The Most Effective Question

 

 It was the beginning of the 1990s. A friend of mine was an able saleswoman. Her income was via a commission system. She got paid about $20,000 per month. Japan experienced a bubble economy at that time, but her income was extremely high. On the other hand, I had a part-time job and got paid about $300 per month. And I wrote scripts and joined a script competition. The first-prize money was $3,000. But I was rejected every year.

 What she was selling was sets of teaching materials for children. One set was about $3,000. It was almost like fraud. But she sold many teaching materials to housewives who had children. She dropped in for an unannounced sales visit. Why could she sell such expensive things? She taught me the most effective question to ask to sell the teaching materials to housewives.

 In those days, most Japanese people wanted to give children a good education. They were almost insane. But $3,000 for a set of teaching materials was too expensive. Most housewives hesitated to buy and said,

“I need to talk about this with my husband.”

Whenever a housewife said this, if a set of golf clubs were by the entrance of the house, the saleswomen asked this question:

“By the way, your husband has a very nice set of golf clubs here. Did he talk with you before he bought the set of golf clubs?”

This question turned on the housewives’ emotional switch. Many of them bought the teaching materials immediately.

 Both wife and husband should talk to each other before expensive purchases.

Picture by Toranosuke

 

Encouraged by a Homeless Person in the USA

 

In 1998, I was a student in San Francisco.

 I assumed if I studied English in the USA, I could enjoy happy days that involve watching American comedy and dramas. I assumed everything could have a happy ending like major Hollywood movies. Actually there were normal people’s lives. It was simply reality.

 One day, I encountered some trouble. I was depressed. I was homesick. I wondered about going to Japan Town, eating Japanese food and encouraging myself. But I thought it would make me look like a sissy. I just walked around.

 I passed by a homeless person. He turned around to me and said in a very strong voice:

“It’s OK! It’s OK! It’s nothing!”

 He encouraged me because I was almost crying.

 I assumed homeless people did not have jobs. But their job could be finding depressed people and encouraging them.

Picture by Bado international

Encouraged by a Homeless Person in Japan

 

 

In 1989, young theater people in Nagoya, including me, held a festival. We have held the festival every year for a while now. We built a theatrical tent in a park downtown. We performed various plays.

 In the tent, we put lighting and sound materials. We needed persons on night duty; a pair of theater persons did it on rotation. We took turns sleeping.

 One day, I was on night duty, and when I woke up, a homeless person came into the tent. My job was to keep outsiders out of the tent. But I enjoyed talking with him. He asked me a question.

“You are a participant in the festival. Is this profitable?”

I honestly answered.

“Not at all. Last year, we had a $60,000 deficit.”

He replied.

“OK. I see. Trust me. Now, I will go to a VIP. I will talk to the VIP about you. I will be back with tons of money that you have never seen!”

Then he went away from the tent.

I half-believed he was a big shot who was disguised as a homeless person. He would come back with tons of money the next morning. I dreamed all poor theater people could be rich.

 Actually, he never showed up to the tent, but I aspired for a positive future for a while.

 I assumed homeless people are jobless. But their job could be to make you dream, albeit briefly.

Picture by anis & rove illustrations (rove image design office)

Perfect

 

As a university student, I had a part-time job as a front-desk clerk in a bowling alley. Selecting lanes for the players was one of the clerk’s jobs. There were rules to decide the lanes. Couples could play on lanes near other couples, but groups should play on lanes far from couples to prevent players from disturbing each other.

The thing we had to be most careful about was selecting lanes for the regular advanced players. It was thirty years ago, and the bowling boom had already faded. But some players still came to the bowling alley almost every day. Of course, they had their own bowling balls, shoes, and protectors.

This could be different in other bowling alleys, but at my bowling alley, we let the regular advanced players play on the center lanes and we let beginners play on the outer lanes. Some beginners throw the bowling ball roughly, which damages the lane. This damage to the lane could affect the advanced players’ games and scores. Once I was scolded because I selected the center lane for a rough player. Our job included keeping the center lanes in good condition.

Sometimes regular advanced players treated us to soda. I thought they were cool.

One day, I came to the bowling alley after one day off. A regular advanced player came to me with a big smile on his face and said, “Please don’t mention that anymore. That is enough, enough. I was just lucky….”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I couldn’t say anything, and my face was expressionless. He looked disappointed in my reaction. I didn’t know why.

My co-worker told me later: The player bowled a perfect game the day before. A perfect game is very difficult to achieve, even for advanced players. I worked at the bowling alley for half a year, but I never saw a perfect game.

