SP7: Seminar #2

Apr. 3, 2021

On April 3, 2021 a 2.5-hour seminar was held at the BizCom Tokyo Center in Akasakamitsuke, Tokyo. Forty seven people joined the event. I hosted the event.

The participants are mostly business people. They either currently use English at work, and need English in the near future for work or pleasure. 

Today's event was the second of a series of 7 seminars. The main purpose of the series is to help participants improve their ability to get work done through English oral communication. 

Each seminar is typically made up of two group activities. Participants are given one task after the other, and they work together to accomplish them. 

Activities are authentic in the sense that they are based on realistic business situations. Participants are able to prepare. There is a downloadable material available prior to each seminar. There is a list of useful expressions. There is an opportunity to re-try the same activity in the first half of the following seminar. A thirty-minute video is available to help them review what's gone before, and to better prepare them for what's coming next. 

When doing activities, participants work in groups of three to five members. After a brief self-introduction, they nominate the leader and the time-keeper. From that point on, members are navigated through each activity under the leader's guidance as well as with the support of the time keeper. 

It's an ideal opportunity for advanced learners to put their facilitation skills to the test. It's also a great learning opportunity for beginners to learn to make contribution in achieving a group goal. 

The seminar went very smoothly. And participants left the session with a smile on their faces. As the facilitator, I felt tremendously rewarded for a couple of reasons:

1) I saw clear signs of improvement in many of the participants. 

2) I was able to emphasize some keys to success. They listened, and their communication and presentation were a lot smoother thanks to that. 

There are five more seminars to conduct. I'll be busy preparing slides, materials, and videos for them. It's going to be exciting!