Waconda

In teaching at so many corporations, I found that I gained a good insight into the business world in Japan... It is probably more important to people there than the business world is here in the United States...Outside of the oil world, I think the business-government connection really is the power place in Japan..But I am sure others have other opinions.. What I did see, and this was after seeing a very exacting pattern in business behaviors, was that entry level workers were delighted to study English..Their tracking from childhood to specified jobs did not give them a lot of leverage as to what they really might have wanted to do with their lives..And I think that in class they were enthusiastic and felt that studying English meant some kind of break from the ever tightening mold of conformity..Unfortunately, people sometimes smarter than their jobs could get into as much hot water as possible... And they did...As a teacher, I just saw that English teaching was really utilized..I loved my uni experience but sometimes wondered if students used English beyond the classroom. Intensives were a lot of fun and very well paying..I think they were a spike in the routine that seemed to drag down salaried people and drive them to unhealthy ways...But hindsight is always more focused....What I appreciated from the business world was the care that went into making their products...And the extremes it went to....Cradle to death work and sunrise to sunset work were more than trite phrases there....