Japanese Online Lessons using SKYPE

Must watch Japanese YouTube channels for business

February 20, 2019

YouTube’s popularity has greatly grown within these years in Japan.

There seems to be more people searching on YouTube rather than Google, especially on finding a way to do something. However, in fact, many of YouTube channels in Japan are made for young generation, not for business use. So this time, I will introduce my recommendation of Japanese YouTube channels for business persons.

 

Horiemon channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjTiSGclQLVVU83GVrRM4w

A channel by Mr. Takafumi Horie, a famous IT entrepreneur commonly known as “Horiemon”.? There are a lot of fan of him, however, some people do not like him very much because of his frankness of speech. He is extremely well briefed on various business, not only IT business, but also rocket, gourmet and so on. In this channel, Mr. Horie discusses new business ideas with people in vogue such as best-selling authors. Also, he answers various questions from the readers of his mail magazine that gives beneficial ideas for business. This channel is updated frequently and well-organized.

 

 

NewsPicks

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfTnJmRQP79C4y_BMF_XrlA/featured

A channel by News Picks, which is a content curation media for business. (I introduced NewsPicks in this article　https://goo.gl/ih8A8b　) Many business talks with well-known entrepreneurs and innovators are up on this channel.

There are also videos （https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOlE7uqvvLE）of Mr. Kosaka known as “Pico-Taro” who is famous for “”Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen”. He talks about the hidden story of Pico Taro’s birth. Japanese subtitle in this channel is excellent, so it will help your listening practice as well.

 

 

TEDXTOKYO

https://www.youtube.com/user/tedxtokyo/videos

A channel of TEDxTokyo which is the Japanese version of TED.

Although quality and quantity of this program are inferior to the above two, it will be helpful for those who are interested in an interview and a presentation in Japanese.

 

 

Industry Co-Creation

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJg5PAsj8fP45Fn8Pr5a3LQ/featured

Industry Co-Creation is an entrepreneur conference that is gathering of company founders and business leaders. Movie of pitch events is the main content of this channel. This channel will be helpful for those who are interested in an elevator pitch or a presentation.

 

 

BBT 757 program

https://www.youtube.com/user/BBT757program

A channel of online university “Business Breakthrough University (BBT)”, presided by a well-known management consultant, Mr. Kenichi Ohmae. It covers such topics as MBA, business news, and business trends.

 

 

Sekai wa ima – JETRO Global Eye

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yNsJvQ0wMOh6cdtUajLXQ

A channel of JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) which supports overseas expansion of Japanese companies. A content format of the channel is like a real TV news program, and the narration is made by a professional narrator who speaks beautiful Japanese.

It is especially recommended for people involved in trade.

 

 

Kigyoo TV

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeKbsDj3ESBP5VuYTItN35w/featured

A channel of “Kigyoo TV”, a movie learning media for entrepreneurs.

The main contents of this channel is interviews of venture-business entrepreneurs.

 

All the channels I introduced this time are useful not only for Japanese listening practice but also to your business. So check them out!

PS

I will introduce another channel as an extra edition.

 

Dad has naturally curly hair

https://www.youtube.com/user/masatoikebe/featured

A family channel of “VAN LIFE”, “Vehicle Night” enjoying outdoor such as hiking, surfing, skiing, snowboarding. There is no useful business information, however, I recommend this channel for people who want to enjoy outdoor activities with family in Japan.

There are many information on ski resorts, travel stories from Chiba to Hokkaido by car, and so on.

Are Automatic Captions on YouTube so accurate?

January 17, 2019

 

I introduced the live caption and subtitles feature for Skype in the previous article, so this time I would like to share with our readers the Auto Translate Captions on YouTube.

 

To test the auto translate captions on YouTube, I chose a video that TV Tokyo’s popular news program called “World Business Satellite” introduced our company (Japan Online School).

 

The following six people (A to F) appear in that video.

A: Japanese / narrator / male

B: Japanese / narrator / female

C: Japanese / Japanese teacher / female

D: Japanese / company manager / male

E: Foreigner / male (Japanese Level = Intermediate)

F: Foreigner / female (Japanese level = advanced)

 

Here is a compilation video of YouTube’s automatic captioning based on the original speech.

 

The accuracy rate of automatic captioning in each 6 patterns (A to F) was as follows.

 

A: Japanese / narrator / male: 81.8%

B: Japanese / narrator / female: 97.3%

C: Japanese / Japanese teacher / female: 88.6%

D: Japanese / company manager / man: 87.3%

E: Foreigner / male (Japanese level = intermediate): 56.6%

F: Foreigner / female (Japanese level = advanced): 85.7%

 

Concerning the average accuracy rate, native Japanese speakers (A to D) achieved 87.0%, while non-native Japanese speakers (E & F) of 65.2%. As expected, recognition of native speakers’ speech is more accurate than non-native speakers.

 

Also, the results varied even among foreigners; Ms. F who has almost native level proficiency in Japanese was recognized with high accuracy, while Mr. E with intermediate level was recognized only about half of his speech.

 

As in the following cases, there were some sentences that became completely wrong meanings from the original.

 

〇 ＜Buchoo＞, chotto ＜yoroshii＞ deshooka.

（Department manager, is it okay?）

× ＜Moochoo＞, chotto ＜dooji＞ deshooka.

（Cecum slightly at the same time）

 

○ Tokyo＜Shoji＞ e dasu kikakusho nandesuga, ＜me o tooshite＞ itadakenaideshooka.

（This is a proposal for Tokyo Shoji. Could you please check this for me?）

× Tokyo＜Soojigen＞ e dasu kikakusho nandesuga, ＜fuufu o twitter＞ itadakenaideshooka.

（This is a proposal for Tokyo Soojigen. Could you please　tweet a couple　for me?）

 

Although the automatic captioning can be affected by background noise and video’s audio quality, the accuracy rate of two foreigners (Mr. F and Ms. E) was almost equivalent to speaking fluency evaluated by a professional Japanese teacher.

 

Therefore, I can say that those whose speech is correctly recognized by YouTube’s automatic captioning have a considerably advanced level of Japanese.

 

So please give it a try (^ ^) /

 

※Accuracy level of automatic captioning on YouTube varies depending on contents of programs.

It recognizes such programs as news and dramas of which texts are mainly based on script more accurate. On the other hand, comedy shows and live interviews are less accurate.

※ This information is as of January 11, 2019.