How to improve Japanese language skills for business conversations

To improve Japanese language skills specifically for business conversations, the following effective approaches are recommended based on recent research and practical methods:

Focus on Business-Specific Vocabulary and Politeness

• Learn and practice key polite expressions and honorifics used in business settings, such as appropriate greetings, self-introduction phrases, and business card etiquette (「はじめまして」「よろしくお願いします」) to appear professional and respectful in Japanese business contexts. ¹
• Develop understanding and use of keigo (polite language), critical for maintaining politeness in business advice and negotiation conversations. ²

Practice Conversational Skills with Native Speakers or Technology

• Regular conversation practice is essential. Engaging with native speakers or using AI-powered chatbots for conversational Japanese can improve your speaking fluency and communicative competence outside of classroom settings. ³
• Role play exercises simulating business telephone conversations, presentations, and negotiations are highly effective for gaining confidence and contextual language use in professional scenarios. ⁴

Combine Structural Learning with Task-Based Approaches

• A hybrid curriculum that includes structured grammar lessons combined with task-based conversation practice enhances speaking abilities more effectively than focusing on grammar alone. ⁵
• Setting clear learning goals and focusing on real business conversation scenarios can help reinforce practical speaking skills.

Deepen Cultural Understanding

• Integrating cultural knowledge and diplomatic communication styles through language learning can greatly improve your ability to navigate business environments in Japan smoothly and build relationships. ^{6, 7}

Utilize Digital Tools and Daily Practice

• Apps that incorporate daily translation practice and vocabulary mastery (for example, learning five new words a day) are beneficial for consistent skill improvement. ^{8, 9}
• Following Japanese simplified news or business conversation corpora can help familiarize you with common sentence structures and expressions used in real business communication. ^{10, 11}

Summary of Key Methods

By combining these strategies, focusing on both language mechanics and cultural context, and practicing actively in business-related scenarios, one can significantly improve Japanese skills for business conversations.

References

• SELF INTRODUCING AND WORK ETHICS IN JAPANESE COMPANIES

• Maintaining Language Politeness Through Learning Advice in Japanese

• Chatbot for the Improvement of Conversational Skills of Japanese Language Learners

• Implementing Role Play to Teach Speaking Skills for Secretarial Purposes

• A study on the Potential of a Hybrid Curriculum Combining a Structual Approach and a Task-based Approach in Japanese Language Learning: Based on a Survey of Students’ Opinion

• IMPROVING THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE SKILLS OF YOUNG OKIAGARU FARMERS THROUGH HYBRID LEARNING METHOD FOR PREPARATION FOR AGRICULTURAL INTERNSHIP TO JAPAN IN CIPUTRI VILLAGE

• TRANSFORMATION OF JAPANESE CULTURE FOR INCREASING JAPANESE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

• SALAD: Smart AI Language Assistant Daily

• LIKARI (Five Words in A Day) Application to Improve Vocabulary Mastery in Japanese Language Learning

• Designing the Business Conversation Corpus

• The “News Web Easy” news service as a resource for teaching and learning Japanese: An assessment of the comprehension difficulty of Japanese sentence-end expressions

• Translanguaging Instruction and Reading Comprehension Skills of Japanese EFL Learners: A Quasi-Experimental Study

• Improving English Language Skills Students Of Graha Yatim Dhuafa Based On Survey Results Study Interest

• USES OF BOOK MEDIA ‘CHOUKAI GA YOWAI ANATA E’ TO IMPROVE CHOUKAI SKILLS (Quasi Experimental Method for Third Grade Students of Japanese Language Education Department FPBS UPI, Year Study : 2015 / 2016)

• Forming Psychological Competence of Interpreter (Based on Example of Japanese Language)

• ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF JAPANESE AS LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION IN INTENSIVE COURSES JAPANESE LANGUAGE

• A Study on the Integration of Business English Teaching and Intercultural Communication Skills Cultivation Model Based on Intelligent Algorithm

• Discourse Structure Analysis of Making Request in Japanese Conversation

• An Attempt to Raise Japanese EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Awareness Using Online Discourse Completion Tasks.

• Technology-mediated PBLT: Encouraging Japanese EFL Learners to Communicate in L2

• Hybrid Japanese Language Teaching Aid System with Multi-Source Information Fusion Mapping

• Direct and Indirect Language Learning Strategies in Japanese Language Acquisition

• Information Security Construction of SPOC: Path Selection for Japanese Information Acquisition

• The Effectiveness of Instagram “Studyin.Japanese” to Improve Japanese Vocabulary Skills of Intermediate Level Japanese Language Department UMY’S Students

• Project-Based Learning Method in Japanese Language Learning

• The Communication Strategy Used by Japanese Learner at the Basic Level