Welcome to my blog.
My name is Futoshi Nomura. I’m fifty-one year old living in the small city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan.
Last autumn, I started a small school here for those people who wish to achieve English proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening for a comparatively affordable tuition. There are currently ten learners – ranging from an eight-year-old boy to a seventy- year- old woman.
Shamefully enough, I had no experience in teaching at all, as I had been in an entirely different world of import and export around the globe. I learned a great deal from the people with different cultures – U.S.A., Britain, France, Germany, Netherland, China , Korea, etc. Also I have witnessed many Chinese and Korean business people negotiating with western partners and was impressed by their . That is, Japanese people in general fall behind China and Korea in their skills of communicating with western societies. I’m not saying this simply in terms of intonation, pronunciation, or accent, but in the much broader sense, such as how to emphasize what you want them to know, and how to convince him or her into accepting what you believe is right. It is these fields that Japanese are in need of. It is these fields that we must teach our kids to acquire before they grow up.
The challenges facing Japan are serious and profouond. CO2 reduction, energy issues, food crisis, national security.
As you know, these problems cannot be solved by one nation alone but require collaboration with other nations.