In terms of modern business languages, Japanese ranks as one of the most important and widely-spoken. This is particularly true in the tech and electronics sectors, which have been dominated by Japanese countries for decades now. Technology is now helping to take Japanese companies to the next level, with systems management software from Halcyon now being made available in Japanese. This will help make Japanese companies much more efficient, giving them a stronger competitive edge on the global market – a development which may spell trouble for electronics makers and car manufacturers around the world.
In other tech news, the Language Cloud program has developed in order to help Japanese teachers spend less time on administration and more time on actually teaching their students. The online learning program – which is designed to resemble Facebook’s easy-to-use interface – makes it easier for students and teachers to keep track of their learning, effectively speeding up the language learning process. Language Cloud will be expanding further into the Japanese market in early 2013 – for example, offering online versions of popular textbooks which teachers can buy access to as add-ons to the core platform.
Japanese is widely spoken as a second language, being included in the curricula of many high schools in English-speaking countries all over the world. Japan’s status as a business powerhouse is partly responsible for this popularity, along with a widespread fascination with Japan and Japanese culture amongst Western countries.
Now news from South Korea has revealed that the government there is planning to employ foreign nationals to help teach Koreans a range of languages, including Japanese. Japan and Korea have often had their differences politically, but the move is an acknowledgement of the importance of cooperation and friendship between Korea and its neighbors. Specifically, the program intends to bring in 200 housewives of various foreign nationalities in order to teach foreign languages in a natural way. The move comes after the recognition of the growing number of migrants living in Korea, as more and more Koreans marry foreign nationals.