I heard that the day before everyone at the alley was so excited because there was a perfect game. I didn’t know because I was off that day. It is not something that should be written on a business communication note, but someone should have told me beforehand. I disappointed one of the best players.

I just imagined his final throw in the perfect game: The other regular advanced players in the center lane stopped their games to avoid disturbing him. The beginners, couples, and groups of players focused on him. When he got a strike with his final throw, everyone cheered.

I wish I had been one of them.

Picture by freehand

 

The White-Covered Book

 

When I was a graduate student, I met a unique professor. I found him interesting, and I often visited his office. When I visited him, he always made time to talk with me.

One day when I visited his office, he was reading a unique book and looked extremely focused on it. I was interested in the book. Its cover was completely white, with no letters or pictures. Nothing was printed on it, and I had never seen that kind of book. I tried to read the book from behind him. It looked like a high school textbook...

When the professor noticed I was reading the book, he hid it quickly. Then he stood up, bowed to me, and said, “Keep this matter secret, please.”

He always spoke to me in a friendly manner, but at that time, he asked me very politely.

Sniffing around someone’s secret is not good. I didn’t ask him any questions about the book. I had no idea what the book was.

About ten years later, I guessed the secret.

In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology officially approves the textbooks publishers produce, and a committee selects textbooks for public high schools. During this process, the Ministry and committee accept suggestions from experts. This is my theory: The Ministry asks the publishers to print books with white covers. Then the white-covered books are given to the experts to hide the publication details. The book might be printed without the publisher’s name, author’s name, and imprint. The Ministry and the committee should not give the experts any clues to avoid any corruption, bribery, and prejudice.

I guess my professor was one of these experts, and he needed keep this secret. He was a historian. History textbooks are always controversial. All publishers want printing permission and want to be selected to publish textbooks for public high schools. If his secret was revealed, it could be bothersome for him.

I assumed he was a not great professor because he always welcomed our conversations. I thought he was not busy. Furthermore, his office was always untidy, with many books lying around. But he could be a greater professor than I thought.

That was twenty years ago. He could have climbed the career ladder. Recently Japan decided the new name of an era. Experts suggested the candidates for the name; the names of those experts were kept secret. I suspect my professor could have been one of the experts.

Picture by Totallypic

When I First Met My Brother-in-law

 

My wife’s sister is married to a British man and lives in London. So my brother-in-law is a British gentleman.

When my wife was still my girlfriend, I was introduced to her sister and her brother-in-law. They were visiting Japan for a short time. We planned a one-day trip. My girlfriend’s parents, sister, and brother-in-law and my girlfriend and I gathered at a bus station one early morning. I was studying English. I tried to speak with my girlfriend’s brother-in-law in English and show off my English ability to her parents. Furthermore, I wanted her to find me attractive.

I was studying American English, and her brother-in-law spoke British English. There are differences between these varieties of English. But, somehow, I was still able to communicate with him. I assumed that my girlfriend and her parents thought better of me after hearing my English. I assumed I had made it.

I got onto the bus we were traveling on. My girlfriend followed me. When we sat down she whispered some words to me. I was expecting the sweetest whisper I had ever heard. But she actually said, “Your nose hair is waving at everyone.”

Apparently, whether or not we speak English is irrelevant. When we meet people, we should pay more attention to our appearance.

Picture by watcartoon

Two Professors and their Interpreters

 

When I was a graduate student, I attended a lecture meeting. The lecturers were two professors who were both English speakers. The venue was in Japan. Simultaneous interpreters assisted us.

There were big differences between the two professors. Professor A gave us the lecture very eloquently. It was as if he was talking to us directly. Professor B gave us the lecture with the interpreters. They got along very well with each other. Professor B spoke slowly and clearly. He talked in very short sentences. Sometimes he waited for the interpreter finish the translation.

If you asked me which professor’s lecture was easy to understand, I’d definitely say Professor B’s was. Professor A’s lecture was too eloquent. I felt the interpreters were confused. I could not understand Professor A’s lecture.

I guess Professor A had little experience giving a lecture abroad or didn’t know the difficulties involved in studying a foreign language. He didn’t seem to understand how interpreters worked.

A person who works as a simultaneous interpreter can think in two languages at the same time. This is a special ability. But the person is not psychic. He or she needs some breaks in order to translate a long lecture.

About fifteen years ago, I heard that first-rate simultaneous interpreters could get paid US$ 1,500 per hour. I can’t be a simultaneous interpreter. I am not even good at simple interpretation. I just want to get paid US$ 1,500 per hour. I wish I could work for just two hours a month. And I wish I could enjoy the time left, which would be plenty of free time.

Picture by TeraVector