Business discussion course at an English school in Japan I have been taking a business discussion course at an English school in Tokyo. A recent news article is distributed to the students a week befo

Kumiko

Professional Teacher

Business discussion course at an English school in Japan I have been taking a business discussion course at an English school in Tokyo. A recent news article is distributed to the students a week before and about 3 to 5 students discuss in the class for 50 minutes based on the questions attached to the article. I always wonder how I should behave in the class. I want to state my opinions as much as possible for practice, but at the same time, I want to listen to other students' opinions with respect and share the time evenly. In the latest class, we had an interesting discussion but maybe I spoke only 5 minutes or so, which made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I knew I could speak more but didn't want to be too selfish. Since listening to others carefully without interruption is thought to be polite, if I kept talking, everyone would listen to me patiently... Now I believe that the best way to practice speaking as much as possible must be taking private sessions. Until the discussion course ends by October, I will focus on making the class more interactive by asking questions and giving responses so that everyone including me can have more chance to speak out.

Sep 21, 2014 2:07 PM

Corrections · 4

Business discussion course at an English school in Japan

I have been taking a business discussion course at an English school in Tokyo (this begs a time reference since you have present perfect continuous - so, something like 'lately' would work well). Usually, a recent news article is distributed to the students a week before the class and about 3 to 5 students then discuss in the class for 50 minutes based on the questions attached to the article.

I always wonder how I should behave in the class. I want to state my opinions as much as possible for practice, but at the same time, I want to listen to the other students' opinions with respect and share the time evenly. In the latest class ('This most recent class' works too), we had an interesting discussion but maybe I spoke only 5 minutes or so, which made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I knew I could speak more but didn't want to be too selfish. Since listening to others carefully without interruption is thought to be polite (here/in Japan), if I kept talking, everyone would listen to me patiently...

Now I believe ('Through this I've learned' is maybe better) that the best way to practice speaking as much as possible must be is by taking private sessions. Until the discussion course ends by in October, I will focus on making the class more interactive by asking questions and giving responses so that everyone, including me, can have more chances to speak out. (The way this last sentence is phrased makes it sound like you're the professor of the class; I'm assuming you're a student taking the class instead?)

September 21, 2014

You are right, each discussion with intermediate English learners(including me) could never be matured in such a short time. It is more like just exchanging opinions. Unfortunately, this is what I experienced in the business discussion course which the school offered as the most advanced class. That's why, after the course ended, I think it's better for me to take private sessions on italki with professional teachers at a reasonable price. Until then, I try not to be too nervous to steal time from the other students in class. Thanks for your encouraging advice.

September 22, 2014

To be brutally honest, a discussion lasting only 50 minutes (even with just 2 people) is not realistically going to be able to go anywhere too terribly exciting; at least, that is my personal experience. To really get down to the bottom of an issue, one truly needs a few hours - ideally, we could allot a few days dedicated solely to a thorough discussion of an extremely focused topic. Also, on the problem of politeness, if all parties involved refrain from any acts of selfishness - e.g. everyone acts altruistically - then nothing will ever be accomplished. Therefore, someone has to take the initiative and each person in turn needs to speak out as they find necessary. This can become difficult to put into practice at times, especially if the discussion becomes heated or the topic is an especially touchy one. With that in mind, I - personally - wouldn’t be too concerned about ‘stealing time’ from the other students as long as everyone gets to speak roughly the same amount. 5 minutes shared among only 3-5 students is simply too little for a class that you are presumably paying good money (and valuable time) to attend. At least, those are my thoughts on the matter.

September 21, 2014

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