Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

Here's a new take on ESL, courtesy of a website
for some company named Rock Bay in Tokyo.
http://www.ceoenglish.com/

It advertises English language courses with an interesting edge:

Salespoint: Learning English to exploit your gaijin underlings.

As it says on the site:

////////////////////////////////////////////////
GAIJIN O KOKITSUKAU EIGO!
SHACHOU EIGO

"Amerikajin ni akogareru na! Kokitsukae!
"Gaijin ni nameareru na! Name kaese!"
////////////////////////////////////////////////

Or not-very-loosely translated:
////////////////////////////////////////////////
ENGLISH TO SLAVEDRIVE YOUR GAIJIN!
CEO ENGLISH

"Don't feel beneath Americans! Use them up!
"Don't get dissed by the gaijin! Diss them back!"
////////////////////////////////////////////////

That's just the titles. It just goes on from there....

Have a look for yourself:

http://www.ceoenglish.com/

It's next seminar is Saturday, March 22, in Shibuya, BTW. Anyone want
to attend?

[Brooks]

that is unreal.

[newyorkbunny]

Paul, did you go to the seminar?

[PAULH]

[newyorkbunny]

What a load of diatribe! They are making themselves sound inadequate. I'd like to see the types who would be attracted to this nonsense.

[shuize]

[abufletcher]

Yeah, John's a patsy for sure. This dialog needs some sound effects of some up-side the head whoopin' and a little "Who's the BIYACH NOW" action!

Seriously, my question is: What the heck kind of accent does "the boss" have? My money's on something Slavic. The guy has obviously spent time in the US but not enough to erase the RP English he probably learned in school.

[PAULH]

////////////////////////////////////////////////
"LEARN ENGLISH TO SLAVEDRIVE YOUR GAIJIN STAFF"

"Rock Bay" Eikaiwa school "For Executives" in Tokyo offers a unique
experience: How to "slavedrive" (koki tsukau) and take advantage of
"gaijin" underlings before they take advantage of you. "Don't let
them diss you--diss them back!", runs the course's tag line. A
sample lesson we received describes how to refuse a pay raise to your
gaijin despite him doubling your company's sales and nearly tripling
your profits! Follow-up emails from the person who runs the place
indicate how foreigners are not welcome to join the class, because
they might find it "boring", and how the class will be conducted "99%
in Japanese", yet claims to teach you the basis of exploitation in
English in a mere two hours! Subsequent protest from the public had
them amending and softening the site's adversarial attitude in a mere
couple of days (losing the word "gaijin", and changing "slavedrive"
into "cross swords with" etc.), calling into question just how
effective their assertiveness training must be. Information site,
reproduced emails, sample lesson, and printouts of the "before" and
"after" Rock Bay sites are available here:

http://www.debito.org/CEOenglishsite.html

////////////////////////////////////////////////

--------------------
The boss of this school says he worked with a GPS company
cf. http://www.ceoenglish.com/08-profile/index.html

and this "Dr. Paul McBurney, CTO of E-Ride" fellow whom he cites as a
reference turns out to be, whaddo you know, also the co-founder of a
gaishikei GPS-related company.
cf. http://www.ceoenglish.com/01-kyozai/index.html

I would think that a couple of well-worded emails/letters explaining
Mr. Iwasaki's views/reflections on his experience with this gaishikei
to (i) the CEO (other co-founder), (ii) the head of the Japanese
branch, and (iii) this Paul McBurney person himself would make
interesting reading for them, seeing as this Iwasaki person obviously
thinks that this gaishikei GPS company screwed him over pretty
majorly, else he would not have created a company whose main focus is
to instruct you how to fight back against evil gaishikeis and a@@hole
gaijin bosses/co-workers. Would probably be better to go to his
class and get it on tape first though-- you just KNOW he is going to
slam this company orally in his classes, as that is his main
credential....

Here is the address of the Japanese branch:
http://www.eride.com/contact/contact.htm

...and the list of Board members
http://www.eride.com/who/mgmt.htm
--------------------

[stillnosheep]

...And another one bites the dust
And another one bites
And another one bites
And another one bites the dust

Bang! Bang! Bang!
And another one bites the dust

(And another one bites
And another one bites
And another one bites the dust)

Bang Bang Bang!

[JimDunlop2]

And now the latest update on this situation...

(From my e-mail inbox today).....

//////////////////////////////////////////////////
"SLAVEDRIVE YOUR GAIJIN" CEO ENGLISH COURSE
APOLOGIZES AND REWRITES THE WEBSITE
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
April 20, 2006

Remember that site that advises you to learn "CEO English", in case your "gaijin" (sic) staff diss you, sue you for sexual harassment or job dismissal etc.?

Well, the person in charge of the course, a Mr Iwasaki, has apparently had a change of heart. After a number of protests from cyberspace, he's completely rewritten the tag lines, removing all references to being "dissed by gaijin" and "dissing them back". Instead, there stands inserted the sweet, "English is important. But that alone isn't enough to cross swords!"

There are now also fattened disclaimers in red, about how this wasn't a site directed towards hatred of "honorable [now honorable] foreigners". "Quite the opposite, in fact!" Now the site apologizes for causing any hurt feelings and asks to be allowed to correct its tone.

Finally, the whole write-up about the uses of it's lessons--how to deal with sexual harassment threats and lawsuits by "gaijin", and other preemptive measures to deal with and exploit the threatening foreign element, were completely rewritten--to depict the challenges within the language and situations instead of demonizing the gaijin.

You can go to the site directly and see for yourself:
http://www.ceoenglish.com

Or you can go to debito.org, with the historical record in screen capture, and compare it to the site as of April 20, 2006:
http://www.debito.org/CEOenglishsite.html

I might add, however, that the original English lesson, of how to deny a raise to a very profitable foreigner, is probably still part of the syllabus as it remains on the site:
http://www.ceoenglish.com/dl/Audio_SalaryRaise.WMA

[6810]

Of course the funny thing about that audio excerpt is...

Although the "Japanese" employer, "successfully" denied a raise to the foreign (already "overpaid"), employee he was also successful in driving away an employee with an outstanding sales record to another company...

So what was this lesson supposed to achieve? How to fire a foreign employee in a round a bout way?

Maybe the next tape he should order is one on successful management of human resources (part 3 - making your successful employees feel wanted)...

over and out...

[buddhaboyjp]

[6810]

gaikokujin no kata