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Recently it has become essential
for multi-national companies not only to expand their business operation physically and
geographically but also to be accepted locally by the communities in which to establish
their overseas bases of operation. Some companies have found a way to accomplish the
latter in language education through which to nurture mutual understanding between them
and local employees as well as the communities as a whole.
The following is an example of such effort made by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. utilizing the
YDM; the summary of its two projects on Japanese language education and of their process
and results. |
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 | To train Japanese employees through the YDM pedagogy as in-house
Japanese language education staff. |
| To have the staff take charge of teaching Japanese to foreign
employees in domestic offices as well as local employees in overseas offices. |
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| The Yokoyama Direct Method: Pictorial Japanese Conversation
(7 volumes & 6 cassettes). |
| Introduction to Kana for beginners. |
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| YDM
Teacher-Training Course |
| Date:
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January 10, 1990 |
| Instructor: |
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Nobuko Yokoyama |
| Participants: |
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8 employees (ex-engineers) over the age
60 |
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YDM Japanese Language Course |
| Date:
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February 19 - May 16, 1990 |
| Instructors: |
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8 ex-engineers who completed the
teacher-training course |
| Participants: |
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17 technical trainees from Thailand,
Indonesia and Malaysia invited by the Ministry of Labor |
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Results |
| Those Nissan employees who had completed the YDM
teacher-training course successfully taught the seventeen Asian trainees 5,395 words and
2,869 kanji characters in Japanese.
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| The Asian trainees mastered an introductory level
Japanese at the conclusion of the course and successfully completed the 20-month training
in the factory afterwards, which was conducted in Japanese only.
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YDM Teacher-Training Course |
| Date:
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November 14, 1990 |
| Instructor: |
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Nobuko Yokoyama |
| Participants: |
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10 Japanese employees posted at Mexico factory |
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| YDM
Japanese Language Course |
| Date:
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November 1990 - January 1991 |
| Instructors: |
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10 Japanese employees who completed the
teacher-training course |
| Participants: |
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200 local Mexican factory employees |
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Results |
| Each of the Japanese employee-instructors who
completed the teacher-training course taught Japanese to a group of 5 Mexican
employee-students and they, over the two-month period afterwards, offered Japanese
language education to a total of 200 local employees
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| Those Mexican employees who completed the Japanese
course mastered an introductory level Japanese.
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| Having mastered an introductory level Japanese,
the local employees went on to receive 3-month special technical training at factories in
Japan and then returned to Mexico to be appointed to such posts as a supervisor for the
automation line at which as many as 5,000 employees worked.
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