Do you ever notice a gap between what you know and what you can do? For example, in my last Technical Writing class the students studied and corrected several unclear sample sentences. We focused on avoiding two typical errors that Japanese writers produce: overusing the passive and overusing nouns. Most students did the workbook exercises very well. However, when I gave them some time to produce a sentence summarizing their own work, many seemed to have forgotten what they’d studied only 10 minutes before.

There is a difference between applying a principle to an exercise in a workbook and to sentences you’ve written yourself. However, I think that if the students had taken a moment to reflect on what they’d just ’studied’ they could have written more natural sentences. In this case, the two principles were

*use a verb to communicate the main idea.
*put that verb into the active voice.

I hope that the students in my class can give themselves a little bit of time to review the classwork before starting their homework. Time spent reviewing is always time well invested. Get your mind into a state of focus where you can apply principles of clear writing to your own sentences. You will write much more elegantly, and your readers will be grateful.

Here are list of phrases that appear in papers but are usually deleted by the rewriter. As you read them, try to guess why they are cut.

1. ‘The exposure had a short duration’ becomes ‘The exposure was short’
2. ‘The final image is black color’ becomes ‘The final image is black’
3. ‘The price is very low cost’ becomes ‘The price is low’.

Learn to recognize when a word is adding new information to the sentence. This is not easy to do at first, but you can get a start by paying attention to how native English speakers express themselves when they write and talk in English. This will help you to master English patterns because you are copying what you hear.

As a basic rule, rewriters often cut these words from texts written by Japanese authors: ‘color’, ‘length’, ‘cost’.

This list was suggested by Joy Waller.

Can you spot the errors in these sentences? It took me a couple of reads to get one of them..

Mistake 1

‘Thank you all for coming to here today.’

Mistake 2

“In this talk, I will …”

Mistake 3

“I am welcoming you …”

Mistake 4

“I apologize for my horrible English!”

Here are the corrected forms….

1. “Thank you all for coming here today”

We say ‘come here’, ‘go there’ without the ‘to’.

2. You can often cut introductory phrases like ‘In this talk’… and ‘I will talk about…’. Once you’ve greeted the audience, get on with your main idea

3. ‘Welcome’ or ‘Welcome to the 150th meeting of X organization’.
Some phrases in English are really easy to learn!

4. Never apologize for your level of English, the content or length of your speech, your slides, the weather or anything else.

The audience wants to see you take control of the presentation. If – or rather – when you make a mistake, recover gracefully by stating what you mean to say. When I slip up in conversation or in a presentation, I usually say ‘Sorry, I mean X’ and then carry on.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the first female politicians in Canada, Agnes Mcphail.

‘Never apologize. Never explain. Just get the job done…’.

A phobia is defined as a “persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.” There are thousands of different phobias the general public falls prey to—a fear of death, of snakes, of flying, of falling—but the #1 fear of people across the globe is one that many of us have to deal with on a daily basis: the fear of public speaking.

There are several different methods for overcoming the fear of public speaking, or stage fright, as it is commonly known. Check out Gary’s blog for some tips. There are also five manifestations of stage fright that you need to avoid …

1. The Deer in the Headlights.
Wide, doe-like Bambi eyes, trained in terror at the audience or spotlight. Unable to move or speak.

2. The Godfather.
Mumbling, rambling speech in the style of Marlon Brando’s iconic 1972 crime boss. Content is understood by no one but a select, secret, inner circle—co-authors, for example.

3. The Samurai.
Expressionless face and monosyllabic delivery. Appears to take Stan Sakai’s “A samurai should always be prepared for death: whether his own or someone else’s” to heart.

4. The Coffee Addict. Jittery, unfocused speech that runs about 180 km/h. Strategic pauses are treated with contempt; deep breaths or even any consistent breath patterns at all are generally avoided.

5. The Juvenile Delinquent. Slouched posture, hands in pockets, sullen demeanor, and eyes trained anywhere but the audience—usually at one’s own feet.

Avoiding these tragic public speaking pitfalls is one of the first steps on the road to a successful presentation delivery.

気分転換へようこそ！

This is the first post of the Kurdyla & Associates blog. We’ve called it ‘kibun-tenkan’, the Japanese word which translates to ‘a change of scene’ or ‘time out’.

Most of the associates in the Tokyo and Osaka offices regularly go out and visit clients. It’s always very satisfying to help people communicate better in English, whether that means they hold a conversation more comfortably, do presentations with greater confidence, or write more accurately and clearly.

This blog will be brought to you by different members of our company who all have a lot of experience working with Japanese professionals. As well as giving you a break from your work, we’ll be giving you some tips and advice on how to communicate more effectively in English. We hope to blog in Japanese as well in the near future.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!