Magudonaludo." Professor Inoguchi at Tokyo University cites "miserable English infrastructure" as a cause for Tokyo not being able to organize an international financial market. No foreign financial institutions and money are expected to swarm into a city where McDonald is not used as a common term, he reasons.
Popular in Japan is a Sunday TV program taking advantage of the Japanese' English complex. The American moderator places a microphone in front of passersby asking them questions in English. Most of them are thrown into consternation. The program gives a hard time to the Japanese, making fun out of their tone deafness in English. But no ultra-nationalist criticism has come forth that it "hurts the spirit of Japan." A consensus has been established in Japan that being poor in English is a major flaw.
The blame for Japan's backwardness in English is inappropriate English education. Learning English by rote primarily for the purpose of entering college has made most college graduates "dumb in English." A conclusion has been drawn that it is too late to begin teaching English at secondary school. A study has found out that middle school students, who reach puberty, lack the power of concentration and brain function ideal for learning a foreign language. As a consequence, a movement has started in earnest to overhaul the English education system. The Economic Fraternity, a businessmen's association, has proposed that tens of trillion of yen be invested in the infrastructure of English in place of public works. It also proposed that 5,000 American teachers of English be assigned to all levels of school.
Corporations have also launched programs teaching English to their employees. Matsushida Electronics has decided to require TOEIC records for promotion to senior clerk (average age 28). Required for promotion are 450 points for ordinary positions and 650 points for those assigned overseas. Fujitsu attracted public attention when all its 30,000 staff including the president took TOEIC tests. The firm's target is for employees of two years of service to improve their English enough to get 600 marks in TOEIC. Nissan Motors, merged with Renault of France, has designated English as a common language inside the firm. Board meetings and other meetings attended by Renault personnel are all conducted in English. As a result, Nissan staff who used to hate English, are now eager to attend English institutes after work. What's more, statistics shows that 60% of corporations relate TOEIC performances to company-entrance examinations.
The starting point of formal English education is set to be advanced to third grade pf primary school beginning the year 2002. The Education Ministry has also decided to introduce a system entrusting private institutes with instructing elementary school pupils in English on weekends. The plan calls for initiating the program for 50,000 4th, through 6th graders in 100 demonstration regions this year and then expanding it gradually thereafter. Private institutions have long been "the enemy of formal school education," long antagonized by the ministry. "The sense of a crisis in English" has heightened enough for the Education Ministry to surrender its pride and extend hands of reconciliation even to its "enemies."
